AMERICAN MEAT MYSTERIES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXX, Issue 8478, 16 June 1906, Page 6

AMERICAN MEAT MYSTERIES.

The Birthplace of Chicago Lard.

The following description is given of "Bubbly Creek," an arm of the , Chicago river, which forms the southern boundary of the yards, and into which all the drainage of the square mile of packing-houses empties. " One long arm of it is blind, and the filth stays there for ever and a day. The grease and chemicals that are poured into it undergo all sorts of -strong transformations, which are the cause of its name ; it is constantly in motion, as if huge fish were feeding in it, or great leviathans disporting themselves in its depths. Bubbles of carbonic acid gas will rise to the surface and burst, and make rings two or three feet tvide. Here and there the grease and filth have caked solid, and the creek looks like a bed of lava; chickens walk about on it, feeding, and many times an unwary stranger has started to stroll across and vanished temporarily. The packers used to leave the creek that way, till every now and then the surface would catch on fire and burn furiously, and the fire department would have to come and put it out. Once, however, an ingenious stranger came and started to gathw this filth in scows to make lard out of, then the packers took the cue, and got out an injunction to stop him, and afterwards gathered it themselves." As for the attitude of the men to their work, Mr Upton Sinclair says: " They hated the bosses, and they hated the owners; they hated the whole place, the whole neighbourhood—even the whole city—with an allinclusive hatred, bitter and fierce."