The National tribune., 1906-07-19

the ffes on the Outside, declaring tnAt
the working rooms should ali be
screened.
Killing Cattle.
1 have been talking all the time about
pig meat. Now / am going to take You
to the slaughtering OF cattle. 1t is r.5t
a pretty sight. / wish l need not have
looked upon 1t. and 1 do think that a
more humane way of killing might be
devised. Those cattle do suffer for FIVE
minutes or more, until the final blow
ends it all. They were "Koshering"
cattle the morning / was there. Don't
look In the dictionary: that Is my own
word. The word Kosher is applied to
the special method of killing cattle for
the Jewish trade, and ii is heatheniSn.
The poor beast is yanked up by one leg
and held there. believing madly While
an attendant puts cruel pronged hood
in the animals mouth and twists Its
head back. holding 1t for several min
utes until the Rabbi. who is looking on.
and the "cutthroat" is ready for busi-
ness. The beast Is then yanked up till
his head Is free of the floor and the
sharp knife is drawn across its throat.
OF course that ends the suffering, but
1t is jounced up and down few times
till all the blood in the body has prac-
ticaily run out, then II runs on the troll
ity over 10 the
The filth and the disgusting features
of this part of the building are inde-
scribabla, but how are they to be avoid
ed? Kill one beast on your own place
and see the mess IL makes; then think
of killing 1000, one right after the 9TH
er, and you can guess the conditions.
AS fast as beef is killed "squegee"
men follow IL up. sweeping the offai and
blood into the chutes and open sewers
along the floor, but that is all they can
do. The odors are something sickening.
the whole performance is awful. but
after all Il is not especially harmful to
the beef. for II is not supposed to touch
the floor after 1t Is skilled. 1t is deftly
skinned. disemboweled and slidden into
the cooling room In less than 10 min
utes, Government Inspectors following
II up as they follow up the hogs.
man who went into that room clear
would look like a murderer within one
minute after he began his work. I don {
see how the conditions could be helped,
either, except that the men should be
forced to bathe. and should have some
kind of uniform that could be washed
every day, so as to insure cleanliness on
beginning work. The men are not clean
as to person, and they look to me as
though they might be beastIy in their
habits. a good many of them, and bear
watching.
I was particularly pleased with fine
new storage warehouse and wholesale
meat market which was opened last
March by the Armours. This is lined
throughout with white porcelain brick.
and it is as clean as a ladies' sitting
room and cold as Greenland. 1t is sup
posed 20 be fireproof. 1t cost about
100000. am told.
Now, l cannot see why all the new
buildings that are added to these tre-
mendous packing plants. the largest in
the world cannot be constructed of this
kind of brick II they were there could
never be any trouble about cleanliness
inside the buildings, except in the
slaughtering rooms. and even there con-
ditions could be improved a great deal
with different kind of buildings.
Sensational Tommyrot.
Now, have told you pretty much
how the interior of these packing
houses strikes me now. You heard the
story of how men and boys have fallen
into the trying watts of lard and only
their bones recovered. which is, Of
course, all tommyrot. Lard is not lye;
1t is plain grease, and 1t would not eat
up boots and trousers. shirts and but
tons, so you can put that down as
plain made-up story for effect. But
there is every evidence that conditions
about these packing-houses have been
altered. The layatories and closets have
been moved and made sanitary. The
floors are being assiduously scrubbed.
the interiors have been whitewaSheff and
painted to some extent, seats have been
provided for the girls-f nearly forgot
that. Big good stools have been put in,
and they won't use them. 1 saw just
two girls out of about 800 sitting on
stools. They complain that they cannot
work so we'll sitting on stools, but they
are there.
New stairways have been cut in the
big barns of buildings, fire escapes have
recently been put in. and am told that
the watts and the carts in which meat s
toted round from one department to
another have been cleaned up wonder
fully. So far as conditions in the stock
yards are concerned, they are about 100
per cent better than in that same num-
ber of acres right around them outside
the yards in Chicago proper. The stock
yards cover nearly 500 acres of ground
(475, to be correcD, with 320 pens for
the reception of live stock, miles of rail-
road tracks engines for switching pur-
poses, a hotel waterworks, electric
lights. office buildings, banks and over
1900 employees. II is small town in
1lSelI. Inc ATIlOuEs lidNC lo'VVV
hogs in one day in their plant alone.
and there are some half dozen or more.
and they have at times killed as high
as 10000 day in the combined plants.
Beef cattle and sheep are killed in pro-
portion.
Secretary Wilson paid a visit to the
Chicago plants last week, and it is said
that he is fairly well satisfied with the
way things are being cleaned up and
made sanitary. He declares that he will
enforce the law to the letter, which is
perfectly proper, and that he will not
send Government Inspectors until things
are cleaned up. which is also proper.
cannot learn that the packing-house
men are trying to escape the law in the
least letter They expressed themselves
to me as ready to do anything that the
Secretary of Agriculture thought was
necessary, and they have carried out his
instructions up to now.
ISABEL WORRELL BALL.