THE RINGSTED HOUSEMEN'S SCHOOL 81 



On this the Government insists lest the national 

 reputation should suffer. 



Then there are other halls the place of sacrifice 

 itself I did not enter some of which reminded me 

 faintly of the vaults of the Royal College of Surgeons 

 in Lincoln's Inn Fields, an extensive mortuary or cool- 

 ing-chamber, for instance, where pigs which have been 

 certified as blameless spend their last twenty-four 

 hours in a natural shape, growing ever more icy and 

 rigid. Also a kind of shadowed temple may be seen 

 it gave me the impression of being underground which 

 for sole furniture has five huge cement vats. These 

 look innocent if a little heavy, but as a matter of fact 

 pickling within lie the remains of hundreds of dis- 

 membered pigs. 



For four days they pickle in the brine, for three 

 they drain upon the floor. There was a faint odour 

 about this place, not an unpleasant but a suggestive 

 odour that I shall never quite forget. It brought to 

 my mind the account by Herodotus of the embalming 

 halls of the ancient Egyptians. I expect that their 

 vats, if smaller, were designed upon the same plan, 

 only the pickle which the embalmers used was natron. 



After this the lard-store a good pig should pro- 

 duce from 4 to 5 lbs. of lard seemed quite a 

 cheerful spot with its decorations of filled bladders 

 in festoons. 



To tell the truth, I was not sorry to escape from 

 that factory, for here was too much death. Of course 

 it is quite necessary death, and everything is as well 

 arranged as it possibly can be by the aid of science 

 and experience ; but the fact remains that the pre- 

 paration of our animal-food supplies after they have 

 left the farm is not an agreeable subject to investigate. 



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