£98 
The Fork Business of the West* 
swine, blocking up the way with their bulky 
proportions, and puffing and shouldering 
clumsily along, leading the astonished travel¬ 
ler to infer, that the fields and forests on his 
route are absolutely swarming with fat 
grunters. 
Cincinnati is the greatest point for killing 
Slaughter Ho 
and packing in the West, and as the estab¬ 
lishments for these purposes are on a large 
scale, and considered quite a curiosity, we 
were prevailed upon to visit them. But be¬ 
fore entering upon a description, for the bet¬ 
ter understanding of the subject, we give a 
ground plan of a slaughtering establishment 
se.—(Fig. 21.) 
A A, pens for hogs driven in from the 
country, which can be added to at pleasure. 
B, sloping platform, up which they are driven 
as fast as wanted, to be slaughtered, into the 
killing pen, C. C, killing pen. D, slatted 
platform, to which the hogs are drawn after 
stuck, to bleed. K, pump. I, kettles for 
heating water, with furnace beneath. E, 
large k-ettle for scalding the hogs. F, a long 
dressing table. G, warm water. H, cold 
water. L, recess for stripping off fat from 
the offals, &c. NNNN, beams with hooks 
in them, from which the animals when 
dressed are suspended to cool. M, count¬ 
ing room. 
As we entered this, we found at the end of 
the building marked C, that the animals were 
driven in as close crowded as possible, and 
were now rapidly knocked down and stuck, 
and then hauled on to the grating, to bleed 
and cool at D. From this they were thrown 
by the half dozen into the huge scalding ket¬ 
tle E, where after lying a minute or so, they 
were swung out on to the platform F, and 
then immediately dressed and hung up by the 
hind legs close by. The offal was next taken 
out, and the animal dashed down and neatly 
cleaned off with cold water, and then carried 
away and suspended from the numerous 
beams, NNNN, the sides pressed open with 
sticks, and so kept for a day or two, till suf¬ 
ficiently dried, cooled and stiffened, for good 
packing. 
The celerity of the operations was more 
rapid than we can write, and presented a 
scene which we shall not readily forget. 
The whole building was covered with blood, 
and the men engaged there, stained and be¬ 
spattered with it from top to toe. We never 
saw so ferocious a looking band $ and as 
they moved swiftly about in their murderous 
work, in bloody overhauls, leather aprons, 
short tucked up frocks, turbaned heads, and 
bare blood-stained arms, flourishing long 
sharp knives in their hands, they reminded 
us more of the diabolical sansculottes of the 
massacreing scenes of the French revolution, 
than any thing else of which we ever heard 
or read. Heaps of offal lay outside, and 
carts were passing to and fro, carrying it off 
for manure, while from beneath the build¬ 
ing, down a deep ravine, ran out a bloody 
