Elephants Killed for Ivory

1896

One-fifth of the world's commerce in ivory comes to Great Britain, and it will astonish most people to learn that 15,000 elephants have to be killed every year to keep our markets supplied with the precious substance. Altogether, to keep the whole world in ivory — apart from fossil tusks — 75,000 elephants are slaughtered annually.

Africa is the great ivory country, and in the Congo basin, the best hunting ground there are supposed to be about 200,000 elephants, worth altogether about half a million sterling. The average weight of ivory obtained from a single elephant is about fifty pounds. Tusks weighing about a hundred pounds each have been procured, but this is very rare.

The most expensive tusks are those used in the manufacture of billiard balls; they cost, as a rule, $550 a hundred-weight.

Ivory dust and shavings are used by confectioners to stiffen the more expensive kinds of jellies. The scrapings are often burnt and made into a paint known as "ivory black," worth about $100 a ton.

The hardest of all ivory is that obtained from the hippopotamus. It will emit sparks like a piece of flint when struck with steel, and is principally used in making artificial teeth. — Answers.

Too Many Horse Hides

1896

The hide of the horse has always been valuable for making ladies' fine shoes and thongs for belt-lacing. It is much finer than the hide of the beef, and when split makes a very fine and soft leather.

A few years ago the market could not get enough of them. That was in the days when a horse was a horse, and worth something, before the electric motor drove him from the street car service. As high as $5 was paid for a good hide, and it was a very poor one that would not bring $2.50. But as the horse got cheaper and the advocate of horseflesh as food was reinforced by the butcher who could palm it off for beef, things slowly began to change. Prices went down steadily, until now it takes a No. 1 hide to bring $1.50, while fair ones go for fifty cents and the poorer ones are thrown away.

The consumption of horseflesh in Europe, particularly in Paris, seems to have increased wonderfully, judging from the heavy importation of hides to this country, while in this country it is said there is not a large city where the horse is not slaughtered for the market and sold either openly or secretly. The meat-canning establishments are also credited with using a great many broken-down animals.

Thus, while the beef hide market has its fluctuations and days of glut and scarcity, the horse hide market is completely stagnated, and there does not seem to be any possible hope for a revival of it. — St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Texas City Runs Its Own Abattoir

1910

PARIS, Texas — The first and only municipal abattoir and animal reduction plant in the United States is in this city, and has been in successful operation for several months. It marks the beginning of a new era in municipal ownership of industries that directly concern the welfare of the people.

It is said that the idea is practical for all cities and that it would work to particular advantage in towns of 10,000 to 100,000 population. If generally adopted it may lead to a solution of the problem of the high cost of meat and other food products.

In Paris, with an estimated population of 15,000, the municipal sanitary department found it very difficult to supervise the several separate slaughter houses maintained by the butchers. The health of the people was constantly menaced by the unsanitary conditions under which the animals were slaughtered and the meats handled.

These private slaughter houses were rudely constructed and most of them were in some swamp or thicket. During the summer flies were about the premises in untold millions. They covered the slaughtered animals. The odor was terrific, and, indeed, the whole surroundings were such that it appeared to all that the meat slaughtered under such conditions was not at all fit for food.

Mayor McCuistion and other members of his administration tried to induce the butchers to form a stock company and build an abattoir and reduction plant, operating it themselves, and allowing the city to furnish an inspector only, but this could not be accomplished.

The city then determined to establish its own abattoir and to provide rules and regulations that would insure the slaughtering of only healthy and well-conditioned animals and the delivery to the people of meat in perfect sanitary condition. The proposition was agitated and met with general favor on the part of the public. An issue of $10,000 of bonds was voted for the construction of the plant. It was equipped with sanitary arrangements and is modern and complete in every respect.

Mayor McCuistion says: "The new plant is being operated to the entire satisfaction of every butcher and every resident of the city, so far as I have been able to hear. We are greatly delighted with the success that has crowned our efforts in this work, and we believe that the establishment of this plant has marked a distinct era in the general sanitation of our city."

Man's Theory: Kill the Pig Before It Squeals

1906

To Make Perfect Pork

Method of Slaughtering Which Insures Wholesome Meat

A Kansas City man has discovered a novel method of preparing pork for the market in a way that will give to the people a meat which is perfectly wholesome. The theory is advanced that when a pig is sent to slaughter every squeal emitted in the process of slaughter is an audible announcement of a nervous reaction that affects every fiber of its body, producing such changes as will he detrimental to any one partaking of the flesh. The plan proposed is to drive the porker up an incline into a small pen. Just as he steps in the pen the platform tilts and runs him down a chute. At the end of this chute there is a bucket of slop or mash, or any other pig delicacy. The animal pokes his snout into the bucket when his whole head is caught in a trap and nitrous oxide renders him unconscious before he has time to let out even a little squeal. While the pig is in this state it is slaughtered, There is no excitement, no squeal and consequently no thermic changes.

—Denton Journal, Denton, Maryland, January 6, 1906, page 4.

Hooray, Butcherin' Hez Cum! (poetry)

1912

HOORAY, BUTCHERIN' HEZ CUM!

Murder, hear them hogs a-squealin'!
Butcherin' at last hez cum.
Oh, jist watch the folks a-hustlin'
An' the sassage grinder hum!

There the hog goes in the scald trough.
Off his bristles quickly fly.
Now they're cuttin' him to pieces
As he hangs on stretcher high.

Zip -- the sassage grinder's goin',
Hiss -- the lard's a-billin' too.
Puddin's cookin' in the kittle,
Oh, smell that hog liver stew!

Let's go run the sassage stuffer.
O you sassage ten foot long,
Slick as grease an', oh, so bully,
Spiced with garlic middlin' strong!

See the purty hams an' bacon
An' the lard as white as snow --
But, hello, they're callin' dinner!
Hurry up: we've got to go!

Fur they're havin' sassage, puddin',
Ponhos, pig tongue an pig feet,
An' the folks at the fust table
Allus git the most to eat.

C. M. BARNITZ.

—Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, January 12, 1912, page 6.