Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-01-01
BURREL At THE PICKING HOUSE
washington Pressl

A crowd Of men and women went
thru Swift's SHAMELESS. 1t was odd
that women went along, but the killing
had for them, as for u.s. fatal fascina-
ton. First, the hog slaughter pens.
Many Of the hogs are crowded in a
space near the big revolving wheel,
and men quickly hitch chain around
one hind leg just above the hoof, the
wheel raises him in the air and he
drifts along toward the sticker, who
with quick, deft stroke, strikes the
center of being and lets out a torrent
Of red life. The astonished animal
seems to be so intent using his dull
wits, puzzling why he is strung up that
way, that in his confusion he does not
feel the blade, for he does not squeal,
and the first thing he knows is he
doesn't know anything" Gravity
moves this endless chain he is on from
one man to another. We could not see
the scalding bath, or the machine the
hog is run thru to clean most of the
bristles: few tufts remain, and scores
of men stand along the line with knives
and scrapers, and shave him, wash
him, divide him in halves, and he soon
looks as white and clean as boy just
out of the bath. 1t is a marble hog,
a sort of angel hog. But all the same
he isn't fit to eat, or We're no Jew, holy
Moses! He goes into the cooling room,
and the whole effort is to keep him
from crumbling back to dust, attacked
by worms Salt and brine and smoke
and cold prevent the corpse from utter
dissolution. The refrigerator and the
smoke and picking rooms are a sort of
purgatory, where the brute stays till
he finally finds cemetery in the hui
man alimentary canal.
It's harder killing a steer than
hog or sheep. Two cattle are driven
down a dark passage way into a cell,
and man above and to one side smites
each with sledge. 1t drops in par
alysis, and when it's mate falls, both
are dumped outside the pen, and
chain is hitched to the legs. and up
they go, and become "progressives"
on that endless chain, like some Iowa
reformers. The sticker has a more
delicate job than his fellow in the hog
shambles The latter can stick three
or four hogs while the other is giving
the fatal congo to a steer. We were
sorry to see the Thor man with the
hammer make mislicks at pretty
heifer His first stroke did not fell
her, and she staggered and looked at
him so wonderingly and pathetically.
He could not strike her while her head
was in that position, and after giving
her two or three more Intellectual
blows. she looked at him again so re-
proachfully. as if pleading, why do
you treat me SO cruelly-what have
ever done to you?" Finally, he got
her down and out Of her misery 1t
was enough to make one swear he
would be vegetarian. and never be
an accomplice of such men dwelling in
the habitations of cruelty. even to the
extent Of tasting beef again Confound
it, who wants anything to die for him
There is something innocent about
eating breads and other foods from
grains, fruits and nuts I shall never
take a bit of steak on nv fork without
seeing that pretty heifer lifting her
stunned head to that awkward pounH
er. All through one passage way
skulls of cattle were nailed up. and
every ore had the mark Of the beast in