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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1909)
SWIFT'S IMMENSE PACKING PLANT READY SOON " ' " - ' :''.'' $ - I ..... ': :. : :. ' " ' . . v -' ' T: :", - : ;: : ..: '.'". U-:-:":: &'3:'l -M' ";: ' "'. :;v ;: r;C . - . '. - j. . ' '.. ; ...... S ; ,. . ' :' ' . i J (.:." :A - r - .s ;..-- i- "j'jS-;;j f fi-wii.i f: : 'ij ,.!;.: ,' :' iii- ' ; .? f . f: wK,;S::S'i& "'M .:?5. . ' V t3 ,- . ' ' .- ' ': ' i '-' :. .-" : ' '" . -:, ; . o - -'..... ---::-- -'- : .-v .::::. v s . J I ' v ' ' - ' '.' ' ' ' ." ' :i. 'i .: ' '' ";.""- ;V ' ;v ' -; : . : , - ; . " . ' N;ji V :: ' : . . :V ' A- " ' v , ,: v' 3 '--v. ;:.:v;.-m1 :- v, - V.,..v;- " : ,; X, -I fiiff- JT1'- - f5'',. '5"'T - . , - NEW PORTLAND I XIOX STOCKYARDS OJf PENISSCLA, WHICH AFTER the neater part of a year pent In construction work, the big plant of the Union Stockyards on the Peninsula near the new packing-house of Swift & Co. is so nearly completed that preparations have been made to open It for business on September 15. This announcement was made this week by D. O. Lively, of this city, general agent of the company. The new stockyards and the build ings In connection represent a cost of $200,000. They will offer to the seller and buyer of livestock the last word In conveniences. Although the stockyards In some Eastern livestock centers are larger, none is so thorough ly modern In every detail of construc tion and facilities for handling the stock- The arrangement of the plans, the location of the feed troughs and racks, the swing of the gates, the safety of the unloading chutes, the modern sewerage system, the cemented pens and alleys, the water supply, the size of the scales and the arrangement of the scale house, the automatic weight-registering devices and the ca pacity of the hay barn and office all show improvements over similar de vices at the older yards. The exchange building of the plant Is one of the finest structures of Its kind in the country, and the arrange ment of offices Is convenient. The PORTLAND'S UNION last month was placed at between 20.000 nd 2S,0i. and no single day did it drop below 15A. This month this mighty volume of passenger traffic Is growing still heavier rather than decreasing. They come from all parts of the coun try. Perhaps more are coming from the Middle West this year than from any other one section, but there are thou sands from New England, from the At lantic States and from Boston. It's peculiar about Boston. Whether be cause Portland has the name of being the "Boston of the Pacific Coast." or for purely practical reasons can't be told, but the number of Boston people who are making this city their destina tion Is quite surprising. And the states south of the Mason and Dixon line are Iso furnishing a big percentage of the travelers to the city. Now thousands of these persons have already visited or are bound for the Seattle Exposition, but other thousands and this is of great significance outnum bering the Exposition travelers almost as three to two. make this city their direct destination from the East. Hundreds of them sre coming to look over farm sites and agricultural lands in the rich Wll : lamette Valley. Central Oregon and other sections of which they nave heard much. Thousands more were brought out by the rcent drawings of land on the Spokane nd Coeur d'Alene Indian reservations. But by far the greatest number are tour ists. " Portland at last Is coming Into its own as the Mecca for West-bound tour ist travel. To handle these huge crowds and their regular local passenger business, the railroad companies are running 25 pas senger trains each way in and out of Portland dally. Time was and not so very many years ago when we staid old Portlanders were remarking to each other that a total of 10 or 15 trains going both ways was a remarkable showing for our town. But that Isn't all. Of those SO trains, a day. five of the inbound and four of those outbound come and leave In two sections, each larger than the average heavy passenger train. Trains In Two Sections. The four outbound trains which are now running regularly In two sections every day are Southern Pacific No. 15, the California Express, which leaves at 7:45 P. M., and Northern Pacific Nos. 14. U snd 2. respectively the Portland and Vancouver special, leaving at 10 A. M.; th Puget Sound Limited, leaving at 3 P. Nr.. and the Eastern Express, leaving at IMS A. M. Inbound, the five dally trains running in double sections are Southern Pacific Nos. 1 and 14. respectively the Oregon Express, arilving at 7:30 A. M.. and the Portland Express, arriving at 11 A. M-. and Northern Pacific Nos. 1. 7 and 33, respectively the Eastern Express, ar riving at 7 A. M.: the Seattle and Port land Express, arriving at A. M., and the Puget Sound Limited, which gets in each night at 8:35 P. M. Now perhaps you can get a better idea of what all this means when you know that each of those 60 passenger trains a day will average about eight passenger cars to the train, which does not include express and bsggage cars either. And each of the passenger cars will seat at least SO persons. The newer and more modern coaches seat SO, and Ed Lyons, for many years manager of the terminal grounds and the Union Depot here, said the other day that the average -number of passengers actually being carried now would corns closer to 70 than to In each car for there are no mr seats In the trains this month. That means that In a single day. nearly 4rt nasserurer coacbes. carrying 24.O0O pas- . senjera, enter and Jeavo ths depot. And Postal and Western Union Telegraph Companies will run wires and main tain operators -In the exchange build ing and both telephone companies will have booths and switch boards there. Streetcars carrying Union Stockyards sign boards will run north on Second street and will go to the door of this building. "When the Union Stockyards open for business September 16 Portland will take a Class A position as a livestock market," said Mr. Lively yesterday. "What this means to the commercial life of the city and to the Pacific North west Is understood or appreciated only by those familiar with what like events have done for such centers as Denver, Omaha, Kansas City, Chicago, St. Jo seph and Fort Worth. What the live stock market have meant to those cities will be repeated at Portland. "The Immensity of the livestock In dustry is almost unbelievable. Steel, the standard of market comparison, is but a child alongside the giant, meat. The former has its furnaces where they may be seen and heard, where the ton na.ge and the price are as countable as apples in a barrel, while there is no hamlet so Insignificant that it can not potnt with pride to Its local butcher shop, more often than not the selling place of the product from the packing houses at the points named. In Chi- it is throwing in the nine extra sections I for good measure, to make ample allow- I ance for a few local trains on stub runs ! which have fewer than eight cars. But It's pertinent to add that these local trains are every bit as crowded as those coming overland. Each Month Shows Gain. Now perhaps you don't like statistics any too well, but here are just a few that are too good to keep. Tlie month of July was much lighter in the amount of traffic handled than August has been, and August was lighter In traffic than the first few days of this month. The Northern Pacific Terminal Company i among its records has some interesting figures which throw light on the vast number of persons carried by the rail roads during July. In July these figures show that the terminal company received and sent out 11.590 passenger cars. That was an average of 374 cars for each of the month's 31 days. It means that on everyone of those 31 days no fewer than 22.440 passengers came and went through the depot gates. And for the enirs month the number of passengers reached a huge grand total of 695.400 persons. It is as if the combined populations of Seattle, Los Angeles and Taeoma were to take a car ride through Port land in one month. And as though everybody in Oregon City. Salem. Al bany and Eugene was to move in and out of the city in a day. The travel during August has been from 10 to 20 per cent heavier than it was in July." said Manager Lyons. "We are handling the greatest crowds we have ever had in Portland. The traffic of the Lewis and Clark Exposi tion cannot compare with it. The tourist travel this Summer is simply enormous." Morning Is Rush Period. v You can see for yourself what huge crowds are passing In and out of the depot if you will take the trouble to go down there some morning about 9:45 o'clock. That is 15 minutes before the two sections of the Portland & Vancouver Special pulls out for Seat tle. It Is the busiest time of the day for the depot men and it looks it. Every corridor, every waiting room and the whole of the big platform up to the fence which keeps people back from the tracks is Jammed with travelers. At three separate gates the gatemen are hastily examining tickets and sending people on their way in a steady stream. Down the platform a bit. Patrolman Dick Barter, the center for a fusillade of questions, is fran tically trying to keep the passage way clear enough so the crowd can move forward a foot a minute, at least, and at the same time Is directing people to one of the three gates, asking a lost boy whom he belongs to. assuring a tired woman that she will find a seat in the waiting room, telling an officious fellow in a white vest to "get in. line," directing a business man who ought to know better to pick up his suitcase, over which seven or eight people have already tripped, finding the particulars of a purse snatching, re storing a ticket to a girl who has dropped it at his feet and is weeping, telling him of her loss, and always, every second, moving them on. If he didn't, in about two minutes there'd be such a Jam you couldn't turn around. Barter, the big policeman who does all this, is a walking encyclopedia of stations. He knows every telegraph shanty and section gang camp between Portland and St. Paul. Omaha and San Francisco. It is simply a matter of life and death with him, for If be didn't, is would go crazy, that's all, for lis THE SUNDAY OREGOXI A PORTLAND, SEPTEMBER 5, 1909. W1U OPEX SKPTEMBKR 15 : ft p n f V ' ii,.; !J -Jr j-- L- ii. - f ; 1 i t: . . . v - Y : ' : . " H 1 V - ' LIVESTOCK EXCHANGE BUILDING. WHERE STOCKYARD COMMISSION PHONE AND TELEGRAPH OFFICES. DEPOT A has to enumerate 'em all about three times a day. Barter has two service stripes to his credii t, and he knows his business. But off duty he has the reputation of being the most silent po liceman on the force. He has a pretty good reason for keeping still. If he didn't give his tongue a rest once in awhile it could never keep up under the strain of constant work. Twelve Trains in Two Hours. In the two hours of this big morn ing rush period, from 8 A. M. (it really begins at 7:30 A. M., with the depar ture of the Atlantic Express) to 10 A. M., six trains leave the depot and six more come in. Among those that leave is the Portland & Vancouver Spe cial, at 10 o'clock sharp, in two sec tions. Every morning this train takes between 1SO0 and 2000 passengers to the Fair. One day last week they had a dull day of It on this train the two sections only had 15 cars between them, and didn't carry more than 1200 pas seng'ers! Everybody about the depot was saying the Exposition traffic must be falling off. The next day this train made up for its temporary "In activity" by taking out 25 cars and more than 2000 passengers. In that two hours something like 6000 persons leave the'- station on the six outgoing trains, and on the six in bound ones, three of which are locals, 3000 more come In. When you realize that most of those 6000 outward pas sengers have tickets to buy, baggage to check, or something of the kind, you can see that the depot staff has no genteel siesta of it. Another big rush takes place at 5:30 P. M. and still another at midnight. In" between times it's comparatively quiet, only 1000 or so an hour passing through the gates. To take care of this great crowd of people requires a small regiment of 105 employes on duty during the day and night. They are divided up into 56 baggage "smashers" and mail handlers, seven ticket sellers, one depot master, one assistant depot master, five gate men, six red-cap porters, two Pullman ticket sellers, eight men validating tickets, ten men in the parcel room checking hand baggage, four young women telephone operators and five telegraph bperators which is going Some. It is the biggest force that Man ager Lyons has ever bad on at the depot, and half the time It Is being worked to death with the press of busi ness. Iepot Force Is largest. It is. moreover, the largest force now employed in the depot of any city on the Pacific Coast, except San Francisco. If this were not excellent evidence that Portland's tourist travel is exceeding that of the other Coast cities with the single exception of San Francisco. - the figures of the validating office at the depot would pretty effectively clinch It. The statement was made by the validat ing clerks the other day after they had checked up the business from May 15 to the end of August, the practically 38.000 persons arriving with this city as their destination have made side trips while here, requiring the validation of their tickets. They also made the announce ment that San Francisco leads Portland bv a small percentage, with Seattle a close third, while for the first time in its history Los Angeles is in fourth and last place. . Now, you can readily see in the face of all this that being matron of a busy place like the Union Depot Is not exactly a Job that a physician would recommend to one of his patients as a rest cure. - Mrs. Carrie Fields, the present day matron, has served in that capacity In Portland for two years. Mrs. Fields Is the best matron the depot has ever had. -THE SWIFT PACKIXG-HOITSE, NEARLY COMPLETED, IS SHOW OF THE TWO SCALE - HOUSES. , VERY BUSY PLACE But It's fortunate for both the depot ;.r.d Mrs. Fields that she was born with a decided bump of humor, for otherwise it's not very likely there would be much left of her by this time. The nerve strain of answering so many questions and having so many responsibilities every day alone would be enough to Incapaci tate most people. - What would the average woman do, for instance, if she were suddenly called upon to render first aid treatment to a burly logger who had received such a severe dose of knockout drops that lie appeared to be deadT And how would you take it. madam, if you had to take a big bottle of whisky away from a grown man who was determined to drink it, while his family of three youngsters were howling with fright and about to miss their train? Matron Fields was called upon to do both those things one day recently, tut such trivial matters as that don't bather her in the least. She was sitting at her desk in one of the waiting-rooms a few weeks ago when MAIA'TAIXS MILK DEPOTS FOR POOH IN AEW YORK. i V 1 jr. .Nathan Straus. Photo copyright. 1909, by George , Grantham Bain. Nathan Straus has sailed for Europe to attend the Internation al Medical Congress at Budapest. Mr. Straus will urge the concert ed action toward the Pasteuriza tion of milk. Mr. Straus has maintained milk depots in this city for many years for the dis tribution to the poor of Pasteur ized milk. He recently estab lished a similar station In Ger man cities. Mr. Straus is at the head of a big shop in New York, ana he is just now in contro versy with one of the New York papers which has condemned his milk. The question at Issue is whether Mr. Straus withdrew his advertising from the paper in question before it began to op pose his milk depots, or whether the paper turned sour after Mr. Straus had withdrawn his adver tising. It has long been under stood in newspaper circles in the big city that Mr. Straus and his pet scheme were sacred subjects end not to be handled lightly. fi ,X THE DISTANCE, FIRMS H. I THEIR TELE- in Hti, ih,e. mtle children. As soon as she saw them. Matron Fields knew something was wrong. When she questioned the children, she found that their mother had just died, and their father, the man with the whisky bottle, was taking them up to an aunt in Walla Walla. He was trying to drown his grief by drinking. They had to catch their train in ten minutes, but the man didn't seem disposed to catch anything. Matron Fields collected their baggage and made the man get up and stomp around a bit to clear his head. Then she very quickly and deftly reached into his pocket and took out the whisky bottle. "You can't take that on the train with you." she said determinedly. "What!" said the man, as he made a grab for the bottle. But Mrs. Fields has not been looking after all sorts of people in depots for 20 years for nothing. What she did was to take the man by the col lar and give him a good shaking. Said she: "You ought to be ashamed of your self. Now march!" And the man marched. With Mrs. Fields at his collar, he marched out through the ticket gate and onto his train, and he sat very meek ly and quietly down in the seat where Mrs. Fields plumped him. "If I hear of your taking another drink while you have these children with you, It's going to be the worse for you." she said. , "Do you hear?" The man heard. And before Mrs. Fields left him, he promised weakly that he would do whatever she told him to do. That little experience would be enough to fluster most women for the rest of the day, but Mrs. Fields only smiled and took the whisky bottle up to the emergency hospital ward at the depot, of which she is in charge, in addition to her other du ties. "I thought I might find a use for it some time." she explained. She did find a use for it. and the use came a good deal sooner than she had expected. She had hardly seen the man and the three children safely on their way when one of the gatemen came running up. He ex plained that the Astoria train had Just brought in a dead logger, or a logger who looked like a dead one, and she was needed. Recovers From Knockout Drops. Well, they put the logger in one of the cots at the hospital, ' and Mrs. Fields, who is also a trained nurse made a careful examination of his Injuries while they were sending for a doctor. If he wasn't actually, dead, she saw that he was at least a mighty sick logger. He had a big gash in his scalp, and no sign of a pulse could she detect. But Mrs. Fields had seen sick loggers before, and something made her think that this one might have been given "knockout" drops. She got .the bottle of contraband whisky, pried open the logger's mouth with the aid of some of his scared fellow-loggers, and pouied about a gill of the burning fluid down his throat. In about three seconds a great change came over that logger. His arms began to wave wildly, his eyelids twitched, and he suddenly sat straight up In the cot and began to blink. When the doctor came, the logger was so far recovered that he was asking for another' drink. What' would you think of the absent minded father who would give hjs suit case to his wife to hold and take the baby over to Jhe baggage room to check him through to his destination? Mrs. Fields straightened out a lovely family mix-up of that sort not long ago. It was a new baby, too, and the father was so proud of it he wouldn't let it get out of his arms when he came to the depot. In the excitement of looking after the bag gage, however, he hurried over to the checking-room and tried to explain to a perplexed baggage man that he wanted it checked at once. The hysterical moth er, who hadn't realised at first what was happening, hunted up Mrs. Fields, and Under Way for a Year, Big Be Thrown Open to WHILE THE SQUARE BUILDING IN cago fully 20 per cent of the population gets its dally bread from the meat In dustry. In St. Joseph, Mo., Inbound livestock Increased 60,000 carloads in ten years. 'In Kort Worth, Texas, Inbound live. stock, shipments for eight months this year will approximate 60,000 cars and it is safe to say that the outbound, freight added to the cars of fuel neces sary to convert that many cars Into sirloin and chops, bacon and lard, hides and tallow, soap and fertilizer, and even drugs, will make an equal num ber of carloads. This means an added 100.000 cars of freight to the commerce of the Texas town. It means that the livestock market industry has tripled the population of Fort Worth in ten years and that fully 16.000 people fill their dinner pails daily because of the building up of a livestock market. "Bach of the livestock markets men tioned had a struggle. The adverse conditions that Denver, Omaha and Fort Worth had to overcome were greater than those which confront Portland. Each of them was in a less favored location from a standpoint of the then existing agricultural condi tions, and then, too, each was nearer the older and more prominent markets than is Portland. , Even the most optimistic saw times when they were almost ready to give up the struggle. ii : Fifty Trains Daily With 25,000 People, Average Throughout Summer. Continued From Page 2. the matron rescued the infant from its impending peril. Family troubles? Oh. there are lots of 'em at the depot. But if they ever come to Mrs. Fields, she settles them all. One night an eloping wife came down to the station with the man for whom she was deserting her home. Just a few minutes before her rightful hus band appeared on the scene. The hus band wasn't wrathful, but he was ter ribly excited. He kept following the couple until the woman appealed to Mrs. Fields to protect her from a fellow who was annoying her, a6 she put it. But Just then the husband rushed up. "You 11 sav goodbye to me. at least, won't you Nellie?" he implored. "Here, there's something behind all this," said Mrs. Fields. "Now you tell me all about It." In two minutes she had the whole story, the erring wife was weeping and promis ing to return home, and the would-be eloper was slinking out of the station. A helpless woman Is bad enough, but Mrs. Fields is authority for the state ment that a helpless man is a little bit worse. 'Every evening before she leaves the depot, the matron makes the rounds of the waiting rooms just to make sure that no excited young parents, in the rush rfor their train have forgotten the baby. One day a month ago she thought even this had come to pass. Wrapped up in a bit of old shawl, a little fellow not more than six months old was cry ing lustily. For once in the day. there was nobody in the waiting-room. It seemed clear he was forgotten or de serted. The matron took him over to the hospital and was wondering what to do with the youngster, when a man in a great state of excitement rushed In. He saw the child on the cot and made a dive for it. taking it in his arms and fairly sobbing In his relief. The man was an Italian laborer. In broken English and with tears running down his cheeks, he told the matron that the child's mother was dead and that he was taking it to a little town up the Columbia to leave it with a relative. Just for a moment, while he snatched something to eat before his train left, he had left it alone In the waiting-room. When he came back and found it gone he had thought After, that Mrs. Fields, who has three grown sons of her own, felt a tender spot expanding in her heart for that baby. There wasn't time -. before the train left for her to dress it up, but she took it on the train herself and left it witti a woman in one of the cars, who promised to see that it had every care a baby needs until it and Its father reached their destination. The Italian was so grateful he could only express his thanks by taking the matron's hand and kissing it in the Italian fashion. Deals With Many Foreigners. The matron has great success with the foreigners. Scores of them come to the city every day direct from the old coun try, so ignorant of the customs and language of America that they are almost helpless. In the course of her long experience, the matron has picken up a smattering of half a dozen foreign tongues, and she can converse with all these .people and see them on their way. Some of the foreigners are 60 grateful for it that they send her letters and little presents for months- afterwards. Those are Just' a few of the interest ing incidents that happen almost daily to the matron at the Union Depot. One could write of a host of others it space or time permitted. But they serve to show that it takes a remarkable woman to fill the place, and that Mrs. Fields must be a remarkable woman. Every body there likes her; all the 105 employes , at the big station call her mother and Industry on Peninsula Will Trade September 15. , THE FOREGROUND IS ONE but while there is much to tie nons before this market reaches such colos sal proportions as those mentioned, the natural surroundings are much mora favorable. None of the big things that have fallen into Portland's lap is of greater importance than the establish ment of its livestock market." The new yards will be able to handle from 75 to 80 cars of livestock a day. The officers of the company are: President, William II. Daughtrey, of Portland; vice-president, Frank J. Hagertbarth. of Salt Lake; secretary treasurer, O. M. Plummer, of Portland; general agent, D. C. Lively, of Port land. l"p-to-Date Hotel Roofs. Popular Mochanii-s. Not many years hence a hotel will not be up-to-date unless its roof is turned into an airship station, and wsveral hotels in other parts of the world and one In Philadelphia have already made prep arations, doubtless expecting immediate advertising and future aerial guests. The aerial garage planned for the roof of the Philadelphia hotel will have a repair shop, stored electricity, gasoline, and all the paraphernalia needed by aerial navigators. A wireless station, now on the roof and used for com municating with other stations on the land and at sea. will then be used for receiving room reservations from aerial travelers as well. when she has time between the ques tions she is always having to answer, she mothers them about as if they belonged to one big family. No story' about the great traffic they are handling at the Union Dppot in this record year would be quite complete without a paragraph or so about the baggage-room, and the man who handle it. W. F. Groh is the baggagemaster. and he has made quite a remarkable record In this remarkable year. He is a man, with responsibilities that would make your hair gray. Twenty-nine years of continuous service, seven of them in the office here, have finally done that wry thing for him. Though he is not at all an old man, his hair is gray and it will be grayer in a few more years. Every day in the week, Baggage master Groh and the 56 men under htm, check, load on trains and unload frnin them 3500 trunks, bundles, suitcases and the like, in addition to 33 tons of mail. Baggagemen Are Rushed. Durjr.g the month of July alone. 102. 396 pieces of baggage were handled by Mr. Groh and his men, and last month the figures were, more than 10 per cent greater. In July, 1905, the Exposition year, only 93,073 pieces of baggage were handled and last year only tM.flfiO. You can see for yourself what the growth has been. Since May the depot "baggage smashera" have handled baggage to this amount: May 87,000 and June 93.000. Cor responding figures for 1905 were 62,000 pieces for May and 72.700 in June. The efficiency of Mr. Groh and his men Is strikingly illustrated when one learns that in almost 2.".0,000 pieces of hag gage handled since May, only two have been permanently lost. One of those was an Italian laborer's bundle, the other a tourist's suitcase, and the bag gagemaster hasn't yet given up hope of recovering one of them. The baggagemen have their troubles just before a heavy train pulls out. when all the way from 50 to 200 passengers of the "last minute" variety are yelling their heads off in the effort to get their baggage checked. When, as often hap pens, a ticket calls for several stop overs and a side trip or two on some obscure branch line, it isn't any ten second job to fix up the checks, though many passengers seem to think it is". No trains leave the station until the depot master in person has gone to the hag-gage-room three minutes before leaving time, and seen to it that all the bag gage has been checked up and will get into the baggage car on time. Yes. everybody at the depot has his troubles' these daya If you doubt It. just run down and see for Ollrself. Only whatever else you do. don't under any circumstances ask them about it, for from the matron to the policeman on the beat, the gatemen and the red cap porters, answering needless questions Is by far the greatest of their troubles. Unsale to Steal Radium. PARIS, Sept. 4. (Special.) A doctor at tached to a large hospital in Paris left in a cab a few days ago a small box containing salts of radium. Although there were only some milligrammes of radium in the box. they represent a value of H500. The person who has found the box and who does not want to return it may meet with an accident, as the ra dium in the small packet can by con- . tact cause terrible burns. The sub stance cannot be handled by inexperi enced hands without danger. It is expected that this announcement, which appears in .the papers today, will induce the possessor to return the -box to the Prefecture of Police.