The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-02-07

read in the car with tranquility-"As
soon as we get near it, you will smell
it right away"
What he. said was true.
A terrific, pervading stencil envel-
oped the car. A stencil that bursts
into the nose, that penetrates the
brain and remains there long time.
One feels it for days. When one eats,
when one goes in the street, when one
sees meat.
Seen from outside, the neighbor-
hood of the stockyards would not at
tract special notice. A broad street.
Animation. The offices of the stock
yards. The cattle market. officials.
Police. Inspection stations for the
cattle. A division for the department
Of agriculture. In the street, mounted
messengers gallop by, and I notice
also saddle factory.
Suddenly loud below pierces the
air. A dead OK in cart. Bloody and
dirty. And another dead OK II may
have died on the way.
The stencil which infects the air
over a stretch of ten blocks, grows
stronger and stronger in the broad
street. And the number Of mounted
messengers grows continually. The
rhythm Of life increases from one mo
ment to the next. Now a line of carts
crosses the street.-the carts are like
prairie dogs. The line of carts is
loaded with manure which is trans
ported from the cattle pens for
freighting.
All of sudden horrible believing
makes the air tremble. This is not
the below of cattle pasturing on the
open prairies of the wild west. The
animals seem to feel that what is
happening here is the beginning of the
end. The believing spreads. 1t mix
es with other sounds coming out of
the depths.
The cattle are crowded in pens.
The watering troughs are connected
by canals.
Cattle. cattle everywhere
All of Americas cattle seem to have
been driven here. And ROW the cat
tie stand here. Penned mp. Below
ing. Waiting for the last moment.
There is no rescue from these en-
closures. Men come. Terrible to
look upon with their clubs. These
men push in among the cattle. The
closely crowded cattle. And they
swing their hard clubs. The defense
less, abandoned beasts look up at
them with fright in their eyes.
Now comes troop OF cowboys.
Noisy. Yelling. The cowboys yell
here in Chicago the same as in the
wild west. The cattle hesitate mo-
ment at first, then they rear. They
defend themselves, and their below
ing breaks out like veritabIe hurri-
cane.
The cattle are in commotion. They
strain in the direction of q bridge.
The bridge bears resemblance to
the bridges of Venice. It connect
the two sidewalks and vaults over the
street in an arch. This is the bridge
Of signs. A cowboy yelIs. One Of
the cattle bellows. The many cattle
trot in that direction. Even the bridge
seems to have acquired a voice. It is
as IL the tones do not break out of
the animals. but that the bridge It.
self were wailing, believing, sobbing.
The cattle push on.
-
A few minutes later the railroad
trains spit out new loads. The on
closures ill mp again.
Mounted messengers gallop by in
the street.
A little further of are the sheep
Not all Of these go to the death ma
chimes today. Three men stand In
the midst Of the herd. A red. ehaliy
substance In the hand. Every ami
NAL on which the red mark 10 stamped
lives its last day. Do the sheep know
&c? Terrible fear quivers in their