t out, it was from these secret places,
managed by one or two men who did things in their own sweet way. Their
work was not inspected. They themselves were the sole judges. There were
not even employees to see and blackmail them if they failed to walk the
chalk-line. They bought up cattle, drove them in at night and killed
them. No effort was made to utilize the blood or offal and this
putrefying mass advertised itself for miles. Savage dogs and
slaughter-houses go together, as all villagers know, and there were
various good reasons why visitors didn't go to see the local butcher
perform his pleasing obligations.

The first slaughter-houses in Chicago were just like those in any
village. They supplied the local market.

At first the offal was simply flung out in a pile. Then, when neighbors
complained, holes were dug in the prairie and the by-product buried.
About Eighteen Hundred Eighty-two, a decided change in methods occurred.
The first thing done was to dry the blood, bones and meat-scrap, and
sell this for fertilizer. Next came the scientific treatment of the
waste for glues and other products. Chemists were given a hearing,
patient and most courteous.

One day Armour beckoned C. H. MacDowell into his private office and
said, "I say, Mac, if a man calls who looks like a genius or a fool,
wearing long hair, whiskers and spectacles, treat him gently--he's a
German and may have something in his head besides dandruff." MacDowell
is one of the Big Boys at Armour's. He was a stenographer, like my old
Bryant and Stratton chum, Cortelyou, and in fact is very much such a man
as Cortelyou. "Mac" is the head of the Armour Fertilizer Works and is
distressed because he can't utilize the squeal--so much energy
evaporating. It is his business to capitalize waste.

It was the joke of the place that if a German chemist arrived, all
business was paralyzed until his secret was seized. Jena, Gottingen and
Heidelberg became names to conjure with. Buttons were made from bones,
glue from feet, combs and ornaments from horns, curled hair from tails,
felt from wool, hair was cured for plaster, and the Armour Fertilizer
Works slowly became grounded and founded on a scientific basis, where
reliable advice as to growing cotton, rice, yams, potatoes, roses or
violets could be had.

"Meat" is the farmer's product. This meat is consumed by the people.
One-half of our population are farmers, and all farmers raise cattle,
sheep, poultry and