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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (June 14, 1914)
Icon an dotle FMiDRAstiC pmng ainst Miutawts j Believes the Time Is Close at Hand -When People Will Take the Law Into The the Result Will Be Nothing Short of Lynching. HT do you come to America? A wai the natural question to ' YY put to Sir Arthur Conan ' Doyle on his arrival in New York recently, for any one who would visit New York city In the summer time Is Immediately suspected of some tremendous ulterior motive; 1 The. -creator of Sherlock Holmes mopped his bis, round, English face desperately. . "Just for fun though It doesn't look much like It, I must confess," Sir Arthur Is a huge man, well over six feet, with a powerful frame. He is somewhat heavier than when he was here 20 years ago, and his hair Is a little gray, but his step is as light and hie slow smile as pleasant as it ever was. He ignored the question of his visit to America far the moment and hur ried to get a grievance off his mind. It was not the weather that was bothering 8ir Arthur quite so much as American Journalism. I am In a bad humor," he an ' nounced genially. "I am In a wreched humor, all of it due to American Jour nalism. In the first place, I made the great mistake of not seeing the whole horde of newspaper people at once. Consequently, I have jgeen at least 40, strung along eVery minute since 9 o'clock this morning. "But that is not the trouble. It Is what your reporters make me " say about the militant movement. I open the late editions 'of your amazing papers, and find myself headlined as desiring to lynch the militants! Lynching a Possibility "I must correct that or I shall not dare to return to England. I have many very good friends among the militants and among those who favor the militant movement. Now, what I did say to your reporters was that I was afraid the time was close at hand when some very drastic action would be taken. That I very much feared that the people would take the law into their own hands, and that the result would be nothing short of lynching. "That would be a terrible outcome I can conceive of nothing more hor rible, except that I myself should sub scribe to such an action! But the sit uation is very, very grave indeed I do not think that you on this side of HOW THE Wool Pullery, Glue Factory and Fertilizer Plant Take Material Not Acceptable as Foodstuff and Turn It Into a Vari ety of Useful Products by Processes That Are Interesting If Unpleasantly Odorous. By F. L. WHEN you poured the cream in your coffee this morning you probably did' not stop to spec ulate on the eventual fate of the mild eyed bossy who furnished you one of the most enjoyable parts of your breakfast. When she has ceased to be profitable to the dairy she will be fattened and sold to the stockyards and by them. sold to the Union Meat company. You will possibly eat a steak or so of the 66 per cent which is ! utilised for beef, but how about the . remaining 44 per. cent? In the days . when beef and hogs and sheep were i killed and dressed on the farm, the 44 per cent would have been wasted, Just as most of it is today in the small cities where animals are slaughtered for the local butcher. " But today here in Portland every bit of what was formerly waste material le utilised. Not only will you eat a steak from bossy, but you will wash your hands with the soap made from her residual fats. You will brush your teeth with a tooth brush made from her shin bone, f You Will wear shoes made from her hide. Your sugar will be refined with the albumen extracted from her blood. You will take your quinine in cap sules made from her gelatinous ten dons. You will brush your hair with a i brush whose back is made from her . horn. Your pipe stem has been made from the tip of her horn. The pepsin in the gum you che"W comes from her glands. The automobile seat you sit on is np . holstered with her hair. The rocking chair in which you stretch at ease before the fireplace in the -evening is stuck together with ' glue made from scraps of her hide. The very newspaper which - you are reading is printed with ink made from carbonized waste from some mild eyed cow. In North Portland, near Kenton, In company with a Journal artist, I re- cently spent a half day going through . some of the factories where the by products of the factory plant are han dled. The Portlander who visits the wool-pullery, the glue factory and the fertiliser w-orks there will certainly b traveling abroad at home for shuttle f ; I ' I A 7 . Hi i : ' h rV mxyrA HTi X " Hl i y m - if iMfjl w , I- 1 'f i ' 1 1 "A " I t the water realize the. seriousness of the pass to which we are coming. , "So far the government has followed publio opinion and so. far public opin BY-PRODUCTS OF A PORTLAND like, the threads of these industries weave back and forth between Port land and the far places of the earth. A blind and deaf man would need no guide to find the wool pullery; he would only have to follow his nose. Tracing the odor to Its source, we found a number of workmen unloading a freight car. They were taking in truckloads of sheep pelts, the odor of which would make a skunk blush for liis very ineffectiveness. With the superintendent, we went through thp plant, following the pelt process by process. "First of all," said the superintend ent, "the pelts are thrown In the 'soak.' This takes the salt out and washes off the blood. Here Is the next process." Where Pelts Are Cleaned We stepped over to a machine, where a man took up a pelt from a large Pile that Jiad Just been brought from the "soak" and fed it into a machine. As it pulled forward he pulled back, al lowing It to bo fed in gradually. With in two or three minutes' the dirty brown pelt came out free from sand and dirt jid white and clean. Another workman threw the clean pelts Into a centrifugal extractor, where they, had all the moisture shaken and thrown out of them, j On a broad table a workman with rubber gloves spread the pelts, as they came from the centrifugal drier, with the wool side down, and with a broad brush painted them with a greenish paste, folded them with the, wool side out and stacked them in piles on the floor nearby. Going to a pile of pelts that had been painted the evening before, I found I could rub my hand along the skin and brush off all the wool. The wool came off the skin as smoothly as though it were lather and my hand a safety razor. "Tell me the how and why of that," X said. "That green paint the man is spread ing on the pelts is a depilatory. It is made of arsenic, lime and sulphurous acid. The pelts sweat and the pores are enlarged, so the wool roos are loosened, and consequently it can be Jcraped off easily. We cannot let the green paste stay on too long, as it would ruin the skin, so when the wool is scraped off we send the 'slats,' as the skins are termed to -the vat, where they remain in a lime solution for a week. From there they go to the team house, where they are 'fleshed . and trimmed and 'worked out They . : are then sent to the 'drencher, where they axe soaked In soft water and mid ion has not demanded the suppression of the militants. But the patience of the public has Just about reached the breaking point, and I am very much dlings to draw out the lime. They are then sent to the pickling vats to be treated with salt water and ,a mild so lution of sulphuric acid, and from there ttey go to the grader." We watched the grader take up each "clat" give it a quick appraising glance and throw it on one of a large number of different stacks of skins. "Yes, we divide the 'slats' into 16 grades. We sell them in dozen lots at an average of 25 cents a skin to the glovemskers." . . As I held up a soft lamb skin I could not help thinking of the tonsured monks In their cloisters and monas teries in the long gone days working for years to print by hand on sheep r-kins or vellum, as they termed it, the Bible or other Teliglous works. In the art room of the Portland pub lic library there is a small vellum vol- ume,' a duodecimo, called "The Book of Hours." It is beautifully illumi nated. Every picture and every letter drawn by a hand long dead, on the sheep skin. Is a work of art Nowa days, with printing presses turning out 70,000 papers an hour, it would take a pretty large flock of sheep to furnish us our reading matter. In the wool sorting room the work men have a curving table on which the pelt is placed. The pullers are paid two and one-fourth cents a pelt and they earn from $18 to $24 a week. Wool Carefully Graded "We divide the wool Into" 52 grades so you see it takes an expert to do the grading." continued our guide. "Many of the pelts we get are unshorn. We had a fleece the other day whose sta ple was 21 Inches long. From this drying oven and combing machine the wool is taken to the presses and baled ready for shipment" From the wool' pullery we went to the glue factory. If you can Imagine a wooden tub large enough for a full grown elephant to sit down In, you will have a good picture of the wooden tub in which the bits of hide, the trim mings of the pelts, the sinews from the- picking house and all: the other scraps are soused around in the pre liminary stages of their trip to the - glue pot. A big - cone revolves con stantly, rolling and pressing and stir ring up the scraps. ''After being pounded around for five or six hours . in the washing machine the scraps are treated with lime to swell the stock so that when it goes to the cooker the glue will separate from the tissue. This residue or tissue is treated with sulphurous acid to get out the grease , which goes to the tank ' house to be used in the manufacture of -soap. The scraps from the washing vat are cooked for 10 hours. This is repeated six times and the glue is strained off through excelsior in the false bottom of the vats. The glue Is drawn into evaporators where the water Is driven Off in the form of steam. The glue remaining is pumped off and treated to prevent souring and Is then put in the English Hands and afraid that something is going to hap pen. Up to this time the police have been able to protect . the women, against the violence of the mob, but it is be coming more and more difficult" "What about the argument advanced that the militants will step aside Just in time to let the government crawl ' out of its difficulty by granting suf frage at the request of the non-militants?" "1 have never heard that argument advanced, but, on the face of it, it is not only specious, it is thoroughly im moral. The militants have already gone too far, and I am afraid that the reaction is coming very soon, and that It is going to be disastrous." As England Knows Him This is not the Sir Arthur whom the school boy reader of his detective tales would picture to himself, but it is the " Sir Arthur whom England knows, the man who as a keen interest in his country's affairs, the man who has devoted much of his , life to reform measures reform not only in crim inal law, which, of course, interests him most, but in the divorce laws who has devoted the service of his pen to such problems as the Congo ques tion. "I know that you want to ask me about the police system and the place of the detective story in literature, ' Little Pollys Home Oftn, when I read the news Of the weddings taking place, I Just try to picture views Of the bride and bridegroom's face, And I make up little plays All my own inventions of All the different kinds of ways That they may have fell in love. I have quite a lot of fun Fitting faces to their names Altogether, that is one Of the most amusing games. When I read of "Mr. Fair." I, for Instance, think that he Is an ugly man, with hair Just as black as it can be. "Mr. Short" I make quite long. And "Miss Bender" tall and straight; I may be completely wrong. But it's fun, at any rate. Sometimes, too, t like to. guess What their marriage reasons were. Why the bride accepted him What he ever saw in her. And there was a bride last week With the queerest name of all! She was "Mary Humpledeek." And trie briaegroom s name was "Ball." "Maybe," to myself I said, "I am wrong, but, all the same, I believe that she was wed Just to change her silly name." the press and chilled till it Is solid. It is then cut into one-half inch slabs and placed' on drying frames. " I picked up a heavy, quivery slab of glue from the cutting machine and in my other hand I held a thin, tough brittle transparent sheet of glue. "That heavy, rubber like slab of glue will be Just as thin, as light and brittle : when It has come out of the drying - oven as that bit of commer cial glue you have in your hand," said the superintendent of the glue fac tory. We went from frame to frame and from bin to bin' examining the various grades of glue. "We make about 40,000 pounds a month- Her is one of our lowest grades. It is heavy and dark. It is made from bones instead of hide trim- mlngs. It is used by undertakers to glue the lining in caskets," said our guide. From the glue factory We went to the fertilizer plant It has an odor all its own. It is hard to say1 which of the two, the slue faotory, or " the . fertilizer and so on, but will you not let me speak of that which Interests me most Just at present? I should like to say a word of praise of American legisla- tion for the excellent example which it has set us in England on the -subject of plumage laws. "We have worked hard in England to get our bill through, and I .think we have won our fight. America has given us a good lead. You are sur prised that I should be interested in such things? Any humanitarian should be. And some must be more energetic than others. It has been a hard task to awaken our people to a sense of the inhumanity in our bird slaughter. "Public opinion is aroused now, how ever. When the Queen of Denmark drove through the streets of London recently wearing a hat fairly covered with aigrettes, it created a very dis agreeable impression and much unfav orable comment. Just as the white feather of cowardice Is the worst thing that a man can show, so the white feather that means slaughter of the mother bird is the worst thing with which a woman could decorate her hat" Sir Arthur stopped to wave his hand at the tree tops of Central Parte stretched out below his window. "That's a fine sight. We have noth ing in all England to compare with it "I am amazed, fairly paralysed at the sight of New York. It seems as though some one had gone over the city with a watering pot and these stupendous buildings had grown up overnight as a result. When I was here 20 years ago The World building -was your skyscraper. Today it is lost it is a mere pedestal. New York is a wonderful city, as America is a wonderful country, with a big future.". "What do you think of our Becker case?" This with firmness. Sir Arthur always replies immedi ately. He never hesitates for a word. He speaks with a curious steadiness, neither slow nor fast. "I know only what I .have read of the case in the cable dispatches, and you know, of course, how inadequate such information is. I have no first hand knowledge of the case. "In its general aspect it looks aft though Becker would be executed, and not unjustly. You have sent the gun men to their death, and the world is well quit of them. "That is a terrible philosophy," he added under his breath, looking up quickly. "A terrible philosophy! Police System the Base "But, viewing the case in Its gen eral aspects, it is a very ugly busi ness. Your police system is the foun dation of your state. And once your police system gets going wrong, then everything goes wrong. If you've got a police system informed with integ rity,, tlien your form of government PACKING PLANT ARE Interior of a wool pullery; sketched between gasps at the window. works, smells the worst Whichever one you happen to be in you will think must be the worst. In the fertilizer works you will find huge piles of di gestor tankage or meat meal, made from . the ground up cracklings from the lard department, also big slabs of beef scraps pressed in an hydraulic press and ground up here for chicken feed. Here, too, you will see heaps of blood meal and blood flour and dried, ground and powdered manure, to say nothing of long stacks of sacks con taining fertilizer ready for shipment In on room Isaw several carloads of bones.' There were deer horns, elk homes, buffalo skulls, horse hoofs and all sorts of bones. If those dry bones had suddenly come to life there would have been a regular menagerie on hand. Bones of Men Occasionally Used. ' TThat Is a shipment of bones we have Just received from Montana. We often get human skulls in our bones matters but little. It makes me think of a verse from Pope: " 'For forms of government let fools contest: The land that's best administered is best.' t ''The Frank case is a different prop osition." In view of the fact that Sir Arthur was met at the boat by W. J. Burns, this chance remark sounded interest ins. - "Do you think Frank is innocent?" "I have not followed the rase in suf ficient detail yet Yes. I have spoken with Mr. Burns about it. He, as you know, is deeply convinced that here is an instance of wrongful conviction, and I am inclined to think that he is right." Saved a Man From Prison It was through the efforts ef Sir Arthur, for the time turned Sherlock Holmes himself, . that George Edaljl, a young Englishman of good character and excellent birth.; was saved from seven years of penal servitude. Edaljl had been convicted of a. number of curious crimes, none of them, how ever, approaching the horror of the Frank case. Sir Arthur, reading the accounts of his trial, became con vinced that George Edalji was an in nocent man. He beit all his efforts to an unraveling of the case, and suc ceeded at last in bringing about Edal Jl's acquittal and the complete clearing of his name. This is not the only case where Sir .Arthur has slipped, as it were. Into the shoes of his own Sherlot-k Holmes, known the world over. He has made a searching examination of the case ot Oscar Slater, condemned under - Scottish law for murder in 1904, and row in penal servitude. Evtn 8lr Ar thur's efforts have . yer produced no result in Slater's cafcv Stands for Home Rule "You are Interested in the Ulster question here? I are for hom rulo in Ireland and home rule in Ulster. As for the recent developments I an con vinced that the men of Ulster will never submit' to an Irish home parlia ment I tell you those men are not bluffing. They are in earnest. The outcome will be so serious ns to amount practically to a civil war. or iW will turn out to be nothing at all. "I hear that your Cilonel Roos-vi-'t returned with an account of : new river. Of course, he has dimovered his rlvor, 11 he says so. yo.i nay rely on that Colonel Roosevelt is a su perman if there ever was one." In fact, it is not Olfficvli to under stand Sir Arthur's admiration for our energetic ox-presldet. He Is a hunter in the f-nme sense that tl;e colonel is a hunt-jr; he Is passionately fond or exploration and adnlun tu wild lands. When still a young man he set sail tor the arctic regions in a whaling-vessel, and he has made nn ex tended trip along the west coast of Africa, taking with him tr- keenest from Montana, probably from some old Indian burying ground. "Last year we had a shipment of 125 tons of human bones from India and we have a 30 ton shipment on the way now. Tou can find human Jaw bones, leg bones and pieces of skull among the broken up bones. They do not bury their people there. They burn thtm. The poorer classes can not af ford enough wood to burn their dead to ashes so the bones are gathered up and shipped as old bones. -Look up the custom receipts and you will see the United States imports lots of bones from Asia. We grind up the best of the : bones into chicken' feed. Most of the human bones from the funeral pyres that we received from India be come poultry food. -Bone is a fin egg product" In another place X saw a large heap of cow horns. "We send the horns to Philadelphia. They steam them, and split them and make them lato but tons. The .white hoofs we ship "to Japan. Tb dark ones are made into potassium cyanide." nowere of observation and a nrv. i out memory for sclentiUc facts, whlci do not remain stored up unused In his mind, but come forth In orpoia'.e.t iu such characters, for example, as Dr. Challenger. It was partly this love of travel -nJ of adventure, and rartly that earnest desire to be of service, that sent him off to the Boer war as surgeon In the Lang-man hospital. It is cur ious to think of him as Dr. Doyle, but he was for several years a practicing physician at Southsea before he be came the writer whose reputation be came In a very few years world wiiic. His First Success Strangely enough. "Sherlock Holmes was not the first book which attracted attention, but "The Return of Mlcah Clark." "Sherlock Holmes" had pre ceded it in 1891, but It was not uutil his later work became fairly well known that his most popular book came into Its own. Since then he Iihm written, as he talks, steadily and evenly. But H must not be Imagined that he writes only detective stories. He has published two books oil the Boer war: he is the author of numer ous contributions to magazines on sub jects of current Interest, and one f his discussions of the problem of war has been translated into IS language and 100.004 copies of It distributed gratuitously. Sir Arthur comes of a distinguished family. Grandson of John Doyle, a famous eartcajurlxt. he Is also the nephew of the well-known "Dicky" l"yle of Punch. The Patriot So manny flag I nevva see. Nor hear so manny band Llk nowadays dere seem to be 'Hound dees peanutta-stand; An' evrabody shout so mooch For "redda, whits, blue." My patriots heart ees touch Wth warma feeiln', too; My blood ees Jump, my feengers ache For Justa chance to show How greaiu trouble I could mak For deeta Mexico. I was a soldier man hay fore I cn' across da sea. So till da ways for mnkin war Ees notta stranre. to me. Yiu hut my life! dey gona find Dat 1 am brave Hn' true. Kor yestaday I mak' my mind Jus' what 1 gonna do: Eti? Put on mv soldier suit An' tak' mv gun? - Oh! no: But I won't "buy or sal no fruit Dat corn's from Mexico. Mexican Governmental Plan Mexico is. like the United States, a federal republic, with executive powers centralised. There are 27 states. 3 ter ritories, and a federal district, ths lat ter on the analogy of our District f Columbia. The central government has three coordinate branches executive, legis lative and Judicial each nominally In dependent of the other. The president Vice-president and cabinet of elrht compose the executive branch. Th cabinet officers are the .secretaries of foreign affairs. Interior. Justice, public Instruction and fine arts: fuel, colon isation and Industry: communication and public works: finance and public credit, and war and marine. PREPARED Drawing by Slaymaker. Fastened to the wall were a number of long racks on which were hundreds of snow white beef shin bones. "After the sinews have been taken out and sent to the glue factory the shin bones are put in cold water." our guard said. "The hoofs are taken off affd the bones In the foot are boiled to get out the oil which is used for leather dress ing. The shin bones, are cooked at low temperature, not boiled, and all neatsfoot oil is drawn off. When the shin bones feffree from grease they are carefully washed, grsded Into heavy and light flats, and heavy and light rounds and are placed on these racks to be air dried. We ship them to Connecticut where crochet needles and toothbrush handles are made from them. - - . "It would be interesting to trao bow far the products of a single steer In this factory goes. As a starter his ah ins go to Connecticut, his hoofs to Japan, his horns to Philadelphia, his meat to Manila, his glue to China and the Orient, and that Is Just - begin ning." ... " - "