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EARLY TO BED 
 
 AND 
 
 EARLY TO RISE" 
 
 'Twenty Years in Hell with 
 The Beef Trust" 
 
 FACTS, NOT FICTION" 
 
 Roger R. Shiel 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA 
 
 1909 
 

INTRODUCTION. 
 
 There are many important questions before the Ameri- 
 can people. Two of them touch in some degree all the peo- 
 ple. One of these two is the importance of government en- 
 couragement to live stock raisers to induce them to improve 
 the grade of their stock, in order, first, to make stock rais- 
 ing more profitable to the breeder, and, second, that the 
 people may get the very best that can be produced, espe- 
 cially of the stock utilized for food. The other question is 
 the importance of compelling slaughterers, packers and 
 butchers to be honest and supply to the peoj^le as first class 
 only what is first class, and not palm off on them an in- 
 ferior grade at first-class prices. Added to this question 
 is the one of making unlawful any combination between 
 buyers, slaughterers or packers for the forcing of prices 
 upward on the product to the consumer, and downward to 
 the producer. 
 
 A discussion before the people of these important ques- 
 tions ought always to be by one who has ample knowledge 
 of the subject and not by a mere theorist. Anybody can 
 theorize, and theories are too often like dreams, having 
 nothing more substantial for a basis than a bad digestion. 
 The following pages were prepared by Mr. Roger R. Shiel. 
 Among live stock raisers and among live stock buyers, such 
 as the owners of the great meat shops of New York, Phila- 
 delphia, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago and Washington, and 
 among the packing houses, both large and small, there is 
 no more familiar name than that of Roger R. Shiel, better 
 known as ' ' Rhody. ' ' For forty years or more he has been 
 
 ivilfe443 
 
4 Twenty Yeaks in Helt. 
 
 one of the largest buyers of cattle, hog. and sheep in the 
 United States, especially of high gra'lj stock. He never 
 dealt in the poorer grades. He has had very much to do 
 with inducing hog, sheep and cattle raisers to improve 
 their stock, and has been an ardent preacher of the doctrine 
 that only high grades should be permitted to be raised by 
 the farmers and ranchmen. He has earnestly advocated act- 
 ive interference of the government in this matter, by fol- 
 lowing the example of Denmark, France and other Euro- 
 pean countries. 
 
 While Mr. Shiel is familiarly known to all live stock 
 producers and all live stock buyers, his name is not so well 
 known to all the people, and not knowing him they may be 
 led to doubt some of the startling facts he now gives to the 
 public, especially those in relation to the despotism of the 
 Beef Trust. Hence, it is proper to say that Mr. Shiel has 
 spent more than three hundred thousand dollars in fighting 
 this gigantic oppressor, a fight he carried on for more than 
 twenty years. 
 
 While engaged in a business where he bought from two 
 million to five million dollars' worth of live stock annually, 
 Mr. Shiel has found time to take an active interest in poli- 
 tics. At every Republican National convention, beginning 
 with that of 1868, when General Grant was nominated the 
 first time, Mr. Shiel has been a familiar figure, and he has 
 campaigned in Indiana with almost every one of the great 
 Republican orators who have visited that State, including 
 such men as Allison, Hawley, Cullom, Fry, General Coggs- 
 well, Hoar, General Gibson, Sherman, Foraker, Bradley, 
 Harlan, Gen. George F. Sheridan, John Finnerty, John 
 Scanlon and Corporal Tanner, and has always been highly 
 regarded by those men for his sterling worth. 
 
With the Beef Trust 5 
 
 Mr. Shiel began life as a farmer boy, as he tells in this 
 little book. Soon after the war between the States began 
 he entered the army of the Union, at the age of eighteen, 
 and remained until its close. He fought in nearly every 
 battle of the Army of the Cumberland from Shiloh to Ben- 
 tonville. At one period of his army service he was an or- 
 derly for General Sheridan, and afterward for Gen. Judson 
 Kilpatrick, and those two gallant officers held him in high 
 esteem until their death. It was the advice of General 
 Kilpatrick which led Mr. Shiel, on his return from the 
 army, to abandon active farm life and engage in commer- 
 cial pursuits. The close of the war found young Shiel, like 
 most of the soldiers, with little ready cash, as there was 
 but small chance to save out of the pittance of sixteen dol- 
 lars a month. Full of energy and of confidence in himself, 
 and following the advice given him by his friend. General 
 Kilpatrick, he invested his little capital in the purchase of 
 eight head of cattle at Strawtown in his native county, took 
 them to Indianapolis and sold them to such advantage that 
 he had a profit of $80. Thus he began his career as a dealer 
 in cattle, hogs and sheep, a business that grew, under his 
 intelligent management to gigantic proportions. 
 
 All his life Mr. Shiel has been a sterling and loyal son 
 of the Roman Ca,tholic church, but has never been a bigot. 
 His heart and his purse have always been open to every 
 deserving object, and there has not, possibly, been a church 
 of any denomination built in Indianapolis during his more 
 than forty years' residence in that city, to which he has not 
 liberally contributed. Every hospital, every charitable, 
 benevolent or educational institution has found a liberal 
 friend in him. Very recently he gave $2,000 to the Y. M. 
 
6 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 C. A. of Indianapolis, and several hundred dollars to the 
 Y. W. C. A. of the same city, and to Butler University. 
 
 I mention these things not in the way of boasting of 
 what Mr. Shiel has done, or of the friendship felt for him 
 by many of the great men of the nation, but simply to 
 show the readers of this little book that his statements are 
 worthy of credence and may be accepted by them as true. 
 So far as a very busy life would permit he has been a close 
 student of economics, and his studies have led him to the 
 conclusion that the welfare of the country depends upon 
 the welfare of the producer and the honesty of those who 
 supply the people with their food products. Hence he has 
 always fearlessly exposed the wrong doings of the packers, 
 and the oppressions of the Beef Trust that have made those 
 wrong doings possible. He is always earnest, always ardent, 
 always hopeful, and fully believes the time will come when 
 the strong hand of the government will crush out all trusts 
 operated in the constraint of trade and give all the peo- 
 ple an equal chance. 
 
 I have known Mr. Shiel practically all his life, having 
 been bom in the same county, and served in the army with 
 him. For thirty years I have known him intimately, and 
 have had personal Imowledge of his fight against the Beef 
 Trust, and of his untiring efforts to promote the breeding 
 of the highest grade of stock by the farmers of the West, 
 and of the proportions to which his business had grown 
 from his first little venture of eight head of cattle at 
 Strawtown. I write this introduction to his little book to 
 bear willing testimony to his worth as I have known it. 
 
 W. H. Smith. 
 
ROGER R. 8HIEL. 
 
 « , Q ^,» 
 
 i J J J^ :> > ) :> 
 
Biography of Roger R. Shiel 
 
 I came from an old, well known family in Ireland. 
 My great- great-uncle Richard Lalor Shiel, was one of 
 the best known men back in the early days. Anyone can 
 find in any library a book of his speeches, he having been 
 one of the greatest orators Ireland ever produced. He died 
 about 1835. My great-uncle^ Michael Shiel was born in 
 Cork county, Ireland, and came to America some time 
 early in 1820. He first settled in Pennsylvania and ac- 
 quired the title of General from being connected with 
 militia at that time. In about 1825 he settled in the 
 wilderness of Indiana and laid off a town and postoffice, 
 afterwards known as Shielville. It retained that name 
 until recently. It is now called Atlanta. The railroad 
 missed it about a mile and named the station for Shiel- 
 ville, Buenavista. There being a contention between 
 Buenavista and Shielville about the postoffice being called 
 Shielville, the name of the town changed a few years ago 
 to that of Atlanta, and the same name was given to the 
 postoffice. Shielville is situated on the line of Tipton and 
 Hamilton counties, a part of the farm was in each of the 
 two counties. He was the first justice of the peace in 
 that section of the country, and started the first general 
 store in that section. He married and reared a large 
 family; his oldest son, James, died a few years ago at the 
 age of about ninety years. In about 1850 James took his 
 father's place as justice of the peace and continued to 
 
 (7) 
 
8 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 hold that office for a number of years. He settled prac- 
 tically all the estates in that section, and the Shiel family 
 maintained the Catholic Church at Tipton until it has 
 grown to be a very large one. 
 
 My father, Patrick Shiel, was the oldest of his father's 
 children. He was born on a farm near Clonmell, Ireland, 
 in the county of Cork. He married Alice Casey about 
 1826, a native of Tipperary county. Both my parents 
 were born in 1805. My "mother used to tell me that their 
 parents made the match as parents did in those days. 
 There was considerable emigration at that time. So 
 father sold his interest in tHe farm, or rather his father 
 took it and gave him about $3,000, and my mother's 
 father gave her a like amount. They sailed for America, 
 coming over in about forty-five days. They had one 
 child at that time, John. They landed in New York and, 
 like most people who have money, spent a large part of 
 their first fortunes in sight-seeing. They then went to 
 Pittsburg for awhile, and then to Cincinnati, where they 
 remained till their money was about all gone. They 
 were both well educated. 
 
 My father finally hunted up his uncle, the General, 
 who lived at Shielville about ten miles from Strawtown. 
 My father bought a small tract of land, about thirty 
 acres being clear, with a log cabin on it in which I was 
 born; shortly afterwards he built a hewed log house and 
 plastered it with lime, a new thing in that country at that 
 time. He soon got to be a contractor, constructing mill- 
 dams and other general public work, but was a poor 
 farmer and neglected the education of all his children. 
 In fact the nearest school was two or three miles, to 
 
With the Beep Trust 9 
 
 attend which we had to go through a dense wood and 
 had to blaze the trees to find our way from my father's 
 house. My parents had twelve children born to them, 
 three of whom died as infants ; there were five boys, John, 
 who died in the Mexican War, James K., who recently 
 died at the age of sixty-nine, myself, Roger R., William, 
 who died ten years ago and Terrence M. the baby, who 
 is still living and is fifty-eight years old. James K. and 
 myself and brother William served in the Union Army. 
 There were four girls, Ellen and Catherine, who are dead, 
 and Margaret and Lizzie, who are still living. 
 
 It is hard to get the ages of the Shiel family. They 
 are like women in that respect, they don't want to give 
 their ages. My great-uncle, the General, has two chil- 
 dren living, but they do not know their ages, and do not 
 want to know them. He had four sons, James, Thomas, 
 John and Michael, and four daughters, Bridget, Cathe- 
 rine, Margaret and Victoria. He gave all his children 
 a good education. 
 
 I often heard my mother speak of the Caseys being 
 a fighting family, always being against England. A 
 cousin of hers has recently been one of the Irish leaders 
 in Parliament for several years. She was a devout and 
 earnest member of the Catholic Church. Every night 
 at about nine o'clock she had all her children repeat the 
 rosary, and about nine o'clock on each Sunday morning 
 she called the family in and had morning service with 
 ^their catechism. In this she never failed. At that time 
 there were no priests nearer than Fort Wayne, which was 
 about 100 miles distant. I was two years old before I 
 was baptized. There had been no priest in that part of 
 
10 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 the State for more than two years. The priest, when he 
 visited that section, always stopped with the General, and 
 celebrated mass at his house. On his periodical visits 
 all the children for many miles aronnd would be taken 
 there to be baptized. My mother said there were about 
 fifty or sixty baptized when I was. The Shiel family, 
 with very few exceptions, have been loyal to the faith. 
 
 The following personal estimate of me appeared in 
 a previous pamphlet edition of much of the matter re- 
 produced here over the signature of the publishers. As 
 to the facts I would state them myself, since they are 
 correct, but since the words expressing them are more 
 appropriate than I might use I here present the sketch 
 in its entirety: 
 
 ''The undersigned publishers of this 'brief,' or pam- 
 phlet, feel that, in the strictest propriety, they owe no 
 apology for making personal mention of the inspirer and 
 collector of the very valuable information which fills its 
 pages. On the contrary, they are convinced that they 
 would be derelict were they to fail to make at least pass- 
 ing reference to Mr. Shiel, and especially now since he is 
 in South America on his vacation. 
 
 ' ' And yet what to say is a harder matter to decide than 
 is the question of the fitness of saying something. For 
 over forty years in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky 
 the familiar phrase ''Ehody Shiel" has been a name to 
 conjure by in politics, in business and in the high order 
 of patriotism which characterizes the public-spirited citi- 
 zen and the brave solder. The thousands of his personal 
 acquaintances and friends who have been and are among 
 the first citizens of the country, from the days of Presi- 
 
With the Beef Trust 11 
 
 dent Grant to those of President Harrison, President 
 McKinley, and our own President Roosevelt — these are 
 they who have heard and yet hear of Mr. Shiel as 'a dia- 
 mond in the rough,' but who recognize the diamond just 
 the same. 
 
 ' ' All such men bow before the unselfish spirit which has 
 animated Mr. Shiel in other public matters as well as in 
 the collection of the material here presented in aid of the 
 work to be accomplished by President Roosevelt's 'Com- 
 mission on Country Life'; and every citizen, whether 
 on the farm, in the workshop or in the counting room, 
 owes a debt of gratitude to our "Rhody," not alone for 
 the deed, but also for the will with which he sets about its 
 accomplishment. 
 
 ' ' From the History of the Republican National Conven- 
 tion of 1908 we take and subjoin the following : 
 
 " 'Mr. Shiel was formerly one of the largest live stock 
 brokers in the United States, but now is retired. He was 
 one of the strongest supporters of Mr. Taft in the Con- 
 vention, and was always a picturesque figure in the Con- 
 vention and about the hotel lobbies. He resides in Indi- 
 anapolis, and has had an eventful career. He was a 
 strong supporter of Governor Morton in 1876, of Presi- 
 dent Grant in 1880, of President Arthur in 1884 and of 
 President Harrison in 1888 and 1892, at which times he 
 was a delegate. He was nominated for Treasurer of State 
 with Mr. Blaine in 1884 and for Treasurer of Marion 
 • county and the City of Indianapolis in 1892, on the ticket 
 with General Harrison. 
 
 " 'He was born at Strawtown, Indiana, August 19th, 
 1843, of Irish parents, who came to this country from Ire- 
 
12 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 land in 1826. He enlisted in the Union army at the age 
 of eighteen, and went through the War of the Rebellion 
 honorably. He was in the Thirty-ninth Indiana Mounted 
 Infantry, later the Eighth Indiana Cavalry. He was 
 Orderly for General Sheridan around Tullahoma, was 
 wounded at Chickamauga on Sunday at the Widow 
 Glenn's house, and was in the Rusaw raid at Montgomery, 
 Alabama, ,and the McCook raid around Atla,nta. He also 
 served as Kilpatrick's Orderly around Atlanta, and 
 marched to the sea with General Sherman. He was with 
 the escort that went out to meet General Johnson the day 
 of the surrender to Sherman. He was also in the battle of 
 Shiloh and the battle of Perryville, being taken prisoner 
 on the latter occasion. He was in the battle of Stone 
 River, the battles arround Atlanta, and all of the engage- 
 ments in which Kilpatrick was engaged on the march to 
 the sea and through the Carolinas. 
 
 '' 'At the close of the War he returned to Indianapolis 
 and engaged in the live stock business. During his life he 
 has probably done business to the extent of a hundred mil- 
 lion dollars in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky. 
 
 " 'As he expressed it to the writer of this sketch," ' "I 
 have always been a contributor and active worker in 
 politics, but this time I attended the Convention largely 
 to meet my old-time friends, and to render any service 
 that I might toward the nomination of Mr. Taft. ' " 
 
 "He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
 which he thinks is good enough for any patriot. 
 
 " 'In Indianapolis, in 1882, he married Julie Elizabeth 
 Pope, who has borne him four children — Alice Julia, 24 ; 
 Walter Roger, 23 ; Edna Winnifred, 20, and Erwin Har- 
 rison, 16.' " 
 
PREFACE 
 
 All my manhood life I have been dealing with farmers. 
 Hence I became greatly interested in the efforts of Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt to better the conditions of the farming com- 
 munity, and I took the liberty to address him a letter, com- 
 mending his efforts and pointing out some ways in which 
 I thought the good work he was interested in could be more 
 effectually accomplished. That letter he referred to the 
 Country Life Commission. 
 
 The Commission replied by asking me to give them some 
 additional information along the same line. This request 
 reached me four days before I was to start on a trip through 
 South America and Cuba, so I had but a few days to pre- 
 pare the data asked for, but I complied Avith their request 
 as best I could. 
 
 On my return to the United States I found a number of 
 letters on the subject awaiting me, together with other let- 
 ters referring to oppressions of the Beef Trust and the im- 
 pure character of much of the meats and provisions they 
 were supplying to the people. With these letters before me 
 I thought it best to add materially to my first reply to the 
 request of the Commission, and go further and explain some 
 of the things that had been done to the farmers, and also to 
 take up the agitation at this time regarding the tariff. In 
 order to do this I have had to show what the tariff has done 
 in helping to build up the Trusts — all the gigantic Trusts, 
 more or less, have been made by the tariff. While I am not 
 
 (13) 
 
14 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 a free trader and never have been, still I cannot see why the 
 rich should be protected and made richer and the poor 
 neglected. 
 
 Now, of course, all of this is in a way rambling, as I have 
 had only about three weeks to prepare the same. There is 
 a considerable repetition in it, which you will readily see, 
 but there is no real repetition even in the speeches that I 
 made. You will find that there is lots of new meat in it, 
 I expect at a later date during the summer to amend this 
 brief and put it in a book form, with probably as much as 
 three or four hundred pages, and give it the widest circula- 
 tion possible, but T can see the necessity now of getting 
 this out during this pendency of the tariff bill, as I may be 
 able to turn some light on some of the members of the 
 Senate and House, as I believe I understand the tariff thor- 
 oughly so far as the workings of the Trusts, in this par- 
 ticular line. I have been dealing directly on this subject, 
 and many members of the House and Senate do not appear 
 to have much real knowledge of the working of the Trusts 
 on this point. 
 
 You understand, you will have to read each article with 
 great care in order to get intelligently the ideas I want to 
 convey. I want to particularly call your attention to the 
 Denmark part, which was obtained by me at considerable 
 cost, as I employed the aljlest men in the country to obtain 
 this information accurately for me. Also note what I have 
 to say about the business men, and what the business men 
 have to say in reply to my inquiries. It is well to read 
 every letter in this brief. These are the very best men in 
 the country, and in the next book I expect to strengthen it 
 with many others who have had experience dating back for 
 
With the Beef Trust 15 
 
 fifty years in business and have been successful in their 
 various pursuits. 
 
 I want you to read what the Squires have done, and it 
 would be well if every school in every township of the 
 United States would take up and teach the life and works 
 of Richard Webber of New York. He was one of the great- 
 est benefactors that ever lived in this country. He had no 
 place for anything but the purest of foods in his house. 
 Neither he nor Squire ever let anything go out of his 
 house unless it had been thoroughly cured. I also want you 
 to note what I have had to say about George B. Wilson and 
 his balance sheet. This is a very essential thing, and ought 
 to be taught in the schools. They ought to teach economy 
 to the young, teach them a way to know whether they are 
 economizing or not, and that is by having them keep a strict 
 and accurate account of all their expenditures. 
 
 I required all my children, two sons and two daughters, 
 Lo keep an accurate account of their expenditures, and make 
 me out a monthly balance sheet. If their balance sheet was 
 not correct I deducted $2 from their next monthly allow- 
 ance. I began making each of my children a regular allow- 
 ance for their own use at a very early age. My oldest son 
 was very accurate and his balance sheet was always cor- 
 rectly made out. I never found an occasion to deduct any- 
 thing from his allowance. He went to Purdue University 
 and after a course of three years graduated as a Civil En- 
 gineer. He was a thorough student and applied himself all 
 the time and always lived within his allowance. During 
 his vacations I made him more liberal allowances and he 
 traveled a great deal, as I considered traveling to be a 
 liberal educator itself. With him it was always get up 
 earl v. 
 
16 Twenty Years tn Heli. 
 
 My younger son was hard to put to bed and was hard to 
 get up again in the morning. He was not as close and as 
 accurate in his balance sheet as his brother. My two 
 daughters both graduated and tried to live inside of their 
 allowance, but I think they sometimes worked their mother 
 on the side. They always made a very correct balance 
 sheet. If every school would teach the method and impor- 
 tance of a balance sheet it would be much better than Ger- 
 man or French. It would be better to require the boys to 
 count the apples on the trees and to prune the trees and 
 vines than to go fishing. Application is the successful rule 
 of life. 
 
 In the stock yards where I have done business there were 
 practically none of the firms there that kept books ac- 
 curately or got out a balance sheet. When the days' work 
 was done they would rush out, and maybe they would be 
 50 dollars or 50 cents short, or even in their cash, some- 
 times 100 dollars or 100 cents short of the money that was 
 paid in or the money that was paid out, as the case might 
 be ; and of course there being no balance sheet there was no 
 way of telling how the business stood at the end of the day. 
 I have seen my bookkeepers w'ork till twelve and one o 'clock 
 at night trying to find a discrepancy of ten cents, or even a 
 cent, in order to get an accurate balance sheet. All first- 
 class business men will insist on having a balance sheet. 
 
 I regret that I have not space enough to mention each 
 individual who has furnished a letter, and. to comment on 
 them. 
 
 Note : Thirty-five or forty years ago business men were 
 known by their first names — John P. Squire was known as 
 John P. ; Timothy Eastman as Tim ; Richard Webber as 
 
With the Beef Trust 17 
 
 Dick ; Joe Rawson as Joe ; Isaac Loder as Ike ; Train Cald- 
 well as Train ; Simon Muld as Si ; Nelson Morris as Nelse ; 
 Philip Armour as Phil ; Samuel AUerton as Sam, and Aid- 
 rich was not known at all in the trade, the particulars of 
 which you will notice in the book. 
 
 You will see I have put some politics in the book. The 
 fact is, legislation is practically controlled by one party or 
 another, or by the caucus of one party or another, which to 
 my mind is a thing that should be wiped out. A legislator 
 who permits his party caucus, either in the Senate or in the 
 House, to control his vote on things that he knows are not 
 right, or are not to the best interests of the community 
 where he lives, or in fact for the whole country, should not 
 be there. May I ask you if that is not so? That is why 
 there are some political speeches in this, and why I am 
 showing how the Beef Trust had me twenty years in hell. 
 Had 1 seen when they commenced on me more than twenty 
 years ago what it was going to lead to, I would have aban- 
 doned my chosen line of business and gone into something 
 else, but I did not realize their strength at the time. John 
 P. Squire and I talked about it. He left an estate worth 
 millions, and left millions that the Trust or anybody else 
 could not get hold of, as he was a very large real estate 
 holder in Boston and East Cambridge. He incorporated 
 his packing house. He said to me one day that something 
 might happen; they would want to break that house also, 
 so he fixed it, sometime in the '90 's, into a corporation, and 
 all his large real estate holding in trust in charge of his 
 •family — thereby his estate could not be impaired by the 
 failure of his corporation. The fact is the corporation was 
 solvent, had money enough to pay off everybody, but all the 
 
 [2] 
 
18 Twenty Yeabs in Hell 
 
 banks doubled on him and made a run on two of the banks 
 which were large lenders to the Squire people. This was 
 at the time when the packijig house, an eight-story building, 
 was filled with pork, lard and provisions, from cellar to gar- 
 ret, and when they were slaughtering from 5,000 to 6,000 
 hogs daily. The Trust knew all this and took the oppor- 
 tunity to attempt to crush him, and it did force his com- 
 pany into the hands of a receiver, a man of their own selec- 
 tion. The Beef Trust finally reorganized the company with 
 a majority of the directors taken from their own men and 
 took the concern out of the hands of the receiver. Much 
 more can be said on this, but I will not say any more at this 
 time. 
 
 I want to say that if I have said anything in this brief 
 about any corporation or any individual that is not true, I 
 am perfectly responsible and challenge them to bring suit 
 against me, and I will convince the public by substantiating 
 any statements 1 have made. 
 
 Note : I am a very superstitious man, and I have men- 
 tioned in the brief a number who were burned to death, but 
 in the next brief I will show that while they had me in hell, 
 I saw something happening to each and every individual en- 
 gaged in the conspiracy to put me out of business and break 
 me up. There have been all kinds of suicides, all kinds of 
 divorces, all kinds of deaths happening to the chief con- 
 spirators against me. 
 
 I have seen a man who often sat in the same pew in my 
 church and at the same time was feeding from 500 to 600 
 hogs on slop it was said he obtained surreptitiously from the 
 penitentiary of which he was warden, the slops being prop- 
 erly the property of the State. At one time he was very 
 
With the Beef Trust 19 
 
 much interested in securing a franchise for a street railway 
 and it was charged that a great deal of bribery was going 
 on. It was said that while he was handing out the bribery 
 money he wore a mask in order that no one could swear to 
 his identity. Another man who was engaged at the same 
 time in this work of handing out money to the bribed wore 
 a mask, but afterwards went blind. These two men both 
 died, one poor and the other it was said worth five million 
 or six million dollars. 
 
 Night after night I walked the floor while in this hell, 
 and had two doctors, a lawyer and a priest. They thought 
 I was going to die, but the ''Lord giveth and the Lord 
 taketh away ; blessed be the name of the Lord. ' ' My health 
 is now better than it has been for twenty-five years — it has 
 returned to me in the last two years, since I abandoned this 
 fight, and since they put me out of business at Kankakee, 
 Illinois (I am not as old by ten years as mj^ father was, or 
 within 25 of what my mother was when they died). I 
 have not tried to do any business in the stock yards ; in fact 
 I could not. I intended to open up a local house some 
 place, but I find that they are following me yet. I have at 
 least twenty years of the best part of my life remaining, 
 so far as money making is concerned, in the line of any 
 business I may enter upon. Of course I have made money 
 on real estate and otherwise, but for six or eight years I 
 was confined to my home half the time on account of my 
 health being all broken down because of the persecutions 
 pf this damnable Meat Trust. 
 
 I want to call your especial attention to Chief Chemist 
 Wiley. When he dies there will be a monument erected to 
 him. He has saved millions of lives by educating the peo- 
 
20 Twenty Years in Hei.l 
 
 pie against adulterated foods and liquors. There is no 
 greater fraud than by taking one barrel of whiskey and 
 making twenty barrels out of it, which was the case in 
 Louisville and has been the case in many other places. 
 They caught a Jew in Louisville once, an Irishman at some 
 other place doing this. The Jew and the Irish, when they 
 go wrong, go very wrong. Adulterated liquors poison the 
 mind probably more than adulterated food. The Amer- 
 ican people, especially in the x^ities, are getting nothing 
 in the way of high grade meats. 
 
 Mr. Smith, who has edited this brief, has been con- 
 nected with the Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette as its cor- 
 respondent for many years. It was Murat Halstead's 
 paper and probably the best in Cincinnati. He has written 
 a history of Indiana and also Vice-President Fairbanks 's 
 history. He has known me since a boy. He is one of the 
 best posted men in the country as to what is going on. 
 
 I trust I have made it clear who I am and what I have 
 done. 
 
 Lew Wallace, James Whitcomb Riley, Booth Tarking- 
 ton, George Ade, Maurice Thompson, Charles IMajor and 
 George Barr McCutcheon are all "noted authors; they were 
 all friends of mine. Their wTitings were all fiction-dreams 
 or freaks of imagination. There is no fiction — no dreams 
 in ' ' Early to Bed and Early to Rise, ' ' and Twenty Years in 
 Hell. 
 
THE 
 
 Lack of Improvement in Agriculture 
 
 LIVE STOCK, POULTRY, ETC. 
 
 A COMPARATIVE DISCUSSION FOR THE 
 "COMMISSION ON COUNTRY LIFE'' 
 
 BY 
 
 MR. R. R. SHIEL 
 
 of Indianapolis 
 AND OTHER WELL-INFORMED MEN 
 
 MR. R. R. SHIEL 'S LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 Han. Theodore Roosevelt, President, Washington, D. C: 
 
 My Dear Sir — Please note the enclosed clipping from 
 the Cincinnati Enquirer of the 14th, regarding your 
 *' Country Life Commission's" session at Lexington, Ky., 
 which will explain itself. I think this Commission ought 
 to deal more particularly with the mountain country— cane- 
 brakes in the South. Lexington is in an old, well settled 
 and established country. The betterment should go on in 
 the interior and help build up and develop there where it is 
 needed the most. 
 
 From observations in my recent travels in Kentucky, 
 "Eastern Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, Northern Georgia, 
 Northern Alabama, Arkansas and Southern Missouri, I 
 want to call your attention to a matter which I have had in 
 mind a long time, and that is, the improvement of the live 
 
 (21) 
 
22 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 stock and poultry, especially in the South, and in many 
 States in the hilly and mountainous parts of the North. 
 
 I spent a day in the Louisville stockyards before going 
 South and I saw the same old canebrake and mountain cat- 
 tle there — ^steers, three and four years old, weighing 500, 
 600 and 700 pounds, and the same kind of sheep that I saw 
 during the war and which we used to forage in the moun- 
 tains of Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and 
 North Carolina, sheep with no wool on their bellies and 
 weighing only sixty to seventy pounds. 
 
 While on my travels, noticing them from the railroad, 
 I could see no difference in the grade of live stock, except 
 in Middle Tennessee and the better parts of Kentucky, from 
 the kind we saw there during the war. 
 
 I can remember sixty years back in Strawtown, Hamil- 
 ton county, Indiana, thirty-five miles north of here on my 
 father's farm, we had the old razor-back hogs and kept 
 them a year and a half and two years before they matured, 
 and we had the same old-fashioned cattle and poultry. 
 
 Then there was a farmer by the name of David Cor- 
 nelius, who came from Wayne County, which is Governor 
 Morton's and Dudley Foulke's county, and one of the 
 earliest settled counties in the State. He bought a good 
 river farm in my father's township. He brought with him 
 a thoroughbred bull and a number of thoroughbred cattle, 
 hogs and poultry. Later I worked on his farm for two 
 years at $8.00 per month. The adjoining farmers soon be- 
 gan to breed to his thoroughbred cattle, hogs and poultry, 
 and in a few years it extended throughout the township. 
 
 In that township today there is not a bull that is not a 
 thoroughbred, nor a sheep that is not a half-breed or a 
 
With the Beef Trust 23 
 
 thoroughbred, nor a hog raised that is not a half-breed or a 
 thoroughbred, and the poultry the same. This same thing 
 can be done in any of the canebrake or mountain townships 
 of the Southern States. Five Hereford short horned bulls or 
 Polled Angus bulls at a cost of $50 per head would change 
 the character of the cattle in four years and make them at 
 least half thoroughbred ; five to ten bucks, at a cost of $8.00 
 to $10.00 each, would change the character of the sheep in 
 two years; twenty boars. at the cost of $10.00 each would 
 change the character of the hogs; five hundred dozen of 
 eggs, at a cost of fifty cents a dozen, would change all the 
 chickens; five hundred dozen of turkey eggs, at a cost of 
 sixty cents a dozen, would change all the turkeys ; and the 
 same could be done with the ducks and geese. 
 
 I see a great future, especially in the mountain belts 
 along the rivers, for the improvement and expansion of the 
 chickens, turkeys and geese. An acre or two of alfalfa or 
 of millet on the sides of a mountain or hill, where tobacco, 
 corn or wheat can not be produced, together with what they 
 will pick up in the way of beech nuts and other mast, such 
 as they have in the mountainous districts, would furnish 
 sufficient amount of feed to support the poultry. The fact 
 is it does not take any more to feed the high grades than it 
 takes to feed the inferior. 
 
 There is a vast difference whether you have an old- 
 fashioned turkey hen weighing seven to nine pounds 
 dressed, or a high grade turkey hen weighing ten to fifteen 
 pounds dressed; whether you have a hen chicken a year 
 old, weighing two and one-half to three pounds dressed, 
 or one weighing five to seven pounds ; whether you have a 
 yearling steer or a two-year-old, weighing four to six hun- 
 
24 Twenty Yeaks in Helt. 
 
 dred pounds alive, or one weighing nine to twelve hundred ; 
 whether you have a hog at the age of two years weighing 
 two hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds, or whether 
 you have a hog at the age of six or eight months weighing 
 two hundred and fifty pounds. 
 
 I have boaght thousands of hogs coming from the town- 
 ship where I was reared, weighing two hundred and fifty 
 pounds at the age of six or eight months, and thousands of 
 cattle with the difference in the weights described above, 
 and I have bought them also from every township of Joseph 
 Cannon's district. 
 
 During the years from '68 to '71 the firm of Stafford & 
 Shiel was possibly the second or third largest of the ship- 
 pers of live stock in the United States. Stafford lived in 
 New Carlisle, Ohio, near Springfield. I am the Shiel, liv- 
 ing in Indianapolis. Thirty-five or forty years ago I fre- 
 quently sold a train load of cattle in a day at Hoboken, and 
 I have sold as many as two train loads a day of live stock at 
 Albany, New York, as these places were the stock markets 
 for New York and New England. The hogs went principal- 
 ly to John P. Squire & Co., Boston ; Charles P. North & Co., 
 Boston; White, Pevey & Dexter, Worcester, and S. E. Mer- 
 win & Co., New Haven. I have bought as much as a train 
 load of Texas cattle at a time — the long-horned kind. The 
 fact is, I bought the first cattle that came through this city. 
 I have also bought hundreds of boat loads and train loads of 
 the best cattle out of central Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and 
 many from Kentucky for export. " In truth, I bought the 
 first export cattle for Mayer Goldsmith and Timothy East- 
 man, of New York, and Nelson Morris, as they were the 
 first exporters of cattle. 
 
With the Beef Trust 25 
 
 Later I saw the West was coming to the front with im- 
 proved stock, the same as they did in Hamilton County, and 
 I bought car load after car load of thoroughbred Shorthorn, 
 Hereford and Polled Angus bulls to ship to the West to go 
 on the ranches. I encouraged Fowler & Venetta, at Fowler 
 and Lafayette, Indiana, who were the largest Hereford 
 breeders possibly in the country thirty years ago. to culti- 
 vate the Western breed and get their thoroughbreds and 
 half-breeds West to build up the Texas cattle. Some thirty 
 years ago they shipped a boat load of their Herefords to 
 South America to find a market for their surplus. 
 
 I need not say much to you on this, for you have been 
 West and know what they were, and ought to know what 
 they are now. It has not been more tha,n twentj^-five or 
 thirty years since General Wadsworth commenced to ship 
 the Herefords West, and now his sons have no other kind 
 on their ranches in Texas and other States. 
 
 There can be much said on this and much done with it. 
 I find the State of Indiana paying salaries to twenty-five 
 or thirty men to look after the fish and game, and I find 
 many other States and also the Government spending large 
 sums of money on that line. Nothing, to my mind, would 
 be farther reaching than the forcing of better live stock 
 into sections that have been neglected on this point. I sug- 
 gested this to President Harrison after he was elected and 
 before he went to Washington, and took it up with him and 
 Secretary Rusk after he got to Washington, and the meat 
 inspection law came through Secretary Rusk and President 
 •Harrison largely from our conferences. 
 
 There is no greater fraud known than meat. Note, 
 there is not five per cent, of the cattle that are anywhere 
 
26 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 near the first ^ade, especially when feed is as high as it is 
 now. There isn't fifteen per cent, that are second grade, 
 or, in other words, there are not fifteen cars out of a hun- 
 dred that will sell first or second. The. medium and low 
 grade cattle are selling now for practically what they have 
 been selling for for years — possibly a half a dollar higher. 
 There is where the dressed beef men make their big profit ; 
 making the people believe that they are selling them fine 
 quality meat when they are getting only a low grade. You 
 cannot get a high grade of meat out of a low grade stock. 
 The same will apply to poultry of all kinds. 
 
 Let me cite you to an actual fact. While attending the 
 Army of the Cumberland reunion at Chattanooga in Oc- 
 tober, Secretary of the Association O. A. Sommers took his 
 wife, daughter and myself in an automobile to go over the 
 Chickamauga battlefield. To my astonishment I saw then 
 the same old-fashioned cattle as were there in 1863. Upon 
 our return, about eight miles out of Chattanooga, near Ross- 
 ville, and within a hundred yards of the boulevard, we came 
 upon a farmer who had shot down a steer which looked like 
 it weighed about five hundred pounds. He had hung it up 
 between two trees by having his wife sit upon the long end 
 of the pole, holding the steer up while two men were skin- 
 ning it. They had it about half skinned. I said to Mr. 
 Sommers that it reminded me of Grant's Memoirs, where 
 Lincoln said to him when he went to the White House to 
 get his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, 
 ' ' I kind of like your way of fighting ; you make them skin 
 or hold a leg. ' ' They had the old lady holding up the bul- 
 lock while the men skinned it. It reminded me of sixty 
 years ago at Strawtown, and yet it was going on within 
 
With the Beef Trust 27 
 
 eight miles of Chattanooga with the same old cattle such as 
 they had in Strawtown sixty years ago. 
 
 I have never been much of a hunter, such as you have 
 been, but I killed a wild turkey near Strawtown when I was 
 about twelve years old. The woods were full of them then. 
 I brought it home and the folks tried to make me believe 
 I had found the turkey dead, and didn 't want to cook it. I 
 never had the courage to go hunting afterwards. 
 
 Some twenty-five to thirty years ago I had more than 
 a hundred customers in Lancaster, Chester and Burke 
 counties, Pennsylvania, to w^hom I furnished stock cattle 
 to feed. These three counties have more cattle on feed 
 than the whole State of Indiana. They have a market at 
 Lancaster, which has been established in the laist fifteen or 
 twenty years, for stock cattle, many of them coming from 
 Canada, which has better stock. In fact, Buffalo forwards 
 many stock cattle to Lancaster that come from Canada. 
 But the canebrake or knot-head or "penny royal," old- 
 fashioned cattle come to St. Louis, Louisville and Cincin- 
 nati, and are forwarded on to be sold to the farmers in 
 Pennsylvania and also to Buffalo to be sold to the New York 
 farmers. It is a great fraud to sell these old-fashioned cat- 
 tle, which won't take on the weight or make first or even 
 third-class meat after they are fed, to the Pennsylvania and 
 New York farmers, when they could be bred up in a few 
 years and the farmers in Pennsylvania and New York would 
 get better stock. Now as many as two hundred to three 
 hundred cars of stock cattle are sold in Lancaster per week 
 jn the Summer and Fall of the year when the farmers take 
 on their feeding cattle, where twenty years ago there was 
 no market. 
 
 Of course I could say the same of the number of custom- 
 
28 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 ers I had in New York State, in the interior and New York 
 City, and also in Baltimore and throughout Maryland. At 
 one time, twenty or thirty years ago, in the anthracite coal 
 country, I furnished practically all of the cattle and hogs to 
 the butchers in fifteen or twenty cities and towns, such as 
 Pottsville, Shamokin, Scranton, Grirardville and Schuylkill. 
 They took the very highest grades, and up to this time the 
 dressed beef people have not been able to do any good there, 
 as they kill their own cattle and they get their supplies from 
 the New York and Pennsylvania feeders. They pay the best 
 prices for the best stock. The miners want good meat, and 
 you cannot palm off an old Jersey cow or bull or half -fatted 
 stock on them. 
 
 I bought for more than twenty years for the best butcher 
 in the United States, Richard Webber, at One-hundred- and- 
 twenty-third Street and Third Avenue, New York City. 
 He took nothing but the highest grade stock that came to 
 market. He never had a poor piece of meat in his shop. 
 
 Pardon me for writing this long letter, but I think I 
 understand this business. I have been thoroughly educated 
 in it, while my book learning was neglected when a boy, I 
 am a great reader of facts, but a poor reader of fiction. I 
 never found I could do any good reading fiction. 
 
 I believe that the Pure Food Law, which you had passed, 
 is the greatest law that has ever been enacted. Thousands 
 of people have been poisoned by adulterated meats, foods 
 and medicine. Your improvement of the Meat Inspection 
 Law is also a great benefit. These two laws will add more 
 renown to your administration than any others, while there 
 are many excellent ones. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 R. R. Shiel. 
 
 November, 1908. 
 
With the Beef Trust 29 
 
 COMMISSION'S LETTER TO MR. SHIEL. 
 
 Commission on Country Life. 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 K. H. Bailey, Chairman. 
 Henry Wallace. 
 
 GiFFORD PiNCHOT. 
 
 k. l. butterfield. 
 
 Walter H. Page. 
 
 NoRVAL D. Kemp, Secretary to the Chairman. 
 
 Ithaca, N. Y., November 25, 1908. 
 R. R. Shiel, Shiel Apartment House, Indianapolis, hid.: 
 
 My Dear Sir — ^Your letter of the 21st addressed to Wil- 
 liam Loeb, Jr., Secretary to the President, enclosing a letter 
 to the President has been forwarded to the Commission on 
 Country Life. We are very much interested in your discus- 
 sion of the lack of progress made in the production of live 
 stock and poultry in the South Central States. Can you 
 make a similar comparative discussion of the quality of 
 production in Indiana and Ohio, addressing it to this Com- 
 mission at this office? We will appreciate your co-opera- 
 tion. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 NoRVAL D. Kemp. 
 
 MR. SHIEL 'S LETTER TO THE COMMISSION. 
 
 Indianapolis, Ind., December, 1908. 
 Commission on Country Life, Washingten, D. C: 
 
 Gentlemen — In reply to your request that I furnish you 
 with a comparative discussion of the lack of progress in the 
 
30 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 production of high-class live stock and poultry in Indiana 
 and Ohio, I have prepared a brief on this subject, made up 
 largely of letters which I have received from the most in- 
 telligent and best-informed men of my personal acquaint- 
 ance in the localities in which they live. Many of them I 
 have done business with, dating from 1865, and I know ab- 
 solutely that they thoroughly understand the business and 
 that their statements are facts, and, moreover, that they are 
 as well versed on this subject as any farmers in Indiana, 
 Illinois or Ohio. Many of them are college graduates. 
 
 I wish I could take up this question with over a thou- 
 sand men whom I have known and with whom I have done 
 business in the States mentioned ; but the majority of them 
 are dead, and I am now dealing with the living men among 
 the very best farmers. 
 
 The parties who have furnished me these facts 
 are men of high character. I have bought hun- 
 dreds of carloads of stock of them and others, and 
 in every case I would rather they would weigh the 
 stock than I, for they did business in a ''Missouri" way, 
 while today it is quite different. I always knew what I was 
 getting and that I was receiving the correct weight, because 
 I knew the men. I did not have to drive out and see the 
 stock I was buying — it was just as good one year as another, 
 and it would be just the same the year after. The stock 
 was all bred alike and fattened alike, and was all high- 
 grade, with no Jerseys sandwiched in. 
 
 First, before taking up the different States and the let- 
 ters which cover the conditions in each, I want to call your 
 attention to a statement of the conditions in the breeding 
 of stock in other countries, and how like conditions might 
 
With the Beef Trust 31 
 
 be changed and improved by a similar process in our own. 
 Much could be done with this. By all means thoroughbred 
 live stock of all kinds should be put on the free list. This 
 information I obtained at a very considerable cost to myself, 
 aided by the services of the brightest man in the meat trade 
 I ever knew. He spent over a year in thoroughly looking 
 into this matter. In fact, he has been in all of these coun- 
 tries twice, dealing with the most reliable and substantial 
 people there. 
 
 This takes us back to my first letter to President Roose- 
 velt, where I speak about Fowler & Venetta, of Lafayette, 
 Indiana, exporting Hereford cattle into South America, 
 and my advice to them to go West, w^hich they did. 
 
 LIVE STOCK IN DENMARK AND OTHER COUNTRIES. 
 
 A few years ago the Danish Government took up the 
 matter of improving the quality of the hogs raised in that 
 country, as it was its intention to have the farmers engage 
 in the pork slaughtering business and supply fresh and 
 cured pork, principally to Great Britain. 
 
 The Danish breed of hogs was not satisfactory, and the 
 authorities looked about to find where they could get the 
 best breeds, or better breeds than they had, that would 
 bring the most money when cured. 
 
 They visited several countries and finally settled upon 
 England as being the place to get hogs that suited them 
 best. They purchased a large number of good males and 
 females of the same breed, but at different places. Then 
 they forced the male hogs to be changed every year to other 
 sections, so they would not be interbred. Furthermore, 
 they had veterinary surgeons and other inspectors go 
 
32 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 through the whole of Denmark and sterilize, at a very young 
 age, all animals that were not calculated to be bred from ; 
 at the same time instructing the people what to do and how 
 to do regarding the breeding, feeding and proper care of 
 the stock. 
 
 They strictly prohibited the farmers from breeding their 
 own old-style stock and took every precaution to get away 
 from the old breed and to introduce the new. This they 
 have done very satisfactorily; so much so that they are 
 now and have been for several years supplying a large 
 amount of very superior meat to Great Britain, and getting 
 the very best prices — generally higher prices than any meat 
 from the United States or Canada — and almost as high as 
 the finest Irish pork from Limerick, Waterford, Cork and 
 Belfast. 
 
 The Government took particular pains also to see that 
 the small packing establishments were properly managed 
 by first-class men who were experienced in curing, and that 
 co-operative pork factories were established. The fact is, 
 some of these pork factories are now run in connection with 
 dairies, where butter and cheese are made. In addition, it 
 was arranged that the farmers could be supplied with feed- 
 ing stuffs at very reasonable rates from the depots where 
 they delivered their hogs and milk. In fact, everything, 
 was done to foster the manufacture of a superior grade of 
 pork, butter, eggs, cheese, etc. 
 
 Danish meats are now regularly quoted in English pa- 
 pers in such cities as London, Liverpool, Hull and in many 
 other large cities in Great Britain. 
 
 France has done much in the improvement of its stock; 
 in fact, they have all their horses sterilized except those re- 
 
With the Beef Trust 33 
 
 served for breeding purposes, and the Government has an 
 option on all male colts for army use, but nothing like what 
 has been done in Denmark, for the Danes completely 
 changed their entire breed in four or five years. 
 
 The people in Uruguay, South America, and especially 
 the province of Montevideo, have been within the last few 
 years importing the same class of hogs that the Danes did 
 from England, principally from Mr. Sanders Spencer in 
 the midlands of England. 
 
 It can be readily seen, then, that our neighbors in South 
 America intend to produce a superior quality of pork, which 
 will undoubtedly, in due time, be an important competitor 
 with other countries. 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact that South America has shipped 
 more dressed beef of a very superior grade into Great 
 Britain in the last few years than has the United States 
 and Canada or any other country. 
 
 CONDITIONS IN OHIO. 
 
 I have not dealt much in Ohio in the last thirty-two 
 years, especially since I established a stock yards in Indian- 
 apolis; yet I have done considerable business in parts of 
 Ohio, as I operated a stock yards in Cleveland some six or 
 eight years ago. My knowledge of Ohio, however, is fairly 
 good. The country there is not the same as it was thirty 
 or forty years ago, particularly the northern part. The 
 stock in northern Ohio is not nearly so good as in the cen- 
 tral or southern sections. 
 
 There is not a foot of land in Ohio that will not produce 
 blue grass — even on the mountain or hillside — if properly 
 cleared and ditched. In southern Ohio sheep will graze on 
 
34 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 every foot of land if the scrub trees were cut down so that 
 the shade would not deter the growth of the blue grass. It 
 is a great waste to undertake to produce timber that will 
 smother out enough blue grass to pay for the trees every 
 few years. It will take forty years to produce a good tree, 
 and a scrub beech, elm or oak would probably not be good 
 in fifty years. 
 
 While hogs and cattle in northern Ohio are much better 
 than they were twenty-five to forty years ago, owing in part 
 to ditching and other improvements on the farm, yet, as I 
 have just said, they are not as good as in the central or 
 southern parts of the State. Hogs from northern Ohio 
 shrink two or three per cent, from gross to net weight — 
 which runs five to eight pounds to the head — more than in 
 central or southern Ohio. The fact is the stock is not the 
 same, and there is a different character of feeding. The 
 Michigan hogs are not as good as those of central Indiana, 
 Illinois or central Ohio, as they will not produce by three 
 per cent, as much meat. 
 
 Forty years ago in passing through on what was known 
 then as the ''Bee" Line, now the ''Big Four," and the Pan- 
 handle, which is now the Pennsylvania road, I could see the 
 sides of the hills covered in many places with little 
 Merino sheep weighing from sixty to ninety pounds, some 
 possibly weighing up to a hundred pounds. They were 
 bred solely for wool, as they made a superior quality, but 
 there was no profit in them for meat. In fact, they did 
 not get fat enough to make good meat. At that time there 
 were a great many swamps and sloughs on the lines of these 
 roads, and they were all filled with wild grass where it was 
 dry enough for grass to grow. 
 
With the Beef Trust 35 
 
 I now see the same hills covered with practically as many 
 or more sheep of new breeds, weighing, as a yearling or a 
 two-year-old, from one hundred and twenty to one hundred 
 and fifty pounds. The lambs of the old-fashioned ewes, at 
 five and six months old, would weigh forty to fifty pounds, 
 and the lambs of the new kind now will weigh at the same 
 age something like seventy to eighty pounds. 
 
 There is not, I repeat, a foot of land in Ohio that will 
 not produce blue grass, and it is produced there now where 
 the land has been properly drained and the hills and moun- 
 tains cleared of the timber. Blue grass, as is well under- 
 stood, will not grow under the shade of trees. Sheep will 
 fatten on blue grass, and in fact will keep fat on it in the 
 winter if the snow does not cover it so they cannot get to it ; 
 but with cured alfalfa in the winter you can keep them fat 
 all the year around. 
 
 The same can be said of the sheep in Indiana, and also 
 of the blue grass. Forty years ago Indiana had the old- 
 fashioned kind of sheep, long wool, but of a much larger 
 kind than those in Ohio, the kind that we sent to New Jer- 
 sey for breeding early lambs. Thirty-two years ago, when 
 we opened the Indianapolis stock yards, we received more 
 sheep then in Indianapolis, coming- from southern Indiana, 
 and in fact southern Illinois and Kentuckj^, than were re- 
 ceived in Chicago. There is nothing that has expanded 
 faster than the production of sheep, and there is nothing 
 more profitable to grow. They can graze on land where 
 you cannot produce- anything but blue grass or alfalfa. It 
 •is marvelous the wonderful expansion of sheep raising in 
 the West in the last twenty years. 
 
 Thirty or thirty-five years ago it was an unknown thing 
 
36 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 to export a sheep. I believe Hollis Bros., of Boston, were 
 the first exporters of sheep. They buy space in a vessel for 
 sheep and cattle, and can export a bullock weighing 1,700 
 pounds at the same freight rates as one weighing 800 
 pounds, and a sheep weighing one hundred and forty or 
 one hundred and sixty pounds at the same freight as one of 
 the old-fashioned kind weighing ninety pounds. 
 
 There is no more profitable crop grown than blue grass. 
 where it is properly cared for. In the South I could see all 
 kinds of possibilities with blue grass and alfalfa, as the 
 sheep can live on either in Winter without any other feed 
 w^hatever, and the grass will grow all the year round. There 
 is no other meat that is as wholesome as mutton, and it can- 
 not be adulterated and put into cans as is done with a Jer- 
 sey or the poorest kind of beef, and palmed off for the very 
 best. One don't have to keep mutton in a refrigerator for 
 a week or ten days to get it tender enough to eat. It is 
 ready to eat the next day after it is killed. The expansion 
 in this trade has been marvelous, but it is just beginning. 
 
 One of the greatest projects that is being promoted in 
 the interest of the farmers in Ohio who find a market for 
 their live stock at the Cleveland stock yards, is the Belt 
 .Railroad which is now being built and which will encircle 
 the city of Cleveland. It will connect with all railroads 
 which bring stock into Cleveland, thereby obviating delays 
 in the handling and delivery of the farmers ' live stock, and 
 the great loss to them in the way of deaths of animals and 
 big shrinkage. It will also inure to their benefit in getting 
 their stock early on the market, thereby gaining advantage 
 of the best prices. This delay under the existing circum- 
 stances has heretofore been unavoidable. 
 
With the Beef Tkust 37 
 
 I promoted this belt road about Cleveland, Ohio, a thing 
 which I had been trying to do for twenty or thirty years, 
 as I saw the necessity of it. I had a charter for it. All 
 the shipments had to cross the two or three turn bridges 
 on the Cuyahoga River at the lake in Cleveland, and I have 
 had thousands of deaths in the shipping of live stock on ac- 
 count of the poor handling and the three to six hours deten- 
 tion, waiting to get through the turn bridges, which also 
 caused a big shrinkage. 
 
 It was said that a belt railroad could not be built around 
 Cleveland. Having driven over the ground many times, 
 and knowing the absolute necessity to Cleveland that such 
 a line should be built, I concluded to make the effort ; and, 
 to that end, I employed Mr. Morris DeFrees, who was the 
 civil engineer in charge during the construction of the Belt 
 Railroad we built around Indianapolis thirty-two ^ears ago 
 — the first belt railroad ever built in this country. 
 
 Mr. DeFrees reported that the project was not feasible, 
 owing to the excessive grades that would be encountered. 
 His report did not discourage me. I then employed Mr. 
 Jashua Abbott, a civil engineer of ability and large ex- 
 perience. 
 
 After making a number of surveys, Mr. Abbott reported 
 that the desired grade of three-tenths of one per cent, (the 
 grade insisted on by the railroads who would use the belt) 
 could be secured at enormous cost, by building through 
 East Cleveland and crossing the Cuyahoga River and val- 
 ley at an elevation of about one hundred fifty feet. 
 
 "We organized the Cleveland Belt Railroad, made our 
 surveys, and furnished our maps and profiles to the rail- 
 roads, all of which were entirely satisfactory to them. We 
 
38 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 thought we had the matter cinched, having negotiated for 
 the money to build the line ; but the ' ' powers ' ' got onto it 
 and concluded to take advantage of our efforts. We were 
 ruled out, and the four-track belt line road around Cleve- 
 land is now nearly completed, and "on the line we had 
 adopted. 
 
 The ''powers" became conscience-stricken, and gave us 
 back the money which we had expended in our successful 
 efforts in demonstrating the feasibility of a belt road 
 around Cleveland. 
 
 It will, I hope, be a pardonable digression for me to say 
 that as regards Mr. Tom L. Johnson, one of the ' 'powers, " I 
 ' ' raised ' ' him in my precinct at the Grand Hotel in Indian- 
 apolis when he came here from Louisville with his father 
 and bought the Indianapolis street railway line for 
 $25,000. He was a Democrat. As to Mr. Tom Tag- 
 gart, I "raised" him also in my precinct. He used to 
 be a Republican. He came here as a waiter in the hotel 
 and finally got to be manager of the Depot restaurant. 
 
 Mr. E. O'Day, whose letter will explain itself, is the only 
 man now living with whom I transacted business years ago 
 at Mt. Sterling, Ohio, and who is now located at London, 
 Ohio. My first partner, James Flanders, who owned two 
 thousand acres of land at Strawtown, came from Mt. Ster- 
 ling, Ohio, and he was a very large dealer in stock during 
 the war. 
 
 CONDITIONS IN INDIANA. 
 
 The Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern starts out of Cin- 
 cinnati and runs to St. Louis. All south of that line in 
 our Hoosier State, which takes in about ten or fifteen 
 counties, is not near as good in the way of live stock as it 
 
With the Beef Tkust 39 
 
 was forty years ago, with the exception possibly of two or 
 three counties in the Pocket. The land is hilly and the bot- 
 toms are wet and there has been little or no ditching. 
 
 Spencer county, where the Nancy Hanks monument is 
 and where Abraham Lincoln was brought up, is very little 
 if any better now than it was then. There is not a foot of 
 land in that county that will not grow blue grass and fruit 
 if it is properly drained and cultivated. There is scarcely 
 a county in the State that has made less progress than this 
 county. The farmers have put in very few ditches ; there are 
 lots of wild woods where you can see the old-fashioned cows 
 and sheep with bells on them running practically uncared 
 for — wild, I might say. There is not much difference in the 
 progress in southern Indiana south of the Baltimore and 
 Ohio Southwestern, with the exception of a few counties in 
 the Pocket ; and in two or three counties north of the Balti- 
 more and Ohio Southwestern very little, if anything, has 
 been done to better the conditions of fifty years ago. 
 
 Note what the Grahams say of Jefferson county, where 
 everybody went to market in Madison sixty years ago. 
 Also what Mr. Dean says of the fruit growing. Graham's 
 father and Mr. Dean served in the army with me. 
 
 The College at Hanover, in that county, has made no 
 progress whatever. This is the school that the late Vice- 
 President Hendricks attended, but did not graduate. 
 
 The fact is, in southern Indiana, along with the old-fash- 
 ioned sheep, old-fashioned cattle and old-fashioned swine 
 and poultry, there are too many of the old-fashioned 
 farmers ; that is, boys who were reared on the farms, whose 
 fathers and grandfathers were farmers and perhaps early 
 settlers — who have inherited the old-fashioned views con- 
 
40 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 cerning the old-fashioned fanning implements, the old-fash- 
 ioned stock and poultry — men who still have the sheep and 
 the cattle with bells on ; who have never taken advantage of 
 up-to-date agricultural colleges ; who have farms where they 
 raise com fifty to seventy bushels to the acre and do not 
 gather it until March or April. 
 
 I have seen the same kind of farmers in Ohio, and in Illi- 
 nois, but not so many in Illinois, for Western farmers are 
 more progressive. This Fall and Winter, however, up to 
 this time there are thousands of acres of corn in Indiana, 
 Ohio and Illinois that has not yet been cribbed. These 
 farmers go fishing and hunting when they ought to be gath- 
 ering the corn aud improving their land. Many of them 
 buy very expensive farm machinery — sometimes on pay- 
 ments — and do not build a shed or any other covering over 
 them, but leave them out in the weather until they are al- 
 most ruined before the purchaser has finished paying for 
 them. 
 
 The men who sit around all day fishing are not doing 
 any good. My average night's sleep has not exceeded six 
 hours in the last forty-three years, or since I have been in 
 business, and I have been putting in hard work on an aver- 
 age of fifteen to eighteen hours a day every day in the year 
 except Sundays. Always try to get to church on Sunday. 
 
 The average farmer works fifteen hours a day during a 
 few months, and only about three hours a day to feed the 
 stock during the remainder of the year. Many of them let 
 the fences go down, and allow the briers to grow in the 
 fence comers. Let me cite you a fact : My brother, three 
 years older than I, and myself were at a reunion, the 47th 
 anniversary of the enlistment of our Company at Cicero, 
 
With the Beef Trust 41 
 
 Indiana, which is four miles from Strawtown — and let me 
 say in passing that Strawtown is the place where the blue 
 grass grew ''belly deep to a horse," as referred to by Mr. 
 Lockridge. This territory is on the line of White River, 
 where they talked of having large sums of money appro- 
 priated in an attempt to make White River navigable — a 
 river which, for three fourths of the year, does not have 
 water enough to carry away the sewage, and which parallels 
 steam and electric lines. The distance is one hundred and 
 fifty miles from Strawtown to Vincennes. Strawtown is 
 one of the towns that the railroads missed, and there is not 
 twenty per cent, of the people living there today there were 
 forty years ago. But getting back. We took a ride in a 
 buggy and went out past the old home. I had not been 
 there in thirty-five years. We came across a place covering 
 about sixty to eighty acres, about a half mile from the farm 
 where I was born. I asked my brother, who lived there. 
 ' ' Why, ' ' he said, ' ' that man married this farm. ' ' He was a 
 fisherman. He had built a frame house of some four or 
 five rooms about six or eight years before, which had never 
 been painted — not even primed. He had cleared up a few 
 acres and the other sixty had old wild blackberries growing 
 on it, and underbrush, worse than it was in the bleakest part 
 of Indiana sixty years ago. Every acre of this land would 
 yield at least seventy-five to one hundred bushels of corn — 
 land as fine as any land in the United States. It would sell 
 for from $125.00 to $150.00 an acre. 
 
 The next place to it was owned by James Hill, who is 
 about seventy years old and was reared on an adjoining 
 farm to my father's. He owns two hundred and sixty acres. 
 His farm is in as high a state of cultivation as any place in 
 
42 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 Indiana. This shows the difference in the conditions near 
 Strawtown. We drove by the old home which is now owned 
 by one of the Newbys, the greatest family I ever knew, and 
 who own one-fourth of the township. I asked my brother 
 what became of the little old sour apple tree that I planted 
 on the side of the hill sixty years ago. He said the tree was 
 gone and the hill all leveled down. Live people had gotten 
 hold of my father's farm, while a fisherman had married 
 the brier patch and is still keeping it a brier patch and liv- 
 ing on fish. 
 
 Forty years ago I bought hogs weighing two hundred 
 and forty to two hundred and fifty pounds, average, at six 
 months old, as many as one hundred at a time, of Frank 
 Newby, who is now about eighty years old, and was the best 
 feeder in the township at that time. He never allowed a 
 pig to squeal for feed. He fed them right from the start all 
 that they would eat. 
 
 The Newby family came from Virginia about 1814 and 
 settled in Marion county, about ten miles north of this 
 city. They moved up to Strawtown in the Spring of 1836. 
 The head of the family was named John, and in my time, 
 forty- three years ago, when I had a store at Strawtown, he 
 was known as ' ' Old John. ' ' He had a son whom we called 
 ''Young John," also three other sons — Squire, Bill and 
 Frank. Each had a son John whom we called ''Squire's 
 John," "Bill's John" and "Frank's John." There were 
 also four daughters who married and had families, with a 
 "John" in each family. They all have Roosevelt families. 
 This family owns practically one-fourth of the best town- 
 ship in the State of Indiana. All were farmers with the ex- 
 ception of ' ' Squire 's John, ' ' who became a doctor. 
 
With the Beef Teust 43 
 
 I.have not seen "Squire's John," the doctor — who, I un- 
 derstand, is president of a bank there and who has an excel- 
 lent practice — with the exception of one time in 1896 when I 
 was traveling on the hind-end of a train with J. B. Foraker, 
 Senator from Ohio. When the train stopped at Sheridan, 
 Indiana, which is in the next township to Strawtown, I in- 
 troduced Mr. Foraker to the crowd. Newby got on the 
 train there and introduced himself to me. 
 
 In 1892 I went out from Indianapolis with McKinley, 
 when he made his famous tin-plate speech at Elwood, Indi- 
 ana. While he was out looking at the tin-plate works, I had 
 to speak in the opera house for an hour while the crowd was 
 waiting for him to come back. This is a matter of record, 
 at least in the minds of those who have survived. 
 
 I went out with President Harrison into James W^hit- 
 comb Riley's county and made three speeches. I spoke 
 after Mr. Harrison in the afternoon of the same day and 
 then had to go on to FortviUe in the northern part of the 
 county, on the Big Four, to hold the crowd until the Gen- 
 eral came in. It was the hardest day's work of my life. 
 Mr. Harrison was billed to arrive at FortviUe at nine o'clock 
 and I started to speak at eight o'clock, and he didn't get in 
 until eleven o'clock. I had four or five thousand people 
 waiting for him, and I think I told them everything I knew 
 — and then some. . ^^ 
 
 Two brothers by the names of Timothy and Thomas 
 O'Mahoney originally owned the Cornelius farm at Straw- 
 town, which I mentioned in my first letter, and where I re- 
 ceived my first education in practical farming and raising 
 thoroughbred live stock. They were offered a big price by 
 the live man who came from Wayne County. Timothy 
 
44 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 married after he came to this country, a first cousin to my 
 father, Catherine Shiel, daughter of Mike Shiel, a Justice of 
 the Peace generally known as General Shiel, at Shielville, 
 Indiana, and who had the first general merchandise store 
 there. 
 
 The O'Mahoney brothers heard of the cheap lands in 
 Illinois and went "West to seek a new home. Timothy 
 bought some three or four hundred acres, a mile or two west 
 of Lake Forrest ; he also bought seventy acres on the Lake 
 at $1.25 per acre — ^timber land which he bought mostly for 
 fire wood. Thomas went some three miles west of Wauke- 
 gon, and bought prairie land. It all looked alike to them, 
 but would not produce twenty bushels of com to the acre. 
 It was grass land, and not the best of that kind of land. 
 They were hunting for locations close to the Church — most 
 of these families are strong in the Church and now several 
 of them are in convents. They all sent their children to col- 
 leges. My cousin 's oldest son Thomas was for a number of 
 years Professor of Languages in Notre Dame University, In- 
 diana, and has been a member of the Legislature in Colo- 
 rado. 
 
 Now, this farm land which they bought is not worth 
 much more at the present time than it was years ago. It 
 can be used only for dairy purposes; while the seventy 
 acres of timber land, originally bought for fire wood, near 
 Lake Forest, the O'Mahoney heirs sold for $70,000.00, and 
 then at a sacrifice. Had they drifted into the prairies of 
 central Illinois, Iowa, Kansas or Nebraska, and bought 
 lands there, the land would be worth today $125.00 to 
 $150.00 per acre; but the early O'Mahoneys could not see 
 the value of the blue grass land that they owned near Straw- 
 town. 
 
With the Beef Trust 45 
 
 Back during the years '73 and '74 the grasshoppers were 
 a godsend, in a way, to the people of southern Indiana, 
 southern Illinois, Kentucky and also Ohio. The same year 
 the grasshoppers cleaned out Kansas ; that is, ate all of the 
 vegetation in Kansas. The farmers had to get rid of all 
 their stock in some way, and I presume that I handled as 
 many as eight or ten thousand head and sold as many as 
 ten thousand to twenty thousand head to go into southern 
 Indiana and Ohio. The crops of corn were very heavy that 
 same year in southern Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. The 
 stock was all of the highest grade, from big hogs weighing 
 three hundred pounds to pigs weighing five pounds. It was 
 a remarkable fact that there was no cholera that year. The 
 farmers drove off everything they had on the farms and put 
 them in the cars, billing them to me at Indianapolis, and to 
 others who were engaged in the same commission business, 
 and the farmers for one hundred and fifty miles around 
 here would come in to get them for stockers. We classified 
 them. Some would buj^ the little pigs, others would buy 
 the- big old brood sows, and in that way they bettered the 
 stock and did away with the razor-backs that they had, es- 
 pecially in southern Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. The same 
 may be said of Kentucky. 
 
 Kansas was settled after the War with the live men who 
 had been in the army, and who did not buy anything but 
 thoroughbred stock ; and this will explain why Kansas as a 
 State is equal to or better than any other State in the Union 
 in the production of live stock. 
 
 Note what Mr. S. F. Lockridge, former State Senator, 
 has to say in regard to Indiana Colleges and their lack of 
 facilities, with the exception of Purdue, for the education 
 of scientific farmers and stock raisers. Bloomington Col- 
 
46 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 lege, the Indiana University, educates lawyers, doctors and 
 ministers and has no bearing whatever on farming or agri- 
 culture. 
 
 Asbury, or what is now DePauw University — note what 
 Mr. Lockridge says on this college. He is a little preju- 
 diced, as he graduated there some forty years ago. 
 
 Wabash College, Montgomery county, is a similar char- 
 acter of college. That county went clear ahead, notwith- 
 standing. 
 
 St. Joseph's College in Jasper county is a classical and 
 theological institution and therefore does not aim to edu- 
 cate for farming and stock raising. 
 
 Notre Dame University is one of the very best, yet they 
 have no agricultural department, as they ought to have. 
 
 Earlham College, which is a Quaker institution, in Dud- 
 ley Foulke 's county, while a very good college, has not made 
 much progress in the last thirty years. 
 
 Purdue College is up-to-date and should be encouraged. 
 To my astonishment, when I attended the Commencement 
 last fall, the Board of Directors, half of them old-timers, 
 ''ploAving with the old wooden mold-board," had a meet- 
 ing. They said that they were paying their President 
 $5,000 a year. I asked them what kind of a man they could 
 get for $5,000 a year, and they said that they had no more 
 money to pay with. I said that the President of a college, 
 where twenty-two hundred students were educated in the 
 most essential education that could possibly be given them, 
 ought to be paid more than $5,000. But I found that all of 
 the other instructors in this college received salaries in 
 proportion. I said it was wonderful how they could get 
 such results as they are getting without paying more for 
 
With the Beef Trust 47 
 
 them. They said the State would not appropriate more for 
 their support. 
 
 To my mind, the Government could not do a better thing 
 than to appropriate some support to such a college as Pur- 
 due, and help to establish other similar universities. The 
 fact is, every county ought to have one like it, to educate 
 the farmer to know the kind of stock (just as Cornelius edu- 
 cated me at Strawtown), to know how much meat you can 
 get out of a bullock, hog or sheep; what kind of seed to 
 plant; what kind of fruits to grow. Teach the boy who 
 spends his time fishing to give part of his time to taking care 
 of the trees, grapevines, chickens, ducks and geese, and en- 
 courage the farmers who send their sons to college to have 
 them educated in practical and scientific farming, rather 
 than attempt to make doctors and lawyers out of all of them, 
 
 Purdue College is the only college that is really placing 
 the farmer in the class where he belongs. There is an over- 
 production of the other professions from the other colleges. 
 Purdue has no support outside of the little that the State 
 gives it. It is a fact that the lawyers and doctors of the 
 other colleges are better lobbyists in the Legislature than 
 are the farmers. 
 
 The fact is, that it is a great ambition for the farmer 
 with a hundred or hundred and sixty acres of land and who 
 has made some money, to make a doctor, la^vyer or minister 
 out of his son, rushing him off to that kind of a college, 
 where he is vaccinated in the profession, but in nine cases 
 out of ten the vaccination does not ' ' take, ' ' and he is a fail- 
 ure ; while if he had been educated in farming and taught 
 the motto ''Early to bed and early to rise," he would have 
 probably made a much better and more successful man, a 
 
48 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 credit to his father and to his community. There is not one 
 doctor out of a hundred who really succeeds in his profes- 
 sion; not one out of a hundred lawyers succeeds, and the 
 same might be said of the ministers. 
 
 Many of these sons of wealthy farmers, thrown in con- 
 tact at the college with sons of the rich men from the 
 cities, who are sent there to become doctors or law^^ers, be- 
 come extravagant and careless, depending upon their 
 father's wealth to keep them. They may, perhaps, gamble 
 in Chicago options until, in other words, the sons break the 
 fathers. But the men whom I will mention in this brief, 
 have got the original land that their fathers left them, and 
 have hung on to it. None of them ever dealt in Chicago 
 options. Pity the foolish man who goes up against ' ' three- 
 card monte," or against another man's game, and thinks 
 because there is a failure of crops in his immediate neigh- 
 borhood, that the prices are going up, or, if he has a big 
 crop, they are going down and sells or buys on what the 
 market is going to be, in his judgment of the crops. 
 
 Right here I want you to note that the Graham family is 
 a notable exception to this — the father has made the sons, 
 and the sons have not ruined the father. Their father was 
 one of the very best friends I ever had, and I often talked 
 to him about his four boys. They have succeeded in the 
 line of their profession and are right up-to-date, all four of 
 them. They were ''vaccinated" and the vaccination 
 ''took." 
 
 Thomas Graham was a successful business man and he 
 made thorough business men out of two of his sons and pro- 
 fessional men of the other two, who are now at the head of 
 the column. There is no man whom I knew better in busi- 
 
With the Beef Trust 49 
 
 ness life than Thomas Grahani ; one of the noblest works of 
 God — ' * an honest man ; ' ' and he taught his four sons to live 
 the same kind of life that he lived. 
 
 It will not be expected that I spend much time on the 
 men whom I am naming in this brief, but all of them are of 
 the same high character. I mention Mr. Graham especially 
 as a man who had two of his sons take up a profession and 
 make a success of it, while there are hundreds, yes, thou- 
 sands of high-class, successful business men who have put 
 their sons into professions and those sons have not made a 
 success of it. 
 
 I have often heard Thomas Graham say "Early to bed 
 and early to rise" is the secret of his success, and the boys 
 all say that their father had them up at five o 'clock break- 
 fast; and all of them, even the minister, now that their 
 father is dead, continue to get up early, having formed the 
 habit. He is one of the best ministers in Dudley Foulke's 
 town. They do not know much farming, but they do know 
 much about the business and profession to which they have 
 applied themselves. 
 
 Now I want to invite attention to the progress that has 
 been made, and can still be made, with the proper support 
 and appropriations in the way of ditching, drainage and 
 reclaiming of otherwise worthless lands in Indiana, Illinois 
 and Ohio. Note particularly what Judge Timothy B. 
 Howard has said about the Kankakee lands. He is one of 
 the ablest men Indiana has produced. He is now about 
 seventy years old. He was a good soldier during the War, 
 and since the War has been a Professor at Notre Dame Uni- 
 veristy, has twice held a seat on the bench of the Supreme 
 
 [4] 
 
50 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 Court of Indiana and has been a member of both the House 
 and Senate. 
 
 Another man about whom I wish to make special men- 
 tion is Franklin Landers. He was one of the original 
 farmers owning several thousand acres of land in Morgan 
 county, the next county to this. In 74 he was one of the 
 very best farmers Indiana had produced on White River, 
 some fifteen miles below Indianapolis; but he got into 
 polities, and into the National House of Representatives (he 
 having run for Congress against General John Coburn, one 
 of the ablest congressmen this district ever had, and beat 
 him) . This ruined Landers, and diverted him somewhat from 
 farming; yet when he died, a few years ago, he left his 
 heirs one thousand acres of the best river bottom land, 
 which he had protected with a levee of about two miles. If 
 this land had not been so protected, it would be worthless 
 for farming, as it would have been all cut up by the river 
 breaking through it. 
 
 The channel of White River in Indianapolis has changed 
 in the forty years that I have been here. Unless protected 
 by levees, rivers change their course often. Mr. Landers 
 was one of those who made the fight in the Legislature, at 
 the time Judge Howard speaks about, for an appropriation 
 to drain the Kankakee. He owned at that time 5,000 acres 
 of Kankakee land. 
 
 Note what Mr. Smith says about reclaiming land in 
 Greene county. Note, also, Morgan and Putnam coun- 
 ties, the latter of which is Senator Beveridge's county. 
 There is one ditch in Putnam and adjoining counties which 
 cost $80,000, built in the last few years, which reclaimed and 
 improved fifty thousand acres, while fifteen thousand acres 
 
With the Beef Tbust 51 
 
 were assessed for the benefits. A number of men have been 
 benefited by these ditches, who will not allow their names to 
 be used, as they say that it would put land which they had 
 bought for $2.00 or $10.00 per acre, up to $100 and $150 
 per acre, and they do not want their names mentioned, as 
 their tax assessment would be raised accordingly. 
 
 Levees, ditching, cutting down elm and beech trees that 
 shade the blue grass, are some of the things that would be of 
 the greatest benefit. Not only is this true in Indiana and 
 Ohio, but the same could be said of many sections all over 
 the country. 
 
 Note particularly the work of Mr. Brevort, of Vincennes. 
 The Wabash River overflowed all below Vincennes. Mr. 
 Brevort was one of the very best farmers in Indiana. He 
 commenced right outside the corporation of Vincennes, built 
 a levee of ten miles some years ago, and reclaimed something 
 like ten thousand acres, which is now the most fertile land 
 in Indiana. When the Wabash is high, it backs in, but that 
 improves the land. He built the levee high enough so that 
 the river wiU not overflow at any place. He informs me 
 that last year he had four hundred acres of alfalfa, from 
 which he gathered four crops ; and to my mind, if the Gov- 
 ernment would not undertake to build up navigation for 
 streams and run steamboats on rivers where there is prob- 
 ably not water enough to carry away the sewage, and spend 
 the same amount of money for the building of levees to hold 
 the river in its banks, it would be farther reaching in the 
 way of general betterment. 
 
 • Petitions are being circulated at points along the Wa- 
 bash River, which will be presented to Congress, asking for 
 an appropriation to be used in making the Wabash a navi- 
 
52 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 gable stream from its source to its mouth. The Government 
 has expended hundreds of thousands of dollars in a useless 
 effort to improve the Wabash, and millions may be appro- 
 priated by Congress and spent in the same manner again, 
 and in a few years we will have the same results. The Gov- 
 ernment can afford to expend money on the Chicago canal, 
 the Big Sandy and Kentucky Rivers, the Green River, Cum- 
 berland and Tennessee and Ohio, as they are not paralleled 
 by railroads as is the Wabash, and they lead into the coal 
 and iron fields. 
 
 If Indiana Congressmen and Senators would aid in get- 
 ting appropriations from the Government to help drain the 
 Kankakee and some other swamps in Indiana, then help 
 Illinois to get its canal, they would look better to me. 
 
 Note the things said of Watson's district, which is one 
 of the very best districts in Indiana, and his county is the 
 best county in the State for hogs, and was for cattle. Note, 
 also, what Mr. Mull says about that county. 
 
 Read what Mr. Smith says about Franklin county. It 
 is a hilly county and the only poor county in Watson 's dis- 
 trict; but it would not be poor if they followed what Mr. 
 Smith is doing down there. To my mind it is one of the 
 very best counties, and less than forty miles from Cin- 
 cinnati. 
 
 One great trouble with Congressmen and Senators is: 
 ''You help me and I will help you." The same may be said 
 of the State Legislature. One wants a dog law passed, an- 
 other a ditch law, and another a school law, and they under- 
 take to lobby through the things which are of interest only 
 to their immediate locality. 
 
 See what Mr. Morgan has to say. He and his two 
 
With the Beef Trust 53 
 
 brothers own the ten to fifteen thousand acres of land their 
 father left and have bought more, I bought for Timothy 
 Eastman at one time a train load of live stock from his 
 father. It was the largest check I ever issued, $55,500.00, 
 to a farmer at one turn. 
 
 I would call attention to what Mr. Lee Sinclair has to 
 say. He is the greatest benefactor in the way of promoting 
 and building the most magnificent health resort in the 
 world. By cutting down a large part of the timber on his 
 500 acres in Orange county, he has demonstrated that 
 blue grass can be grown all over this State. Twenty 
 or thirty years ago I was in Orange county and saw as 
 many as forty or fifty ox-teams coming in out of the hills 
 to a Fourth of July celebration. He has demonstrated that 
 blue grass wUl grow on those hills, if the underbrush is 
 cut. I have visited Sinclair at West Baden twice a year for 
 the last twenty years. I always find him up at four o'clock 
 in the morning; he always goes to bed at nine. His motto, 
 too, is ' ' Early to bed and early to rise. ' ' His hotel covers 
 several acres, contains 780 rooms, all connected with baths, 
 and thoroughly fireproof, as it is built of brick, steel and 
 concrete. 
 
 I want to speak of "Blue Jeans" Williams, or Governor 
 Williams, who in '76 beat Benjamin Harrison for Governor. 
 He was one of the very best farmers and one of the very 
 best men Indiana has ever produced, breeding good stock. 
 While Governor he built one of the very best State Houses 
 in the country on an appropriation of $2,000,000, and had 
 $200,000 left after he completed it. He looked after it him- 
 self. He also had an excellent Board that was seeing 
 after it. 
 
54 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 Governor Williams, or ''Blue jeans" Williams, as he was 
 commonly called, was one of the best Governors Indiana 
 ever had. He was a renowned breeder of live stock in his 
 time in and about Vincennes, Knox county, where, as I 
 have already said, Mr. Brevort built ten miles of levee, be- 
 ginning close to the city of Vincennes, and reclaimed some- 
 thing like six to ten thousand acres of land. 
 
 CONDITIONS IN ILLINOIS. 
 
 I have to take in Illinois in this brief, as central Illinois 
 has been a great producer of live stock for years, and has 
 had in a way a better grade of stock than either Indiana or 
 Ohio. I speak especially of Speaker Cannon's district, and 
 in fact, include all of the districts back to the Mississippi 
 River in the central part of the State. 
 
 The best feeder I ever knew was Mr. Pinnell, and his live 
 stock have talven premiums practically at all fancy live stock 
 shows, his cattle selling at the highest prices at all of the 
 stock sales. It is about forty years since I bought the first 
 fourteen hundred head of hogs of him — it was in June that 
 I took them — at the time that live-stock men first com- 
 menced handling summer hogs. Prior to that time there 
 had been very few or no hogs handled during the summer. 
 
 To my utter astonishment, when he took me out to his 
 place to dinner, he had ice cream, a thing practically un- 
 known to a farmer at that time. He had dinner served al- 
 most equal to that you would get today in one of the good 
 hotels in the city of New York. He always lived up to date 
 and a little ahead of time. 
 
 I stood at the side of Richard Webber at the Pittsburg 
 stock show, about eight years ago, and also in Chicago, and 
 
With the Beef Trust 55 
 
 had Mr. Webber buy the Pinnell cattle at eight and nine 
 cents a pound, while other cattle were selling at five and 
 six cents. Webber wanted to know if that was the best load 
 — he always said he wanted the best load, for he always 
 bought the best cattle. 
 
 I could mention a hundred of these men in Indiana; 
 twenty-five or thirty in Ohio and a hundred in Illinois — 
 notably the Braggs in Douglas county; Kenyon, of Logan 
 county; Harris, of Champaign county; Groves and Moss, 
 of Vermillion county; Carney and Shepard, of Moultrie 
 county; Bealls, of Coles county; Newlins, of Crawford 
 county, and Fugate, of Clark county. The fact is there 
 was not a man living in Illinois from the Mississippi River 
 to the Indiana line, back to '68 and '69, who fed a hundred 
 hogs or forty good cattle that I did not know, or was in 
 touch with at the time. I was always a judge on sweep- 
 stakes for bulls at the State fairs in Illinois, Indiana and 
 Ohio, and at nearly all the best county fairs in each of those 
 States. 
 
 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 I will have to refer again to West Virginia, for I can see 
 there today a very great improvement. Possibly there is 
 no State in the Union that has advanced more in the last 
 twenty or thirty years, in the development of the blue 
 grass on the hills, and the sheep and cattle, and has done 
 more toward the breeding up from the ''knot>head" and 
 ''pennyroyal" cattle and the Merino sheep to the very 
 highest grade of each. 
 
 Also I want to speak again of the peasants of New Jer- 
 sey. Twenty to thirty-five years ago I was buying for John 
 Taylor, of Trenton, New Jersey, an excellent gentleman, 
 
56 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 politician and many times a Senator. I was shipping to 
 him from two thousand to four thousand ewes per month 
 during the Summer and Fall months. These were known 
 as Jersey ewes from southern Indiana and southern Illinois, 
 and some from Kentucky. They would weigh from 
 ninety to one hundred and twenty pounds, being large in 
 size but poor in wool. They brought, however, a large 
 lamb. The peasants at that time in New Jersey would buy 
 these ewes, one farmer buying five ewes, another ten, and 
 another perhaps as many as a hundred. They bought the 
 ewes to bring the big lambs, and the lamb which would come 
 in January, the farmer sold in February or March to 
 butchers in New York and Philadelphia at a price high 
 enough to pay for the ewe. Then they would fatten the 
 ewe, cut the wool off and sell her, and would then buy an- 
 other ewe the next year. 
 
 John Taylor was one of the earliest pork packers in 
 Trenton. He also owned a stock yards. He was one of the 
 best men I ever knew, but he played politics a little on the 
 side, as I have done. 
 
 Now I want to speak briefly of a few of the pioneer 
 butchers and packers whom I have done business with in the 
 last forty years, and who have done more to build up and 
 protect the manufacturer of high-grade farm products than 
 any other men. These pioneers have done much towards en- 
 couraging the farmers of the central and western States, for 
 they have drawn most of their supplies from these raisers of 
 high grade live stock. 
 
 Mr. John P. Squire was the greatest business man this 
 country produced. "Early to bed and early to rise" was 
 his motto. He would be at his packing house in the mom- 
 
With the Beef Trust 57 
 
 ing at half past five or six o'clock — before any of his men. 
 Often, when I had made a trip to Boston, especially to con- 
 fer with John P. Squire, he would invite me to go to break- 
 fast with him. I generally stopped at the Parker House 
 and Young Hotel while in Boston, and many times the stu- 
 dents of Harvard, who would be banqueting at the hotel, 
 would make so much noise that I would be kept awake until 
 the early hours of the morning, and then would oversleep 
 myself, so that I would not be out to meet old John P. 
 Squire and go to five o'clock breakfast with him. 
 
 This pioneer, now passed away, did for years what Con- 
 gress and the President have done recently. He fought 
 adulteration and misrepresentation through the State Legis- 
 latures and at Washington. He was not satisfied to begin 
 work at the factory, but began it with the farmers, in the 
 purchase of their best live stock; always paying the top 
 prices of the market until all of the best farmers in Indiana, 
 Illinois and Ohio knew the "Squire kind." And the selec- 
 tion came to be made by sorting the stock at the farm and 
 having it shipped direct to East Cambridge without passing 
 through the stock yards. 
 
 Bishop Lawrence, of Massachusetts, recentlj^ told a story, 
 iUustrating how well known the name of Squire was among 
 the farmers of the Middle West. In delivering an address 
 in a small town in Iowa he stated to his audience that he 
 came from Cambridge, Mass., remarking: "I suppose you 
 have all heard of Cambridge?" "Certainly," was the 
 ready response; "then you know of the fame of Harvard 
 'College?" There was a silence, and the Bishop, wonder- 
 ingly inquired : * ' Never heard of Harvard College ? Then 
 whom do you know there?" and as readily came the re- 
 
58 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 sponse: ''John P. Squire and Company, we ship 'em 
 hogs.'' 
 
 The name of Squire is known wherever the pork prod- 
 ucts of New England are found. John P'. Squire is credited 
 as the pioneer of the pork industry, as it is known today in 
 Paneuil Hall Market, Boston. Those who early served in 
 the business under him are the ones who stand, incidentally, 
 at present as the veteran nork men at the stalls. 
 
 Mr. John P. Squire, son of Peter and Esther Squire, was 
 born on a farm in Weathersfield, Windsor county, Ver- 
 mont, May 8, 1819. His early training and physical de- 
 velopment were obtained in the public school and on the 
 farm. On the 1st day of May, 1835, he entered the employ- 
 ment of Mr. Orvis, the village store-keeper, at West Wind- 
 sor, and remained with him two years. In the fall of 1837 
 he attended the Academy at Unity, New Hampshire, of 
 which Reverend A. A. Miner was then Principal, and taught 
 school at Cavendish during a part of that and the following 
 winter. On the 19th of March, 1838, he w^ent to Boston, 
 entered the employ of "Nathan Robbins in Faneuil Hall 
 Market, and continued with him until May 1, 1842, when 
 he formed a co-partnership with Francis Russell, who car- 
 ried on the provision business at 25 Faneuil Hall Market, 
 under the style of Russell and Squire, until the year 1847, 
 when the co-partnership was dissolved. Mr. Squire then 
 continued the business alone, at the same place, until 1855, 
 when he formed a new co-partnership with Hiland Lock- 
 wood and Edward D. Kimball, under the name of John P. 
 Squire & Co. The new firm name and business continued 
 until the year 1892, when a corporation was formed under 
 the laws of Massachusetts, with the name of The John P. 
 
JOHN P. SQUIRE. 
 
With the Beef Teust 59 
 
 Squire & Company Corporation. The changes in the part- 
 ners who were associated with Mr. Squire are as follows: 
 the retirement of Edward D. Kimball in 1866 ; the admis- 
 sion of W. W. Kimball in the same year, and his retirement 
 in 1873; the admission of Mr. Squire's sons, George W. 
 and Frank 0. Squire in 1873 ; the death of Hiland Lock- 
 wood in 1874 ; the retirement of George W. Squire in 1876 ; 
 the admission of Fred F. Squire, Mr. Squire's youngest son, 
 January 1, 1884. 
 
 In 1855 Mr. Squire bought a small tract of land in East 
 Cambridge, and built a slaughter house upon it. Since that 
 time the business has grown to such an extent that the 
 corporation has today one of the largest and best equipped 
 packing-houses in the country, and the corporation stands 
 third in the list of pork-packers in the United States. 
 
 In 1848 Mr. Squire moved to West Cambridge, now 
 called Arlington, where he continued to reside until his 
 death, January 7, 1893. When he first went to Boston he 
 joined the Mercantile Library Association, and spent a 
 great deal of his leisure time in reading, of which he was 
 very fond. The position which he held in commercial 
 circles was due to his untiring industry, undaunted courage, 
 and marked ability. 
 
 In 1843 he married Miss Kate Green Orvis, daughter of 
 his old employer; eleven children were born of this mar- 
 riage, viz.: Charles, Nellie, George W., Jennie C. (Mrs. 
 L. Fred Cooke), Frank 0., Mary E. (Mrs. J. P. Wyman), 
 John Adams, Kate I. (Mrs. William A. MuUer), Nannie K. 
 (Mrs. Walter L. Hill), Fred F., Bessie E. (Mrs. H. E. 
 Holmes. Of these eight are now living, Charles having 
 died in infancy, Nellie in 1890 and Mrs. Cooke, September 
 21, 1899. 
 
60 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 The marketmen of Boston have always maintained their 
 good reputation in the line of American pork. The indus- 
 try was represented in Faneuil Hall Market very soon after 
 it was established, although the people raised their own 
 hogs, the most wealthy not failing to keep one or more. 
 Even Peter Faneuil at his estate on Tremont Street had his 
 stock of porkers. At the opening of the market, in 1826, 
 twenty-three of the stalls were set apart for the sale of pork, 
 being then rated as next in importance to the beef trade. 
 
 The progress made in the business, is, to a large degree, 
 within the memory of present stall-keepers. When they first 
 put out their signs, this stock was largely obtained from 
 farmers in New England. Two or three hogs was a large 
 stock to dispose of in a day. 
 
 John P. Squire's first account book shows that he began 
 business on April 30, 1842, by buying two pigs, weight 320 
 pounds, at six cents; amount $19.20. But ere long the 
 greater part of the pigs were from the West. Yet, as 
 there were no facilities for packing pork in the warm sea- 
 son, the burden of the business was done in the cold weather. 
 Hogs were slaughtered in the West and shipped to Boston 
 frozen ; then business was lively, for these frozen hogs must 
 be freed from frost before the pork could be packed suc- 
 cessfully. But the progressive mind of John P. Squire soon 
 wearied of this method of conducting business, and he tried 
 the experiment of slaughtering a hog in warm weather, and 
 cooling the flesh in a rude box, in which it was packed be- 
 tween layers of ice. The supply of fresh pork every day 
 soon created a demand, and there was no longer a slack 
 season in the pork business. 
 
 The improved facilities for cold storage contributed ma- 
 
With the Beef Trust 61 
 
 terially to this progress, but, unlike beef, the pork business 
 has not made a demand for the refrigerator cars, the stock 
 being brought to the Eastern market almost entirely alive. 
 The hogs are bought by agents from the farmers in the 
 great corn belt of the West, and herded at several shipping 
 centers, from which they are brought to the great slaughter- 
 ing houses. 
 
 Involving as this does the great pork-packing feature of 
 the business there is included the preparation of food for 
 every part of the civilized globe. 
 
 The rise of the few great pork industries has been the 
 means of changing the business of the stalls, confining them 
 more particularly to the local trade, the supply coming 
 from these great centers, save as now and then a farmer 
 brings to market a choice specimen, which serves to remind 
 the veteran stall-keepers of the days when they began busi- 
 ness and looked to the country farmers for a fancy York- 
 shire or Suffolk. Each department of the market has its 
 peculiar feature and offers its choice morsel to gratify the 
 epicure. In the pork trade we find the roaster, although 
 perhaps more commonly handled by the poultry men. 
 Charles Lamb claims the Chinese first introduced the idea 
 of roast pig. Be that as it may, the Boston palate was easily 
 trained to appreciate the delicate suckling, "under a moon- 
 old, guiltless as yet of the stye, with none of the hereditary 
 failings of the first parent yet manifest, his voice as yet not 
 broken, but sometimes between a childish treble and a 
 grumble, the mildest forerunner of a grunt. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Timothy Eastman, of New York, located at the foot 
 of West 60th Street, was possibly in a way the equal of John 
 P. Squire. He exported the first dressed beef, and at one 
 
62 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 time owned three or four hundred iDutcher shops in Ireland, 
 England and Scotland. I remember being with Eastman 
 one day, when he had first commenced utilizing the blood 
 from the cattle- slaughtered, and h6 said that he had made 
 $30,000 saving the blood that heretofore had been running 
 into the Hudson River. He used it to make fertilizer with. 
 I remember going home with him at another time. He had 
 a bucket with him. He said, "I am fooling the old lady. 
 She is eating oleomargarine and I am calling it Connecticut 
 butter. ' ' In other words, butter comes out of the loin of an 
 old cow; sometimes from cows in a diseased condition, 
 goes through the process of milking and churning before it 
 reaches the consumer, while the oleomargarine is manufac- 
 tured out of the kidney tallow of a very high grade steer. 
 
 Eastman had an especial room where he manufactured 
 the oleomargarine in pots holding from 20 to 30 pounds. 
 It was entirely enclosed so as to keep it sweet and clean — - 
 sanitary. You had to go through two or three doors before 
 you got into the enclosed room. He put a big rubber coat 
 on me w^hen I went in there. He would put his finger in 
 the tallow that was being made into the oleomargarine and 
 would taste it, but I couldn't do it. 
 
 Thirty-five years ago I bought for as many as fifteen 
 packing houses located in county seats on White River from 
 Strawtown to Vincennes, small houses of a similar char- 
 acter to those which have been established and supported 
 by the Government in Denmark.' At that time they made 
 kettle-rendered lard out of the leaf lard and the gut lard 
 was made into grease. There was no refining of lard then. 
 No other high grade lard but the kidney lard, or what is 
 known as the leaf lard. Refining of lard has been inaugu- 
 
With the Beep Trust 63 
 
 rated within the last thirty-five years, and they have now 
 got it to such a point that they can refine dead hogs into 
 lard sometimes after having been dead for two days' time. 
 In Denmark the Government protects the people against the 
 fertilizers and trusts, and the adulteration and refining of 
 the inferior products. 
 
 At that time I was buying hogs for Evans & Loftin, at 
 Noblesville, which is in the county where Strawtown is lo- 
 cated, some twenty miles north of here. Evans was then a 
 member of Congress. J. C. Ferguson at Indianapolis ; 
 Coffin, Wheat, Fletcher & Company, at Indianapolis; 
 Holmes, Petit and Bradshaw, at Indianapolis; Landis and 
 Givens at Indianapolis and Kingan & Company at In- 
 dianapolis. All of the smaller packing houses and a 
 number of large butchers here have now been absorbed, 
 and there is practically no house but Kingan & Com- 
 pany in Indianapolis. Most of them were ''broke." 
 They had been running along in the old-time way 
 of doing business. Kingan & Company was an Irish syn- 
 dicate, organized at Belfast, moving ahead all -the time. 
 Kingans are now running three houses here, all under their 
 original names and yet they all belong to Kingan. 
 
 South of here on the river I bought for Parks, Hender- 
 son & Company, to whom I shipped as many as five hun- 
 dred hogs at a time on some days. I bought for another 
 house at Gosport ten miles south of there ; one at Spencer, 
 fifty miles south of here, and another at Vincennes. 
 
 We will have to go back to the old way of doing business 
 so that when we go to the shop after lard, we get pure lard, 
 and not an adulteration or a refined grease. If we go after 
 a soup bone, we get a bone out of a high grade steer, one 
 
64 Twenty Years in Heli^ 
 
 that soup can be made out of which will be healthful and 
 nourishing, and not out of an old canner; but to bring 
 this about, the knot-heads have got to go ; the country is full 
 of them, and there is not one man in a thousand who can 
 tell the difference between a yearling high-bred calf and a 
 four-year-old knot-head of the same color; or how much 
 flesh each will take on in the feeding, or can tell the differ- 
 ence there is in the quality of the meat that comes out of 
 the two. 
 
 Their customers always knew what they were getting 
 from John P. Squire & Company and Timothy Eastman, 
 but it is impossible to tell nowadays when you are getting 
 the high grade stuff, when you are buying from the houses 
 which are killing this low-grade and knot-head cattle and 
 live stock and putting all kinds of stuff into the cans. Any- 
 one ought to be able to tell the difference between the soup 
 made from the bone of one of these old Jerseys or canners, 
 and that made from a high grade steer. People had better 
 buy a bone out of a good dog, or out of a horse, or out of a 
 mule. It would be clieaper, and, from a standpoint of good, 
 healthy food, would probably be better. 
 
 When fertilizer men get to operating packing houses, 
 and find that they can put these old canners and Jerseys 
 into the cans and sell them for high grade products to the 
 people, who can not tell the difference, there ought to be 
 some way to protect the innocent. 
 
 Some fifteen or eighteen years ago I was short an as- 
 sistant at the stock yards. I needed an experienced man to 
 inspect and to buy the high-grade stock. I employed a man 
 by the name of Barney Trollman, of Pittsburg, to come here 
 on Thursdays and Fridays, as those were the days that we 
 
With the Beef Trust 65 
 
 had the heavy receipts of export cattle at the yards at that 
 time. It run along for some time. I knew that he had a 
 big trade in Philadelphia of his own, and at Pittsburg. 
 They had the market there generally on Mondays and Tues- 
 days. We bought the high grade export cattle for Timothy 
 Eastman of New York, Joe Steams, of New York, M. Gold- 
 smith of New York, Meyer & Houseman of Baltimore, E. 
 A. Blackshere & Co. of Baltimore, and Layman Bros, of 
 Baltimore. The fact is I had a very heavy export trade. 
 To my astonishment I found that Trollman was buying 
 Jerseys and low grade cows in Jersey City and shipping 
 them back to Chicago to Nelson Morris to be canned. I 
 called him in and told him that that couldn't go on, as I 
 could not be a party to the buying of caxiners and Jerseys, 
 or as low a grade of stock as that, and I had to let him go. 
 
 Mr. Arthur Jordan, also, had at one time his head- 
 quarters at Indianapolis. Some thirty years ago he was 
 selling chickens off of the hind end of a wagon in the market 
 here. He went into the poultry business, and a few years 
 ago he sold out to Nelson Morris & Co. It was reported 
 that he got $750,000 for the stations he had established in 
 Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and some parts of Ohio. Jor- 
 dan used to sell poultry to Richard Webber by the car load. 
 He opened a house in Boston, and in fact sold all over the 
 East. Nelson Morris wanted to operate these stations in 
 connection with his packing house for canned chicken. I 
 suppose you, as well as others, are well aware what canned 
 chicken is. The Jerseys and canners shipped from Jersey 
 City to Chicago by Barney Trollman had in each and every 
 one of them fifty to eighty pounds of canned chicken. 
 
 You may assume that I am not stating facts ; but I can 
 
66 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 tell high grade cattle, hogs or sheep, on the farm, the same 
 as in the refrigerator and on the hook, and also whether the 
 product came out of a cow, heifer or steer; and I can tell 
 it just as well on the table after it is cooked, and before I 
 put hiy knife into it, and certainly any one ought to be able 
 to tell it after he tastes it. I know the difference between 
 the product of the high grade steer and of the Jersey 
 and canner just as well as the experienced dry goods mer- 
 chant does between calico and silk. I have been thoroughly 
 educated in it, and I have spent at least two months a year 
 between Portland, Maine, and Richmond, Virginia, counsel- 
 ling with my customers and nearly freezing in their refrig- 
 erators while inspecting their products, showing how they 
 could improve their methods. I would find out how the 
 Squires were doing, and would try to educate the others up 
 to their methods, for the Squires were alwaj^s ahead of all 
 of them in their progressiveness. 
 
 Very few of the farmers or feeders know that a pack- 
 ing house situated in New England, or New York, or any 
 place in the East buys meat on the hooks. What should 
 be done is to educate the farmers to raise stock that will 
 make pounds of meat when dressed. There is where their 
 profit is. There is not one man in forty or perhaps a hun- 
 dred who can tell whether a bullock will dress fifty pounds 
 to the hundred or sixty-five pounds to the hundred. Not 
 one in a hundred can tell whether a hog will dress seventy 
 pounds or eighty-five pounds to the hundred. You under- 
 stand you can pay $6.00 a hundred for one man's hogs, and 
 $5.50 for another man's; the one lot of hogs will dress 
 eighty-five per cent., while the other lot will dress only sixty- 
 five per cent., and you readily see, that while you pay a 
 
With the Beef Trust 67 
 
 higher price for the better quality, the net price of the hogs 
 is considerably cheaper; and it is this net price that the 
 packer takes into consideration when he names the price to 
 one farmer, and another price to another in the same lo- 
 cality. One is a high-grade feeder, while the other is of 
 low grade. I wish you to particularly note the facsimile 
 dressing sheets, such as I have received from John P. Squire 
 & Co., on hogs, which I bought for them from certain men in 
 certain localities: 
 
68 
 
 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 Lot 56 
 
 JOHN P. SQUIRE & COMPANY 
 
 . . . Bought at Mt. Sterling, O From E. O'Day , 
 
 Purchase date Dec. 2, 1902 
 
 Arrival date Dec. 7, 1002 
 
 Killing date Dec. 7, 1902 
 
 Weighing date Dec. 7, 1902 
 
 No. of cars 1 DD 
 
 No. of hogs Shipped 11(5 
 
 No. died in transit 
 
 No. died in yards 
 
 No. condemned 
 
 No. short 0. No. over 
 
 Condition on arrival Good 
 
 Billing Weight 2,.500 lbs. 
 
 No. killed 
 
 Purchase cpst at G.25. 
 
 o Brokerage 
 o Exchange 
 z Food 
 
 .$1,588.62 
 
 1.60 
 
 Bedding or sand 
 
 Tel. etc 
 
 £y5 Freight at 24 
 
 2 J Feed at 
 
 Q^cQ Bedding or sand at. 
 
 '** Transfer charges at. 
 
 60.00 
 6.80 
 2.20 
 
 Less value hogs 
 removed en route 
 No 
 
 20713 $1,659.22 
 
 (Cutting Weight) (Total Cost) 
 
 WEIGHT AND SHRINKAGES. 
 
 " Purchase Weight (226) . . .25,418 lbs. 
 
 Arrival Weight (total) 23,975 lbs. 
 
 Transit Shrink (dead out) . 1,443 lbs. 
 Per cent, of purchased wgt. .0567 p.c. 
 
 Purchased weight 25,418 lbs. 
 
 Arrival wgt. (live) 23,975 lbs. 
 
 Transit Shrink (dead in).. 1,443 lbs. 
 Per cent, of purchased wgt . .0567 p.c. 
 
 Purchase Weight 25,418 lbs. 
 
 Killing weight 21,244 lbs. 
 
 2% per cent, killing weight 513 lbs. 
 
 Cutting weight 20,713 lbs. 
 
 Cutting Shrink 4,705 lbs. 
 
 Per cent, of purchase wgt, . 16.07 p.c. 
 Remarks. 
 
 Net cost dressed per lb 0801 
 
With the Beef Trust 
 
 69 
 
 JOHN P. SQUIRE & COMPANY 
 
 Lot 8 Bought at Urbana, Ohio From Thomas & Green. 
 
 Purchase date Dec. 2, 1902 
 
 Arrival date Dec. 7, 1902 
 
 Killing date Dec. 7, 1902 
 
 Weighing date Dec. 7, 1902 
 
 No. of cars 1 DD 
 
 No. of hogs shipped 117 
 
 No. died in transit 
 
 No. died in yards 
 
 No. condemned 
 
 No. short 0. No. over 
 
 Condition on arrival Poor 
 
 Billing Weight 26,570 lbs. 
 
 No. killed 117 
 
 Purchase cost at 0.25 $1,669.43 
 
 uj Brokerage 
 
 5 Exchange 
 
 >Food 
 
 "■ Bedding or sand. 
 Tel. etc 
 
 Etf5 Freight at 24. .... . 
 
 2d Feed at 
 
 o^DQ Bedding or sand at. 
 Transfer charges at. 
 
 Less value hogs 
 removed en route 
 No 
 
 1.70 
 
 65.10 
 
 .90 
 
 20,143 .$1,742.13 
 
 (Cutting weight) (Total cost) 
 
 WEIGHT AND SHRINKAGES. 
 Purchase Weight (235) .. .26, 71 libs. 
 
 Arrival Weight (total 23,800 lbs. 
 
 Transit Shrink (dead out) . 2,911 lbs. 
 Per cent, of purchased wgt. 10.89 p.c. 
 
 Purchased Weight 26,711 lbs. 
 
 Arrival wgt. (live) 23,800 lbs. 
 
 Transit Shrink (dead in)... 2,911 lbs. 
 Per cent, of purchased wgt . 10.89 p.c. 
 
 Purchase weight 26,711 lbs. 
 
 Killing Weight 20,659 lbs. 
 
 2% per cent, killing weight 516 lbs. 
 
 Cutting weight 20,143 lbs. 
 
 Cutting Shrink 6,568 lbs. 
 
 Per cent, of purchase wgt. 24.58 p.c. 
 Remarks. 
 
 Net cost dressed per lb. 
 
 ,0864 
 
70 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 Note, the hogs shipped from O'Day were a high class 
 quality of stock, while the other load shipped on the same 
 day was of poor quality. The number of hogs was practi- 
 cally the same in both loads, a double deck. The time made 
 was the same to the killing. The purchase cost of these two 
 loads was the same and the freight the same, yet the 'Day 
 hogs only shrank in transit five per cent, against ten per 
 cent, for the other load, and the O 'Day hogs cut sixteen per 
 cent, against twenty- four and a half per cent, for the other 
 load. The net cost, you see, for the O'Day hogs was $8.01 
 per hundred against $8.64 for the other load, or a differ- 
 ence of sixty-three cents per hundred. Now you can 
 readily see that when the packing house would buy hogs 
 from O 'Day the next time, they could afford to pay a better 
 price at the farm to him, and a lesser price to the other 
 man, as they would know absolutely what to expect from 
 each. 
 
 Now, just one point that I want to call attention to that 
 the farmers and purchasers of live stock have to contend 
 with in the shipping of the hogs from the farms to the pack- 
 ing house, and which, if it could be remedied, would greatly 
 benefit the farmer, the purchasing agent and the packer, 
 and that is, the swapping of the hogs in the stock yards. 
 Let me cite a fact : Five years ago, when I was shipping 
 from the farm to the packing house, I bought one hundred 
 hogs from J. P. Beall, Mattoon, Illinois, which made one 
 double-deck car-load. These hogs were all fed by one man, 
 Mr. Dole, one of the very best feeders in Coles county. 
 They were high grade hogs and of uniform weight. I had 
 been having all kinds of trouble on account of the swapping 
 of hogs in the stock yards in Indianapolis. I had taken it 
 
With the Beef Trust 71 
 
 up with Mr. H. S. Storrs, General Superintendent of the 
 Lake Shore Railroad, to see if it could not be stopped. 
 Storrs turned my correspondence over to Grammer, an- 
 other official, and Grammer in turn, turned it over to 
 Butcher, General Stock Agent of the New York Central 
 road. Mr. Dutcher knew me and I knew him, but we had 
 not seen each other in ten years. 
 
 My hogs passed through here. I put a tracer after them 
 myself, and then went on personally. I got out to the yards 
 in Buffalo very early in the morning, so as not to meet any 
 of the men who knew me, as I was very well known there. I 
 located the pen where my hogs w^ere unloaded, and to my 
 astonishment I found in my load of fine, uniform, three 
 hundred pound average hogs, twenty- two pigs, weighing 
 something like one hundred and twenty-five pounds each. 
 The number of the hogs were the same, tallying with the 
 number shipped, tallying with the number unloaded off the 
 cars at Buffalo; but twenty-two of my fine hogs had been 
 taken out and these twenty-two pigs had been put in their 
 place. I said nothing about this at Buffalo. I went on 
 checking them out to Boston. The only place that they 
 w^ere unloaded en route was at Buffalo. I saw the hogs as 
 they came off the cars in Boston, had them checked off by 
 the Squire people, and knew absolutely that I was right. 
 Then I went down to New York. I knew^ about the time 
 that Mr. Dutcher got to his New York office. He had been 
 the whole thing for sixty years in connection with the live 
 stock business of the New York Central. The office clerk 
 said that Mr. Dutcher had just stepped out, but would be 
 back in a few minutes. When he came in, he let on as 
 though he didn 't know me. Then he said : ' ' Hello, Rhody, 
 
72 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 are you the one who is sending all of these complaints? I 
 ought to kick you out of the office, but I suppose that you 
 are here for business." I said, "Yes. I have got several 
 thousand dollars in claims against your railroad for slow 
 time, swapping of hogs in Buffalo and deaths due to care- 
 lessness, which I am here 1^o collect — and I am here for busi- 
 ness. " I then related the case of the twenty-two pigs, 
 which had just happened. ''Why," he said, ''don't you 
 know that there is not an honest stock- yards in the coun- 
 try. I had new keys made a number of times in the last 
 fifty or sixty years for the New York Central stock yards' 
 pens and within three days' time practically every commis- 
 sion man in the yards would have duplicate keys." He 
 said he had had keys made time and again for the Buffalo, 
 Albany and New York yards, which belonged to the New 
 York Central, and that they would get duplicate keys there. 
 He said, ' ' How are we going to stop it ? " I said I would 
 stop it. I asked him if the farmer was responsible for the 
 swapping of the hogs in the yards, which he ships East — is 
 he not to be protected? He knows his hogs, he has raised 
 them himself, and yet, when they arrive at their destination 
 it is reported back to him that in the fine bunch of hogs 
 that he had shipped, every one of which he well knew 
 — hogs which run as uniform as eggs — they had found 
 twenty-two or twenty-five pigs, as the case might be. What 
 recourse has the farmer ? Who is he to suspect ? Is he to 
 think the house he is shipping to, the John P. Squire and 
 Company, or some other similar company, is dishonest, and 
 be forced to ship his hogs to a local market, or a local stock 
 yards, where the same thing would happen again ? Or am 
 I responsible when I buy the farmer's hogs outright from 
 
With the Beef Tbust 73 
 
 him at his farm, know absolutely what I am getting from 
 him, and then have the house that I am buying for report 
 back to me these pigs, and the heavy shrinkage from the 
 original weights? The house would soon lose confidence in 
 my representation. I asked him why not have stock yards 
 where no commission men could have access? I said to 
 Mr. Butcher in conclusion, I am here for the purpose of 
 finding out if there is not some way that these frauds per- 
 . petrated in your stock yards can be stopped, and I am here 
 to collect the money for the damages sustained. 
 
 Then I w^ent home and I put my claims in against the 
 railroad company, and they paid every one of the claims, 
 and I haven't seen Mr. Dutcher since. He looked to be 
 about sixty years old, although he was about eighty at the 
 time. 
 
 Mr. S. Henry Skelton in attempting to establish a pack- 
 ing house in New England, in opposition to the Beef Trust, 
 is honest in his purpose of supplying to the New England 
 trade the high grade, unadulterated products which he had 
 furnished them for so many years before the North Com- 
 pany, with whom he had been associated, was absorbed by 
 the Trust. He realizes the great fraud that is being per- 
 petrated upon the people by the sale of low-grade products 
 and by the advertising and selling of '* country sausage" 
 and "country cured hams" as the real article, when in fact 
 they are the manufactured products of the packers, and it 
 is his purpose to try and enlighten tlie people along these 
 , lines. 
 
 Mr. S. Henry Skelton has been connected with the pack- 
 ing house business for about forty years, or since he was a 
 boy, and he has traveled over many foreign countries in the 
 
74 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 interest of the North Packing House. Thirty years ago it 
 was possibly the second largest packing house in the United 
 States. The Squire House and North House were then the 
 two largest in the country, especially for summer packing. 
 There is hardly a man living who has as much knowledge of 
 the trade. You will note from the following letters the 
 fight he is making against the Trust in trying to establish 
 an independent packing house in New England. 
 
 MR. SKELTON'S LETTER ON THIS SUBJECT. 
 
 1014 Beacon St., Brookline, 
 
 March 11, 1909. 
 
 Mr. R. R. Shiel, Riggs House, Washington, D. C: 
 
 My Dear Sir — I received yours of the 9th and was 
 pleased to hear from you. I wish to thank you for your 
 kind invitation to visit you at Washington and nothing 
 would give me more pleasure, but at present I have a lame 
 knee, which prevents me from getting around very well 
 except on crutches, this was from an accident at the farm, 
 but I am expecting it will be well again shortly. 
 
 I am still working to get a license for packing house, 
 the Swifts have been able to shut me out in Everett and 
 Chelsea, but am now going to try another place, they use 
 both money and influence to prevent any independent plant 
 from getting a foothold. Just now the papers here are full 
 of the fact that they are selling infected beef cows which 
 are condemned by the State as having tuberculosis. It 
 seems the New England Dressed Meat and Wool Company, 
 a Swift concern, have a contract with the State to kill and 
 take tuberculosis cows, and those which the State inspectors 
 
With the Beef Trust 75 
 
 say are only slightly infected they have been getting the 
 government stamp on as fit for food and selling them for 
 good meat. The Boston Post, a prominent morning daily, 
 took the matter np and the public are up in arms about it. 
 Their man Walter Glidden is in the governor 's council, and 
 the governor is getting into hot water for allowing the 
 practice to continue. With all their money and the profits 
 of the big monopoly they are not satisfied unless they can 
 make more money out of this tainted beef. It will react on 
 them by causing people to eat less beef for a time. En- 
 closed is list of plants the Swift people control in New Eng- 
 land, from which you can see there is not much left, and 
 how bad the trade here want an independent plant. 
 
 I will any time give you any information you want; 
 don't hesitate to ask. I could give volumes on this Swift 
 and Beef Trust workings. Damage claims are one of the 
 late schemes for rebates from railroad companies. 
 Yours truly, 
 (Signed) S. H. Skelton. 
 
 April 20th, 1909. 
 Mr. R. R. Shiel, Washington, D. C: 
 
 Dear Sir — I have your telegrams and letter. I have been 
 spending so much time in trying to get a license within 
 reasonable distance from the market district of Boston that 
 have not had time for anything else. When T think I have 
 got what I am after I find the Trust influence and money 
 have blocked me, but am still at it, and am trying new town 
 now where the promise looks good. 
 
 I regret I have not had the time to put few facts in 
 shape for you and in such a way as not to offend my friends 
 
76 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 here, who in certain ways are trying to help me. It is the 
 advice of some of these friends that I should not tell what 
 I know of the forming of the Beef Monopoly, as they think 
 it might hurt me with some of the moneyed interests, who 
 so strongly support the Swifts with money they loan them, 
 as you know, notwithstanding their $50,000,000 of capital, 
 they are still heavy borrowers of the banks and pri- 
 vate capitalists, and on the whole I think possibly it is best 
 for me, while I am trying to get back into the business in an 
 independent way, to keep still on the subject of Swift's 
 Beef Trust and monopoly of the food supply. You 
 will, of course, have ample matter without my saying any 
 more than I have already said to you in former letters, for 
 the present at least. 
 
 Wishing you every success, with best regards. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 S. Henry Skelton. 
 
 FRUIT QUESTION, ETC. 
 
 On the fruit question nothing can be more encouraging 
 than the situation as outlined by Mr. J. M. Zion. He shows 
 what the future holds for Indiana in this respect, and he 
 proves it by citing his own experience as a fruit raiser who 
 has banked heavily on the value of Hoosier soil and climate 
 for fruit. 
 
 Captain Templeton 's letter is well worthy of perusal, not 
 only because he has been for half a century the largest in- 
 dividual feeder of stock in Indiana, but also because of the 
 possibilities — in fact, the certainties — which he points to as 
 the result of intelligent breeding and feeding of animals. 
 
With the Beef Teust 77 
 
 Mr. Templeton, like his father, was born on a farm, No- 
 vember 20, 1829, and since 1850 has beeii engaged in the live 
 stock business. In 1853 he went to low^a and began ship- 
 ping to Chicago, Buffalo and New York. In his early day 
 he knew Mr. Solon Robinson, who was the first man to re- 
 port the live stock market in the New York Tribune. At 
 that time 5,000 cattle would glut the market, and a reduc- 
 tion of 50 cents a hundred would cause it to fall. During 
 the war, from a private in the Third Iowa Infantry, he rose 
 to the position of Captain of Company F. 
 
 Mr. McCrea is right in his statement that the packers 
 should be protected as well as the farmers, and that inspec- 
 tion should not be overlooked on the farm. The way this 
 could be done would be to compel the farmers to get rid of 
 the low grade and ''knot-head" and "pennyroyal" cattle, 
 and to breed up their live stock. The farms also should be 
 inspected, and when disease is found among the live stock, 
 the owners should be instructed in the care and treatment 
 of the diseased animals so as to obviate the spread of the 
 disease among the others and to prevent it from becoming 
 widespread. This is now done in Denmark. They should 
 also be instructed in the care of the sound animals, and in 
 the improvement of the sanitary condition of the stock. 
 
 You fully understand that the Beef Trust has absorbed 
 practically all of these packing houses in the East which I 
 have mentioned and which I bought for for years, such as 
 the John P. Squire & Co., North Packing Co., and White, 
 Pevey & Dexter, and that time and again the Trust has 
 throttled the smaller dealers and many large ones, so that 
 they have been obliged to make the consumer suffer. 
 
 I venture to assert that every gentleman on the Com- 
 
78 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 mission on Country Life has had flaunted before him on the 
 menus of not a few first-class hotels the phrases, "Beech- 
 nut Bacon," ''Beechnut Ham," etc. There is no greater 
 fraud than -this ignorance or deceit on the part of hotel 
 stewards and- proprietors. 
 
 First-class meat cannot be gotten out of hogs fed on mast 
 of any kind. Hogs fed on beechnuts or mast always sell in 
 New York one to three dollars per hundred less than corn- 
 fed hogs. At present prices they will sell three to four 
 dollars per handred less. In Boston they won't use beech- 
 nut fattened hogs, as the lard and bacon will run to oil. 
 They are what is known to the trade as ' ' soft ' ' hogs. Still 
 slop-fed hogs run the same and sell two to three dollars less 
 than corn-fed. 
 
Letters of Individual Expression 
 
 MR. E. 'DAY'S LETTER. 
 
 London, Ohio, December 14, 1908. 
 Mr. R. R. Shiel: 
 
 Dear Sir — ^Your letter received and in reply will say 
 that blue grass seems to be a natural production of this 
 section. It has always grown here as long as I can remem- 
 ber. I have lived here all my life. I am now fifty-eight 
 years old. We have now mostly the Shropshire sheep. 
 There are still a few Merinos. 
 
 My father's name was Henry O'Day. He was born in 
 Fairfield county, Ohio, and came to this county (Madison) 
 when about eighteen years old and settled near Mr. Ster- 
 ling. He always lived on a farm and did considerable in 
 the shipping business from about 1865 to 1880. He died 
 in 1883. 
 
 I lived on a farm till I was thirtj^ years old. I then 
 moved to London, having become engaged in the shipping 
 business, which I have followed ever since in connection 
 with looking after my farming interests. 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 E. O'Day. 
 
 MR. ALEX. J. McCREA'S LETTER. 
 
 Cleveland, Ohio, December 28, 1908. 
 Mr. R. R. Shiel, Shiel Apartment House, Indimmpolis, Ind. : 
 My Dear Sir — ^Your favor of the 22d, 'with enclosures 
 mentioned, was duly received. I also acknowledge receipt 
 
 (79) 
 
80 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 of a communication from your Mr. E. A. Byrkit, enclos- 
 ing copy of your letter under date of November 2d, to 
 President Roosevelt. 
 
 Most gladly would I comply with your request to give 
 you a comparative statement for the past forty years of 
 general farm conditions, live stock, poultry and soil of 
 Ohio, but I have not sufficient data on hand to give" you the 
 required information, neither can I answer your other ques- 
 tions about levees, drainage, scientific farming and colleges, 
 as it would require more time to look up reference on these 
 subjects than I can now spare. 
 
 In a general way I know that the farm conditions and 
 the raising of cattle, hogs and sheep in Ohio during the 
 •past forty years have undergone considerable changes, 
 showing, in central and southern sections, a large percent- 
 age of gain for betterment to date. 
 
 You speak of the poor quality of "knot-head" cattle 
 and "razor-back" hogs in some portions of the South Cen- 
 tral States, advising government intervention to bring 
 about the better grade of cattle and swine. Do you think 
 if the people of the mountainous regions of Tennessee and 
 Kentucky were furnished with better animals for breeding 
 purposes, that they would give them any better care in 
 housing and feeding than they now give to the "knot 
 heads" and "razor-backs"? Your article on "Conditions 
 of Live Stock" in Denmark partially answers these ques- 
 tions. 
 
 You commend the President for his betterment of the 
 meat inspection law. It is true that the Bureau of Animal 
 Industry, under the supervision of the Department of Agri- 
 culture, has accomplished wonders in the improvement of 
 
With the Beef Trust 81 
 
 conditions in raising cattle, hogs and sheep in the United 
 States; but the betterment has all been for the farmer. 
 In the meat inspection law no protection at all is given the 
 packer, whose margin of profit under the most favorable 
 conditions is small. A packer can give full price for ani- 
 mals that apparently look healthy, but which show disease, 
 or are unfit for human food on post-mortem inspection. 
 In this case the loss falls entirely on the packer, and he 
 has no redress. The meat inspection law, to be just, 
 should commence at the farm, making it impossible and 
 unlawful for the producer of a diseased or unhealthy an- 
 imal to offer the same for sale for food purposes. 
 
 I have read your letters and articles with considerable 
 interest and commend the unselfish spirit which animates 
 you to bring about better conditions in the live stock in- 
 dustry ; but while you are about it, I would kindly ask that 
 you try to benefit the pacl^er also, as he is just as necessa.ry 
 to the consuming public as the farmer. An improvement in 
 the meat inspection laws is what the packer ought to be 
 granted, and I hope the same can be embodied in your bill 
 when it is introduced. 
 
 You ask regarding myself and ancestors. My ancestors 
 emigrated from the Highlands of Scotland, to the north of 
 Ireland. My father emigrated to America, in 1838, and 
 settled in Ithaca, N. Y., where I was born October 15th, 
 1844. I came to Cleveland in September, 1862, and went 
 to work for C. J. Comstock & Company. John D. Rocke- 
 feller was keeping books at the time for Comstock & Com- 
 pany, and I was delegated to sweep out his office. My 
 brother James was the Company. Afterwards the firm 
 was changed to Comstock, McCrea & Company. At that 
 
 [6] 
 
82 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 time Cleveland was a great beef packing center, and our 
 firm did a large business in packing cattle and hogs and 
 shipping the products principally to New York, with con- 
 siderable going up the lakes. There were hundreds of cattle 
 driven in by drovers, and grazed in the suburbs of Cleve- 
 land, waiting for chances to get to the slaughter house, 
 which has all been changed. 
 
 In 1867 I went to Omaha and worked for IMessrs. Sheely 
 Bros. Co. They had a contract to furnish salt pork for the 
 Indians quartered at Sioux City. I, having served my 
 time in the packing house in Cleveland, was the only avail- 
 able man in Omaha to salt meat, and I claim to be the first 
 one to do the packing of pork in Omaha. I came back to 
 Cleveland and went with Comstock, McCrea & C6mpany. 
 I was their purchasing and sales agent for five years, when 
 I branched out with my brother James under the firm 
 name of James McCrea & Company, and later built the 
 plant I am noAv in, known as the Ohio Provision Company, 
 which has been doing a successful business since 1882. 
 
 Regarding the Rose brothers : I was told by their old 
 foreman, James Gerneds, of Buffalo, that Beajamin, George 
 and Edward Rose came from England to Buffalo in 1848 
 and worked under Gerneds in Bulimore 's Packing establish- 
 ment. They afterwards came to Cleveland and opened a 
 pork store under the name of Rose Bros., on Ontario 
 street. Later Benjamin withdrew from the firm and 
 started on his own ''hook," taking in later Chauncey Pren- 
 tis, and calling the firm Rose & Prentis. Afterwards Pren- 
 tis withdrew, and Benjamin Rose incorporated the firm 
 of the Cleveland Provision Company, which has done a very 
 large, and I understand very successful bu>siness. All of 
 
With the Beef Trust 83 
 
 the three brothers mentioned have died. They were all 
 good citizens, and honorable competitors. 
 
 With the best wishes for your success in this undertak- 
 ing, and kindest regards, I am, as ever. 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 Alex. J. McCrea. 
 
 MR. S. F. LOCKRIDGE'S LETTER. 
 West WOOD Shorthorns, 
 
 S. F. LOCKRIDGE, PROPRIETOR. 
 
 Greencastle, Ind., December 11, 1908. 
 
 Mr. E. R. Shiel: 
 
 Dear Sir — Your favor of the 5th inst., with enclosed 
 copy of letter from Secretary to Chairman of "Commis- 
 sion on Country Life," was duly received. 
 
 I shall endeavor to answer your questions in the order 
 you have stated them. In the first place, from a beef point 
 of view, I do not believe the cattle of this county, or of this 
 State, outside of the pure bred herds, are as good as they 
 were forty j^ears ago. The reason for this deterioration is 
 very apparent to any one acquainted with the facts. Up 
 to the early seventies all the improvement in the county 
 on the common stocks was made by the use of pure bred 
 Shorthorn bulls. Dr. A. C. Stevenson and Joseph Allen, 
 of Greencastle, imported Shorthorns from Great Britain 
 into this county, in 1853. Pure bred Shorthorn bulls had 
 been used here for a number of years prior to that event. 
 The result was that at the period I mention, the early 
 seventies, we had a class of cattle in this county that 
 
84 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 showed all the characteristics of the pure bred Shorthorn, 
 in other words they were high grade Shorthorns. Now, 
 then, what followed. About this time, 1870 to 1872, began 
 the importation of new breeds of cattle from Europe. First 
 came the Jersey or Alderney from the Channel Islands — 
 dairy cattle that had been bred for ages from the stand- 
 point alone of milk and butter production. They had none, 
 or very little, of the beef-making characteristics. Our 
 American farmer with his natural tendency to seek out 
 the new and untried, urged on by his wife, who had no 
 interest whatever in the beef proposition, but centered all 
 her ambition in the milk and butter problem, concluded he 
 could make a ten-strike by crossing his high grade Short- 
 horn on a Jersey bull and thus kill two birds with one 
 stone. The result was unsatisfactory, as anyone with the 
 knowledge of the science of breeding could have told him. 
 Instead of halting or retracing his steps, he continued his 
 ruinous policy by trying a cross of Holstein, another dairy 
 breed, and then still further accelerated his downward 
 course by an infusion of Hereford or Aberdeen Angus 
 blood, new breeds from England and Scotland, Naturally 
 the result of this miscegenation was a mongrel that could 
 not be classed either with the beef or milk breeds, and was 
 a losing proposition to everyone into whose hands he 
 chanced to fall. 
 
 Such in a great measure is the type of cattle in this 
 county today, and I may also say of the central "Western 
 States, 
 
 The best cattle for beef production exclusively will be 
 found on the ranches of the West. For a number of years 
 past the far-sighted owners of the great ranges have used 
 
With the Beef Trust 85 
 
 only pure bred bulls of the beef breeds, Shorthorn and 
 Hereford, and from their pastures only can we obtain 
 steers, in any number, unadulterated with the dairy breeds. 
 
 What I have said as to the cattle of our Central States 
 will apply also to other breeds of domesticated animals, 
 horses, sheep and swine. They have been crossed to such 
 an extent that the characteristics of each have been lost 
 in the heterogeneous combine. 
 
 You speak of Montgomery county as having gone 
 ahead of Monroe and Putnam and Tippecanoe, in each of 
 which there is a college. I am inclined to think that an in- 
 vestigation would show that Montgomery county has little, 
 if any, in improvement in live stock over other counties of 
 the State, and the universities in each, being altogether 
 literary, could in no wise affect the live stock industry. 
 Purdue University, being a strictly agricultural college, 
 supported by the State, and devoted to the interests of 
 agriculture and live stock simply, should in the nature of 
 the case excel purely literary colleges in the way of farm 
 education. 
 
 Strictly speaking, blue grass was never established in 
 Putnam county, or in Indiana. It is indigenous to the 
 soil. Kentucky, that has for years been heralded as the 
 blue grass State pa?' excellence, got its first seed from the 
 territor^^ of Indiana during the War of 1812. The soldiers 
 from Kentucky who were fighting the Indians in the then 
 territory of Indiana, found the blue grass growing luxuri- 
 antly about the deserted Indian villages, and noting the 
 avidity with which their horses partook of the grass, 
 stripped the seed from the stems and carried it with them 
 on their return home. 
 
86 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 I have heard my grandfather, who was a soldier of 
 1812, say that near these Indian villages where the forests 
 had been cleared and the sunlight admitted, the blue grass 
 was often found, to use his own expression, "belly deep to 
 a horse." 
 
 Some thirty odd years ago the late Col. Tom Bowling, 
 of Terre Haute, then a member of the State Board of 
 Agriculture, related to me the following incident: He 
 was a great admirer of Henry Clay, the statesman, and at 
 one time paid Mr, Clay a visit at the latter 's home at Ash- 
 land, near Lexington, Ky, Mr. Clay was a lover of fine 
 stock, and had made several important importations of 
 cattle and horses from England. The two men strolled 
 over the estate looking at and admiring the live stock, and 
 finall}^ brought up at the barn, where Colonel Dowling no- 
 ticed some very fine blue grass, cut and tied in bundles, as 
 was then the custom. He expressed his thanks to Mr. Clay 
 for the manner in which he had been entertained, and 
 asked the favor of taking home with him some of the 
 original Kentucky blue grass seed, Mr. Clay complied 
 with his request, but smiled as he said, "Do you know 
 that Kentucky got its first blue grass seed from the terri- 
 tory of Indiana at a point near Fort Harrison, just above 
 Terre Haute, a short time before it became a State?" 
 
 .The late Prof. John Collet, State Geologist, told me 
 about the same time, that blue grass was indigenous to 
 Indiana ; that its natural home was a clay subsoil on a 
 limestone foundation, and that these conditions Avere found 
 in a perfect state in nineteen counties in Indiana running 
 diagonally across the State from the northwest to the 
 southeast. This belt, of course, would be south of the 
 
With the Beef Trust 87 
 
 prairie lands, and Putnam county would be in the heart of 
 it. While I believe that blue g'rass can be successfully 
 grown in almost every State of our Union with proper care 
 and cultivation, yet I think there is no question whatever 
 that its original home was in our own State of Indiana. 
 
 My father, Andrew Malone Tjockridge, was born in 
 Montgomery county, Ky., March 30, 1814. His father 
 died when he was twelve years old, leaving his widowed 
 mother with nine children of whom he was the eldest son, 
 his brother Robert, the youngest child, having been bom 
 about the time of his father's death. My grandfather 
 Lockridge, sometime before his death in 1826, had, by 
 entry and purchase, procured land in the north part of 
 Putnam county, this State. In the fall of 1835, when my 
 father was twenty-one years of age, the family moved from 
 Kentucky to this State. One of my father's sisters married 
 Mr. Charles Bridges, who was the father of William and 
 James Bridges, whom you probably knew in the course of 
 yonr dealings in this county. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 S. F. Lockridge. 
 
 MR. JOHN L. MORGAN'S LETTER. 
 
 Marco, Ind., December 17, 1908. 
 
 /?. R. Shiel, Esq., Indianapolis, Tnd.: 
 
 LTy Dear Mr, Shiel — In reply to your inquiry as to my 
 views on the betterment of the live stock interest of the 
 county, beg to say I am heartily in accord with your views, 
 and certainly think there is plenty of room for the build- 
 ing up of all kinds of live stock as well as poultry, etc. 
 
88 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 When my father came to Indiana, in 1854, this par- 
 ticular part of Indiana, viz., Greene county, was almost a 
 wilderness; nothing" but wild hogs three to five years old, 
 frogs and malaria. But now, by the combined efforts of a 
 few progressive farmers in this particular part of the 
 county we have largely half to thoroughbred breeds of 
 both cattle and hogs, and hogs that thirty years ago took 
 from two and one-half to three years to make them weigh 
 225 pounds to 250 pounds can now be made to weigh above 
 at six to eight months old, besides producing much more 
 of the high-priced cuts of meat, and particularly is this 
 condition more noticeable in the scrub cattle of thirty years 
 ago and the thoroughbred cattle of today. And all these 
 changes have been brought about by the united efforts of a 
 few men, and no help from either State or Government. 
 I think it should be a law that no man should be allowed 
 to keep a male animal unless he be a thoroughbred ; and 
 if that were the case in a few years all our live stock would 
 be of the very best. 
 
 Aside from live stock, I am very much interested in the 
 breeding up of seed corn and other grains, and in general 
 raising the standard of all breeds of live stock as well as all 
 agricultural products. And I do think it would be far bet- 
 ter for the masses of the .people, if the Government would 
 pay more attention to the up-building of live stock, poultry, 
 etc.; to the drainage of swamp lands, the building of 
 levees, etc., than giving so much attention, and paying out 
 large sums of money looking after the fish and game of 
 this country. It is true the game and fish should be pro- 
 tected, but by their protection does not mean an increase of 
 productiveness of the soil nor an increase of taxes to the 
 country. 
 
With the Beef Trust 89 
 
 Less than twenty years ago the first dredge ditch was 
 dug in Greene county, and now practically all the swamp 
 lands are redeemed and in cultivation, and land twenty 
 years ago that could hardly be sold at any price and when 
 it did sell could be bought for five to ten dollars per acre, 
 today is worth and has ready sale at $125 to $150 per acre 
 and is pajdng 10 per cent, interest on these prices. Thus 
 you see what thorough drainage will do. But in redeeming 
 all these vast areas of swamp land it worked some hard- 
 ship on quite a few land owners, as in many instances the 
 ditch assessments ranged from $5 to $10 per acre, and as 
 the owners of these lands had no income, they had to sell. 
 But this has all been done and the present owners are now 
 enjoying the income from fertile and productive lands. 
 
 I also think there should be more attention given to our 
 agricultural colleges. We should have educated raisers of 
 live stock and farmers as well as educated lawyers and 
 doctors ; there should be a united effort to make the farms 
 productive, attractive and remunerative, and by so doing, 
 keep the ' ' boys on the farm. ' ' With best wishes, I am, 
 
 Very truly, 
 
 Jno. L. Morgan. 
 
 MR. W. I. S. PINNELL'S LETTER. 
 
 Kansas, III., December 7, 1908. 
 
 R. B. Shiel, Indianapolis, Ind. : 
 
 Dear Sir — In reply to yours of the 5th inst., I will 
 say my grandparents first settled in Culpepper county, 
 Culpepper Court House, Va. They removed about 1812 to 
 Oldham, Ky., which is about twenty miles south of Louis- 
 
90 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 ville. In November, 1830, I removed with my father and 
 grandfather to Edgar county, Illinois, near where I now 
 live. I was two years old at that time. Have since lived 
 seventy-eight years in this same voting precinct. 
 
 The weather at the time we landed in Illinois was ex- 
 tremely cold, the snow was two feet deep on the level. 
 Long and tedious were the days at that time for these old 
 pioneers — no money to do with and not much needed. It 
 was fierce settling, and everything was in a wild state. 
 Deer, turkeys and the much-dreaded wolf were in abun- 
 dance. Fine timber and prairie grass grew prolific. There 
 was no grass here at that time except the w ild prairie grass. 
 The blue grass commenced to make its appearance shortly 
 after the settlers began to cultivate the soil. I would say, 
 about 1840. 
 
 About my mother's people, I have but little knowledge, 
 except to say my father married mother in Kentucky, 
 where I was born November 14, 1828. Mother's maiden 
 name was Frances Marshall Estos. She was an aunt of 
 C. T. Estos, now a resident of Brockton, 111. You wdll 
 remember ''Toot" Estos — we all called him by that name 
 when we used to be in business. You well know my three 
 sons. J. E. attended the N. W. C. University, your city, 
 for two years. H. F. attended a business and economical 
 school at Bloomington, 111., and W. 0. P'. attended the 
 common schools here. 
 
 We have noted with regret Richard Webber's demise in 
 the papers. He was the best butcher this country has ever 
 known. He bought practically all of our production of 
 cattle for more than thirty years. It is a great loss to the 
 business to lose such a man as Richard Webber, and also 
 
With the Beef Trust 91 
 
 Mr. Eastman, who bought many of our Illinois cattle. 
 He was a grand, good man. No one could palm Jerseys 
 off on him. Also John P. Squire, of Boston, who has been 
 a buyer of our hogs for more than forty years. He was 
 known as the greatest man in the trade thirty-five and 
 forty years ago. 
 
 The good feeders have always suffered by going to the 
 market where they have to sell their stuff to men who have 
 no judgment of the kinds and quality and where commis- 
 sion men in selling a string of cattle force in the sale of a 
 load of Jersey steers at a higher price, by lowering the 
 price on the man who has the load of high grade cattle. 
 
 I remember well the fourteen hundred hogs that you 
 contracted of myself and my cousin W. O. Pinnell. I 
 think it was in the year '68. Other men here had hogs 
 contracted for when the decline came but didn't get them 
 off; but you took our hogs for which you had contracted 
 and paid us the contract price of $8.75. 
 
 Yours, truly, 
 
 W. I. S. Pinnell. 
 
 CAPTAIN LEROY TEMPLETON'S LETTER. 
 Indianapolis, Ind,, December 24, 1908. 
 R. R. Shiel, Esq.: 
 
 Sir — Allow me to congratulate you on the good work 
 you have engaged in, to wit, the increase of the meat sup- 
 ply, butter, milk, . poultry and poultry products — an in- 
 •crease not only as to quantity, but also improvement of the 
 quality. 
 
 Will our high-bred race horses, trotters and pacers ever 
 excel Dan Patch? Can our prize cattle, sheep and hogs 
 
92 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 be still further improved? From my experience and ob- 
 servation of sixty years, together with close study, I an- 
 swer, "Yes, without doubt." What has been done in the 
 past by individual effort in breeding high-grade live stock 
 can be greatly augmented by State aid in passing such 
 laws as will put a stop to the reproducing of low-grade 
 animals. Our meat animals can be bred to any type de- 
 sired by selecting with care in crossing the blood. High- 
 grade breeding, together with care in feeding to maturity, 
 will soon raise the percentage of good meat. 
 
 Great improvement has been made within the last 
 twenty years in the breeding and feeding of cattle, sheep 
 and hogs, and a wonderful increase has been marked in 
 weight of our poultry of all kinds in the last few years. 
 Less than fifty years ago the horse called Dexter trotted 
 and made the first record of a three-minute gait. At that 
 time it was thought to be a wonderful thing for a horse to 
 do, and that it would probably never be beaten. Now at 
 this time the best record is under two minutes. If this 
 great change can be made in the horse in and through 
 breeding and feeding, surely like results can be obtained 
 on other lines in cattle, sheep and swine. Nature study, 
 together with intelligent energy applied in breeding meat 
 animals, cannot but result in raising the standard of all 
 kinds of meat consumed by man. 
 
 I have learned that the crossing of species and selec- 
 tion wisely directed are great and powerful means for the 
 transformation of all life in the animal kingdom along 
 lines that lead constantly upward. The crossing of species 
 is to me paramount. Upon it, wisely directed and accom- 
 panied by a rigid selection of the best, and as rigid exclu- 
 
With the Beef Tkust 93 
 
 sion of the poorest, rests the hope of all progress. No 
 scrub or inferior animal should be allowed to reproduce its 
 kind. Sterilize all male animals of low and inferior grade. 
 Let this be done by authority of law and made practical by 
 government commission. The mere crossing of species un- 
 accompanied by selection, wise supervision, intelligent care 
 and patience is not likely to result in marked good and 
 may result in harm. Unorganized effort is often vicious 
 in its tendencies. Let me lay stress on the favorable con- 
 ditions now presented in the United States, I think it fair 
 to say that we are now on the eve of enjoying the grandest 
 opportunity ever presented to develop the finest meat ani- 
 mals ever produced in the history of the world. Let us 
 adopt the philosophy and teaching of our great authors in 
 the science of natural history, ''Sexual selection and the 
 survival of the fittest," in all our domestic animals. 
 
 As suggested above, let us all bend our efforts first to 
 accomplish this improvement. Later on we can take up 
 production in a wider sense and the transportation and 
 distribution of all food products. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Leroy Templeton. 
 
 JUDGE T. E. HOWARD'S LETTER. 
 
 South Bend, Ind., December 17, 1908. 
 Bon. 11. E. Shiel, Indianapolis: 
 
 My Dear Sir — Yours in reference to ''Commission on 
 Country Life ' ' received. T wish I had the time to write you 
 my views in full as to the important questions to be con- 
 sidered by that commission. The reclamation of our bar- 
 ren hilltops, comforts of farm life, and all that concerns the 
 
94 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 waste of our vast natural wealth in connection with these 
 thing's, are entitled to the wisest thought of the best minds 
 of America. 
 
 My duties as Dean of the Law School of the University 
 of Notre Dame, however, so absorb my time that I cannot 
 write to you as I would. It was my privilege while a mem- 
 ber of the Indiana Senate to introduce and have passed 
 bills for the removal of the limestone ledge in the Kankakee 
 at Momence, a little West of the Indiana line. Sixty-five 
 thousand dollars in all were appropriated from the State 
 treasury, and the result of the work has been of immense 
 benefit to the million of acres of our Kankakee swamp 
 lands. But the work, although good, was not sufficient. 
 The rock obstruction in the river was lowered less than 
 four feet, while it should be to ten feet. It is a work, in 
 its completeness, to be undertaken only by the general gov- 
 ment. Many acres of the lands have been reclaimed by 
 private ownership, in connection with the work done by 
 the State, and the result is hundreds of acres of the richest 
 farming lands in America. But the w^hole valley should be 
 reclaimed, and we should then have what it has often been 
 truthfully claimed as the future of this rich region — that it 
 is to be ' ' The Garden of Chicago. ' ' 
 
 You are doing a good work, my dear Mr. Shiel, in aid- 
 ing the '^ Commission on Country Life" in its mission for 
 bettering the condition of our great rural population. 
 
 I have talked with Mr. Aaron Jones, former President 
 of the National Grange, and one of the ablest of all Amer- 
 ican farmers, as to the work you are doing, and he fully 
 sympathizes with you and your work, and he will write to 
 you to say so. Very respectfully yours, 
 
 Timothy E. Howard. 
 
With the Beef Trust 95 
 
 MR. JOHN L. GREEN'S LETTER. 
 
 Indianapolis, December 23, 1908. 
 
 Mr. R. n. Shiel City: 
 
 Dear Sir — The levee you ask about is along the Wabash 
 below Vincennes, runnins: from the city line along the river 
 down to the C. & V. R. R. bridge, a distance of about ten 
 to twelve miles. The railroad grade up to Vincennes from 
 the bridge, and the levee built along the Wabash, protect 
 about twelve thousand acres of land, as fine for corn and 
 wheat as can be found anywhere in the State. This land, 
 before William H. Brevort built this levee along the river, 
 could be bought for $15 to $35 per acre, while now it read- 
 ily sells for $100 per acre, and some few pieces have been 
 sold for $125. I can remember when this land was all 
 covered with water most of the year. I have spent most 
 of my life there. I was born there in 1846 and lived there 
 until 1894. My father, William Green, located there in 
 1833, and his home is there now. I heard him say in the 
 past two years that nothing would do as much good for 
 that part of the State as to levee the Wabash from Terre 
 Haute to the mouth. It would redeem enough land on both 
 sides of the river that the com and wheat produced would 
 pay the cost in a very few years. No finer corn and wheat 
 are grown anywhere than in the Wabash River bottoms. 
 Knox county, Indiana, and Lawrence county, Illinois, pro- 
 duce as much wheat and corn, and as fine in quality, as is 
 produced anywhere. 
 
 I can remember in younger days that three to five steam- 
 boats of good size were busy the year around in hauling 
 corn and wheat, covering the distance from Terre Haute to 
 the mouth of the river, while now you seldom see any boats 
 
96 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 of size. Occasionally yon will see some little boat with one 
 or two barg'es trying to find water enough to get along. 
 While there is a great deal of money being spent to protect 
 the fish and game, why not look to the interest of the many 
 by protecting the low land along the river, and land that 
 will increase in vahie, so the wheat and com produced will 
 pay the cost in a very few years? 
 
 William H. Brevort, who built this short levee himself 
 at his expense, should have the thanks of many a small 
 farmer who lives along the river bank, and now derives 
 the benefit of his work. There is an effort being made now 
 to build a levee from what is know^n as St. Thomas over to 
 the hills at Deckers, on the E. & T. H. R. R., which, with 
 what has been done by Brevort, will redeem some fifty to 
 sixty thousand acres of as fine corn and wheat land as can 
 be found anywhere. The same land now is not worth over 
 fifty dollars an acre, while if protected it would readily 
 sell for $100. I could tell you of other lands that would 
 be benefited, but think this will give you an idea of what 
 you have asked me for. Yours truly, 
 
 J. L. Green. 
 
With the Beef Tkust 97 
 
 "WEST BADEN SPRINGS HOTEL. 
 ^A^EST BADEN, IND- 
 
 MR. LEE WILEY SINCLAIR'S LETTER. 
 
 West Baden, Ind., December 9, 1908. 
 
 R. R. Shiel, Indianapolis, Ind. : 
 
 Dear Sir — Yours of December 7th received, and at your 
 request am sending you the following: 
 
 Lee Wiley Sinclair, capitalist, born at Cloverdale, Put- 
 nam county, Indiana, February 18, 1836 ; reared on a farm, 
 educated in country schools. Was engaged in the woolen 
 mills business at Greencastle, Salem, Indiana, and South 
 Chicago, Illinois, until 1888. In 1888 bought one-third in- 
 terest in the West Baden Springs and in 1901 acquired en- 
 tire interest of partnership, organized and is president of 
 the West Baden Springs Company. In 1902 erected at this 
 resort a hotel costing one million dollars. This hotel is un- 
 doubtedly the most unique and complete in the world. Is 
 now, and has been, president of the Bank of Salem since 
 1880 ; is also president of the West Baden National Bank, 
 which he organized in 1902. He is interested in various in- 
 dustries in the State. Yours very truly, 
 
 'Tres/' 
 
 [7] 
 
98 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 MR. FRANK F. DEAN'S LETTER. 
 
 Solon, Ind., December 13, 1908. 
 
 R. U. Shiel, Indianapolis, ind.: 
 
 Dear Comrade — Yours of the 7th inst. received last 
 night, the delay being caused by it going to Marble Hill, 
 which is not my postoftice now. I am sorry for the delay, 
 but it can't be helped now. 
 
 In answer to your inquiry, I would say that the soil of 
 our hillsides is eminently suited to blue grass, and it will 
 grow there equal to any place in the country. The cliffs 
 are magnesian and blue shell limestone. 
 
 As to apples and peaches, that while some localities may 
 produce better apples, it is doubtful ; and as to peaches, we 
 have demonstrated in past years that we can beat the world 
 in quality and flavor. T have sold peaches in Cincinnati in 
 competition with peaches from Delaware, Ohio and Ken- 
 tucky, and in Chicago in competition with Michigan 
 peaches, frequently at double the prices they brought. 
 
 Mr. Leland, proprietor of the Leland Hotel in Chicago, 
 who was a California man, once told me that he would 
 rather have one bushel of my peaches, for his own eat- 
 ing, than a carload of California peaches. Twenty years 
 ago the hills along the Ohio river on both sides were cov- 
 ered with peach trees, my father, self and brothers having 
 125,000 trees in bearing, resulting in overstocking the mar- 
 ket to the extent that the planting of more orchards ceased, 
 and the orchards dying out, there is not many grown in 
 this vicinity now, although the industry is being revived. 
 
 My brother, Hiram P., who lives at 3440 N. Salem street, 
 Indianapolis, in connection with some other Indianapolis 
 
With the Beef Trust 99 
 
 parties, set out 9,000 peach and apple trees in the last two 
 years, and expect to plant 30,000 more in the Spring. 
 
 I believe that the river hillsides would produce fine 
 grapes also. 
 
 If I can do anything further to aid you, let me know 
 and I will do what I can. Yours very truly, 
 
 Frank F. Dean. 
 
 MR. E. R. SMITH'S LETTER. 
 
 Indianapolis, Ind., December 19, 1908. 
 
 Hon. R. R. Shiel, Indianapolis, Tnd.: 
 
 My Dear Sir — In replying to your question concerning 
 rural life in Franklin county, Indiana, and my relations 
 thereto, I beg you to indulge a bit of personal history that 
 will in part answer your inquiry. For the past twenty 
 years I have traveled in the States West of Pennsylvania, 
 and as my early life was spent on a farm, it has been easy 
 for me to keep up my bucolic interests, especially since I 
 have had the general management of the home farm for 
 many years. 
 
 The most of my traveling has been in Montana, Idaho, 
 Colorado, Wyoming and the Coast States, and I have 
 watched with great interest the discussions of such ques- 
 tions as ''The extension of wheat and corn belts, "The 
 irrigation of arid lands, " " The grazing of sheep and cattle 
 on public lands," etc., etc. The changes brought about in 
 , these Western States have been like bringing new worlds 
 into view. Of course, I have always studied them in com- 
 parison with my home state, Indiana. For instance, I have 
 seen cattle and sheep grazed on the Western plains with 
 
100 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 great profit, where there is not as much grass on five acres 
 as there is in southern Indiana on one acre. I have seen 
 Western apples sell in our local markets at top prices al- 
 though they were in no way to be compared to our home 
 apples in flavor and color. I. saw the orchards of Missouri, 
 southern Illinois and Ohio develop and produce wonder- 
 fully. I could see no reason for Indiana being behind ex- 
 cept for want of trial, and finally after testing the lands in 
 many States I decided that there is no better place to raise 
 sheep and fruit, especially apples, than in southern In- 
 diana. 
 
 I examined many places and finally came upon the 
 "Bill Day" farm at Laurel, Franklin county, Indiana. 
 Here is a tract of 750 acres of rolling land that is well 
 grassed, well watered, and well wooded with choice hard- 
 wood timber. There is but little plow land, but an abun- 
 dance of orchard slope and blue grass pasture. 
 
 Before purchasing the land, I asked horticultural ex- 
 perts from Indiana and Ohio to visit the place and make de- 
 tailed reports as to the advisability of planting a commer- 
 cial orchard there. Their reports gave unqualified endorse- 
 ment to the plan. They discussed the top soil, subsoil, 
 stratas, surface drainage, soil drainage, air drainage, slope 
 of land, climate, etc., and found nothing wanting. Prof. 
 Cox, of Ohio, pronounced it the most desirable orchard site 
 he had ever examined. Upon the recommendation of these 
 men and our best nursery men, we have now planted 4,000 
 trees, all apple trees and all of the highest class fruit — 
 Jonathans, Grimes, Goldens, Wine Saps and Roman Beau- 
 ties. We shall add 6,000 more of the same varieties next 
 spring, planting in all about 300 acres. We are equipped 
 
With the Beef Trust 101 
 
 to give these trees and the ground the best possible care. 
 Ten years hence a half crop from this orchard, at present 
 prices, will yield $150,000. 
 
 In addition to our orchards, we will carry a herd of 
 thoroughbred sheep — the Hampshiredowns. These we will 
 breed exclusiA^ely for the spring lamb trade. They cannot 
 but do well on the blue grass hills. 
 
 Trusting T have answered your questions, I am, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 E. R. Smith. 
 
 MR. J. M. ZION'S LETTER. 
 Clark's Hill, Ind., December 16, 1908. 
 
 Mr. R. R. Shiel, Indianapolis. Ind.: 
 
 "Wm. Zion was bom at Washington C. H., Penn., Feb- 
 ruary 12, 1812. Started West in 1882, stopping at Rush- 
 ville, Ind., where he married, and journeyed into Boone 
 county, Indiana, in 1833. He became sheriff of Boone 
 county in 1839. About 1844 he hewed down and ''cleared" 
 20 acres of heavy white oalv and walnut timber. The land 
 is now a part of the town of Lebanon. He planted seven 
 acres of apples such as Vandever, Bellflower, Northern Spy, 
 Jem ton. Golden Russet, etc., all of which produced excel- 
 lent crops two years out of three, which were shipped to 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, in car lots. This orchard became famous 
 throughout the State and was profitable for forty years. 
 
 James M. Zion, son of William Zion, was bom at Leb- 
 anon, Indiana, September 22, 1848. He attended school 
 in winter (three months), working on his father's farm and 
 orchard before school time and after, and also when there 
 
102 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 was no school. He became a telegrapher and railroad sta- 
 tion agent, going West to San Francisco in 1879. He was a 
 close observer of the beginning and development of fruit 
 growing in California, Oregon and Washington. Always 
 appreciating the Pacific Coast States' apples, pears, plums 
 and peaches as the most beautiful grown (with five excep- 
 tions) , he yet knew that they did not possess the fine flavor 
 of such fruits grown in his father's orchard in Indiana. 
 The growing popularity of the Pacific coast fruits in the 
 Eastern markets, regardless of their flavor, aroused his 
 jealousy for his native State (Indiana) ; and for many 
 years he could never buy or hear of apples grown in In- 
 diana, as there were not only no apples grown there but 
 that it was generally believed apples could not be grown 
 in Indiana, especially in the central belt of the State. Such 
 was the nature of bulletins sent out by Horticultural and 
 Agricultural universities and crude ''Experimental" Sta- 
 tions conducted by Professors who knew no more about 
 apples or how to grow them than ' ' Grape ' ' fruit, then un- 
 known. As I grew older I became more interested and 
 anxious that my native State should be aroused to the fact 
 that Indiana could grow successfully the best-flavored and 
 (some varieties) most beautiful in the world if her people 
 could be taught to adopt modem methods in their orchards, 
 and enact good horticultural laws, such as are enjoyed in 
 Pacific Coast States. 
 
 Priding in my native State and desiring to do what I 
 could to develop the horticultural interests of Indiana, I 
 decided to return and dedicate my means and energies to- 
 ward proving to the world that Indiana could grow beau- 
 tiful apples at a profit. 
 
With the Beef Tkust 103 
 
 My first step was to* purchase 320 acres of good corn, 
 wheat, oats and timber land in Tippecanoe county, in the 
 year 1889. Fifty acres were thoroughly drained and set 
 aside for an apple orchard, to the great surprise of every 
 land owner in this part of the State. Many said I might 
 as well plant orange trees, and that we could not grow ap- 
 ples in Indiana. In fact, our Experiment Stations were re- 
 porting the same thing, making an exception in Brown 
 county, a county that did not then grow any and today 
 does not grow but a few. Under such a cloud of ignorance 
 I at once saw I must establish an apple, pear, plum, peach 
 and cherry Experiment Station for the benefit of all those 
 in my State who could be induced to engage in fruit grow- 
 ing, especially apples. Consequently I set aside 10 acres 
 for Experiment Station in 1889, and 40 acres for a com- 
 mercial orchard. I have conducted both the Experiment 
 Station and orchard at an expense of $15,000.00. The 
 large number of letters of inquiry, congratulations, thanks, 
 etc., received almost daily, and the great and growing in- 
 terest in apple growing in our State, brings me gratifica- 
 tion — saying nothing about the success of my exhibits: 
 first prizes at best grower's exhibit in the State, Gold Medal 
 Apple Exhibit St. Louis, 1904; I have secured almost 
 enough blue ribbons (first prize) to make a circus tent. 
 One barrel of my beautiful apples, 17 to 191/^2 inches in cir- 
 cumference, went to "Sherry's," New York, for a swell 
 railroad banquet, which I thought not only a good adver- 
 tisement for myself but also for my State. Many of my 
 friends throughout the State, who had no confidence in my 
 enterprise, are now appreciating and planting large or- 
 chards. My desires and ambitions toward encouraging 
 
104 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 others to plant orchards are satisfied, except that we have 
 no horticultural legislation such as that enjoyed by Pa- 
 cific Coast States, which is imperative that we should be- 
 fore we can make a complete success. I anticipate it at 
 next session of Leg'islature instead of the so-called Nursery 
 Inspection Law, the most deceptive and pernicious ever en- 
 acted. J. M. ZioN. 
 
 MR. A. M. GRAHAM'S LETTER. 
 
 Madison, Ind., December 19, 1908. 
 
 Mr. Roger R. Shiel, Indianapolis, Indiana: 
 
 My Dear Comrade — ^Your letter received and I gladly 
 comply with your request for a brief statement of our 
 family history. 
 
 My granrlfather, Thomas Graham, was born in Scot- 
 land, near Edinburgh, in 1809. He came to America in 
 1830 with his wife, and settled in Cincinnati. He was en- 
 gaged in the bakery business there, and after one year he 
 came to Madison, Indiana, and continued in the bakery 
 business. He died in 1861, at the age of fifty-two years. 
 He accumulated a competence of more than thirty thousand 
 dollars, which was considered a large fortune at that time. 
 He was survived by seven sons and one daughter. 
 
 My father, Thomas Graham, was born at Madison in 
 1839. He died at the same place in 1901. He was in. the 
 forefront of Madison 's business affairs during his life. He 
 was many times elected to office in Jefferson county. He 
 entered the army as a private soldier and reached the rank 
 of Major in the 39th Indiana Regiment Volunteer Infantry, 
 later 8th Indiana Cavalry. 
 
With the Beef Trust 105 
 
 My father Avas an ambitious man, and did much for me 
 and my brothers. He sent one of them to Europe to fin- 
 ish his education for the practice of medicine. This brother, 
 Alois B. Graham, is now practicing in Indianapolis, and is 
 one of the ranking physicians of that city. Another 
 brother, Thomas A. Graham, was sent to Hanover College 
 and educated for the Presbyterian ministry. He studied 
 theology at Princeton University and has occupied the 
 pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church at Richmond, In- 
 diana, for the past five years. He is still a very young 
 man, and his friends confidently expect great things of him. 
 Myself and brother John have been engaged in the manu- 
 facturing business, and have been successful. 
 
 My grandfather, over seventy years ago, was impressed 
 with the need for agricultural improvements and the bet- 
 terment of stock. His business as baker brought him in 
 touch with farmers and millers during his day, and many 
 were the conferences he had with men of the original stock 
 farm and men of the soil about the prospects for the fu- 
 ture. 
 
 My father, although a manufacturer, was a close ob- 
 server, and often spoke of the needs of the farmer and the 
 stock raiser more than he did of the river interests. He 
 saw the Ohio dry so often that he almost despaired of its 
 importance as a navigable stream ; but he had an abiding 
 faith in the soil and in the farmer, which he always said 
 would be the great sources of wealth in this country. He 
 always complained of the lack of quality of the stock in 
 his early days, and he had no use for the fishing farmer or 
 for the man whom the sun on rising found in bed. 
 
 Major Graham left what was regarded a large fortune. 
 
106 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 He was public-spirited and took an active part in promot- 
 ing the welfare of his native town. 
 
 As you know, father and you, and your brother James, 
 were in the army together and served in the same regiment. 
 I have often heard my father recount the many deeds of 
 daring and valor performed by you and your brother. 
 
 It is a matter of much regret that I did not pay more 
 attention to these things, for they are of much importance, 
 and I believe that people should have an intimate knowl- 
 edge of their ancestors, but unfortunately we pay too little 
 attention to such things. 
 
 Trusting this will give you the facts you want, and with 
 best wishes to you and yours, I am your friend, 
 
 A. M. Graham. 
 
 MR. S. HENRY SKELTON'S LETTER. 
 
 Boston Chamber of Commerce, December 23, 1908. 
 
 Mr. R. B. Shiel, Indianapolis, Ind. : 
 
 Dear Sir — Your favor of the 19th received. I doubt if 
 any combine, even the Beef People, can be induced to act 
 reasonably. Such concerns are worse than the Standard 
 Oil can possibly be. The Beef Combine will discount all 
 others in its far-reaching effects. They now handle prod- 
 uce, eggs, butter and all food products, and make the prices 
 dearer instead of cheaper by their methods. They crowd 
 the middle man out of business. I have had a time with 
 them since July in getting a license for an independent 
 packing house at Everett. They have used their influence 
 and money freely, and report has it that they spent over 
 $8,000 in the city of Everett, about four miles from Bos- 
 
With the Beef Trust 107 
 
 ton, in shutting me out of getting a license, and they make 
 their brag that no man can get a license within ten miles 
 of Boston. I am taking my fight with them over into Janu- 
 ary, and shall not give up. Will send you copy by next 
 mail of circular I issued to the citizens of Everett on this 
 matter. 
 
 They are now in Buenos Ayres, and the Schwarzchild & 
 Sulzberger Co. are going there also for cattle and sheep 
 for their European trade. I presume you will visit that 
 point on your trip. I intend going there myself as soon 
 as I get my packing house started here. I would like to 
 remark here that the duty has got to come off of meat and 
 hides, or poor men cannot live here decently. 
 
 I presume I can tell more, for I knoAv more about the 
 Swifts getting control of all the Eastern houses than most 
 any one else outside of the Swifts themselves. I was head 
 man for ten years for the Norths Co. with them, and I know 
 a great deal I have never told to any one. They pressed 
 me out of business, and made my $225,000 worth of stock 
 shrink out of sight by not paying any dividends on the 
 North stock for seven years, and by putting the price down 
 to $55 a share for what cost me $100. They have paid divi- 
 dends of 7 per cent, on North stock for the past two years, 
 but pay nothing on Squire's, ^nd won't until they drive the 
 few remaining shares into cover. They are coining money 
 here now, and have the entire control of New England. 
 
 AnsAvering your question, they bought the control of 
 North in January, 1890. I was with them ten years, dur- 
 ing which time they always paid dividends and left a good 
 surplus. No more dividends were paid until January, 1907, 
 or 1908. 
 
108 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 They bought the Squire plant for 14 cents on the dol- 
 lar, and also the bonuses of other parties in interest, said 
 to be quite large. They bought the Niles and paid a good 
 price. They crowded White, Pevey & Dexter out of busi- 
 ness and bought their plant at a favorable price. The Mer- 
 win Co. and Sperry & Barnes they consolidated after buy- 
 ing the latter, and crowded Coe out. 
 
 You can go all over the country for a like example of 
 highhandedness, and not even the Standard Oil will be 
 found in it with the beef men. 
 
 Always pleased to hear from you. 
 
 Yours sincerly, 
 
 S. Henry Skelton. 
 
 MR. THOMAS K. MULL'S LETTER. 
 
 Manilla, Ind., December 18, 1908. 
 
 R. B. Shiel, Esq., Indianapolis, Ind.: 
 
 Dear Sir — ^Your letter of December 5th came during 
 my absence from home, and the hope of seeing you was a 
 further cause for delay in writing. 
 
 Taking the live stock of Rush county, I believe horses 
 and hogs, sheep also, have improved in breeding, but not 
 so with cattle. 
 
 Twenty years ago cattle feeders bought their Shorthorn 
 cattle here in the county, every farmer having good Short- 
 horn cows. Today Jerseys have taken their place, and to 
 a large extent feeding cattle are bought elsewhere. 
 
 Last Monday the Meyer boys sold 55 cattle, said to be 
 the best cattle going through the Union Stock Yards for 
 some time, and they were bought two years ago at Kansas 
 City. 
 
With the Beef Trust . 109 
 
 The general condition of the farming community is 
 much better than ever before. Three agencies have con- 
 tributed to this, I think in the order named: Rural free 
 delivery, the telephone, and better roads. 
 
 I thank you very much for your kindly interest, and 
 hope to talk to you scon. Respectfully, 
 
 Thos. K. Mull. 
 
 MR, CHARLES S. HERNLY'S LETTER. 
 United Industrial Co. 
 Indianapolis, Ind., December 29, 1908. 
 
 Mr. R. E. Shiel, Indiaiiopolis, Ind.: 
 
 Dear Sir — In 1882 I was riding on the train up near 
 Toledo, Ohio, and looking out of the window saw a dredg- 
 ing machine digging a drain, and I got off at the first sta- 
 tion the train stopped and got a horse and buggy and a 
 man to drive for me and went back and saw this dredging 
 machine work. I found this machine in charge of Mr. 
 Hosea Stock, and I asked him if he thought that kind of 
 machine would dig a ditch in Henry county, Indiana, where 
 I live. He said he would insure the thing to do the work 
 if there was enough water to float the boat. I told him 
 that I knew there would be plenty of water and that I 
 would like him to come over and dredge a drain through 
 what is known as the Blue River Valley in Henry county, 
 Indiana. 
 
 This was the first public improvement that I was con- 
 nected with in the county where I was born and reared. I 
 returned to my little office in New Castle in a few days and 
 found that the ditch law which had been passed by the 
 
110 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 Legislature of 1881 was operative, and began to get up a pe- 
 tition by describing all of the lands in 40-acre tracts or less 
 for the distance of ten miles down the Blue River Valley. 
 This took a long time and much hard work, but I never 
 was connected with anything that was easy to do and I 
 did not get discouraged. After I had the petition com- 
 pleted, I went to various farmers along up and down the 
 valley, and the prominent ones refused to sign it, because 
 they knew that it was wholly impracticable and such a 
 scheme never could be made to work and that the bottom 
 lands along Blue River Valley were so swampy that they 
 never could be reclaimed and that they never would be 
 worth anything ^nd they had tried to drain the lands time 
 and again by simply throwing out with the shovel and 
 spade, and I met with all sorts of discouragement and 
 worked at the proposition fully six months before I got one 
 man to agree with me that the plan was feasible and that 
 the valley could be reclaimed, thereby getting shut of the 
 chills and fever and miasma and reclaiming thousands of 
 acres of land that would produce annually from 80 to 100 
 bushels of com per acre. 
 
 One hot summer day in July I took a horse and buggy 
 and drove up to Burr Oak Schoolhouse, eight miles above 
 New Castle, where we wanted the ditch to begin, and met 
 four or five of the farmers at the upper end of the drain. 
 There I succeeded in getting two other men to sign the peti- 
 tion, and after various hard work finally got four or five 
 men to sign it, and I filed the petition in the Henry county 
 Circuit Court and the court appointed commissioners, and 
 we started in to dig the first ditch that was ever dug in 
 Henry county with a dredging machine. After the ditch 
 
With the Beef Trust 111 
 
 commissioners had made their assessments, pretty nearly 
 every farmer and land owmer along the line of the ditch re- 
 monstrated against the improvement, and we lawed the 
 matter through the courts for a year or more, but finally 
 the drain was established and the matter referred to the 
 ditch commissioners for execution and completion of the 
 drain according to the plans of the engineer. I then wrote 
 to Mr. Stock at Toledo. Ohio, and had him come to New 
 Castle and look over the plans and specifications of the 
 ditch, and he came and staid three or four days, and 
 was the successful bidder and started in with his dredging 
 machine in due time, and after two and one-half years the 
 ditch was completed. 
 
 This was one of the hardest struggles of my lifetime for 
 public improvement, and after it was over the court al- 
 lowed me $750 for attorneys' fees, but there never was 
 any improvement made in Henry county equal to that. 
 Today this is the most valuable and productive land in 
 Henry county, a great majority of which needs no tile or 
 lateral drains. The farmers had dug a great many lateral 
 drains and put in tiling, but after the dredging machine 
 passed through and dug the ditch, the tile drains mostly 
 went dry and the water level settled until they were no 
 longer of any use or necessity. This land raises corn every 
 year of the best quality, and a very large yield to the acre. 
 A great many people got furiously mad at me, and several 
 of them would not speak to mc after the drain had been 
 established and after it had reclaimed many acres of worth- 
 less land on their farms. 
 
 No man or citizen in Henry county has ever been able 
 to calculate or estimate the value of this one improvement 
 
112 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 to that grand old county in Indiana that has been one of 
 the foremost agricultural counties in the State of Indiana. 
 This drain brought lands into cultivation and enhanced 
 their value from $10 an acre to $100 per acre or more at 
 a very moderate cost to the land owners. It drained a dis- 
 mal swamp of thousands of acres of worthless, disease-pro- 
 ducing territory into a perpetual valley of rich, fertile 
 black lands that can never be worn out, and it is to that one 
 thing, the digging of this drain, more than any other, that 
 has brought Henry county prominently to the front as one 
 of the great corn-producing counties of Indiana and prob- 
 ably the third or fourth hog-producing county of the grand 
 old Hoosier State. It has brought hundreds of thousands 
 of dollars in return and paid many times over and over 
 what it cost the farmers for the original expenditure in 
 draining this land, and has done more than any one thing 
 to add to Henry county 's fame and pride of being the home 
 of the wild flower and the honey bee. 
 
 Yours Yery truly, 
 
 Charles S. Hernly. 
 
Mr. Shiel 's Second Letter to the Com- 
 mission. 
 
 Commission on Country Life, Washington, D. C: 
 
 My Dear Sirs — Some time in January I caused to be 
 mailed you copies of a brief in reply to your inquiry which 
 came to me about the 10th of December, as to Ohio, Indi- 
 ana and Illinois. At the time I received your letter I had 
 made arrangements to leave home to visit South America 
 and Cuba about the 10th or 15th of December, and I only 
 had four or five days to dictate the brief, which my man- 
 ager had printed. When I arrived at Washington on my 
 return in February, I saw that there were some errors as 
 to dates and places and some misprints in it, and I feel it 
 due you, myself and the. readers that it should be repub- 
 lished — I have had it proofed correctly. I feel also that it 
 is necessary to furnish you further data on this line at this 
 time when there is so much agitation regarding the tariff 
 bill, and certainly there is no one more interested in this 
 tariff bill, in which the whole country is concerned, than 
 the farmer. 
 
 I will now take up what is well known as the Meat 
 Trusts. There are at least ten of them, and I will take 
 them up in turn and deal with each as I come to it. 
 
 The greatest Trust in the known world is the Pennsyl- 
 vania Railroad Company, which has been largely operated 
 by one Samuel Allerton, of Chicago, Illinois. I have per- 
 sonally known him for at least forty-one or two years, and 
 he is the ''High Priest," leading all combinations and 
 
 [8] (113^ 
 
114 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 organizing more of them than any other one man. The 
 Pennsylvania Railroad is what might be called a large 
 Department Store. They own and operate practically 
 everything and everybody on the lines of their roads. 
 
 The next great Trust to that is the Hollis Hides, Tallow, 
 Dressed Lambs and Sheep Company, of Boston. I will 
 name them in routine as I knew them and operated with 
 them. The third, Nelson Morris & Co., Chicago; fourth. 
 Swift & Co., Chicago; fifth, Hammond & Co., Chicago; 
 sixth, Kingan & Co., Indianapolis, and St. Clair & Co., 
 Cedar Rapids, Iowa; seventh. Armour & Co., Chicago; 
 eighth, Cudahy & Co., Milwaukee, and ninth, the National 
 Packing Co., Chicago. 
 
 FIRST, THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD ' COMPANY. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Railway Company own and operate 
 practically all the cars they use on their lines. They own 
 and operate practically all the stock yards on the lines of 
 their roads, which are the greatest thieves in the. known 
 world. They also own all of the packing houses on their 
 lines with the exception of two at Dayton, Ohio. The pack- 
 ing houses they don't own or control are: Ray & Co. 
 and Dunlevy Bros., Pittsburg, Pa.; Wm. Zollers & Co., 
 Allegheny, Pa.; Seltzer Bros., and Jacob Ullmer & Co., 
 Pottsville, Pa.; Stowers Packing Co, Scranton, Pa.; J. J. 
 Felan & Son, G-ermantown, Pa.; Pennsylvania Packing Co., 
 Philadelphia, Pa.; Hart Bros., Wilmington, Del.; C. Hoh- 
 man, and his eight sons. Company, Baltimore, Md. ; F. 
 Schenk, and six sons. Company, Wheeling, W. Va. They 
 educate the employes in their own stock yards to practice 
 fraud on everyone who does not succumb to their dictation. 
 
With the Beef Trust 115 
 
 They buy practically all the cattle on the line of their roads 
 that are fit to be exported. They export all the cattle in 
 their own ships to practically all parts of Great Britain; 
 Sam Allerton being the ''King Bee" and making all the 
 rates on his road, paying all the rebates, adjusting and set- 
 tling all claims, etc. He first commenced in Chicago during 
 or before the war running a packing house. He employed 
 one George B. Wilson, then a boy, just my age, who soon 
 grew up to be his bookkeeper. Sometime about thirty-three 
 to thirty-five years ago he organized a firm that was then 
 known as Allerton & Wilson for the purpose of slaughtering 
 hogs in Jersey City in one of his stock yards, to sell to the 
 cutters in and about Jersey City and New York. In a short 
 time afterwards he organized what was known at that time 
 as a combination, taking into this combination practically 
 all the slaughterers doing business in New York: Brain- 
 ard Bros., doing business in Jersey City, Philadelphia 
 and Pittsburg (there were three brothers) ; Monroe Crane, 
 West street; C. H. Davis & Co., J. Love & Co., West foot 
 Thirty-ninth street; Tilden & Co., of Chicago; W. 0. 
 Stalnacker, later Stalnacker & Son (the son, Will Stal- 
 n acker, was at one time mayor of Yonkers and a member 
 of Congress for a number of terms, and well known in New 
 York) ; Spring & Haynes, foot West Fortieth street; G. V. 
 Bartlett & Co., one time in New York, but later in Jersey 
 City. I could name a number of other smaller ones who 
 had to enter into the combination in order to do any busi- 
 ness in New York and have their stock delivered on time. 
 This combination, however, had parties connected with the 
 New York Central, operated at that time by Mr. Dutcher, 
 who was and is stock agent, who occupied the same place 
 
116 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 with the New York Central that Allerton did on the Penn- 
 sylvania. However, the New York Central did not follow 
 it up in the same way that Allerton did, as they never went 
 into the exporting of live stock, or into the slaughtering 
 as a business, as a company, but they did own, control and 
 manipulate New York Central stock yards at the West foot 
 of Sixtieth street; Albany, N. Y., stock yards, which were 
 very large, and the Buffalo stock yards, all of which were 
 on the line of their road, and no one could unload or feed 
 a car of stock on their road east of Buffalo except in their 
 yards. 
 
 I commenced selling Allerton & Wilson largely when 
 they began business in New York. This was before we built 
 the stock yards in Indianapolis. At that time the two rail- 
 roads were handing out rebates to large shippers of from 
 $15 to $25 per car, according to the distance shipped, when 
 they had a train load. Allerton and Dutcher were the men 
 who were handing out the money, and if I could make my 
 rebates on my heavy shipments I had a good profit. After 
 we built the yards at Indianapolis I commenced buying on 
 commission, charging $6 a double deck for buying hogs and 
 $10 for cattle and sheep, with the exception of those pur- 
 chased for customers in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Wash- 
 ington. They required a closer sort, and I got $8 and $10 
 from W. E. Clark in Washington; E. G. Rheinthaler & 
 Co., Philadelphia; Jacob C. Schaffer, Baltimore; W. P. 
 Harvey & Co. and Charles G. Kreil, Baltimore, and a num- 
 ber of others. The New York people kicked on my com- 
 mission, but they soon paid it without a murmur. Allerton 
 & Wilson became very large customers of mine, possibly the 
 largest I had in New York, as Wilson ordered me to buy 
 
With the Beef Teust 117 
 
 up to 15 cars a day, when I saw they were worth the 
 money, Wilson and I became very close friends. I never 
 had a better one, and he never had a better friend than I 
 was. He Avas the brightest accountant and the best book- 
 keeper I ever knew, the earliest man up and the last one 
 to bed in New York or Jersey City. This he continued up 
 to the time of his death, some few months ago. He in- 
 variably told me how they were doing, and the different 
 rebates that the "High Priest," Allerton, was giving the 
 different shippers. Of course, Allerton and Wilson were 
 practically the Pennsylvania Railroad for a time. Some 
 twenty-three to twenty-five years ago Allerton drew out of 
 the firm, and the firm has been known since as George B. 
 Wilson & Co., and are still the largest operators in the Penn- 
 sylvania stock yards in Jersey City, and the largest slaugh- 
 terers for New York, Jersey City, Newark, Brooklyn and 
 the neighboring trade. At this time United States Senator 
 McPherson, of New Jersey, was one of the very largest 
 operators in the Pennsylvania yards on the Jersey side. 
 Then at that time, thirty years ago, John Taylor, of Tren- 
 ton, N. J., was a very large operator. He had a good pack- 
 ing house and a stock yard where he sold dressed hogs off 
 the hooks to the immediate towns, and finally got to ship- 
 ping to towns on the lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
 even into Newark and Jersey City. He showed strong com- 
 petition to the Pennsylvania road and the New York Ex- 
 change, and they soon set about to put him out of busi- 
 ness. He was at that time a very rich man and had served 
 a number of terms in the State Senate, and was one of 
 the very ablest men there was on the Republican side of the 
 Senate. I frequently met him as a delegate to Republican 
 
118 Twenty Yeaks in Helt^ 
 
 National conventions. John and I often talked about it, he 
 contending that they would not be able to break him, but 
 they finally got him not only broke in financial matters, but 
 the great good man died a poor man under the pressure. 
 They have practically wiped out or absorbed every packing 
 house on the line of their roads, with the exception of some 
 few small operators out in the anthracite coal regions and 
 the Pennsylvania Packing Company, which was owned by 
 E. G. Rheinthaller & Co., Philadelphia. Rheinthaller is 
 one of the wealthy men of Philadelphia, president of a big 
 trust company, and having a local trade sufficient to keep 
 up his plant. He was one time treasurer of Philadelphia. 
 
 In Pittsburg they absorbed and took in what is now 
 known as the Pittsburg Packing and Provision Company. 
 This they did at the time they bought what was known 
 as the Huz Island stock yards, owned and operated by the 
 Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, and moved the East 
 Liberty stock yards, which was their big yard, and consoli- 
 dated the two. Allerton's man Friday, Simon O'Donell, 
 who was known in the trade in Chicago, Pittsburg, Phila- 
 delphia and New York as the ' ' King of Ireland, ' ' was the 
 promoter of this consolidation. Some twenty-five or thirty 
 years ago he was working in the slaughter house of Aller- 
 ton & Wilson, then he got to be feed boss and working for 
 Allerton in the stock yards in Jersey City, where he learned 
 to feed short rations. At the time of the separation of 
 Allerton & Wilson, Wilson drove O'Donell out of his office 
 with a gun, calling him a thief. Allerton took him up, and 
 he has been the man who has done practically all the dirty 
 work for the Pennsylvania road since that time. He pays 
 all the rebates. In recent years he has always been looking 
 for a man that has his hand behind his back. 
 
With the Beef Trust 119 
 
 After the passage of the Elkins anti-rebate law and the 
 Sherman anti-trust law, Allerton became afraid of having 
 to go to the penitentiary if he continued handing out re- 
 bates. I told Allerton that it was a violation of the Elkins 
 law to ride on a pass, and that I would take no more of 
 his passes, nor could I permit anybody to give me in any 
 way any rebate. Allerton took a tip, I think, from this, and 
 employed this Irishmen, who was known as a Turk. There 
 is an Irishman and a Jew, or a Jew and an Irishman, in 
 everything that is corrupt in practically every country in 
 the world. There is no man who thinks more of and has a 
 higher regard for a Jewish woman or an Irish woman than 
 I have. No women of any nationality rear better Roosevelt 
 families than the Irish and Jewish women. Some of the 
 greatest and best men and some of the fairest dealers I 
 have met in my business career have been Jews, and some 
 of the best men have been Irish, but when you find a Jew 
 or an Irishman without any conscience, a burglar is a gen- 
 tleman beside him. A burglar, may be hungry, poor and 
 forced to steal, but when he goes to burglarize he takes his 
 life in his hands, and when cornered will kill. I have had 
 two of them in my house, but as I desired no controversy 
 with them, told them to take what they had to have and 
 get out, and leave me and my family to our slumbers. But 
 a Jew and an Irishman without a conscience, and who are 
 robbing everybody in every way, are always cowards. So 
 I shall deal now with Allerton 's man Friday, the King of 
 Ireland, who is an Irishman without a conscience, and not 
 much brains. Allerton called him to Chicago some twenty- 
 five years ago, putting him in the commission business for 
 the purpose of buying stock to go on slop feed on his ( Aller- 
 
120 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 ton's) farms in Piatt, Vermilion (Joe Cannon's county) 
 and other counties in Illinois, from 16,000 to 20,000 
 acres of the best land in Illinois, worth from $140 to $200 
 an acre. This was probably Allerton's own private enter- 
 prise, but the Pennsylvania Railroad had 'Donell buy all 
 their cattle for export, and buy hogs for slaughter, or buy 
 for any business they had on the lines of their road. 
 O 'Donell soon got into the business for himself under the 
 name of Simon O 'Donell, and the King became a big com- 
 mission man, practically doing business only for AUerton 
 and the Pennsylvania Railroad, unknown at the time to the 
 trade. He soon got into politics, unknown to politicians — 
 except as a Democratic heeler in Jersey City. He soon 
 came to be Allerton's political boss and a Republican. I 
 was at a meeting at the Auditorium some eighteen or twenty 
 years ago, when- Allerton was a candidate for mayor of Chi- 
 cago. I went to the meeting to hear Allerton make a speech. 
 It was a time when I did a little politics on the side. I 
 found O 'Donell bossing the job and being the whole thing, 
 at the meeting, doing the ushering. I felt interested in the 
 election at the time. I called on O 'Donell the next day at 
 Allerton's headquarters. He was then handing out the 
 stuff, bossing the whole job. It was said that Allerton spent 
 from a quarter to a half a million dollars trying to get 
 elected, but he was badly beaten. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Railroad and the Beef Trust, about 
 twenty years ago, determined they would have to get rid 
 of me, as I was burning the candle at both ends. I was 
 buying high grade stock at high grade prices for the little 
 butchers — there were hundreds of them — and I never had a 
 man to say I paid too much for stock when I got the kind 
 
With the Beef Trust 121 
 
 he wanted. . The butchers were selling their high grade 
 direct to the trade. The Beef Trust was buying low grade 
 for the United States and sending all their high grade 
 abroad, so they organized to get rid of me at any cost. They 
 went so far as to put the Vandalia Railroad in the hands of 
 a receiver, a man known as V. T. Malott, president of the 
 Indiana National Bank of Indianapolis, Indiana. I was 
 banking with Malott, doing from two to four million dol- 
 lars business a year. Before this time they had organized 
 a live stock exchange at Indianapolis, and at this exchange 
 they made rules. It soon became a national exchange. I 
 was buying stock at 6 o'clock in the morning under the 
 rules which applied to all other markets when we opened 
 the yards in Indianapolis thirty-two years ago. Bob Mc- 
 Kee, afterwards the son-in-law of President Harrison and 
 "Baby" McKee's father, was weigh-m aster some two years 
 then, thirty-two years ago. Joseph T. Fanning, Belmont's 
 private secretary, who occupies three elegant rooms at the 
 Waldorf-Astoria, in New York, was shipping clerk for the 
 yards, and shipped out trains almost every day for me. 
 They finally got the organization up to a point that, ten 
 years ago, they passed a resolution not to sell to me. Dur- 
 ing this time they changed the time for opening the mar- 
 ket to 8 o'clock — they first made it 7, then 8, while the 6 
 o'clock rule prevailed at all the other markets. I had a 
 wire direct into Boston, New York and all the Eastern mar- 
 kets. The exchange waited to get a telegram from every 
 market before they would sell anything, and in that way I 
 would not be able to wire the East what the market was in 
 Indianapolis. So my customers in the East told me to buy 
 anything and everything fii*st-class quality, and to send 
 
122 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 along anything I could get if it was worth the money, and 
 during six months in the year I bought seventy to eighty 
 per cent, of all the good hogs and ninety per cent, of all the 
 good cattle on their instructions to use my own judgment. 
 
 Then the stock yards company and commission exchange 
 met with the bosses and passed a resolution that I could not 
 weigh all the stock I bought on the scales I designated them 
 to be weighed on, and if I would not consent to weigh on 
 scales selected by them, they would do no more business 
 with me. To this I could not and would not consent, as I 
 would be robbed at every turn, and they passed a resolu- 
 tion not to do any more business with me. They had two 
 pair of scales adjusted, one to weigh light in when they were 
 the buyers, and the other heavy out when they were the sell- 
 ers; this was done to suit the commission men. I kicked 
 on the matter, and they met and passed a resolution to do 
 no more business with me unless I submitted to their scales, 
 and I never have done a dollar's worth of business since 
 with any of the members of that exchange, except with 
 those who later left and went over to the new yard with me. 
 
 Every year since they put me out of the new yard I 
 have had frequent talks with John M. Shaw, general man- 
 ager of Kingan & Co., H. C. Graybill, traffic manager of 
 the stock yards, and Del Benson, who has been most of the 
 time since president of the stock yards exchange, about get- 
 ting back and doing business in the yards. These men were 
 the manipulators of the yards. The real man, however, 
 was T. Smith Graves, who was president of the exchange 
 at the time all this trouble was going on, and has since been 
 president of the national exchange, and who was the great- 
 est actor I ever knew. Shaw, Graybille and Benson were all 
 
With the Beef Tkust 123 
 
 friendly to me, but had to obey the orders of their corpora- 
 tion. Graves was one of those men known to all first-class 
 business men as one who would rather make dollars than 
 reputation for his corporation. I will treat Graves 
 in the light that the majority knew him in the Indianapolis 
 stock yards since the time he came there, when telling the 
 facts in regard to Kingdn & Co., which will be number 
 six. 
 
 I appealed to the country through the newspapers, pay- 
 ing for my appeal by the line, at an expense of many thou- 
 sands of dollars, to send me their stock on consignment, tell- 
 ing them I would take care of them at one-fourth the com- 
 mission charged by the exchange. In less than three months 
 one-third of them had taken their hogs away from the com- 
 mission men, who were getting enormous commissions for 
 selling the stock, more than double what was charged when 
 the Indianapolis stock yards opened thirty-two years ago, 
 and consigned it to me. The old feeders, who were still in the 
 business of stock raising, knew me and had confidence that 
 I would deal fairly by them. Many of the young men en- 
 gaged in the business had been taught by their fathers who 
 had known me, this same confidence ; many of these young 
 men have the farms their fathers had left them. All the 
 men shipping hogs to me were able to bank themselves in 
 their own locality, and with no ropes about their necks. I 
 would not weigh on any scales but those I knew would give 
 good and honest weight. 
 
 It ran along three or four months, and I had the stock 
 yard manipulators sufficiently beaten, notwithstanding the 
 yard company was robbing me at the Bast end by swapping 
 my hogs where I loaded them out, and buying up some of 
 
124 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 the men I had looking after that part of the business. Some 
 of them had been working for me a long time. Then I had 
 John P. Squire & Co. as a customer, who had their own 
 private ears, who were taking a large output, some days as 
 high as thirty to fifty double deck cars. When I got them 
 in their care they were safe, as thieves could not get hold of 
 them. The fact is I could have used four hundred cars a 
 day with the customers I had in the East. 
 
 I organized to build a new stock yards, believing that I 
 could get away from the established stock yards and own 
 control of one myself — that is Squire and I — and a sup- 
 posed friend by the name of Irwin. We organized for 
 $300,000. I took $100,000 and Irwin $100,000, and Squire 
 $100,000, and I knew beyond a doubt that Squire would 
 stay with me until the last ditch, and felt that I had gotten 
 control of the yards. Allerton and Rauh, a fertilizer Jew, 
 who was president at that time of the yards that I caused 
 to be constructed in 1877, were trying to get rid of me, and 
 they sent for O'Donell to come from Chicago, as the Penn- 
 sylvania railroad was a big holder in the Indianapolis stock 
 yards. Allerton knew that I was taking all the good stuff 
 away from them. O'Donell came down and proposed to 
 go into partnership. I said I could not let anybody in — 
 we had all the men in we wanted. The next week he came 
 back again and said: ''Rhody, I want to get in, I want to 
 help you do up that Jew. ' ' He said : ' ' That Jew must be 
 done up, let us in and we will take all your cattle." Mr. 
 Allerton sent him down to tell me this, and that the Penn- 
 sylvania Railroad stood back of them. 
 
 He went out and had a talk with Irwin, and the next 
 morning he came to my office from Rauh's office, got on his 
 
With the Beef Trust 125 
 
 knees, pulled a cross and made a prayer, and said : ' ' Rhody, 
 for God sake let me in, I want to help blow up that Jew. ' ' 
 I said ' ' No, ' ' but in a few days he had prevailed on Irwin 
 and took it up with Squire, showing what they were going 
 'to do about taking the cattle. I consented to make the stock 
 $500,000; Allerton to take $100,000, Irwin $100,000, Squire 
 $100,000, I $100,000 and $100,000 to stay in the treasury, 
 and I still felt that I had control, as I was tied with Irwin 
 in a contract so he could not sell his stock without mine 
 going also. 
 
 We went on and commenced the construction. I was 
 skeptical about the Irishman and the Jew all the time, but I 
 could not make Irwin believe it. Rauh and Allerton were 
 partners at the time and in less than six months Rauh had 
 Irwin a partner, too. We commenced and did a huge busi- 
 ness, having had to go into the United States court, employ 
 a lawyer, who won the case — charged $5,000 — to get our 
 stock unloaded on the Belt Road side tracks. Judge Baker 
 rendered a decision in our favor. Then we did a heavy 
 business, especially in hogs. We commenced in September, 
 1899, and by December we were doing an immense busi- 
 ness in hogs, but had not done much with cattle. The Mor- 
 gan Brothers, whom I mentioned in this brief, had between 
 1,500 and 3,000 of the best cattle in Indiana on feed about 
 seventy miles south of here on the Pennsylvania Railroad. 
 About the time the yards were to be opened I went down to 
 see the Morgans, as I had been buying their cattle for forty 
 years; arranged to handle all their cattle direct at half- 
 yardage and about half commission, and the cattle should 
 go direct to Allerton, New York, as bought by 'Donell. 
 
 After we had been open some little time the Morgans 
 
126 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 were to make the first shipment. I think it was ten or 
 twelve cars they sent up, or rather John Morgan came up 
 with them. I took O'Donell and sold them to him myself, 
 and at a fair price seemingly, yet it wasn't the price the 
 cattle would have brought in an open market. The next' 
 week O'Donell said he did not have any vessels and stood 
 me off — he did not want to take any and yet Morgan 
 wanted to get rid of some of the cattle. I called O'Donell 
 over the phone at Chicago then, and said we must take some 
 notice of Morgan's cattle. He said they would use ten or 
 twelve car loads on the next boat; to order the cattle up. 
 Morgan came up with the cattle. O'Donell turns up at 
 eight or nine o'clock in the day and says to me that they 
 could not buy any cattle, better send them on to Chicago. 
 I called him in my private office and locked the door, pulled 
 my gun and threw it right in his face and said; ''I am 
 going to kill you right here — Wilson ought tq have killed 
 you, but I am going to do it right here. You cannot do 
 this to me. ' ' He threw up both hands — I made him throw^ 
 them up — and commenced getting white. He said : ' ' Rhody, 
 don't kill me, don't kill me — you don't want me to lose my 
 'place. Morgan's cattle," he said, "were marked to go to 
 Chicago to be divided, and they have got to go there. 
 Allerton said if I buy any more cattle he would have to 
 discharge me and Morgan's cattle belong in the Chicago 
 territory to be divided there. ' ' 
 
 After he got down on his knees and prayed awhile I let 
 him go. I have never spoken to him since. I am a very 
 superstitious man — he has had all kinds of trouble, and if 
 he has not been in hell with the trouble he has had, he has 
 no conscience. 
 
With the Beef Trust 127 
 
 Malott, my banker, at this time, or McKee, his vice-presi- 
 dent, an uncle of ' ' Baby ' ' McKee, called me to the bank and 
 said: ''You owe $10,000 here, and as you are having a 
 good deal of trouble here we want our money." I said: 
 "Why, I don't owe you a cent. I only borrowed $10,000 
 about a week ago on a ninety-day paper. ' ' He said : ' ' Oh, 
 yes you do. " I said : ' ' Well, then, come over to my law- 
 yer 's," and we went across the street to Ed Daniels, now 
 master in chancery, and has been a partner of Ferd Win- 
 ters, who was successor to Harrison. My attorney went to 
 see him and they both said I need not pay till it was 
 due. I knew that. I said: "If your bank is going to 
 fail I will go and get the money, otherwise I will pay it 
 when it is due." When it was due I paid it. Later on 
 Malott protested a check that was issued in Illinois, a thing 
 that was never done to me before, and he Imew I was sick 
 in bed at home; I got it in the day between the time others 
 got their money and I made my deposit. I was always late 
 in depositing. I had been overchecked perhaps thirty or 
 fifty thousand dollars between deposits and had been over- 
 checked in other banks probably as much as sixty or sev- 
 enty-five thousand dollars. He threw the $1,200 check out, 
 and I got notice by postal of an overcheck of $2.68. That 
 was the amount that I was short to meet the $1,200 check. 
 This was the first time in my business career I ever received 
 a notice of an overcheck. This was all done to embarrass 
 me. They went after my credit, a thing that had never been 
 questioned from the day I first commenced business. How- 
 ever, I will finish this point later, and I wiU take up the 
 King of Ireland, Rauh, the fertilizer Jew, and Malott, the 
 Indianapolis banker, when I am touching on Kingan & Co. 
 
128 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 in number six. The fact is, I will have to touch the Penn- 
 sylvania Railroad in practically all of them, and when I 
 am touching the Pennsylvania Railroad I will be touching 
 Malott. 
 
 Note, several times I had fine steers taken out of a car 
 load passing through Pittsburg and bulls and Jerseys put 
 in their places, and three hundred pound hogs taken out and 
 pigs put in their places, just as Dutcher had permitted. 
 Dutcher is a gentleman beside, Allerton and O'Donell. The 
 fact is, Dutcher has always been a clever man, and when I 
 would call Dutcher down on a thing he would say it would 
 not happen again, and would always put it on to the com- 
 mission man in the yard, which was no doubt true, but 
 Wilson warned me to watch the Turk, for at Pittsburg the 
 King of Ireland would cut out a big one and put in a little 
 one himself — he was educated that way, so Wilson told me. 
 That was his long suit when a boy. 
 
 The greatest tearer down known in this country, and 
 perhaps to the world, is the Pennsylvania Railroad. They 
 tore down all the small roads in Indiana. The first road 
 they tore down in this State was the J. M. & I., running 
 from Indianapolis to Madison and Jeffersonville. They 
 tore down the Indianapolis & Vincennes, a road running 
 one hundred miles through a fertile country. They tore 
 down the Vandalia line, running from Terre Haute to 
 South Bend. All these roads had been built by subscrip- 
 tions and by assessments on the people along the lines of 
 the roads. They first broke down the value of the stock in 
 the markets until the roads were forced into the hands of 
 receivers, and then when sold on mortgage bought them in 
 for practically nothing. Those roads had to have an outlet to 
 
With the Beef Trust 129 
 
 New York and the East, and the Pennsylvania was the only 
 road running East they could connect with, and hence they 
 fell an easy prey to that giant corporation. Products to 
 foreign countries had to go over the Pennsylvania road. 
 And when the other roads went into the receiver's hands, 
 and the Pennsylvania got control of the stock, they soon 
 pushed the stock up to where it paid from 99 to par, and 
 they watered that. I can cite other points similar in other 
 States, but I am only calling attention to that coming under 
 my own observation. Of recent years they have constructed 
 some roads in Pennsylvania and the coal regions — they 
 found they had to, as all other roads were getting in there, 
 such as the Reading, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, 
 the Lehigh Valley and the Baltimore & Ohio. Their terri- 
 tories are in the iron and coal region. They have com- 
 menced constructing some and no doubt will construct many 
 others. Their management at this time is good ; in fact, it 
 has always been good after they got control, but before 
 they got control of the Vandalia road north to South Bend 
 you could not get any service on it at all or through In- 
 dianapolis to Vincennes. I operated practically all along 
 the lines of these two roads, and took a large per cent, of 
 the live stock I bought over their roads. It would take 
 twenty-four hours to come from Vincennes to Indianapolis 
 before the Pennsylvania got full control, while now the dis- 
 tance is covered in about eight or ten hours. While they 
 were tearing down they always managed not to connect at' 
 Indianapolis for the East. They wanted to embarrass 
 everybody connected with the buying of live stock and force 
 them to unload and feed in the Indianapolis yards, in which 
 they were heavy stockholders. They are past masters in 
 
 [9] 
 
130 Twenty Yeabs in Hell 
 
 tearing down a road. Now this same thing applies to some 
 other trunk lines, but not to Hill or to Harriman. There 
 is a vast difference between them. 
 
 Let me cite one instance of the sharp practices of Chief 
 Priest AUerton and his man Friday, the King of Ireland. 
 Some eight years ago they got up a scheme to work the 
 butchers in New York, Jersey City, Philadelphia, Baltimore 
 and Washington, and in fact all the butchers in the East 
 on the line of their road who were accustomed to buying 
 their cattle by the carload. The scheme was to get up a 
 big fat stock show at the Pittsburg East Liberty stock yards, 
 which were owned by the Pennsylvania Company. Some 
 three months before they began advertising the show the 
 Turk went out and bought the very best cattle from the 
 feeders in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio a,nd Kentucky, and I 
 think they got a few carloads from Missouri. 
 
 At that time the best cattle on the market was selling 
 from five to five and a half cents; possibly the Pinnell 
 land might have brought six cents. The Turk had the 
 feeder ship the cattle in his own name, but the cattle really 
 belonged to the Pennsylvania road. The road gave the 
 shippers a free pass and paid their hotel bills at the 
 Shenly, the big hotel in Pittsburg. They advertised the 
 stock show very extensively all over the country. When 
 the show opened they ran a free train of sleepers with big 
 streamers on the cars, which were very attractive, and 
 brought all the leading butchers from Pennsylvania, Mary- 
 land, District of Columbia, New Jersey and New York. 
 They leased the hotel and paid all the bills. I was invited 
 and went over. I was at that time operating a new stock 
 yards at Indianapolis. I refused to take a pass but stopped 
 
With the Beef Trust 131 
 
 at their hotel to see what was going on, paying my own 
 bills. I went to the show. They had a hundred cars or 
 more of cattle on exhibition. A few stragglers and farm- 
 ers got in with some good cattle which the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad did not own. 
 
 The market opened up. I had a seat by the side of 
 Richard Webber and George Wilson. The first cattle put 
 up was the Pinnell cattle. I think Pinnell had only five 
 or six carloads in the string. At the start off I think Web- 
 ber bid seven cents for the choice of the five or six loads of 
 Pinnell cattle. The bidding advanced until the offer 
 reached about eight cents. The managers knew that Web- 
 ber would get the best load, so they put the Pittsburg Pack- 
 ing and Provision Company, practically their own com- 
 pany, in to do the driving. The bidding went on until the 
 cattle, according to my recollection, brought nine cents. 
 All the Pinnell cattle brought eight and a half to nine 
 cents. Every butcher who went on the free train had to 
 take home a load of the Pennsylvania Company's cattle. 
 Webber said to me that he did not want to crowd the boys 
 and he would only buy a few carloads. The Pittsburg 
 Packing and Provision Company kept bidding, but not 
 buying, as long as the Pennsylvania Company's cattle 
 lasted. Later when they got to selling the cattle of the 
 stragglers and farmers, who had good cattle, in fact, many 
 of them as good as most of the Pennsylvania Company's 
 cattle, except the Pinnell, then the Pittsburg Packing and 
 Provision House dropped out of the bidding, and the cat- 
 'tle went at from five and a half to six and a half cents. 
 Thus the fellows who waited got their cattle worth the 
 money. 
 
132 Twenty Years in Hei.l 
 
 Wilson was there and said to me that it was the greatest 
 theft he ever saw; that they ought to be sent to the peni- 
 tentiary; that the Turk had not paid him any rebate for 
 six months and had been lying to him; that he was going 
 to see Allerton, who had made a big speech at the banquet, 
 and that he would be damned if he did not kill him and the 
 Turk both if they did not settle ; that they could not work 
 him. "Wilson and I sat together at the banquet, and he 
 followed Allerton out. I saw Wilson after his talk with the 
 High Priest and he told me that Allerton had promised to 
 send him a check for his rebates. This stopped the killing. 
 
 SECOND — N. E. HOLEIS & CO., EAST CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 
 
 When I first knew this company I think there were 
 three, possibly four l)rothers, perhaps only one or two of 
 them are living now^ I have known them for about thirty- 
 two years, when I first commenced buying hogs on commis- 
 sion to go into New England. Prior to that time I was 
 buying on my own account. I did ver}^ little business in 
 New England, selling only at Albany to New England peo- 
 ple, such as Squire, Charles North & Co., Niles Brothers, 
 White, Peavy & Dexter and other slaughterers. A large 
 dealer in cattle in New England was Billie Munroe, who is 
 now dead. He came AVest, and was one of the largest buy- 
 ers back in the sixties and seventies. Later on Sturtevant 
 & Haley became very large cattle dealers. 
 
 After I left the stock yards I turned all my export cat- 
 tle into New York State, New York City, Philadelphia and 
 Baltimore, yet there were a number of times I sent cattle 
 to be loaded on the boats at Boston. 
 
With the Beef Trust 133 
 
 Note the list of houses that are now operated by what 
 is known as Swift & Co., of which the Hollis Company are 
 the fathers. 
 
 Distributing Houses of Swift & Co., New England: 
 
 N. E. Hollis & Co., Boston. 
 
 Skinner & Arnold, Boston. 
 
 Sturtevant & Haley, F. H. Market, Boston. 
 
 Fletcher & Co., Boston. 
 
 Sands & Furber, F. H. Market, Boston, vegetables. 
 
 Arthur Lawrence & Co., Boston. 
 
 Medford Street Market, Somerville. 
 
 New England Produce Co., Boston. 
 
 E. H. Moulton, Haverhill. 
 
 Swing & Co., Lawrence. 
 
 Swift & Bailey, Lowell. 
 
 Lowell Provision Co., Lowell. 
 
 Nashua Beef Co., Nashua, N. H. 
 
 Manchester Provision Co., Manchester, N. H. 
 
 Concord Beef Co., Concord, N. H. 
 
 St. Albans Beef Co., St. Albans, Yt. 
 
 Burlington Beef Co., Burlington, Vt. 
 
 Portland Beef Co., Portland, Me. 
 
 Bath Beef Co., Bath, Me. 
 
 Lewiston Beef Co., Lewiston, Me. 
 
 Augusta Beef Co., Augusta, Me. 
 
 Gardner Beef Co., Gardner, Me. 
 
 Waterville Beef Co., Waterville, Me. 
 
 H. L. Handy Co., Springfield, Mass. 
 
 Geo. Nye Co., Springfield, Mass. 
 
 Meriden Provision Co., Meriden, Ct. 
 
134 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 Strong, Barnes & Hart, New Haven. 
 Bridgeport (2 houses), Bridgeport, Conn. 
 New Britain (1 house). New Britain, Conn. 
 And many other towns and cities with whose names, be- 
 sides those going under the name of Swift & Co., Swift 
 Beef Co., C F. & E. C. Swift, their houses are connected. 
 
 Many names of houses have been changed to Swift 
 & Co., and Swift Beef Co., Swift Provision Co., in all these 
 places and numbers of others not mentioned. 
 
 While Armour, Morris & Co. (National Packing Co., 
 Swift), Cudahy, have these distributing houses also, they do 
 no slaughtering and work in unison with the Swifts on 
 prices, so that one price made in Chicago controls all New 
 England, practically a Beef Trust in everything but name. 
 
 Swift Slaughtering & Packing Houses, in New England. 
 
 North Packing & Provision Co., Somerville, hogs. 
 John P. Squire & Co., E. Cambridge, hogs. 
 Sturtevant & Haley Co., E. Cambridge, beef. 
 New England Dressed Meat and Wool Co., Somerville, 
 
 beef and sheep. 
 Niles Bros, (dismantled), Belmont, hogs. 
 Control of Butchers' Slaughtering and Rend. Co., 
 
 Brighton, beef, hogs, sheep and calves. 
 White, Peavy & Dexter Co., Worcester, hogs. 
 Springfield Provision Co., Springfield, hogs. 
 Meriden Provision Co. (dismantled), Meriden, Conn., 
 
 hogs. 
 Merwin Provision Co. (dismantled), now soap works, 
 
 New Haven, Conn., hogs. 
 Sperry & Barnes, New Haven, Conn., hogs. 
 
With the Beef Trust 135 
 
 G. H. Davis, Norwich, Conn., hogs. 
 I. B. Mason & Son (dismantled). Providence, E-. I., 
 hogs. 
 
 Comstock & Co., supposed to be Swift, but no proof 
 of it, work with them; besides owning and operating the 
 foregoing slaughtering houses, they have driven the whole- 
 sale distributing houses in the large cities to cover, and 
 where there are 5,000 inhabitants they have a beef house or 
 provision distributing plant, which not only sells beef, but 
 also hog products, sheep, calves, poultry, butter and eggs. 
 
 They had the money and they put in business a man 
 who was known back in the '70s as Parson Swift, and who 
 was the Swift who ran the Methodist church at the Chi- 
 cago stock yards. He commenced about '72 to '74. He is 
 the father of the Swift boys. I do not know any of the 
 boys personally, as I have never had any business with the 
 Swifts in Chicago, but I did know intimately and personally 
 E. C. Swift, who was really the only Swift so far as finan- 
 ciering is concerned, from the start to the finish, and who 
 was two years younger than the Parson, and the Hollis Com- 
 pany financed him to start out. At this very time when 
 they bought the Squires' stock at 14 cents on the dollar they 
 reorganized the company with a capital stock of $5,000,000, 
 under the law of New Jersey, when the plant really cost 
 them only about $1,000,000 ; and they reissued, I think, ten 
 or fifteen millions of bonds and stock to pay this one mil- 
 lion dollars. One of the Hollis 's and I think two of them, 
 told me how they were doing it Also E. C. Swift at two 
 different times when I was in his private office said : ' ' Do 
 you see those twenty-five or thirty clerks ? They are trans- 
 ferring the Squires stock into the Swift stock. This is mak- 
 
136 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 ing money pretty fast and pretty easy. The public will buy 
 it at par." 
 
 The receivers employed me, and paid me a big salary to 
 operate their thousand cars and buy from the farms to 
 the packing house. The fact is, I was called to Boston — 
 had a conference with the directors in charge of the reor- 
 ganization at the time the Squires were taken out of the 
 receivers hands. I told them what I could do in the way 
 of furnishing hogs loaded in their cars in Ohio, Indiana, 
 Kentucky, Illinois and Iowa. I made arrangements with 
 them to open an office in Indianapolis at the board of trade. 
 (This was at the time I was put out of my own stock yards 
 at Indianapolis.) I fitted up an office of four rooms, em- 
 ployed my telegraph operators and operated both wires, 
 also operated both phones, and I bought all of the 
 Squires' hogs for something like a year and a half or two 
 years — something like one hundred and fifty to two hun- 
 dred and fifty double deck cars a week, both in the market 
 and on the farms to the packing house, going direct 
 
 Note : The man whom I have said manipulated Squire 's 
 house while it was in the receiver's hands and after it was 
 taken out was E. C. Whitford, a Yale College graduate 
 and a very shrewd attorney. He apparently is the whole 
 thing, or was the last time I was in Boston, of the Squire, 
 North and Niles Brothers packing houses. 
 
 Let me cite you the facts as to what called me to Bos- 
 ton at this time. I was buying heavily along the line of 
 the Mississippi River in Illinois. I had bought a load of 
 hogs from C L. I'ietrie. He was a big feeder close to 
 Burlington, Iowa, on the Illinois side. I know that Secre- 
 tary Wilson must have known him, as he fed thousands 
 
With the Beef Trust 137 
 
 of hogs and hundreds of cattle. He shipped grenerally a 
 load or two at a time, lie sent forward, my recollection is, 
 one load of hogs that weighed about 350 pounds each. They 
 run like eggs, and as I recollect there were fourteen or fif- 
 teen of them condemned by the government — all fed on the 
 same feed and all the same kind of hogs. I took the mat- 
 ter up with Secretary Wilson and cited the fact of having 
 eighteen hogs condemned in one or two loads that had been 
 shipped from Pietrie. When the hogs were condemned 
 they would make a barrel of lard out of them. They said 
 it was tuberculosis they had. I had my man there looking 
 after my business. When they would stick a knife into a 
 big hog and it would show a blood shot, and when the in- 
 spector would come down and see the blood he would con- 
 demn the hog. Of course they may have stood in with the 
 inspector. The sticker is the one that gave them the tuber- 
 culosis. Then they would take the hog at a price to me of 
 one and a half cents per pound. He would have to go in 
 the tank for grease, so they said. Hogs at that time, as I 
 recollect it, were selling at six cents per pound, and where 
 they would cost me something like $25, after being con- 
 demned they would get them for about $5. Of course it 
 was of advantage to the houses to have them condemned. 
 As I have said. I stated all of these facts to Secretary Wil- 
 son. He came back at me and said that he would change 
 the inspector. When a hog would only show a blood shot 
 or tuberculosis in the neck they would have the head cut 
 off and the other part would pass. 
 
 When I received Secretary Wilson's letter I went on to 
 Boston, stayed around there a few days catching on and 
 then pulled the letter on Whitford, and he said that was 
 
138 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 something that they could not get done, and T said: *'You 
 don't want it done. You have taken my hogs worth $25 
 for $5." This was after he had taken me in an automobile 
 over to Harvard College for lunch. He wanted to order 
 champagne, and did order it, but I told him that I could 
 not drink champagne and that I never drank anything dur- 
 ing business hours. This was at the same time that E. C. 
 Swift and the Hollises were changing the Squires stock into 
 the Swift stock. I found at the same time they were taking 
 oif 3^ per cent, from wet to dry weight, a thing unknown 
 when I sold hogs on dressed weight in Cincinnati and 
 Louisville, where I had sold thousands of them thirty-five 
 or forty years ago. On big hogs thoy would give me $1 to 
 kill them and weigh them the next morning. They got all 
 the gut fat and the hearts and livers. This same Squires 
 house got the same on me and still took off 3% per cent, 
 from wet to dry weight. In Cincinnati the hogs would be 
 killed in the evening and weighed off of the hooks in the 
 morning. Most of the houses weighed their hogs wet and 
 would take off 1^/2 to 2 per cent, and some of them would 
 take off 2% per cent, in figuring the dry weight. They 
 had been taking off 2^/^ per cent, right along on me when 
 I was selling dry meat, but I caught them at it when they 
 started to take off 31/2 per cent. I called Mr. Niles, who 
 was president of the company, and Mr. Crocker, who was 
 vice-president and treasurer, into their private office and 
 said: ''Here you are stealing; this is the worst kind of 
 stealing." Both of them threw up their hands and said 
 they did not know it. I called in my man, Mr. Plummer, 
 who had been Niles 's bookkeeper in the old house, and he 
 s^id that he had recently discovered it. I told them that 
 
With the Beef Trust 139 
 
 was the greatest theft that I ever knew. They threw both 
 hands up and said that Whitford did it. I was going to 
 leave the next day. I took it up with Whitford. I had a 
 meeting with Niles and Whitford in Young's Hotel. I had 
 to go home that day. After having a talk with them they 
 both admitted to me that they had only done it for two or 
 three months, and offered me $2,000 for it. I got very 
 {ingry and talked very sharp to them. Niles seemed wor- 
 ried to death. I said, ''$2,000, heM!" and left them. We 
 had some correspondence about it and afterwards I sent my 
 ^^ttorney over there to settle with them. It was at a time 
 that I did not want to be bothered with any more lawsuits. 
 He wired me that he could get $3,000, and. I wired him that 
 he had better settle and quit them. I never did any more 
 business with tliem from that time on. This was the great- 
 est theft I ever knew perpetrated on anyone, together with 
 having the hogs stuck so they would show tuberculosis, es- 
 pecially big ones, so that they could get them condemned. 
 In the next book I will be able to show this more fully. 
 
 They had their own cars, which were the first double deck 
 private cars ever constructed for the purpose of shipping 
 live hogs and sheep — some twenty-six or twenty-eight years 
 ago. My recollection is the first cars were named Central 
 Vermont. When these cars were constructed they were 
 equipped with water troughs and arranged so that the hogs 
 could be fed in the cars while in transit. All this was done 
 by John P. Squire & Co., so the cars could be sealed at the 
 shipping point, and the seal not broken until they reached 
 the packing house, which prevented any swapping in the 
 stock yards. My recollection is the company owned about 
 twelve to fourteen hundred of them at the time of 
 
140 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 Squire's death. A few years later Charles North & 
 Co., who were very strong competitors of the Squires, 
 and Niles Bros., later the Boston Packing and Pro- 
 vision Company (This is the house that is on my 
 letter head and operated by the Swifts now as a 
 fertilizer house, after being wrecked) ; I. B. Mason & Son, 
 Providence; Comstock & Co., Providence; White, Peavy 
 & Dexter, "Worcester; S. E. Mervin & Sons, and Sperry & 
 Barnes, of New Haven, saw that the Squires had made a 
 new move to keep' from going into the stock yards; then 
 they all went together and built, to my recollection, about 
 one thousand to twelve hundred cars, calling them Western 
 Livestock Express and St. Paul cars. They got mileage 
 of from $14 to $16 from the railroads on a load of hogs 
 from Chicago or Indianapolis, or other points, according to 
 distance, and would make, a trip every two weeks. Squires 
 run his cars in train loads, about twenty-five to forty cars 
 in a train, as he bought in Chicago daily one or two trains, 
 and shipped over the Grand Trunk and Central Vermont 
 from Chicago. He would make Boston from Chicago or 
 Indianapolis in about three or four days, and the empty 
 cars would come back, fifty to sixty cars in a train, they 
 having right of way of everything except the fast passen- 
 ger or express trains, in something like four or five days. 
 They figured they could make about three trips with a car 
 a month. The cost of construction of a car at the time when 
 first built was something like $500 to $550. This was very 
 profitable and very soon a number of private parties 
 reached out and went into the private car business, putting 
 the water troughs in the double deckers. 
 
 The New York slaughterers began to see that New Eng- 
 
With the Beef Teust 141 
 
 land had them skinned to a frazzle by going through Buf- 
 falo and other stock yards without being unloaded, and 
 that the cars would come from the original shipping point 
 to destination without the seal being broken. They saw 
 there could not be any more stealing in the stock yards. 
 My customers in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore 
 commenced using some of Squire 's cars at seasons when he 
 was not using all of them. Squire would get the mileage and 
 it was very profitable for them, but they used a great many 
 of the St. Paul and Western Livestock Express cars. Soon 
 the St. Paul car people, under the management of Henry 
 L. Millis, came to Indianapolis, and solicited me to use their 
 cars; said they would give me $5 a car if I would use 
 them. He brought a letter from Ed Peavy, of the firm of 
 White, Peavy & Dexter (the house for which I bought 
 nearly everything they killed for nearly twenty years. I 
 always bought for them white hogs when I could get them) 
 who was a personal friend, saying that he was a large 
 stockholder in the cars and that he had retired and sold out 
 their packing house to Swift & Co., but did not sell the cars. 
 I also received a letter from Mr. Mason, I think. I told 
 Mr. Millis that I would like to please Mr. Peavy, also Mr. 
 Mason, that they had both been my customers and many 
 of the other car stockholders were at that time. He said 
 the place I could help him most would be in New York, as 
 he had more cars than there was demand for. In reply, I 
 said to Mr. Millis, "Why, I never could take a rebate. I 
 will give you the names of my customers' and you can go 
 down there and see what you can do. " I think this was be- 
 fore the Sherman Anti-trust, or Elkins laws went into ef- 
 fect. I gave him a list of my customers and he said he 
 
142 Twenty YeakS in Hell 
 
 wanted some one to look after these cars and keep a record 
 of them and report them. He asked me if I would not do it. 
 I told him no, it would not be done by me in anyway, but 
 that I would give him a man that would do it, and I fur- 
 nished a man. The records were kept in my office by a man, 
 in fact two of them worked at it, and had to make up the re- 
 ports every day of how many cars went out and how many 
 came in. I learned in New York shortly afterwards while 
 there that Millis gave my customers quite a rebate, but I 
 told them I did not want to know what they were doing in 
 the rebate business. He soon got to pushing some of his 
 cars on the Pennsylvania Road. First the Pennsylvania 
 Road did not want to take them ; they had no cars with seals 
 and none with water troughs in them. They insisted all the 
 stock brought over their road would have to be unloaded 
 at Pittsburg for feed. At first they only let Millis' cars go 
 as far as Pittsburg and there put the stock in their own 
 cars to go to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washing- 
 ton and Richmond, as they did not want to pay mileage on 
 any cars, but wanted the mileage for their own cars. I 
 think possibly later they unloaded and reloaded them in 
 the same cars, then the Turk would have a whack at them 
 while in the pen, getting a big one out, and a little one in. 
 
 About this time the Pennsylvania Railroad changed 
 practically all their stock cars, double and single deck, and 
 called them private cars, and named them the Keystone 
 Livestock cars. In this way they could give a rebate by 
 going to the shipper, who was using the Millis cars, or any 
 other shipper, and get them to use their cars under the pre- 
 tense that they could give them a rebate without violating 
 the Elkins law. This was some two years or more after 
 
With the Beef Trust 143 
 
 Millis came to me. O'Donnell, the Turk, King of Ireland, 
 came from Chicago to see me, and wanted to know if I 
 would use the Keystone cars, saying he would give me $5 
 per car. I said no. I told him as I did Millis that I would 
 give him a list of my customers. He said he did not want 
 to give a rebate to all, but only to the big shippers. How- 
 ever, he went to see some of my customers and persuaded 
 them to use their cars. He made out the vouchers in my 
 name and sent them to me for $5 a car and some $6, and I 
 forwarded the vouchers to the customers. In making my 
 trips East my customers commenced inquiring if there were 
 not some rebates. I frankly told them that O'Donell had 
 given some rebates, and that I had forwarded the vouchers 
 to those entitled to them. I tipped it off to all, and 'Don- 
 ell came rushing over from Chicago to see me, and said, 
 ''You are playing heU. Every little fellow shipping from 
 one to five cars a week wants a rebate. You even tipped it 
 off to ^. Schenk & Sons, of Wheeling, and they are de- 
 manding $5 a car on Wheeling shipments, and their haul is 
 only half the distance from Chicago to New York." 
 Schenk had been a very heavy regular customer of mine 
 for as much as twenty years. In fact, I bought nearly all 
 they killed. They bought a close sort of the best grades of 
 200 to 250-pound hogs, the best in the market. O 'Donell got 
 in a fuss with the Schenks and they quit him and began 
 shipping via the Wheeling & Lake Erie and Baltimore & 
 Ohio roads. Neither of these roads came into Indianapolis, 
 and my shipments to them had to go out on the Big Four or 
 the C, H. & D. from Indianapolis to connect with the B. 
 & 0. or the Wheeling & Lake Erie. They made shipments 
 over these roads for awhile, and in a few months the Penn- 
 
144 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 sylvania got nervous about losing the business and walked 
 up to the Schenk's office and I understand gave them the 
 $5 rebate on the short haul. 
 
 THIRD — NELSON MORRIS & CO., CHICAGO. 
 
 I first became acquainted with Nelson Morris I think 
 in 1865 or '66 when he came West to pick up a few cattle. 
 He soon drifted into Chicago and commenced buying dead 
 hogs in the stock yards and went into the fertilizer business. 
 You understand the fertilizer and junk business is a fa- 
 vorite one for Jews, for they will not work on a farm. He 
 also commenced buying cripples. What are known as crip- 
 ples in the stock yards are those that cannot walk from the 
 ears to the pen. He went to the front fast in a short time. 
 He was industrious and a hard worker, and would work all 
 night if necessary. He was one of the sure "early to bed 
 and early to rise. ' ' Some nights he never went to bed. He 
 got a little place to kill his cripples and render his deads, 
 and soon expanded into a packing house, and he finally got 
 to dividing the white grease he got out of the dead hogs 
 and the black grease after rendering them, later on called 
 tanking them. He put the good dead hogs in one tank and 
 the bad ones, that is, those that were nearly gone, in an- 
 other tank. As I recollect it, in about '72 to 74 he com- 
 menced the refining of lard. He was one of the first re- 
 finers, yet probably Washington Butcher Sons, of Baltimore, 
 got to be one of the largest refiners and dealers in lard. 
 They were one of the oldest and strongest houses dealing in 
 provisions and lard in the United States back forty or sev- 
 enty-five years ago. As fast as the older ones died the 
 younger ones came along and took up the business, and soon 
 
With the Beef Tkust 145 
 
 they went into the business of refining and making imper- 
 fect lard so extensively that they killed off their trade, as 
 Great Britain or any other place would not take it. The 
 younger set of Washington Butcher Sons failed about 1880, 
 possibly as late as '81. At that time I had speculated some- 
 what on the Chicago Board of Trade, buying largely pro- 
 visions. I spent considerable time going back and forth to 
 Chicago, and I commenced buying what was known as clear 
 ribbed sides, and at the time of their failure I owned one 
 million seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds of it. 
 The report of Washington Butcher Sons ' failure caused me 
 to lose $22,000 in one hour trying to get out at this time. 
 I quit the speculating and have not had a deal in Chicago 
 since. At that time Old Hutch was the whole thing in Chi- 
 cago. He was the cuckoo on the Board in his time. He 
 could give Patten cards and spades. 
 
 I bought for Nelson Morris as much as sixty or seventy 
 car loads of cattle in one day, and in fact there were times 
 when I contracted for him for as much as three or ten thou- 
 sand head in May or June — sometimes earlier and some- 
 times later, with an option to take them in July, August 
 or September from the large feeders in Indiana, men that 
 fed from one hundred to fifteen hundred cattle, such as the 
 Morgans, Blue Jeans Williams and Lockridge; also Sam 
 Cutsinger, who always fed from 1,000 to 1,600 head on 
 starch slop in Edinburg and Columbus, Ind., who was the 
 best feeder I ever knew. His cattle always sold for half a 
 dollar to a dollar more per 100 than any other cattle, es- 
 pecially in Great Britain. Everybody wanted Cutsinger 
 cattle. 
 
 Nelson got so he knew all the best feeders. The cattle 
 
 [10] 
 
146 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 I bought for Nelse at that time were largely for export — 
 he always exported good ones. Later on when he got to 
 putting so many on slop I bought thousands of feeders for 
 him every year. He had fifteen to twenty years ago, and 
 up to the time of his death, practically control of all the slop 
 of all the stillhouses in the United States. Afterward the 
 trusts made certain arrangements and divided the territory 
 of the country. That gave Nelse all the slop in Ohio, Ken- 
 tucky, Indiana and Pennsylvania. None of the others could 
 get in on it except the "High Priest," Allerton. He had 
 some stillhouses. Nelse always put bulls, when he could get 
 enough of them, where he could feed them on slop. He 
 has had as many as ten thousand at a time in Peoria, 111. I 
 often shipped to Peoria, also to Terre Haute, practically all 
 the bulls. I also often shipped to Kentucky and also to 
 Pennsylvania for Nelse. 
 
 I received many telegrams from Nelse. He always 
 signed them Nelson Morris, and I knew he sent them him- 
 self. "Buy everything in the yards; don't let anything 
 get away. Send exporters to Newport News (or some other 
 place where he had boats) , the feeders to Peoria (or to Ken- 
 tucky or somewhere else), the butchers and canners that 
 have big calves in them to Chicago. Answer quick what 
 you have done. ' ' 
 
 He knew me and knew he could not drive me, and yet he 
 knew that I would buy some. He was a very nervous man. 
 He kept as much as a half a cord of red cedar sticks about 
 ten inches long and one and a half inches wide stacked up 
 in his office and a sharp knife near by, where he could whit- 
 tle until he had piled up shavings all around. He had four 
 or five stenographers to take his telegrams for him, and 
 
With the Beef Tkust 147 
 
 possibly he wired everybody who was buying for him at the 
 same time he wired me to purchase stock, and in a short 
 time the answers commenced coming in. He got so many 
 that possibly by nine or ten o'clock I would get a telegram 
 from him reading, ''What have you got? Report. Don't 
 buy anything for me — overstocked." I replied, "Too late. 
 Got a good many but did not get them off. ' ' 
 
 The best thing about Nelse was whenever you bought 
 them for him he would stand hitched. He never turned 
 down a trade, and I bought thousands of cattle for him 
 that I had not paid a cent on. although the rule was to pay 
 $5 a head on cattle and $1 on hogs, and he had not paid a 
 cent on, and when the cattle market would break or did not 
 go to his expectations then his contract cattle would be big 
 losers, sometimes $1 to $1.50 per hundred. Of course every- 
 body knew that I was buying for Nelson Morris, and they 
 knew that Nelson was good and they knew that I was good, 
 and that we both would stand hitched. Nelse would order 
 the cattle in. He would say, ''They will ruin me, but I 
 will have to take them." He never turned a trade dowQ. 
 This was the longest suit he had in business. 
 
 Now I could go further with Nelse, but I will have to 
 take him up later with some others. He was in a way about 
 as smart as any of them at times, but at times he was a big 
 loser. He would have been worth five hundred millions if 
 he had not been a big loser by buying too many gold bricks. 
 
 Let me cite when he bought Arthur Jordan's chicken 
 houses in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois — some sixty 
 to one hundred plants, paying something like six to seven 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars for them. I happened 
 to be in Chicago some time afterwards and met Nelse and 
 
148 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 he said : ' ' Rhody, that Jordan has rained me ; he sold me 
 a gold brick; I cannot can any more chickens. I cannot 
 use my calves out of the canners; nobody can can chicken 
 unless they can can calves. ' ' He bought a good many gold 
 bricks. He once had to go behind Parson Swift, as he 
 called him. You understand that one of Nelson 's sons mar- 
 ried Parson Swift's daughter, and one of Pai^on Swift's 
 sons married Nelson's daughter. Swift ran the Methodist 
 church at the Chicago stock yards and Nelse ran the Jewish 
 tabernacle. Swift worked the church all the time, but 
 Nelse only a part of the time, but was a good producer. 
 
 I understand that Parson Swift was finally in trouble 
 during the year 1893 and Nelson stood by him. That was 
 generally understood in the trade. It was before E. C. 
 Swift had gotten so strong and his New England banks were 
 in a good deal of trouble, the same as Fletcher 's bank was, 
 referred to in my Jimtown speech. They were largely con- 
 servative, same as Fletcher 's. 
 
 FOURTH — SWIFT & CO., CHICAGO. 
 
 Swift & Company is only a myth or a name. The Par- 
 son Swift was supposed to be the whole thing, but the fact 
 is the Hollis Company originally started him, the same as 
 Morris, in the fertilizer business. Then they drifted into 
 hides, handling about all the hides. Hides are classed with 
 fertilizer, as they take a great deal of fertilizer off in dress- 
 ing hides. They soon went into the wool business, then 
 soon got to buying sheep and lambs, and were among the 
 first exporters. They got in with the money powers and 
 they saw that they were money makers ; in fact, they could 
 not lose in that kind of business, making five hundred per 
 
With the Beef Tkust 149 
 
 cent, out of dead hogs. The white grease comes from dead 
 hogs. All stock yards now sell dead hogs at half a cent or 
 a cent a pound. Thirty years ago we had three men in In- 
 dianapolis buying dead hogs on these prices. One hog 
 might bring two or three dollars per hundred according to 
 size and how long dead. 
 
 They went into the little town of Providence, R. I., one 
 of the richest in the early ages, and probably so now for its 
 size, money loaners and money schemers. This is the little 
 town where the Czar comes from. 
 
 I never knew the Parson and never knew any of his 
 sons; in fact, I did not deal with such little fellows as he 
 was when he went West, but I did know E. C. Swift and 
 knew him well after he absorbed my old friend" Charlie 
 North, a man for whom I had bought as many as thirty 
 double deck car loads of hogs in a day without an order. 
 Charlie served as president of the company the first year 
 after they bought control of the company. The next year 
 they chopped his head off and elected E. C. Swift, who be- 
 came the whole thing. The next year he sold out all his 
 stock and went South and bought North Carolina railroads 
 and African diamond and gold mines, and in less than five 
 or eight years he was broke. I was in Boston just before 
 he died. He was in debt. He had a little office and had 
 on a seedy suit of clothes that he had worn for some time, 
 and when I got up to go he said : ' ' Rhody , could you loan 
 me $50?" I told him yes, and willingly did it. He was a 
 grand good man and somewhat nervous like Nelson Morris. 
 He was about as large a dealer as John Squire, yet they 
 were very jealous of each other and very strong competi- 
 tors. I would buy for both of them, and sometimes John 
 
150 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 would take me inside of his private room and shut the door 
 and try to get me to figure out how many pigs there were 
 in the West, and he would say: ''What is Charlie North 
 doing?" I would tell him I did not know, and maybe 
 within an hour Charlie would take me into his private office 
 and go through about the same as John had. They were 
 both friends of mine and both large customers. I always 
 tried to tell them about the prospects of the number of pigs 
 there would be and that would be marketed that fall or 
 spring. They had confidence in my judgment as to the 
 possibility of the crop. John was the farthest seeing man 
 I ever knew, and he would have all the new repairs made 
 before Charlie would find out what he was going to do, 
 and then Charlie would make the same repairs the next 
 year or two afterwards. They started in business prac- 
 tically about the same time and were the first people that 
 ever slaughtered a hog in the United States for the purpose 
 of selling fresh pork in the spring or summer. I think 
 possibly the first time fresh pork sold in the summer was 
 in 1864 or '65. 
 
 The first lot ever bought in Hamilton county or in Madi- 
 son county, and in fact in western Indiana, was a car load 
 of hogs I bought that spring or summer. I bought at El- 
 wood at that time — about half in Hamilton county and the 
 other half in Tipton county — and shipped over the Penn- 
 sylvania and Junction road to Cincinnati in September 
 when I got home from the army in '65. I sold them to 
 Fort, Sadler & Company, at that time practically the first 
 firm that went into the commission business in Cincinnati 
 during the war. They did their business at the Brighton 
 yards, the only yards there were at the time. They were 
 
With the Beef Trust 151 
 
 practically in the center of Cincinnati. I went there in 
 the morning about sun-up and met Sadler and Fort. I 
 had bought the hogs at 5 cents per pound; I did not know 
 what they would sell for. John Rule fed twenty in Ham- 
 ilton county and W. H. Harmon fed thirty-two in Tipton 
 county. When I got out to the yards they tried to buy the 
 hogs from me. I did not know what they were worth until 
 I read the Enquirer. I told them I would take the top of 
 the market in the Enquirer. They baffled me. It was the 
 first time I was ever in Cincinnati, and I was hanging on to 
 the cars to keep from getting lost or run over. I had some 
 boys driving them a mile through the city to the Brighton 
 yards. Those boys said those pigs would bring 9 cents a 
 pound, and one little fellow said they would bring 9^/4 
 cents. I got the Enquirer and found the top of the market 
 was 9 cents. I soon caught on and I asked 914 cents a 
 pound. They got mad, and I said I would just keep them, 
 and in a few minutes they took the hogs. I made $192 on 
 that load of hogs. That gave me confidence in mj^self , and 
 from then on 1 was the whole thing in central Indiana. 
 
 I met Si Mull, who was one of the grandest men I ever 
 knew, and whose son has a letter in the brief. He was one 
 of the biggest feeders of hogs on slop — had thousands of 
 them. Also Isaac Loder; he was a great man, and Train 
 Caldwell was another. These were all Rush county, In- 
 diana men, the grandest county in Indiana, and had more 
 big moneyed men than any five counties in the State at that 
 time. They said there were a lot of stock hogs in Northern 
 Indiana, and asked me if I would not go up there and buy 
 them, as there was a failure of corn this year in the north. 
 I asked them how many they wanted and they said twenty 
 
152 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 or thirty thousand to put on stillhouse slop feed. It daz- 
 zled me at the t'ime and I told them I did not have any 
 money. I had only about $1,000. Si Mull pulls out a 
 package of $5,000 and hands it to me and says : ' ' You take 
 this money and buy those hogs." This was the first time 
 I had ever seen him. I told him he had better not give me 
 all that money, that I would run away with it, and he said : 
 ' ' I will risk you. You won 't run ; you look good to me and 
 I will take the chance. ' ' When I came back home with the 
 $5,000 package Mull had given me with which to buy hogs 
 I showed it to my mother. I suppose she had never seen 
 $5,000 at one time before in her life. She put both arms 
 around me and kissed me and said : ' ' God speed you. Don 't 
 ever betray this or any other man." I bought thousands 
 of hogs for them. There was never any question after this 
 about my credit in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, or anywhere 
 else where I did business. The action of Mr. Mull and my 
 success in buying for him gave me confidence in myself and 
 established my credit with all the Cincinnati packers. I 
 could get any amount of money anywhere with which to 
 ship stock in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and parts of Kentucky. 
 It was just like getting money from home where you have 
 a liberal father. My credit never was questioned anywhere 
 until the Swift people tied themselves up with the High 
 Priest of the Pennsylvania Railroad and divided the coun- 
 try. 
 
 Enough on that, as I will have to take them up in con- 
 nection with other men. 
 
With the Beef Trus:^ 1^3 
 
 FIFTH — HAMMOND & CO., DETROIT, MICH. 
 
 I will not dwell long with Hammond & Co. Back in 
 the 70 's I used to buy as much as eight, ten, twelve or fif- 
 teen cars of hogs a day for Hammond, Standish & Co., of 
 Detroit. Both the members of the firm were my personal 
 friends and were elegant gentlemen — no better in the trade. 
 Some time about twenty-three to twenty -six years ago Ham- 
 mond & Co. got to shipping provisions to Providence, R. I. 
 They got also to exporting largely. They got in with Com- 
 stock and the money powers of Providence. In the little 
 town of Hammond, Indiana, on the line of Indiana and 
 Illinois, they organized a company to slaughter cattle for 
 the New England and export trade. They were among the 
 first to handle dressed cattle for export. There was no one 
 doing this at that time except Tim Eastman. They bought 
 the ground and built what is known as the Hammond pack- 
 ing house at Hammond for the purpose of slaughtering cat- 
 tle. They slaughtered only high-grade cattle. They 
 shipped their stuff into New England and to Europe, and 
 that trade took nothing but high grade cattle at that time. 
 Some time after that Hammond died and Comstock, one 
 of the rich men of Providence, became the president of the 
 company. The Czar is no doubt more familiar with this 
 deal than I am. I want to be fair with him, and ask if he 
 is not a large stockholder in this and other companies. 
 Eighteen or twenty years ago an English syndicate bought 
 the Chicago stock yards for about fifteen or twenty million 
 dollars. Then what was known as the ' ' Big Four ' ' bought 
 five or six thousand acres of land noAv covered by the city 
 of Gary. Nelson Morris was really one of the promoters. 
 
154 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 He told me all about it at the time. Armour, Swift, Cuda- 
 h.y, and in fact all of the big ones at that time agreed to 
 move out and build new plants and a new stock yard where 
 Gary is now, near Hammond. In that case Hammond 
 would not have to move, and the English syndicate would 
 have the Chicago stock yards and no business. The Eng- 
 lish syndicate which had bought the stock yards took fright 
 and the deal was not made. Nelson told me, I think, the 
 English syndicate gave them seven million dollars not to 
 move, and they were to keep all the land. 
 
 Nelson used to tell me everything when I would go to 
 Chicago and get confidential with him, but in the deal Ham- 
 mond was to abandon the town named for him and move 
 into Chicago with his slaughter houses, which he did. 
 
 SIXTH SCHWARZCHILD & SULZBERGER. 
 
 I will not dwell much on S. & S. I never did any busi- 
 ness with them. They were elegant gentlemen, so far as I 
 knew, in the early days. They were the only slaughter 
 house at the east foot of 35th street, in fact, the only slaugh- 
 ter house at the east foot of any street so far as I know. 
 They killed high grade cattle and bought very largely from 
 Buffalo, Ohio and Chicago, but they never bought any cat- 
 tle in Indiana until after the Indianapolis Stock Exchange 
 put me out. They sent a young man to Attica, Indiana, 
 by the name of Joseph, and he forwarded cattle to them 
 from western Indiana and eastern Illinois (in Joseph Can- 
 non's district). Later he married the daughter of one of 
 the firm and became the whole thing so far as buying the 
 cattle in he West was concerned, and when they put me 
 out of business in Indianapolis that fertilizer, Eauh, took 
 
With the Beef Tkust 155 
 
 my man Abe Kahn away from me, whom I picked up after 
 he had failed twice. I thought he was going to commit sui- 
 cide. I built him a house and put him to buying cattle for 
 me. He was a man of fair judgment. He had been a 
 wholesale dealer in cattle. He prospered and expanded so 
 I had him build him a good house. His four boys worked 
 for me at different times. He had one of the best wives I 
 ever knew — there never was a better one. I was a pall- 
 bearer at her funeral, and was at the church at the con- 
 firmation of their boys, a very solemn service. She was 
 always grateful to me for it. To my utter astonishment 
 when Rauh became president of the stock yards Kahn came 
 to me and said: ^'I have been with you a long time. I 
 think I had better go into business myself. The boys want 
 to go into business. ' ' I said, ' ' All right, Mr. Kahn. ' ' Rauh 
 sent them East and arranged with S. & S. to become the 
 buyers for them in the Indianapolis yards. In dividing up 
 the territory at that time Nelson Morris was not to buy any 
 more cattle in Indianapolis yards and S. & S. was to take 
 eastern Indiana, Ohio and parts of Kentucky. This was 
 done to take away from me some of my good customers. 
 
 They went along and bought there until I left, and I 
 presume are still buying there, but finally Swift worked in 
 and got control of S. & S., as I understand it, and dis- 
 charged Joseph. He brought suit in the United States 
 court and obtained judgment for about $250,000, which has 
 recently been affirmed by the Supreme Court. 
 
 While in South America I found that S. & S. had gone 
 down there and put in cold storage and refrigerators, and 
 arranged to ship dressed beef from South America to Great 
 Britain. It is now really Swift. They had never slaugh- 
 
156 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 tered a hog until about fifteen years ago, and do not slaugh- 
 ter very many now except the kind of stuff that Flagler is 
 making you use in all his big hotels. While in Florida I 
 stopped at five or six of his hotels, paying from $8 to $10 
 per day, which are his rates at Miami, Palm Beach, Daytona 
 and St. Augustine. 
 
 I took special pains to see what kind of stuff he was 
 supplying to his guests, as during my travels in the South 
 and in Cuba I found none of the hotels that were a corpora- 
 tion but what was buying with a contract from some house 
 of the beef trust. I found also that Flagler was getting all 
 his meat, eggs and poultry from S. & S. I did not see an 
 egg in his hotels that was not a storage egg, and that did 
 not have a spot like a chicken 's eye in the center of it, and 
 looked like it had been in storage for a year or more. He 
 was feeding at some of his hotels also what are known as 
 California hams, which are in reality shoulders. No one 
 could eat the bacon he served, as it was all quick chemically 
 cured and came out of hogs known as ''roughs" and 
 "culls" at all stock yards, the kind Kingan had to take at 
 Indianapolis when I was buying all the good ones. Enough 
 of S. & S. at this time. 
 
 SEVENTH^KINGAN & CO., INDIANA, AND ST. CLAIR & CO., 
 CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA. 
 
 I must start with this firm when I first knew them. 
 During the war the firm was, to my best recollection, called 
 Reid & Kingan, of Cincinnati, Ohio. I am not sure whether 
 they came here before the war or during the war, but cer- 
 tainly about that period. While in Cincinnati they failed 
 — I cannot say just whether it was in ^^Q, '67 or '68. Reid 
 
With the Beef Trust 157 
 
 took sick and I think died in Cincinnati, yet he may have 
 gone back to Belfast with his four boys. The boys, as I 
 recollect it, were named Sammy, Willie, Robert and Jimmie. 
 Jimmie always lived in Belfast. As I understand it, their 
 mother used to live in Belfast. Samuel, who is probably 
 ninety years old, is still living, and, as I now recall it, 
 is bossing the job in Belfast. Thomas, whom I boarded 
 with in the same hotel for twenty years, after he 
 broke went to Joseph Patterson, of Rush county, Indiana. 
 There was where most of the big men were at that time. 
 
 I do not know how many of the Kingans were interested 
 in the Cincinnati house, but when they failed in Cincinnati, 
 Jos. Patterson, who lived in Rush county, Ind., and a great 
 friend of the firm of Caldwell & Loder, and, in fact, a 
 friend of all the packers in Cincinnati and connected with 
 the Cincinnati houses and with plenty of money, went be- 
 hind Thomas Kingan, who, I think, was the oldest of the 
 Kingan brothers, which were Thomas, James and Samuel. 
 Samuel is still living in Belfast. James was killed by walk- 
 ing off of a train of cars between Boston and New York, 
 something like thirty years ago. It was said he got up in 
 his sleep and walked off the car. At any rate, his mangled 
 body was found beside the track. He was a very pushing 
 man and a big speculator in provisions in New York. There 
 had been a break in the provision market at New York and 
 there were many comments as to the real circumstances sur- 
 rounding his death. 
 
 Samuel Kingan was not often in America, but always 
 lived in Belfast and is still living there at the age of about 
 ninety years. He was regarded as the real balance wheel 
 cf the firm all the time, and I understand still has his hand 
 
158 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 on the button. Thomas was a very careful man; he died 
 some eight or ten years ago at his castle near London. He 
 and I boarded at the G-rand Hotel at Indianapolis about 
 twenty-five years ago, and married about the same time. 
 He was a very fine man and confidential with me, we always 
 took breakfast together, about five o'clock in the morning. 
 We continued living in the same hotel after our marriage. 
 Two of my children were born in the hotel. Kingan never 
 had any children. When he died his large estate went to 
 one of the Reid boys. The elder Reid, so I understand, mar- 
 ried the only sister of the three Kingan boys. Patterson 
 and Kingan bought a small plant at Indianapolis, as I recol- 
 lect it, and that was sometime about the time when the 
 Kingans left Cincinnati. They made money practically 
 from the start, but Patterson was old and was known in the 
 trade as "Uncle Joe." He soon drew out and the other 
 Kingans took his place. My information was, the St. Clairs 
 were very rich people in Belfast and they went behind them 
 and thej" prospered from that time on. Some time in the 
 early 70s, I think about 75 or 77, the St. Clairs built a 
 small house in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, known as St. Clair and 
 Company. I understand the house has always been con- 
 trolled and manipulated by the Belfast house. They are 
 both, I think, incorporated under the Belfast laws and pay 
 their taxes mostly in Ireland. 
 
 When the stock yards opened here thirty-two years ago, 
 Thomas Kingan, himself, was doing practically all the busi- 
 ness here. He had a bookkeeper he brought here in about 
 70, known as John Moore. He was one of the best I ever 
 saw. Moore did all the bookkeeping and Thomas Kingan 
 did all the shipping and buying and looking after the weigh- 
 
With the Beef Tbust 159 
 
 ing, and even watching the packing. Later an elegant gen- 
 tleman from Belfast came over. He was called a dude at 
 that time, because he dressed in English style. His name 
 was John St. Clair. He became a buyer at the stock yards 
 at the time the stock yards opened, and was a main competi- 
 tor of mine. We got along all right, as he was a gentleman. 
 About a year afterwards, as he was going between his office 
 and the packing house, he got killed between tAvo freight 
 cars. After that, his cousin, Thomas St. Clair, came over. 
 He was a fine man and we got along together all right. 
 Soon they sent a man by the name of James Cunning, who 
 was skilled in buying hogs in the Belfast market, having be- 
 gun when he was a boy. He did everything quickly and 
 caught onto the market readily. I could not always tell 
 what he was going to do by his actions. The fact is he is 
 worth a half a million a year more to the house than the 
 man that is bossing the job now, but they had to take him 
 back to manage the house. Some twenty or twenty-three 
 years ago they put a man by the name of John M. Shaw 
 there to superintend the buying. He had a nephew whose 
 father was one of the professors in one of the big colleges 
 at Belfast, Ireland, and was educated in his father's college, 
 but was sent to America to buy hogs. As I understand it, 
 it was John's sister's only son. John put him first to carry- 
 ing the telegrams and keeping the weights in the yards. 
 Here is where all the friction began. I had four, five or six 
 men watching what was going on and watching every move 
 the Kingans made, as they were strong competitors of mine. 
 These men of mine did all the inspection and buying for 
 me. I did not have a ten-year-old boy doing an errand for 
 me that was not smarter than this nephew, Spears, was — in 
 
160 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 fact my little colored boy was. They would get a tele- 
 gram and when John would come into the yards, and he 
 usually came late, they would report the same, and as John 
 was bossing the job he had that Spears running around like 
 a chicken with his head cut off. When he would walk slow 
 after reading his telegram, we knew we could go slow, but 
 if he walked fast we knew he wanted them. I would simply 
 throw up a stick and give my men the signal. We changed 
 our signs every day, so they could not catch on, and in two 
 to ten minutes we w^ould have all the good ones in the yards 
 and they would not have any. They would get mad and 
 have to go and buy hogs elsewhere or else do without them, 
 and generally all the good hogs were sold in the other mar- 
 kets by that time, as the others opened at six and seven 
 o'clock, and our market at eight, consequently they could 
 only get ''culls" in any market. I never could tell in the 
 morning within fifteen or twenty cents what I was going to 
 pay. I always bought to the best advantage, which of 
 course everybody should do. This is the time when they or- 
 ganized the exchange to put me out. Spears got to be the 
 whole thing. He was not in the United States two years, or 
 perhaps three, before he was lecturing in Purdue Univer- 
 sity, telling what he knew about hogs and what he knew 
 about meats. To get any good hogs the Kingans had to go 
 to Iowa, and they located five stock yards they could con- 
 trol, at Oskaloosa, Perry, Burlington and Des Moines, and 
 then they got good hogs. They soon had my man Johnson 
 operating these yards under the name of John P. Squire & 
 Co., but they were really Swift & Co. I made this deal for 
 E. C. Swift. 
 
 I never spoke to Spears, but he was the whole thing, and 
 
With the Beef Teust 161 
 
 his uncle knew there was something in the air; he would 
 tell him how I was doing business, and for him to watch the 
 signs. This is where the friction got strong between the 
 Kingans and myself. Kingan had practically three-fourths 
 the commission men and the men of the stock yard company 
 in Indianapolis, instructing them that if they sold me this 
 good stock the Kingans would not buy their hogs. 
 
 There was a great deal of stealing by bookkeepers and 
 all of the commission men had been robbed by them but two 
 firms. Note one case — a firm which was very friendly to 
 me came around to my office and told me that their book- 
 keeper had gone in the closet to commit suicide, and wanted 
 me to run in there and save him. I went and found him. 
 He had worked for me at one time. I went over the matter 
 with him and told him to tell me what the amount was. He 
 said $3,800 would make him good in the bank. I told him 
 that I would give him a check for $8,800 and make him 
 good, but I found it was about $6,000. I had to go into the 
 bank and endorse for this man, a Jew, to bridge the time 
 over. 
 
 There was scarcely any daj^ that two or three firms did 
 not come to me to get my check for a day or two as ' ' kites ' ' 
 to deposit to make their bank account good until such a 
 time as they would get checks floating in the country. All 
 of them were heavy speculators in option among one or two 
 bucket shops in the stock yards. 
 
 Let me cite one case in reference to W. M. Johnson, who 
 was an honest man and a brother to ex-Congressman Jim 
 Johnson, a well-known man. He was one of the most con- 
 servative and honest and best dealers in the yards. He re- 
 ported robbing was going on all the time and he kept watch- 
 
 [111 
 
162 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 ing to keep from losing himself; he had three bookkeepers 
 who had robbed him, and he said one James Dick, who had 
 been buying hogs for Kingan & Co., had been robbing him 
 and everybody else. He set a trap and a big heavy bull 
 came in, weighing 1,800 pounds. Johnson, himself, went 
 and told Dick that he was buying that bull, and for him to 
 keep away. He bought the bull and then turned around 
 and sold him to Dick for $1 a hundred more than he paid, 
 making the entry on his books just as the transaction oc- 
 curred, showing that one-half of the profit went to Jim 
 Dick. A few days later they had a trial in Johnson 's office, 
 with the other commission men present who had been com- 
 plaining about the corruption. John M. Shaw called in 
 Dick and when Johnson threw the books down on Dick, 
 Dick had to admit the corruption. Then John said : * ' Dick, 
 why did you do this ? " In a few days they let Dick out of 
 the yards and they all promised not to let the circumstance 
 get to the public. A number of other men, bookkeepers and 
 commission men, had been whitewashed in the same way 
 by the Kingans. I understood that Dick went to Kansas 
 City and did business with the Keid Brothers, who were 
 really the Kingans. These are the Reids who were indicted 
 by the grand jury for irregularities in the yard and for 
 shipping out overloaded cars, and ran away to Europe and 
 stayed there two years. This is a matter of court record 
 and newspaper record at the time. These are the chief con- 
 spirators who helped to put me out of business. This is the 
 young set who do not do business as their fathers did. They 
 have all got their four-in-hands and automobiles, while I 
 have to work. 
 
 Once Dick Serf had been working for the yards. Every- 
 
With the Beef Trust 163 
 
 body knew Dick. There was so much talk of corruption 
 going on in the wards the city sent some detectives out 
 there. They caught him stealing three big hogs and haul- 
 ing them out in the night. The detectives had Dick ar- 
 rested. When Rauh heard of the arrest he told the detec- 
 tives to bring him to the Grand Hotel and not to put him 
 in jail, saying, "I will come around and see him." They 
 took him to the Grand Hotel. Dick and Rauh went into con- 
 sultation. Dick related all of this to me afterwards. Rauh 
 said : ' ' Dick, why did you steal those hogs ? ' ' Dick says : 
 "Why, I been a-stealing ten to twenty hogs for you every 
 day, almost, during the twenty years I have been working 
 for the yard company, and I thought it wouldn 't hurt for 
 me to take three for myself." Rauh says: *'Hush, hush, 
 don 't say anything. You have got to go ; you cannot keep 
 at it any longer." I think I can substantiate the above. 
 They would often cut the big ones out of my large droves 
 and put the bi^ ones in their own places. 
 
 Now T want to deal with the real actor, the boss actor, 
 whose name was T. Smith Graves. Some twenty-six or 
 twenty-eight years ago T. Smith Graves was attending col- 
 lege at Greencastle, Indiana. He came from a big farm in 
 Kentucky. He married the daughter of Michael Sells, who 
 ran a big commission house. At that time they paid two 
 and three cents for old hogs and cripples. Graves com- 
 menced buying these cripples and speculated on them. He 
 was accused of stealing two hogs and he came to me and 
 wanted to hand me $2, and wanted me to let him have the 
 cripples for $5.00 less than the cripples were worth. 
 Finally he was caught dead to rights, and they were going 
 to have him arrested, but he ran away to Kentucky, and took 
 
164 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 his wife with him, also two children. His father-in-law told 
 me afterwards that he went down there to see him and he 
 found him and his daughter living in a nigger shanty on his 
 fathers farm. He said his daughter wanted to come home, 
 and he asked me if I would not let Graves come back. I 
 told him to let him come and he fixed it up with the others. 
 Then he got along all right ; he went to work, and finally 
 he went into the firm with Sells and got to be the whole 
 thing. They were making $20,000 to $30,000 a year. 
 
 After they put me out of the yards I brought a suit for 
 $200,000 damage against the stock company and the Com- 
 bine, also including the Indiana National Bank and the Ma- 
 lott Bank, for conspiracy. They had all the lawyers they 
 could get, some ten in number, headed by W. H. H. Miller 
 and Morris & Newberger, a Jew firm. The case was taken 
 to Lebanon, where they had a judge with a glass eye and a 
 wig. I was a little suspicious of the wig, and I told my at- 
 torneys that we had better have a jury, but they advised me 
 to try the case before the judge. John W. Kern was my 
 chief attorney. The judge ruled with me for several days, 
 but I learned that the Jew lawyers had taken the judge on 
 a twenty-mile automobile ride and to a supper at Frank- 
 fort after night. When I found that out I told Kern that I 
 felt like I wanted to dismiss the case. This T. Smith 
 Graves did not go on the witness stand — no one went on the 
 witness stand except Rauh. The judge in handing down his 
 decision said he did not see how the bank could be a con- 
 spirator ; could not see where Kingan, my competitors, had 
 not a right to do so ; that the commission men had a right 
 to organize and resolve not to do any more business with me. 
 He said it seemed that Graves had been robbing me, but it 
 
With the Beef Trust 165 
 
 also seemed that he had settled with me every time I caught 
 him. 
 
 It was a cuckoo of an explanation for the defendants. 
 I found out at the time that Rauh and the judge had been 
 together, that Rauh was a friend of the judge while he was 
 Speaker of the Indiana House some years before. The 
 Stock Yards Company always knew how to handle the 
 Speakers of the Indiana Legislature. They are the best 
 lobbyists there are. They always get things in hand early 
 and look over the committees. The Speaker of course makes 
 the committees, and they find their men long before. No 
 doubt this applies to every State where there is a stock yard. 
 Enough of this. 
 
 We are told in the Bible that the innocent shall suffer 
 for the guilty and you will find this illustrated almost every 
 day in the lives of some of those we know. I have referred 
 in the preceding pages to Graves, who was one of the chief 
 conspirators against me. His wife was a grand, noble and 
 good woman, and was burned to death in her own home. I 
 have also several times referred to the Turk, the King of 
 Ireland, and his wrong-doings in the stock yards and with 
 those who were competitors. Three of his grand-children 
 were burned to death in the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, 
 which broke his good wife's heart and she died. The Jew 
 lawyer who took the judge out riding after night had a 
 partner by the name of Morris. Morris lived with his 
 brother-in-law, who was also a Jew, my comrade in the army 
 and one of the best men I ever knew. His house took fire 
 and Morris was burned to death, with two of the children of 
 his brother-in-law. Dr. Haas. The father never recovered 
 from the blow. The man Malott, president of the Indiana 
 
t^6 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 National Bank, and chief conspirator and the tool of the 
 High Priest against me, has a son Macy, who, according to 
 recent newspaper record, was locked up in the station house 
 for whipping his wife. He is really a much better man 
 than his father. Note this particularly: When McKee, 
 Vice-President of Malott's bank, was on the witness stand 
 for about'two hours in my suit before the judge who wore a 
 wig, and after he had been well rehearsed by W. H. H. 
 Miller and the Jew lawyer who were the leading attorneys 
 for the conspirators, the only truth he swore to on the stand 
 was that he knew my name was R. R. Shiel, and that I had 
 done business at his bank. He knew nothing about the pro- 
 testing of my check; nothing about refusing me money at 
 any time ; or of Malott refusing to let me make a note for 
 $3,000 to pay any overcheck that I might have; nothing 
 about Malott's refusing to take a note endorsed by Fitz- 
 gerald, who is worth a million, and Bishop Chatard. When 
 Malott was on the stand he admitted all these things. My 
 attorney, John W. Kern, got him tangled. Ed Porter, 
 Secretary of the bank, when Malott got tangled, slipped out 
 the back way. 
 
 EIGHTH ARMOUR & COMPANY. 
 
 As to Armour & Company, I knew old Phil well, having 
 met him, I think, about '68, not later than '69, in Chicago, 
 on the Board of Trade, and knew him' as long as I went to 
 Chicago. Phil was really a very fair dealer. He had in his 
 employ when I first knew him, a number of Cudahys. 
 ]\Iike and Patrick I never knew personally, as they did not 
 come on the Board of Trade at that time, but I did know 
 John. He conducted and maintained a big house well until 
 
With the Beef Teust 167 
 
 the other fellows got to doing everything wrong, and he had 
 to follow suit. After his death they got to playing like the 
 other people. They got to making the same kind of stuif 
 that Nelse and the Parson made, and, as I understand it, 
 even got to canning chicken. I never knew Ogden; they 
 say he is a very clever fellow, trying to keep the money his 
 father left him. Well, enough of this. 
 
 NINTH — CUDAHY & COMPANY. 
 
 They are known as cuckoos, John, especially. John is 
 really the only one I know, and I don 't know him well. He 
 is the one that stays in Chicago and does the manipulating, 
 or really what E. C. Swift does for the Swift people. They 
 bought out some years ago, around '80, as I recall it, the 
 Plankington Packing House of Milwaukee, Wis., which was 
 a large packing house. They prospered fast ; they were three 
 very industrious Irishmen. Some years ago they bought a 
 house that was known as the Hughes, Taggart & Co., at 
 Louisville, Ky., and changed it to the Louisville Packing Co. 
 Cudahy bought this house and I bought hogs for them, 
 just the same as I had been buying for Plughes, Taggart 
 & Co. But when the fight came, Cudahy said that he 
 would not pay $6 commission, and wanted to pay only $3. 
 I told them I had only one commission, and then he joined 
 in with the others and chopped my head off. While I was 
 buying for Squire, and buying especially from all the good 
 and best farmers, something like one hundred to one thou- 
 sand head from a farm, Cudahy sent his man Taylor — in 
 fact, sent three men— into Indiana and tried to knock me 
 out of buying the Morgans and the Scotts. who had two or 
 three thousand hogs, and even went right into Indiana, 
 
168 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 north of Indianapolis, a thing unknown in the trade at 
 Frankfort, and put Taylor up there, as I had a big terri- 
 tory. They tried to crowd me in buying the hogs. Taylor 
 is still living. A few years ago I went to Chicago and had a 
 conference with John, and I asked him why in the name of 
 sense he didn't keep off of me there. He said he wanted 
 to buy good ones and that I was buying all the good ones. 
 I told him that I would buy some of these good ones and 
 send them down to him if he would pay me the commission. 
 He said they did not pay a commission ; that they had their 
 own men. I suppose they have a right to buy there. They 
 are right in the deal and doing the bidding of the Trusts. 
 Well, enough of this. 
 
 TENTH — NATIONAL PACKING COMPANY. 
 
 The National Packing Company is a very far-reaching 
 thing. As I understand it, there was originally a house 
 that had that name in Chicago, and they bought it. This 
 house was to be used for a killer off of smaller houses, and 
 they would go into a small town and give provisions away 
 while they were doing the killing. They have killed off 
 practically all of the good-sized houses in the United States, 
 with the exception of three or four. They were never able 
 to do anything with the Cleveland Provision Co., Cleveland, 
 Ohio. It was an old house and had a high grade established 
 trade in Europe, and were very heavy exporters of pork. 
 Ben Rose, the President, and practically the owner, has just 
 recently died, leaving no heirs. He was reported to be 
 worth five to eight million dollars. He gave a million dol- 
 lars to the Old Ladies' Home at Cleveland. I think he was 
 a Scotchman and was ninety years old when he died. He 
 
With the Beef Trust 169 
 
 often told me they would never get him, that his house gave 
 honest stuff and the same kind of lard, etc., as he did years 
 ago ; that he never went into adulterating food, or using the 
 short process of curing any of their food, or stuff any of 
 their hams with chemicals in order that they might get them 
 off in four or five days. He said he always found that 
 when he sold a customer a good ham that they always came 
 back for others. He was a very fair man. He had con- 
 siderable to do with the passing of the meat inspection bill. 
 
 Once when he was in Washington I took him and his 
 wife to the White House and introduced them to President 
 and Mrs. Harrison. He spent an hour or more with him, 
 and the President had us stay for dinner, and he explained 
 to the President the new process of curing meat quickly 
 and ruining the whole country. 
 
 The National Packing Company was organized and the 
 stock prorated among all the members of the Trust, so if 
 there was either loss or profit they would share and share 
 alike. But the same man who made the price in Chicago 
 for the different cuts for all the Trusts, named the price 
 also for the National Packing Company. When the Trust 
 made up its mind to kill off a small house anywhere, the Na- 
 tional Packing Company was the club used, and would send 
 its meats into the place and almost give it away until the 
 small house succumbed. 
 
 CINCINNATI AND LOUISVILLE PACKERS. 
 
 Note the following names of men I commenced doing 
 business with in 1865 and 1866, who were the packers at 
 that time in Cincinnati and Louisville. I dealt only with 
 the large packers. 
 
170 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 In Cincinnati: The strongest man at that time and 
 leaving one of the richest estates in Cincinnati, whom the 
 beef trust was unable to break, was Joseph Raw^son. He 
 was doing business under the name of Joseph Rawson & 
 Son. He was known by those in the trade as Old Joe. He 
 left his business to his sons, who have conducted it since, 
 only in a smaller way. 
 
 The second was Caldwell, Loder & Co. The members 
 of this firm were Rush county, Indiana, men, but doing 
 business in Cincinnati, although living in Rush and Fayette 
 counties, Indiana, in Watson's district. This firm was one 
 of the best known firms that ever did business in Cincinnati. 
 I never had better friends than the members of this firm 
 and the men associated with them. They would have backed 
 me with all the money they aould get at every turn of the 
 road. 
 
 The third was J. L. Keck & Brother, or Si, as we called 
 him. Si was much younger than Joe, Ike or Train, as we 
 (failed Caldwell Train and Loder Ike and Rawson Joe, as I 
 have said. Si w-as young and very progressive. He would 
 be at the yards by daybreak in the morning doing his own 
 buying. Joe, Train and Ike very rarely went to the yards. 
 I did a very heavy business with all of them, but sold Si 
 more than any of the others the first two years. I remem- 
 ber one time during the panic of '73, when nobody could 
 get any money anywhere, I had something more than $25,- 
 000 worth of hogs and shipped them in one train to Cin- 
 cinnati. I banked at that time with Fletcher and Sharpe 
 at Indianapolis, I never had a better friend, and no better 
 man ever lived or died than Ingram Fletcher. I had bought 
 most of the hogs in Indiana and Illinois on time until I 
 
With the Beef Trust 171 
 
 could get back with the money. Ingram asked me if I 
 could not get the currency at Cincinnati and bring it home. 
 I told him I thought I could get it of Joe, 'frain, Ike or Si. 
 Si showed up early in the morning after the hogs reached 
 Cincinnati and seemed to be anxious to buy them. We 
 could not at first agree upon a price, but later on we did. 
 Si was to give me the currency, as I wanted it to pay for 
 the hogs. My impression is there were more than 2,000 
 head of hogs. He said he would get the money if he had to 
 knock a man down for it, and I sold him the hogs. It was 
 some time in the afternoon before we got through weighing 
 the hogs. I had wanted to make the 2 p. m. train for In- 
 dianapolis, but found I could not do so and wired Ingram 
 I would be in Indianapolis at 11 o'clock that night with 
 the stuff, and for him to meet me at the depot. When Si 
 and I got to the bank it was closed, but he had sent word 
 that he had to have the money. They let us in the side 
 door about 4 p. m. and the bank handed out the money in 
 packages. I put it in my grip and hung on to the grip 
 until I reached Indianapolis. Ingram met me at the depot 
 and we went immediately to his bank and placed the money 
 in the vault. I regret I have not space to deal more at 
 length with others I did business with in Cirjeinnati. all of 
 whom were excellent gentlemen and did business in the Mis- 
 souri way. 
 
 Louisville : I think I was fully as strong if not stronger 
 in Louisville as in Cincinnati. Among the first I did busi- 
 ness with there in 1865 or ^66 was Hughes, Gauzley & Co. 
 Colonel Gauzley. of the firm, was on General Forest's staff 
 during the war. He was as much as ten or fifteen years 
 older than I. The firm had the largest house in Louisville 
 
172 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 at that time. Gauzley came up to Indianapolis to see me 
 with Col. Horace Scott, at that time superintendent of the 
 J., M. & I. Railroad. Horace wanted the hogs to go over 
 his road to Louisville and Gauzley wanted them for his 
 packing house. Horace knew me, but I had never met 
 Gauzley, but his Kentucky hospitality soon had me going 
 down the pike. He wanted me to give him all my hogs, but 
 of course I had to take care of Joe and Ike and the other 
 Cincinnati boys. I did finally give him from twenty-five to 
 thirty-five cars a day. 
 
 Some two years after this, while waiting for a train at 
 his country residence some twelve or fourteen miles out of 
 Louisville, he was accidentally drawn under the train and 
 killed. I do not believe I ever lost a better friend or felt 
 as sad. After his death the firm became Hughes, Taggart 
 & Co. and continued under that name until they were 
 bought out by Cudahy when he took in Louisville in the 
 division of territories. This house has been able to with- 
 stand the beef trust. Note the names of others I did busi- 
 ness with in Louisville : Fred Leib & Sons. The beef trust 
 broke him and broke his heart. He never ordered less than 
 2,500 head at a time. In fact, the Louisville people seldom 
 ever ordered less than 1,500 head at a time, and sometimes 
 as high as 3,000. During the packers' strike about '87, 
 when there were no packing houses operating in Chicago 
 for some weeks, I went to Chicago on Mondays and took 
 out of that city from 15,000 to 20,000 daily, which I sent 
 to Louisville and Cincinnati. In addition I had a number 
 of country people sending their hogs to the packers there. 
 I also sent .large shipments of hogs from Chicago to my 
 Eastern customers, as the Chicago market was at that time 
 
With the Beef Trust 173 
 
 lower than any in the country. This was before any meat 
 inspection law was passed and before I was a dead one. 
 
 I ask the attention of the reader to the following, which 
 articles appeared in recent issues of the New York papers : 
 
 THE MEEK CONSUMER. 
 
 To the Editor of The Sun: 
 
 Sir — All editorial paragraph in today's Smi says: "It is al- 
 most uncaiiiiy, yet it's true. The consumer will not rise." 
 
 Wouldn't it be even more remarkable if the consumer should 
 rise, for as it stands now the consumer doesn't know any good 
 reason for rising, and not knowing any he maintains his average 
 calm horizontal iwsition? Since the tariff talk commenced the 
 editors have been wondering why the consumer has not rebelled. 
 Hasn't it occurred to the etiitors that unquestionably at least 09% 
 per cent, of the average consumers are at the present moment as 
 densely ignorant of the nature and effect of the proi>osed tariff 
 schedules as tomorrow's child? The editors feel that they under- 
 stand the tariff question somewhat (as their jobs require at least 
 a partial knowledge of it), and as the average person believes that 
 the rest of humanity knows something about the things with which 
 he is familiar, the editors naturally assume that the consumer 
 knows something about the tariff". But the average consumer 
 knows as little about the tariff as the average congressman or 
 senator. 
 
 We should like to know sornething about the tariff', but we 
 don't, and we have a faint idea that we never shall, and that is 
 about all there is to it. The consumer has not ^'been shown" (or 
 if he has he is too dense to perceive the demonstration) that he 
 will be affected inimically by any possible change in the tariff. 
 If it can be bumped into his consciousness that it will cost him 
 more to live this year than last year, then every one over seven 
 will immediately assume a perpendicular attitude. 
 
 Adam Laibd. 
 
 Scranton, Pa,, April 22, 
 
174 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 beef trust accused. 
 
 MAY ENTER SHOE BUSINESS IF HIDES TAX IS CONTINUED. 
 From the New York Press. 
 
 Vigorous protest against a duty on hides was made Friday by 
 Charles H. Jones, of Boston, in speal^ing on "The Boot and Shoe 
 Industry and the Tariff" before the members of the Academy of 
 Political Science in the Hotel Astor. The speaker asserted that 
 the present duty of 15 per cent, is aiding the beef trust gradually 
 to build up a monopoly of the tanning industry of the United 
 States, and the result would be that all independent tanners will 
 be comi)elled to buy hides from the beef trust or be driven out of 
 business. The only remedy, the si)eaker said, is to permit the in- 
 dependent tanners to have the entire world as their market. 
 
 There were many speakers at the annual meeting of the 
 academy, but Jones was the most striking because of his charges 
 against the beef trust. He went into the history of the tanning 
 business. He said the great packing houses take off one-half the 
 hides produced in this country. "They simply own such hides as 
 come into their possession in their business of supplying the people 
 with meat," he said. "Obviously, neither they nor the farmers 
 produce or own one single hide more or less on account of this 
 or any other tariff. When a duty was levied on hides the packing 
 houses were selling their hides to tanners throughout the country 
 and were naturally one of the chief sources of supply to the tan- 
 ners. Then the markets of the .world were oi^en to all buyers and 
 the world's production controlled the price. The duty, however, 
 increased the price of foreign hides 15 per cent, and enabled the 
 packers to realize a full butcher's profit on the hides and at the 
 same time get the hide for about 15 per cent, less than any tanner 
 could buy it. The packing houses soon realized the importance of 
 their control of the tanners' raw material and naturally undertook 
 to secure this profit as well as their own. To do this they began 
 to learn the tanning business. 
 
 "To make their control complete," went on the speaker, "they 
 
With the Beef Tbust 175 
 
 have during the past few years bought out large numbers of hide- 
 buying agencies scattered throughout the country, and now collect 
 thousands of hides which are taken off by local butchers. Thus 
 they have so restricted the sources of supply that the independent 
 owner must go to them for his raw material, the price of which 
 they control. 
 
 "Under these circumstances, if this duty is continued, nothing 
 can prevent the ultimate monopoly of the leather business by the 
 beef trust. When their control is complete — and it will take only 
 a few years to complete it — nothing can prevent their making all 
 or such parts of the shoes needed in this country as they desire." 
 
 CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 I want to call your especial attention to Mr. Flagler, 
 practically the owner of the East coast of Florida. He 
 owns all the railroads, all the telegraph offices, all the ex- 
 press companies, all the cars and all the best hotels. You 
 might say it was a fad of his to go into this wilderness and 
 construct all these roads and make such improvements. He 
 has managed his investments very differently from J. J. 
 Hill. 
 
 You might say that Florida possesses much, especially 
 in South Florida, as the climate is as good or better than 
 anywhere I have been. Also, it is very easy to get out of 
 Florida by water, much harder to get out by rail. I knew 
 Mr. Flagler in a way in Cleveland thirty-five or forty years 
 ago. I stopped at five or six of his hotels in Florida, in 
 Miami, Palm Beach, Daytona and St. Augustine, paying 
 from $8 to $10 a day. They were all managed by different 
 people, and each manager operated his own hotel, and the 
 management of one hotel had to check with that of the 
 others. That was done in a way to get the best results. I 
 
176 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 understand the hotel business, having been connected with 
 that business directly or indirectly for more than forty 
 years. I have been stopping at the best hotels for years in 
 New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and scores 
 of other places. I never ask the price of a room, but tell 
 them I want a good room, and when I get ready to go I al- 
 Avays go and pay for same. I have lived that way ever 
 since I have been in business. Ten dollars a day is the 
 most that I have ever paid at any of the hotels on the Ameri- 
 can plan. All of his hotels are on the American plan. In 
 '92 I was a guest for something like ten days at the Ponce 
 de Leon, in Florida. I was invited there when Albert J. 
 Porter, Minister to Italy, was traveling with me, and I was 
 looking after Harrison's nomination. There was a large 
 ball there for the Hermitage Institution at Nashville, Ten- 
 nessee. I had, I think, the same room this time as I had 
 there once before. They charged me $10. Flagler married 
 his former housekeeper, and I am told that she is now in 
 the insane hospital. She was the best dressed woman at the 
 hotel. She was his second wife. I missed him at Palm 
 Beach, but I saw his residence, and it is said that it cost two 
 or three millions of dollars. The stewards and managers of 
 his hotels told me that he checked up one hotel against an- 
 other, and the manager that got the best results got the most 
 salary. I asked them where they got all of their meat. 
 They said that S. & S. supplied all Flagler's hotels. Note 
 what I have said elsewhere about the kind of meat that S. 
 & S. furnished, especially in the pork line. This is the kind 
 that you find in all of Flagler's hotels. The oranges and 
 the grape fruit that Flagler used were mostly what are 
 called drops, that is the fruit that drops off the trees and 
 
With the Beef Trust 177 
 
 can be bought for more than a half less than that which is 
 selected and pulled by hand off the trees. I am told that 
 Flagler never had the best oranges or grape fruit on his 
 tables, many of them having fallen four or five days be- 
 fore. A gentleman who owns the largest and best fruit 
 farm I saw while in Florida told me that he had twenty 
 colored people putting up his fruit, and told me that Flag- 
 ler would take many of the drops off of his hands. 
 
 I asked Mr. Ingram, who was Flagler's third vice-presi- 
 dent, whom I met at times, about building up the cattle on 
 the lines of the Florida roads, and he said that they prin- 
 cipally raised bulls down there to fight in Cuba. I told him 
 that I would give him one hundred bulls, sufficient to change 
 the whole breed of his cattle, if he would pay the freight on 
 them and sterilize all the other bulls within ten miles of his 
 road, and in a few years he would have a fine grade of cat- 
 tle. He said that he would see me about it, but that he did 
 not think it could be done. I told him if he did that he 
 could get good meat right at home, and Flagler would not 
 have to have his stuff shipped from the North. I found 
 that they were furnishing guests at his hotels nothing but 
 cows, and Jersey beef, and in the pork line nothing but old 
 stags and sows. He told me that he knew nothing about 
 that, as each manager operated his hotel so he could show 
 the best results, and all meat and egg supplies were bought 
 from S. & S., which was contracted for by Flagler. Of 
 course every business man buys so he can show good re- 
 sults, but I told him that it was not right to buy meats that 
 were actually poisonous to people. There is a vast differ- 
 ence between meats. I told him that they ought to feed 
 nothing but high grade meats. He said, ' ' Well, fish is high 
 
 [12] 
 
178 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 grade meat, and we feed fish all the year round. The cost 
 of fish is the same as it was thirty years ago there and all 
 the way along the coast to Boston. Fish sell all along the 
 coast for from ten to twelve cents per pound, and the best 
 kind. Fish and the like are higher in the West than in the 
 East. They will charge three times as much for beef all 
 along the coast as they do for fish, and that of a very poor 
 quality. 
 
 Note particularly here what the Trust is doing. I 
 stopped at Helena, Arkansas, as I was going down. I in- 
 spected the city. I wanted to find out whether it would be 
 a good investment to put in street cars. This was a town of 
 fifteen to twenty thousand people, and no cars. A friend of 
 mine wanted to get the charter. I wrote him to go there 
 and get the charter, which he did; now they are building 
 the street railway. I stopped there also when I went back. 
 I arranged with him to put in stock yards and a packing 
 house in or near the town. The parties arranged to give 
 me one hundred acres of land and I had all the deeds and 
 everything ready, but the Trust got onto it in some way and 
 then the parties would not let me have the land unless I 
 would go away out in the country, saying that stock yards 
 and a packing house would ruin any city; consequently I 
 did not get the land. 
 
 As I was returning from Hot Springs, Ark., I stopped 
 four days at 'Nashville, Tenn., and got in with some friends 
 there. I had it in my mind to promote and build a stock 
 yard there, as I knew I was in the best part of the South, 
 and could get a large supply of live stock in that section, 
 and close enough to go in the Northwest, knowing if I was 
 short in the Northwest I could get there with my stock in 
 
With the Beef Trust 179 
 
 twenty-four hours. We went over it all very carefully, and 
 I talked it over with some of the moneyed men there, and 
 the thing was arranged to be put in operation. Note 
 what appeared in the Nashville American and which 
 will explain itself. Also note what other papers said 
 about the two and a half million dollars for the pur- 
 pose of organizing and constructing the stock yards, a cold 
 storage and fertilizer plant in Nashville. This was five or 
 six days afterwards. Of course the Cudahys and their 
 associates, who had had this territory in the South, take 
 after them, got after me and took out a charter for $2,- 
 600,000. They followed me like a serpent everywhere. 
 Years ago I went in with Charles North & Co., to construct 
 stock yards in Sioux City, Iowa, and the Trust went in there 
 after they bought North out. 
 
 Niles & Brothers, about twenty-two or three years ago, 
 and some other parties, constructed yards at Yarmouth, 
 Texas, and I said to them that it would be a dead sure 
 winner. Niles wrote to me, asking me if I could not get 
 him a manager to come out there and help him out. I was 
 arranging to go myself and I told them they could get 
 Mitchell, who was at that time superintendent of the Kansas 
 City yards, and who had been superintendent of the Indian- 
 apolis yards until Samuel Rauh was elected President. J. 
 W. P. Ijams had been President practically all the time un- 
 til they brought on the fight against me and Mitchell, super- 
 intendent. They protected me and saw I got the strictly 
 higher right and the ones I bought loaded, without stealing. 
 As soon as Ijams quit they got rid of Mitchell and he went 
 to the Kansas City yards. Then the Trust went to Yar- 
 mouth and Niles made a deal with them whereby he was to 
 
180 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 have a big interest. This is the same Niles who is president 
 of the Squire house in Boston, and the Niles, Boston. 
 
 Another damnable thing of the Trust is an agreement 
 whereby nothing that was cured in the old-fashioned way 
 must be sent South. They must keep a dumping place to 
 dump only the process-cured meats in the South. Twenty- 
 five years ago there was only about 40 per cent, of the hogs 
 slaughtered that could be marketed in less than forty days, 
 excepting the lard, the fresh livers and the feet. The bacon, 
 hams and the shoulders, when they were not sold fresh, 
 would take at least fifty or sixty days to be fully cured. 
 Squire, North, the Boston Packing House or any of the Cin- 
 cinnati or Louisville houses never marketed anything until 
 it was thoroughly cured. Now the Trusts have a process of 
 chemicals by which they can cure hams, shoulders or in fact 
 any part of the hog in eight to ten days, and they can sell 
 all of their products inside of ten days. This was done to 
 save interest on the money invested and to turn their money 
 often ; also to save storage and insurance in carrying them. 
 
 You understand they are putting nothing but bull meat 
 in the large hotels. North and South, which are practically 
 incorporated and have an interest in the Beef Trust. 
 
 The bulls are not fed as they were fifteen years ago, but 
 are fed on cotton seed hulls, cooked with slop. Years ago 
 they had hay for roughness, now they have cotton seed hulls. 
 The cotton seed permeates the beef. They pass the orders 
 down the line to sell the bulls. They go on slop in July and 
 August, and they commence taking off in March, April and 
 May, and by the middle of June they have got to have them 
 all off, for the still houses close down then. They are fat, 
 but they are bull meat just the same, with a cotton see4 
 
With the Beef Trust 181 
 
 flavor. In every large hotel I stopped at in the South I 
 found this condition since the first of March. I recently 
 took a trip West, through Cincinnati, Indiana, St. Louis, 
 Kansas City, Chicago and New York, and the bull meat ap- 
 peared in all of the best hotels I stopped at, and also on the 
 dining cars. While in the South during the winter I found 
 the Jersey cow meat largely predominated. At any rate 
 there was nothing but cow meat put on any of Flagler's 
 tables. Part was Jersey and part was not, and I found 
 the same conditions in every other hotel with -the exception 
 of Gulfport, Miss., and Little Rock, Arkansas. The best 
 meal I had while traveling in the South was in East Ten- 
 nesee in the mountains on the Tennessee River, where we 
 stopped twenty minutes for dinner. The lady had all Ten- 
 nessee products, evidently — the eggs, the bacon, the pork, 
 etc. I think the meal was 75 cents, and at all the other 
 places I had been paying from $1 to $1.50. You under- 
 stand I traveled in the South all the time in the daytime. 
 This will show you that the conditions of live stock in the 
 South must be changed and improved as was done in Den- 
 mark. 
 
 To the Southern Senators and members of the House of 
 Representatives, I want to serve notice on you that the 
 same applies to you this coming election as it did to Wads- 
 worth. Your country is an agricultural country, and a 
 great deal depends upon your actions in the Senate and the 
 House, as to how you all should join hands and help build 
 up the South as the Northwest has been built up. In the 
 West there were millions of acres that were barren that are 
 now fertile, the same as your lands prior to the war, but 
 have been abandoned since. Your lands ran be made fertile 
 
182 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 if you will permit the people to go into your State without 
 interruption, and teach your people "Early to bed and 
 early to rise." 
 
 It has been your purpose to keep your colored people in 
 slavery, so that you could hold them in subjugation, but all 
 that is past and there are new generations coming on. The 
 war is all over and there is no use bringing that up. You 
 vote for a revenue bill that won 't protect the poorer people 
 in a way of furnishing raw material for the factories and 
 other industries in a small way. You protect your wild 
 timber lands in order that you may be able to sell a few 
 more trees off the land, lands that nothing else will grow on, 
 and poor trees at that. T noticed while traveling in the 
 South a great many turpentine camps and timber in the 
 sandy parts of Florida, Georgia. Alabama, Mississippi. 
 Louisiana and Arkansas — practically would travel half a 
 day and see nothing else. Can you afford to vote for a big 
 tariff on lumber to satisfy the already rich lumber dealer 
 and make the poor man pay it when they want to build a 
 house or a barn on a farm in the South, or even in the North 
 or Northwest? Can you afford to vote for tax on refined 
 sugar in the interest of the Sugar Trust because you have a 
 few districts in your section that are able to produce sugar, 
 against the millions that have to consume sugar? I serve 
 notice on you that you will get the same dose that Wads- 
 worth got, and in the very next election. There is no Doli- 
 tics with the plain, common people, especially among the 
 farmers. In my four months, traveling in the South I 
 found that part of the country was riper for the move than 
 even the West, that is on the tariff bill. I fully realize that 
 many of you have large interests in the South, that you are 
 
With the Beef Trust 183 
 
 rich and have plenty, and that the poorer people have to 
 help furnish a revenue to support your government and to 
 help pay your taxes. 
 
 Now there has been a great deal said in the South about 
 the colored race. The old saying is, "A nigger will steal, 
 and a white man is uncertain." I don't agree with that. 
 Take, for instance, the bank's trusty man is mostly a negro ; 
 the man who has charge of the keys in the big hotels is often 
 a colored man, both North and South. The old slave 
 owners had trusty colored men; in fact there are trusted 
 colored men in nearly all business interests. The old col- 
 ored woman that nursed the white children, she educated 
 them to be honest, as well as educated her own children to be 
 honest. It is true that there is a good per cent, of the col- 
 ored people that do steal, but not more so than the Dago, the 
 Irish, Jews and others. It has not been over a year since 
 they wanted to disfranchise the colored men in the South, 
 when there are some colored men more able to vote than lots 
 of white ones. These are the Democrats. I have got no 
 politics myself and I don't want to have any — I just want 
 to help the people. 
 
 PROMINENT MEN I HAVE KNOWN. 
 
 Now I want to take up some great men in the light in 
 which I see them ; in fact, in the light in which the public 
 sees them, and not as they see themselves. There are a 
 great many handsome men that live on their looks, and 
 think as they are walking down the street or riding in auto- 
 mobiles that everybody is looking at them — in fact that is 
 generally the case, but what are most of the people thinking 
 about them? 
 
184 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 Now, first I want to deal with the men I have come in 
 contact with in the last forty years, so I will take up what 
 is a most important class, the business man. One of the 
 greatest men that I have known in the past thirty years in 
 building up the Northwest is Archbishop Ireland, moving 
 forward and preaching Christ and Him crucified. 
 
 The second is James J. Hill, building a railroad into the 
 unknown country. It was a very gigantic undertaking to 
 construct the Northern Pacific. After he got it constructed 
 he saw the wild animals, the wild horses, the wild cattle, 
 the wild sheep, the wild hogs and the wild men. So some 
 fifteen or twenty years ago he commenced buying and im- 
 porting on the main lines West in Minnesota, the Dakotas, 
 Montana and Washington, something like eight hundred 
 bulls, all of which were thoroughbred Herefords, Shorthorns 
 and Polled Angus of the meat kind. He bought no Jerseys. 
 Those are practically the only meat producers. He gave 
 them to the farmers and compelled them to use them for 
 stock breeding. He bought something like 5,000 male thor- 
 oughbred hogs, and something like six or eight thousand 
 thoroughbred bucks, all of which were imported largely 
 from Canada, as they raised the highest grade sheep there. 
 He bought something like six to eight hundred draft horses 
 and gave all of them away, stringing them out on the lines 
 of his roads.* In every case where he gave away this im- 
 ported stock he required the recipient to agree to sterilize 
 all the male stock they owned and in less than two years he 
 had all the hogs and sheep at least half-breeds or thorough- 
 breds ; in less than five years he had all the cattle, and in 
 less than eight years he had all the horses half-breeds or 
 
With the Beef Trust 185 
 
 thoroughbreds. Now no country in the world can excel the 
 section along his line of roads, in its high grade of sheep, 
 hogs, cattle and horses. In my mind he is one of the great- 
 est benefactors I ever knew, along with John P. Squire, Tim 
 Eastman and Richard We])ber, an account of whom I have 
 given in the previous pages. There is a vast difference be- 
 tween a builder up and a tearer down. There is another 
 Moses that I think of at this point, and if he lives he will 
 raise other sections of the country out of the wilderness. I 
 have reference to E. H. Harriman, and if he takes up on 
 his lines and duplicates what Hill has done, as I think he 
 will, it will be a big money-maker for him. It will take 
 some time to get good results from this class of invest- 
 ments, yet when the good results come they will continue to 
 be money-makers. He has the foresight to see it, and he 
 will prove to be a great builder up of the South along the 
 line of his-roads. 
 
 There is a vast difference between the way Hill and the 
 Pennsylvania Company operate their roads. The Penn- 
 sylvania practically operates all the lines it controls for the 
 sole use and benefit of the Pennsylvania, and no one else. 
 Thirty-two years ago when we established our stock yards 
 at Indianapolis, we had to give the head officers of the 
 Pennsylvania Company $100,000 of our $500,000 worth of 
 stock. In the agreement with the Pennsylvania Company 
 they were to abandon two stock yards, in Indianapolis, 
 which were very good ones, and one at Columbus, Ohio, one 
 of the best locations for a stock yard in the country, and it 
 would have been one of the best for the farmers of Ohio 
 and a part of Indiana, giving them the benefit of a short 
 
186 Twenty Years in Heli. 
 
 haul to market. I understand many of these same high of- 
 ficials are yet holding their stock in the Indianapolis yards. 
 Of course the ''High Priest" is still living, and it is my im- 
 pression he thinks he will live always. He was in the 
 deal at the time, as he was stock agent for the Pennsyl- 
 vania Road. 
 
 I regret that I have not the space to mention in this 
 brief hundreds of others. None come up to Squire, East- 
 man and Webber. If you are careful in reading this brief 
 through you will see what I have to say about each one. Do 
 not overlook Pinnell and Lockridge. I must also mention 
 William Randolph Hearst. His father went West at an 
 early day and struck it rich in the gold mines, and was sent 
 to the United States Senate by California. In his day he 
 was a great power on the Pacific Coast. William has got 
 his father skinned to a frazzle. I kncAV the old Senator and 
 I know the young journalist. He is a smarter m^an than his 
 father was. That is an exception to the general rule. 
 There are not many smarter men in the country. He em- 
 ploys the very best talent and pays the highest salaries on 
 his papers. He puts a good deal of fiction in his papers, 
 which I do not read, but the people want it. He also prints 
 a great deal of solid facts, which I do read. You can not 
 lose him. There is another man you can not lose, that is 
 Thomas Hisgen, late the candidate of the Independent 
 party for President. He is a very able man. He came from 
 Indiana. Tom Lawson is another one of those men you can 
 not lose. I do not know him personally, but I have read 
 with interest what he has written about meats and the Beef 
 Trust. He is a very well-informed man on these subjects, 
 for one who never dealt in meat. 
 
With the Beef Trust 187 
 
 I also want to say there are great men in labor organiza- 
 tions, and in naming the progressive men, no man stands 
 higher on the list than John Mitchell. There is no greater 
 )3enefactor to labor or the country than John Mitchell, and 
 he will have a crown when he dies. 
 
 There is a vast difference between Gompers and Mitchell. 
 There is a Jew and an Irishman in this. I understand that 
 Gompers is a Jew. However, one is a builder up and the 
 other a tearer down. 
 
 RICHARD WEBBER'S SIXTIETH BIRTHDAY. 
 
 HE ARRIVES AT THE AGE OF THREE SCORE YEARS. 
 
 DETAILS OF PROFIT DISTRIBUTION PLAN. 
 
 On the 21st of January Mr. Richard Webber arrived at 
 the sixtieth milestone in his life's journey. 
 
 He carries his sixty years lightly, and to a stranger looks 
 more like forty. 
 
 It isn't our intention to write a biography of Mr. Web- 
 ber, but we would like to say a few words appertaining to 
 the success Mr. Webber has made. 
 
 We know that Mr. Webber became a master butcher in 
 1873, when he started in business for his own account in 
 partnership with Mr. James W. Sears at 2194 Third avenue. 
 j\Ir. Webber withdrew from this partnership in 187 G and 
 continued business at 2134 Third avenue, and in the follow- 
 ing year removed to 210 East 120th street, having pur- 
 chased at a receiver's sale a business that had been previ- 
 ouslv conducted there. 
 
188 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 He took a partner, a Mr. Warwick, and increased the 
 basiness by taking the shop adjoining. No. 212. 
 
 In the early part of 1880 the firm Webber & Warwick 
 was dissolved and the business divided, Mr. Webber taking 
 212 East 120th street. 
 
 Mr. Warwick put his business into a stock company^ 
 which later had financial difficulties. Eventually on the set- 
 tlement of the affairs of the Warwick company its business 
 was acquired by Mr. Webber, who then, about the beginning 
 of 1882, combined it with his individual business. The 
 Harlem packing house was originally the property of Mr. 
 Warwick, who started in 1873. 
 
 We make no mention here of many incidents of Mr. 
 Webber outside of his strictly business life, as we desire 
 to reserve the recording of them until we are able to give a 
 good, full biography, which we feel will interest every mem- 
 ber of his large business family, and besides, it would be a 
 very difficult matter to write all one would like, realizing 
 as we do his extreme modesty. 
 
 We have secured some photos of our subject which we 
 feel sure will be of interest to our readers. The first shows 
 Mr. Webber when he was about eighteen years old, and is 
 reproduced from a daguerreotype. The next two show him 
 at twenty-six and twenty-nine years. The one taken in 
 1884 or '85 was used in a set of resolutions which were en- 
 grossed and handsomely framed and presented to Mr. Web- 
 ber by one hundred and ten employes in 1885. The photo 
 taken when he was 48 makes him look older than he appears 
 today. The picture depicting Mr. Webber in 1904 shows 
 him no different than now. 
 
 Mr. Webber has a mode^ family — two sons and one 
 
RICHARD WEBBER. 
 
With the Beef Trust 189 
 
 daughter — and one grandson, the child of Mr. Richard 
 Webber, Jr. We present a picture of Master Richard Web- 
 ber 3d, who is three years and nine months old and who 
 from all appearances Avill be ' ' a chip of the old block. ' ' 
 
 The Profit-Sharing Plan — Everybody a Partner. 
 
 By means of signs placed about the establishment on 
 Monday, the 28th inst., Mr. Webber requested the presence 
 of all his employes immediately after the closing of the 
 store, explaining that he desired to speak upon a plan to 
 distribute amongst them a certain percentage of the profits 
 of his business. 
 
 The five hundred and odd employes gathered in the 
 Third avenue store after business Avas over for the day, and 
 then Mr. Webber said: ''I called you together this even- 
 ing with the object of saying something to you, but as my 
 throat is not right I have deputized my son Richard to ex- 
 plain to you a plan which I hope will meet with your ap- 
 proval, as it does with mine. " 
 
 After the applause which greeted these remarks had 
 died away Mr. Richard Webber, Jr., addressed the assem- 
 blage as follows : 
 
 Upon the card which accompanied Mr. Webber 's gift to 
 you a short time ago it was intimated that Mr. Webber had 
 a plan of distributing among his employes a portion of the 
 yearly profits instead of the customary week 's salary. 
 
 With the object of announcing to you this plan this 
 evening Mr. Webber has called you together. 
 
 In a large business the supreme head cannot oversee 
 everything. Consequently minor details are not carried 
 out, and that means losses. To prevent these losses it needs 
 
190 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 the co-operation of the employes. Now the question is how 
 to secure that co-operation. The co-operation upon the part 
 of the etnployes means that they should take some interest, 
 and perhaps the best way to secure that interest is to give 
 them something to lose or gain. No one has as much in- 
 terest in a business as in one's own. 
 
 Now, to secure your interest in his business, Mr. Web- 
 ber is going to make his business your own personal busi- 
 ness ; in other words, he is going to take you into partner- 
 ship. It is his intention to divide 20 per cent, of the net 
 profits among his employes. This will take the place of the 
 customary semi-yearly distribution of a week's salary. 
 
 This 20 per cent., taking the average profits of the last 
 few years, will materially exceed a week 's salary. Some of 
 you may remember in a like distribution a number of years 
 ago that your share of profits was several times the amount 
 of the salary you received each week. 
 
 iMr. Webber wishes it to be strictly understood that this 
 sharing of profits is not to be considered as part salary. It 
 is a reward. The amount you will receive will of course 
 vary at one time from another ; naturally profits fluctuate, 
 and will be partly accountable to the amount of interest 
 taken by you in the business. Therefore, if an employe 
 does not take any interest in the business he must not ex- 
 pect to share the profits which his interest ought to have 
 helped accrue. 
 
 This action upon Mr. Webber 's part being done with the 
 idea of getting your help, it will be at his discretion to dis- 
 continue the arrangement should it fail of its object. 
 
 Now, as Mr. Webber's partners in his business, how can 
 you help to increase the profits? You must jjrevent waste 
 
With the Beef Trust 191 
 
 by yourself and others in time and material. For instance, 
 you know that many waste time, and time is money. You 
 know that many use more paper than is necessary in wrap- 
 ping articles. The paper and twine bill of this establish 
 inent reaches weekly over $300. 
 
 You must prevent dishonesty and wilful neglect in 
 others. If you feel a man is dishonest or wilfully neglect- 
 ful do not try to correct the fault personally — he would 
 naturally resent your interference — ^but report it to your 
 superior. This cannot be considered as an underhand trick ; 
 remember you are a partner in the business. 
 
 Obey orders of your superiors. This is one of the strong 
 points of an organization. When you are told to do some- 
 thing do it yourself; do not turn the job over to some one 
 else. 
 
 You must save expenses. One of the greatest items of 
 our business is the deliveries. You can save money there. 
 As a salesman you can perhaps get a customer to carry a 
 small package by asking, *'Will you take this with you?" 
 That suggests to the customer to take it. When you have 
 waited on a customer ask if there is anything else. If there 
 is, it means the saving of a check, of extra wrapping papej" 
 and extra delivery — a saving all around. 
 
 If you are one coming in contact with the trade, don't 
 make too many promises. If you do make a promise see 
 that it is kept. The customers must not be disappointed. 
 
 If you witness an accident to a customer report it at 
 once to some one in authority. There are people unprinci- 
 pled enough to take advantage of a slight accident to black- 
 mail. Should you have an accident yourself report it. 
 
 Never shirk the blame when you are in the wrong. There 
 
192 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 is a sign upstairs which reads to the effect that a prompt 
 acknowledgment of a fault saves time and money, and tends 
 largely to foster good feelings between employer and em- 
 ployes. 
 
 You must be loyal to the house. You must always up- 
 hold the establishment and those in it. When you ' ' knock ' ' 
 the house you are ' ' knocking ' ' yourself. 
 
 You must obey rules and see that others do so. There 
 is an object for every rule made. They are necessary for 
 the success of every business. You see signs about the 
 house prohibiting smoking ; why ? Because fires are awful. 
 We need look back but a few days to recall the awful ca- 
 lamity of the Cowperthwait fire, and others of even greater 
 magnitude. 
 
 You must use discretion. For instance, if you should 
 get a raise in salary it is because you are considered worth 
 it. Don't tell others. Your fellow employe might think 
 he is entitled to it when he is not. He don't know it, and 
 consequently he wants a raise and is dissatisfied when he 
 don't get it. Again, but a few days ago one of the boys 
 on No. 5 counter declined to sell a customer four pounds of 
 breast of mutton because he didn't have just the weight 
 handy. The goods chosen weighed four and a quarter 
 pounds, and the boy could not see his way clear to make it 
 four pounds — very poor discretion ! In this case a quarter 
 of a pound of fat cut off would have been no loss. It 
 would have made a difference of a cent, and as fat it would 
 bring that money. It is a different matter in the case of 
 a porterhouse steak or a turkey, where the article must be 
 sold as it is. The chances are that the customer did not 
 have enough money to pay for more than four pounds. 
 
With the Beef Trust 193 
 
 The boy would have sent this customer away, actually los- 
 ing the sale. Mind you, not intentionally, but because he 
 didn 't know better. He has not yet learned discretion. 
 
 You have a right to suggest improvements. If your 
 suggestions are not carried out do not feel discouraged. 
 The head of the house is not able perhaps to use them just 
 then. 
 
 You must be in harmony with the house and those about 
 you. You are all working for the same head. There may 
 be some rivalry among the salesmen for the highest sales or 
 the drivers for the highest number of deliveries, but let this 
 rivalry be friendly. 
 
 As salesmen you must treat your trade right. Don't 
 discriminate. As drivers, treat your customers right. 
 Everybody be polite, courteous and kind. 
 
 As superiors, you must show no partiality to those un- 
 der you. You may be kind, yet positive; otherwise you 
 lose the respect of those of whom you are in charge. 
 
 To condense things, whatever your position, do just 
 what you feel is right. 
 
 Reverting again to Mr. Webber's plan of distribution 
 of these profits, the idea is that at the end of June and the 
 end of December 20 per cent, of the net profits of the pre- 
 ceding six months will be divided among those who have 
 been in the employ of Mr. Webber for one year or more, 
 the division being based on the amount of salary you receive 
 in that six months. Six months' business cannot be closed 
 up in a few days, and therefore this distribution must not 
 be expected at the immediate conclusion of each six months, 
 but as soon after as is possible. 
 
 [13] 
 
194 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 If there is any point you do not understand say so, so it 
 may be -explained. If you have any questions to ask we 
 would be happy to have you ask them. 
 
 Death of Richard Webber. 
 
 (From the National Provisioner, Oct. 17, 1908.) 
 
 Another bulwark of the local meat trade has passed into 
 the great beyond. Following close on the death of Charles 
 Weisl)ecker, the big Harlem butcher, the trade and the peo- 
 ple at large were greatly shocked to learn of the death of 
 Richard Webber, which occurred on October 7 on board the 
 steamer St. Louis, on which he was returning after a tour 
 of Europe. The news was received by wireless and gave 
 the bare facts that Mr. Webber had died of heart disease on 
 that day. On the arrival of the steamer on Saturday it 
 was learned that Mr. Webber had died suddenly at 7 :45 
 p. m. while seemingly the picture of health, having been 
 much benefited by his stay abroad. With his passing the 
 trade loses not only the largest retailer in the world, but a 
 man who has made his personality and business ability felt 
 all over the country. Through his large business, known 
 as the Harlem Packing House, at 120th street and Third 
 avenue, through his membership in the New York Produce 
 Exchange, the Poultry and Game Trade Association, the 
 American Meat Packers' Association, his affiliations with 
 the local meat trade societies, through his poultry and pack- 
 ing house in Sioux City, la., and his small stock slaughter 
 house in Buffalo, N. Y., he had met and had dealings with 
 so many people that his name was extremely familiar in the 
 trade. 
 
With the Beef Trust 195 
 
 Mr. Webber was 61 years of age, having been born at 
 Chulmleigh, Devonshire, England, January 21, 1847. It 
 is on record that his father was considered the best judge 
 of cattle in his day in the west of England when beef was 
 bought on the hoof by the head instead of by the pound as 
 nowadays. He left home when 15 years of age and went to 
 Exeter, the nearest big city, remaining there until 1863, 
 when he went to London. In 1868 he emigrated to Canada, 
 and after remaining in Montreal a short while he went to 
 Chicago. In 1870 he came to New York and accepted a 
 position as journeyman butcher and salesman for David 
 Warwick at 118th street and Third avenue. In 1873 he 
 started in business for himself, operating a combined wagon 
 and store pork trade, later entering into partnership with 
 James W. Sears at 2194 Third avenue. Mr. Webber with- 
 drew from this partnership in 1876 and continued business 
 himself at 2134 Third 'avenue, and the following year re- 
 moved to 210 East 120th street, the present headquarters. 
 
 The history of the growth of Mr. Webber's business is 
 typical of the tireless energy and the foresight of the man. 
 Bj^ square dealing he endeared himself to his patrons until 
 he became the largest retail butcher in the world, employ- 
 ing some 500 persons and occupying fifteen city lots with 
 his plant. 
 
 Besides his business Mr. Webber devoted considerable 
 of his attention to financial, educational and charitable in- 
 stitutions. He was trustee of the Harlem Savings Bank, 
 and in October, 1907, during the run on that institution 
 guaranteed the accounts of employes and others, thereby 
 preventing a serious panic. He contributed largely in a 
 financial way to the advancement of art and education in 
 
196 Twenty Yeabs in Hell 
 
 New York eity, although, seeking no publicity whatever in 
 these donations. 
 
 He was a pioneer educator along the lines of teaching 
 housewives the purchasing of and cutting of meats. When 
 the teach, rs' college opened its domestic science department 
 Mr. Webber and four of his men took possession of one of 
 the college halls at the invitation of the faculty and set up 
 a butcher shop complete in every detail. He taught the 
 girl students all about meats, explaining the mysteries of 
 steaks, chops, chuck steak and stew. Similar lectures were 
 given the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. During the hard 
 times of 1893-94 he established a soup kitchen in his store 
 for the needy. He was also responsible for the foundation 
 of the Richard Webber Mutual Benefit Society, the organi- 
 zation of the employes of the house and the employes' profit 
 sharing plan, which was put into effect in January, 1907. 
 The esteem and reverence with which he was held in the 
 employes' estimation is evidenced by the various gifts and 
 testimonials which have been presented to him. 
 
 The funeral was held on Monday morning and was one 
 of the largest held in Harlem in many years. The services 
 were held in Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in East 
 118th street, of which the deceased was treasurer. The 
 meat trade was represented by a full attendance, who came 
 to pay their last respects to their fellow craftsman. Be- 
 sides being a member of many societies, which were repre- 
 sented at the funeral, Mr. Webber was a philanthropist, and 
 many of the poor whom he had helped went to the church 
 to pay their last respects. There were also present the em- 
 ployes of Mr. Webber's business establishment, who marched 
 to the residence at 187 Madison avenue and from there to 
 
"With the Beef Trust 197 
 
 the church. Each carried a flower, and as he passed the 
 coffin placed it on it. There were four carriages of large 
 floral pieces. The burial was in Mount Kisco Cemetery. 
 
 Mr, Webber leaves a widow, a daughter and two sons, 
 Richard, Jr., and William, who were associated with their 
 father in the business. 
 
 MEAT CUTTING DEMONSTRATION. 
 
 On Wednesday, April 28, 1909, at 2 p. m., at our Tre- 
 mont branch, 177th street and Webster avenue, Bronx, we 
 will give a meat cutting demonstration and short talk simi- 
 lar to those given by us at various times before Teachers' 
 CoUege of New York, Horace Mann School of New York, 
 Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, pure food show. Grand Cen- 
 tral Palace (by N. Y. Household Economic Association), 
 etc., etc. 
 
 Mr. Theodore Carlewitz, manager of the Tr^mont 
 branch, a practical meat man of twenty-four years' experi- 
 ence, in addition to giving a great amount of other valuable 
 information will explain the various uses of the different 
 cuts of meat, which knowledge cannot fail to assist the pur- 
 chaser in the intelligent and economical selection of their 
 meat requirements. 
 
 Cards of admission may be had upon application to the 
 Tremont branch either by mail, telephone or in person. In 
 order to avoid confusion each card of admission will be 
 numbered according to the seat. 
 
 Richard Webber, Tremont Branch, 
 177th street and Webster avenue, Bronx. 
 
198 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 STATESMEN, POLITICIANS, ETC. 
 
 Now I want to turn to another class of men whom I 
 have been closely allied with for the last forty years — that 
 is, those who are kno\^Ti as statesmen, politicians, etc. The 
 best politician and statesman I ever knew in my time was 
 Oliver P. Morton, late Governor of Indiana. He died 
 worth less than Jp20,000 after being the Governor of Indiana 
 and senator of the United States. He knew a smart man 
 when he saw one, and wonld take no one around with him 
 except those who would obey his orders. In any organi- 
 zation, political or business, if one does not obey the orders 
 of the superior you cannot get good results. Note what 
 Richard Webber had to say on this. He was a past master 
 on discipline, the same as Squire and Eastman. Wilson 
 I think was the best I ever knew in making a balance sheet 
 and having it out on time, which is the most important 
 thing in life if you have any anticipation of succeediug. 
 Let me cite you Ham Conner, who educated me politically. 
 His father settled in Hamilton county near Strawtown in 
 1806, coming from Connersville, Indiana. Morton knew 
 Ham — he was a smart one when a boy. He brought him 
 to Indianapolis and made him postmaster during the war, 
 and made him chairman of the Republican state committee 
 during a critical time when he was dealing with what was 
 Imown as the Butternuts in Indiana. 
 
 Now the next prominent man is Tom Piatt. I knew 
 him well. I met him first in the Chicago convention in 
 1880 Avhen I was helping to hold up the 306 with Fred 
 Grant, Conkling, John C. New and Logan. Fred Grant 
 slept at the head(juarters all the time. We were there a 
 
With the Beef Teust 199 
 
 week before the convention and remained until the finish. 
 Tom had the details all right; he knew how to do all right, 
 and he was always able to furnish the price, which was a 
 great thing in the game of politics. Tie was a sure early to 
 rise man, but some nights he did not go to bed at all unless 
 he had finished all his work. Every year when politics 
 were raging in New York I would probably be there every 
 few months. Tom would go to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, 
 as that was the Republican headquarters and where all the 
 political busmess was done, and live there until the cam- 
 paign closed. I would -get up and go to breakfast at six 
 o'clock in the morning. I had to see my customers early, 
 but I always found Piatt waiting for his breakfast, looking 
 over a big batch of letters which had to be answered. Also 
 during the Harrison term in Washington I would go to 
 breakfast at six, and I would always find Piatt there read- 
 ing his mail. He w^ould say: ''Rhody, these are just a 
 few (he would probably have fifty letters) that my secre- 
 tary has picked out, of importance, that must be answered 
 today, out of four, five or ten baskets full." Tom would 
 always answer all the letters he got from his constituents, 
 keeping up with the little precinct men, as well as the ward 
 men, the county men and the state men, and he never made 
 a promise to anyone that he did not keep. He always 
 Avanted honest men around him, and if they were not honest 
 with him he would soon put others in their places. He was 
 a wonderful man in ability, but he always had an eye open 
 to the interest of his big corporation, the express company, 
 of which he Avas president. This class of men are very 
 dangerous to the plain, common working people, that is, to 
 have them in the United States Senate. There is no ques- 
 
200 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 tion but what the interest of their corporation is nearer and 
 dearer to them than the common, plain people when it 
 comes to voting on legislation. I might mention here a 
 great many others in the same class. 
 
 There are many mushroom politicians who grow up in 
 a night and come in on the tide, so to speak; such, unfortu- 
 nately, we have had in Indiana since '96, coming to Wash- 
 ington, who think they can run the government, and that 
 they have a lifetime job on their $5,000 a year. A congress- 
 man cannot live on $5,000 a year and live honestly. I have 
 not been able to live on $5,000 a year in forty-five years, 
 although I was forty years old before I married and had a 
 family. There has been a new era in Indiana since '96 
 with the statesmen. Up to that time, commencing with 
 Morton, Hendricks, McDonald, Voorhees, Turpie and Har- 
 rison, no man from Indiana who served in the United States 
 Senate died with accumulated wealth of over $100,000 at 
 the time of his death, with the possible exception of Harri- 
 son. He received $100,000 after he left the presidential 
 office. Before he went to the President's office he was not 
 worth $100,000 after practicing law for many years. He 
 was an honest man to his clients. I will never forget, 
 1 came on here after Harrison was senator and he made me 
 go home with him for dinner. I told him that there had 
 been twenty lobbyists after me after they had seen us sit- 
 ting together talking in the cloak room of the Senate — they 
 were all warming up to me. (Tkere was an important bill 
 they were trying to get through — some canal to cut across 
 from Baltimore into the ocean.) "Yes," he said, "there 
 are all kinds of men put up against me on that, and they 
 are feeling all around to know what will be done." I said: 
 
With the Beef Trust 201 
 
 "I think I can handle them. They are warming up to me 
 and they think that they can handle you through me. They 
 think I am a friend of yours." He said: ''I have lived 
 too long for anybody to handle me, and I know you are 
 too smart to be handled." There were any number of 
 lobbyists — some big ones. They would take me driving, 
 show me the town, take me to the theater, we would go out 
 and have a drink, etc. They were a clever set of men. I 
 realized thej^ were trying to string me, but I could not be 
 strung. Some evenings we would get into a little game of 
 poker. There is nothing that brightens up a man's wits 
 more than a game of poker and hearts, that is, when he is 
 playing with gentlemen and they can afford to lose the 
 money. I would tell Harrison how they were trying to do 
 the business. He would laugh and say that they would 
 never handle him. 
 
 Now there is another class of politicians that get to be 
 United State? senators or congressmen on their looks and 
 general appearances. That is a very far-reaching thing in 
 the countrj^ Let me cite to you a case of a man I knew 
 well for more than thirty or thirty-five years — that is. Sen- 
 ator Scott of West Virginia. He weighs about 250 pounds, 
 has a doll baby face, always looking wise. He always at- 
 tended the Republican national conventions, sometimes as 
 a delegate, and about thirty years ago he became chairman 
 of the national committee from West Virginia. He would 
 come to a national convention with three, four and five 
 suits of clothes, and would change his suits at least three 
 or four times every day. He never went to dinner in the 
 evening without being in full dress, and always picked a 
 time to come in when the dining room was full, so the peo- 
 
202 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 pie would look at the big, handsome man with the doll baby 
 face. As I recollect it, he had at one time a plaid suit of 
 clothes. I think it was red and green or green and white. 
 I will never forget what John New told me one time. He 
 said: "There is the greatest lot of shucks with the small- 
 est nubbin in it I ever saAV. Why, there is enough shucks 
 on it to make a bed mattress, and there cannot be over three 
 grains of corn on the nubbin," 
 
 Scott of course was a delegate, but we would not let 
 him within four rooms of the inside room, because he would 
 be giving it all away, that is, tell what was going on. In 
 fact, he would give it away while he was dressing for din- 
 ner. 
 
 Another was Conkling. He was always a well dressed 
 man. When he came to the conventions he wore a plain, 
 nice working suit. I never saw Tom Piatt at a convention 
 only in working clothes. Warmouth of Louisiana, General 
 Powell Clayton of Arkansas, Mat Quay of Pennsylvania, 
 H. Clay Evans of Tennessee, also Colonel Wills of Nash- 
 ville, Tennessee, and- Tom Piatt of New York — all these 
 men came to the conventions with a grip of underclothes 
 and a few shirts to work in. They came to work, evidently, 
 but Scott always brought about two trunks and a valet and 
 a manicurist — he carried them in stock. He is what is 
 said. as being "all sound and no sense," looking at himself, 
 but not seeing how other people regarded him. One time 
 I asked him how my friend Schenk was. He said: "Who 
 is Schenk?" I told him Schenk the butcher. I said: 
 Why, he is the greatest man in Wheeling. He is one of the 
 biggest butchers in the South. He built a four-story build- 
 ing covering about 100 feet front and 150 feet deep just 
 
With the Beef Trust 203 
 
 half a square from the Tavern, the old hotel where Scott 
 boarded. Of course when I went to see Schenk I always 
 warmed up to Scott, yet I w^ould have to introduce myself 
 to him every time, tell him who I was and what I was. He 
 does not know anything about the blue grass in West Vir- 
 ginia or the vast progress that has been made in that State 
 in the last thirty years, but he does know all about the big 
 corporations. He is a cuckoo to vote on this tariff bill. He 
 will protect the farmers, as we say in the "West, "in a pig's 
 eye. ' ' There is another thing I want to call your attention 
 to about him. There was a man near Strawtown who had 
 a spotted stallion. He would bring him in on election days 
 to show him off. That was when I was a boy, and I thought 
 he was the prettiest thing I ever saw. Scott very much re- 
 minds me of the spotted stallion at Strawtown that all of 
 us children got stuck on, and comparatively speaking T 
 think all of the senators are attracted by Scott's show. 
 
 Chauncey Depew is another senator that is equal to 
 Scott of West Virginia. He even takes more trunks than 
 Scott when he goes to the national conventions. He was 
 (>nce a very handsome man, but he is wearing a little now. 
 He never knew much what was going on, but he did what- 
 ever Tom Piatt said. At the convention in 1888 Levi P. 
 Morton was a candidate at that time from New York. Obe 
 Wheeler was his delegate from his district. He was five 
 or six years younger than T, yet we were very close friends. 
 Obe Wheeler was a politician in Morton's district, and I 
 felt sure that I could land Obe when we got to a certain 
 point and then we could turn to Harrison. Obe's father 
 was the oldest commission man in Jersey City and New 
 York, and sold stock for me more than forty years ago. 
 
204 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 Of course 1 agreed to turn to Morton if things were going 
 his way; anything to beat John Sherman. 
 
 At this time Chaunoey Depew did not know anything 
 abont Obe and he did not know anything about me. I no- 
 ticed at the last convention Chauncey had his wife with 
 him, and she was a handsome woman. She wore one of 
 those new fashioned divided skirt dresses, and Chauncey 
 would walk about ten feet in front of her so he could show 
 both himself and her off. I saw him and spoke to him, but 
 he said, ' ' Excuse me please ; I will see you later. ' ' You 
 see, he was on dress parade, and he was also showing off 
 his wife's dress. I could see from her knee down. After 
 he got through going through all the halls of the Audi- 
 torium on this dress parade then he went and changed his 
 clothes and said that he would now talk to me. We had a 
 talk. He is always looking at himself and seeing that 
 everybody saw him, the same as Senator Scott. 
 
 Note, an interview which appeared in the Indianapolis 
 Journal under date of October 6, 1896, and which will ex- 
 plain itself. It was at a time when I was making a few 
 speeches. The excitement was very high in Indiana, and 
 nearly all the big orators were called into the State. It ap- 
 plies to a big man in a little town. In my mind it is a very 
 fair application and is applied to a czar, Senator Aldrich, 
 as a big man in a little town. I was once a very big man at 
 Strawtown. In 1867 or 1868 I had within a mile and a half 
 of Strawtown a thousand hogs on feed at one time in one 
 wood pasture. In less than a mile and a half of the same 
 place I had fifteen hundred sheep on feed. I had a play- 
 mate by the name of Dave Sperry, who was killed in ^Ic- 
 Cook's raid around Atlanta. He was my bunk mate in the 
 
/ With the Beef Trust 205 
 
 war. We lived on ad joining farms. Joljn Sperry, elder 
 brother of Dave, served in the 75th Indiana. He came home 
 and went to work on the farm. I knew he was home and 
 that he was an honest man, and I said: "John, go down 
 into Hancock County; they are giving hogs away down 
 there. Buy five hundred or a thousand, and also go up 
 the river and buy three or four thousand bushels of corn." 
 He said : ' ' Rhody, I Ve got no money. ' * I told him I could 
 get all the money I wanted, and knew he and his family 
 were all honest (four of them served in the war), and if he 
 made anything on them I wanted half the profits, and if not, 
 I would shoulder the loss. John made as much as from 
 $1,000 to $2,000 at that time, and made enough to go to 
 Kansas and buy a farm. He owns possibly a thousand 
 acres there now and is president of a feank at Thayer, Kan- 
 sas. Besides that I had a number of smaller feeders to 
 whom I furnished money. They had two or three hundred 
 hogs each, feeding, and at the same time I was a partner 
 with James Flanders feeding about six hundred mules, be- 
 sides being a partner with Harmon Minter in a big store 
 in Strawtown. I was a big man in a little town, as I used 
 to go to New York every few weeks, and when I got back 
 after selling a train load or two of stock I was the whole 
 thing at Strawtown. 
 
 Providence, R. I., has had a United States senator, Al- 
 drich for something like thirty years. I know him by sight 
 well, but he does not seem to know me. He is the only Repub- 
 lican senator who has been in the Senate for twenty-five 
 years that I don't know personally and intimately. I met 
 him some three or four weeks ago, about inauguration time, 
 in the new office building at the Capitol. I shook hands with 
 
206 Twenty Yeaes in Hell s 
 
 him and he did not seem to know who I was. I asked him 
 how my friend Mason was — was he living or dead? He 
 said, ''What Mason?" I said, "I. B. Mason." He said, 
 ''I believe I forget him." I said, ''0, you know Mason. 
 He has been voting for you for senator ; he has been a mem- 
 ber of the legislature in Rhode Island several times. ' ' He 
 said he believed he was living, and I told him to give him 
 my regards. When Mr. and Mrs. 'Mason were here in Wash- 
 ington during Harrison's term — I think it might have been 
 the time of the inauguration — I took them and introduced 
 them to President and Mrs. Harrison. 
 
 If Aldrich will read this interview and also my speech 
 with Charlie Landis at Jimtown he may have some knowl- 
 edge of the stock business. Most of the politicians in the 
 West have been stock men in their time ; in fact, a great 
 many big men have weighed stock in the yards. In fact, 
 most of the county officers and statesmen holding offices in 
 the West have become acquainted with the farmers while 
 buying stock, and then have run for county offices and also 
 for state offices. ' ' Ba,by ' ' McKee 's father, Robert, weighed 
 stock for something like two years. He was a good weigh- 
 master. Of course everybody knows who ''Baby" McKee 
 was. Also Joe Fanning, who is now Belmont's private sec- 
 retary or New York political manager, and the best Demo- 
 cratic politician Indiana produced in twenty years. Joe 
 has always been my personal friend. He was known in the 
 stock yards as the billing clerk, and has billed out as many 
 as two or three train loads a day for me. Also United 
 States Senator McPherson was a chief lieutenant of the high 
 priest; in fact, he lived in New Jersey and had one com- 
 mission firm in Jersey City at the time he and the high 
 priest organized the pool in the stock exchange. 
 
With the Beef Trust 207 
 
 As I have stated above, when they got into politics they 
 would buy stock in the country and then run for office. 
 That was my long suit in Indiana in the state conventions. 
 When the people brought their stock into the yards, Demo- 
 crat or Republican, I had them to vote for my Democratic 
 friend, if a Democrat, and for my Republican friend, if a 
 Republican. Consequently, I had what might be called a 
 strong pull. I don 't think I ever had my slate broken either 
 in a Democratic or a Republican state convention. 
 
 Later on, in a large book I am going to prepare and have 
 issued in December, I will take this matter up more fully 
 with the individuals connected with the beef trusts. There 
 are more of them living than I thought there were, but in 
 the short time I have had to prepare this — only had four 
 days for the first brief and scarcely three weeks to prepare 
 this — will not permit me to get any more letters to sub- 
 stantiate who I am and what I have done. There are many 
 living now I find in New England, New York, New Jersey, 
 Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Illi- 
 nois that are from seventy-five to ninety-two years old. I 
 refer to those with whom I have done business. 
 
 The Czar could not carry a precinct in any ward any- 
 where in the West. The only long suit he had was he knows 
 the game of politics, he is not afraid, and he has got the 
 price and uses it. That is a strong combination. 
 
 I want to call your attention to an Indiana politician, 
 the mushroom politician. Jack Gowdy. The one that fell 
 in the last battle. He has been consul general to Paris 
 for eight years. He has been in politics ever since he left 
 the army. He was very unfortunate in getting wounded 
 in the leg, which made him lame. He has held every office 
 known in Rush county, in fact, he has never been out of 
 
208 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 office since the war with the exception of the time he was 
 chairman of the state committee. He was a great pretended 
 friend of General Harrison. In 1900 he was made chair- 
 man of the committee. In 1892 he apparently wanted Har- 
 rison nominated, but in ^96 he betrayed his maker and 
 turned on Harrison and helped to defeat him at a time 
 when he was chairman of the committee. This was a deal 
 made by Senator Fairbanks, who had never been for Harri- 
 son. If he had been loyal to Harrison he would probably 
 have received the third nomination and been elected, but 
 when Gowdy betrayed him Harrison wrote a letter declin- 
 ing the nomination. I never spoke to Gowdy after this 
 lintil he returned from Paris. ITp to this time he did not 
 think he would have any trouble m carrying Indiana. This 
 was the time when Gowdy turned on Harrison and beat 
 Nebeker, the United States treasurer, for chairman of the 
 committee. I told Harrison then that the only way to 
 aarry Indiana was with the regular number of delegates to 
 elect Nebeker; but as it turned out, three or four of the 
 committeemen betrayed us after we had elected them, all 
 of whom were given fat offices afterwards. Gowdy has 
 been in office until he has become independent. Some say 
 that he is worth a million ; . he owhs a thousand acres of 
 land. He has only one daughter. She is about forty to 
 forty-five years old. She married a consul general to Chile. 
 He has no heirs and no prospect of any. He ought to pay 
 an inheritance tax. This is what brought about the great 
 change in Indiana. There are hundreds of people in In- 
 diana that should have held offices, but as I have said, Gow- 
 dy and all his relatives have been in office ever since the 
 war. Later the Landis family came to Indiana, and they 
 
With the Beef Trust 209 
 
 thought there was nobody quite so important as the Landis 
 family. We had four Landises to come from Ohio, all of 
 whom have been in office and all of them are my personal 
 friends, and they have about fifty relatives in office. All 
 this was discussed in the campaign and had all to do with 
 the beating of their friend Watson and made the majority 
 for Taft small. The politicians of the last ten or twelve 
 years have come in with the tide, and they have never 
 realized that the tide ever goes out. They are all out now, 
 and we have only one old Republican now in Congress, and 
 he has been fighting the Beef Trust and in favor of the 
 pure food law, and this shows the difference between his 
 success and the failure of Wadsworth. 
 
 Note another thing. I have been stopping in Wash- 
 ington for a month. I get up at six o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, and I can't buy a newspaper or see anybody on the 
 streets until after seven, and not many before seven-thirty. 
 President Roosevelt made a great mistake, to my mind, 
 when he made employes work a half hour longer. He 
 should have taken off half an hour and put the government 
 officials to work at seven and let them quit at three. Then 
 they would have been able to go to all of the baseball games 
 and would have gotten through with all their work in the 
 cool of the day and when they have more vitality. I was 
 generally through with my work by noon and able to go 
 to baseball in the afternoon. Of course the government 
 employes avouM like to go to baseball, and if you put them 
 to work early then they would have plenty of time. This 
 was established by the Southerners. The slave holders 
 never got up early, but they generally had the slaves up 
 early. 
 
 [14] 
 
210 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 For what I have thus far said, I may fall at the hand 
 of an assassin but I won't fall at the hands of these con- 
 spirators. An anarchist is a gentleman beside them. 
 
 A WORD FOR THE SOLDIERS. 
 
 Note, this is another thing that has been very much 
 neglected, that is, service pension. I served four years, 
 and am blind in one eye, and yet I get a pension of only 
 $12 per month, and this for age. My brother, James K., 
 three years older than I am, just recently died while I was 
 in the South. J ames K. was one of the best soldiers I ever 
 knew. We both served in the same company and came 
 home with the company after serving four years. He was 
 always in the thickest of the fight and was taken prisoner 
 at Stone River, where our regiment lost over 300 men. He 
 was taken to Libby prison, where he got the smallpox. His 
 eyes were always weak after that, and last year he was 
 practically blind. He went to Red Rock, Iowa, after the 
 close of the war and owned as much as a thousand acres 
 of land there. He prospered there, but he got the Chicago 
 craze, went there and sold one farm after another until 
 all were gone, and died a poor man. He was getting a $12 
 pension on his age. Now we had what was known as the 
 Persimmon Brigade through Indiana. It was a three 
 months brigade. They got in and around East Tennessee 
 guarding railroads while Sherman was in Atlanta. They 
 were the whole push for a while so far as army records 
 were concerned. Many of them got a pension of from $15 
 to $30. There are a great many old veterans that served in 
 the war. A veteran, as I understand it, is a soldier that 
 has served a long time. You must remember that these 
 old veterans have a great many sons and sons-in-law, and 
 
With the Beef Trust 211 
 
 you can 't spit on the old man without some of them taking 
 it up. 
 
 While traveling the other day in A^irginia I met an old 
 soldier just my age, born in the same month. He has one 
 wooden leg. I saw he had a Confederate button on and I 
 bad on a Grand Army button. We commenced shaking 
 hands, and I asked him w^here he got that leg torn off, and 
 he said in front of Widow^ Glenn's house, Chickamauga, 
 about noon. He belonged to Longstreet's corps. I told 
 him I expect I shot it off. He saw that I am blind in one 
 eye, and lie says I expect I shot your eye out. I asked 
 him how much pension he w^as getting. He said $4. ' I told 
 him that I w^as getting $12, and I was going to see if I 
 could not get him more. I told him he especially ought to 
 have more than that at his age, that he was an old veteran. 
 Joe Billheimer, first cousin of the Indiana state auditor, 
 was shot in the right eye and fell dead. He was my left 
 hand man, and I would do as much for my new Confederate 
 friend as I would have done for Billheimer. President 
 Harrison and I discussed this matter several times, and he 
 said it w^ould come eventually. He did not know whether 
 he was for or against the government then, but he did know^ 
 he was fighting for a home, and that is why the general 
 government ought to take the burden off the states. I be- 
 lieve that every loyal Union soldier will agree to this. I 
 have property in the South and am taxed to. pay the state 
 pension, while the Confederate soldier that has moved 
 North is not taxed for it. There is a general feeling be- 
 tween soldiers, and I feel that he ought to be getting more. 
 The war is over, so why carry on these prejudices any 
 longer. They have been carried on too long now. 
 
212 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 LETTERS ON THE TRUSTS. 
 
 Indianapolis, Ind., April 4, 1906. 
 Attorney-General Wm. H. Moody, Washington, D. C. : 
 
 My Dear Sir — I want to congratulate you on your speech 
 before Judge Humphrey in Chicago. While it may be 
 late to do it, I want to say that I think I understand your 
 position, and I think you understand it; against the pack- 
 ers' combination in Chicago, yet there are things that you 
 are not as familiar with, possibly, as I am. 
 
 I rode with Nelson Morris, the head of the Nelson Mor- 
 ris firm, through Indiana more than forty years ago, buy- 
 ing stock; I saw the father of the young Chicago Swifts 
 keeping butcher shop in New England thirty years ago, and 
 I know that the real Swift is E. C. Swift, and always, has 
 been, in Boston, and that where there were ten to twenty 
 separate packing houses in New England twenty years ago, 
 they are all owned now by the Swifts, while they are all 
 running under their original names. 
 
 The Chicago combination is not a marker beside the 
 combination which we have here in Indianapolis. Forty 
 years ago Kingan & Co. started a packing house here, or- 
 ganized later on at Belfast, Ireland, located them about 
 a half mile of a railroad, known as the White River Val- 
 ley Railroad; crushed out and later took in a packing 
 house knoAvn as the Moore Packing Company, located on 
 the stock yards company's ground; crushed out and took 
 in another packing house, known as the Coffin-Fletcher 
 Company, which was a strong competitor thirty or forty 
 years ago, which is now located on the stock yards ground, 
 and is running the two of them under the original names. 
 
With the Beef Trust 213 
 
 The old Fletcher, who is dead, was an uncle of Jesse Over- 
 street, congressman, and the young Fletcher is a first cousin 
 of his, and is getting $1,500 a year salary as president of the 
 Coffin-Fletcher Company, in the packing house that his 
 father once owned and operated before it was crushed out. 
 
 Overstreet is so busily engaged in other matters that 
 he has no knowledge of these facts; Senator Beveridge is 
 so busily engaged getting his Western territories made into 
 States, and Vice-President Fairbanks is so busily engaged 
 getting the nomination for President, and they have got a 
 district attorney here that is so busily engaged as a political 
 boss, who is a ward-heeler, that none of them know of this 
 combination going on here in Indianapolis. Kingan & Co. 
 owned a few years ago the Reed Bros. Packing Company, in 
 Kansas City, which burned down a few years ago, and two 
 of the Reed brothers ran away after being indicted by 
 the United States grand jury for violation of the interstate 
 commerce law, and stayed in Europe several years to evade 
 the penitentiary. One of them is here now. 
 
 Kingans not only control the packing houses here, but 
 they control the stock yards, which sell 20,000 bushels of 
 corn for ever^^ 10,000 bushels they buy (and the books will 
 show it) by giving short weights; buy one hundred tons 
 of hay and sell three hundred tons, giving about 30 pounds 
 to the 100. These are facts which I will substantiate by 
 their own books. 
 
 There can be a bigger exposure made by showing the 
 manner in which the stock yards company and the Kingan 
 packing house are operating in Indianapolis, taking the 
 products of the farmers from the larger part of Indiana 
 and central Illinois, some from Ohio and some from Ken- 
 
214 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 tucky. The stock yards common stock a few years ago was 
 worth 60 cents. It is now worth $1.70. They have put out 
 a million dollars common and pay the dividends by short 
 weights and exorbitant charges. Kingans bill all of their 
 products out on the White River Valley Railroad, which is 
 only a switch running to their packing house, and issue 
 their own bills of lading, and, if I understand it right, they 
 charge about 15 to 20 per cent, of the seaboard rate as the 
 originating road. 
 
 Kingans are probably slaughtering more hogs than any 
 one large house in the country, in their packing house here, 
 in addition to their Moore and Coffin-Fletcher packing 
 houses here. I can see their wagons drive across the street 
 from my office and sell meat to a grocer, and a few minutes 
 later I see the Moore wagon and later the Coffin-Fletcher 
 wagon,* all of the stuff coming out of the same refrigerator. 
 
 Of course, I am what is knowii as a dead one. I give you 
 as reference. Chief Justice of the Court of Claims, Stanton 
 J. Peele, Congressman Alexander from Buffalo, W. W. 
 Dudley. They Imew me when I was a live one. 
 
 The stock yards company charge 7 cents per head, what 
 is known as yardage, for weighing hogs, 5 cents for sheep, 
 and 20 cents for cattle, which is exorbitant. They have 
 nothing but a few sheds and the ground. The original cost 
 was less than $500,000 for the Belt Railroad and the stock 
 yards, and they have leased the Belt Railroad for a term of 
 999 years to the Union Railway Company, which Judge 
 Baker holds was a sale. 
 
 It would seem that there might be something done in the 
 way of regulating the charges in all of the stock yards. 
 Illinois has two, the largest and the second largest stock 
 
With the Beef Trust 215 
 
 yards in the country. The stock yards here have always 
 been able to lobby the legislature, and the same in Illinois, 
 and they manipulate so that they pay taxes on less than 
 $150,000, and pay dividends on something like $3,000,000. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 R. R. SHIEL. 
 P. S. — Since dictating this letter some days ago, I see, 
 that E. C. Swift has died. He was the financier of the 
 Swift company. Thirty years ago he was a poor man. I 
 see he left only $10,000,000. Had he lived twenty years 
 longer and had no obstacles put in his way, he would have 
 owned practically the United States. 
 
 R. R. SHIEL. 
 
 Indianapolis, Ind., April, 1906. 
 Gov. Charles B. Deneen, Springfield, III. : 
 
 My Dear Sir — I see that you are calling an extra ses- 
 sion of the legislature on a very important matter, a pri- 
 mary election. I have been in politics for more than forty 
 years, and I understand the importance of having an hon- 
 est primary. 
 
 To my mind there is a matter of vast deal more impor- 
 tance to the farmers of Illinois which needs a special legis- 
 lation, and that is a legislation of the stock yards question. 
 You have the largest stock yards in the world, in Chicago, 
 in your State, and also, almost the second largest in the 
 world, at East St. Louis, in your State. They are collecting 
 8 cents per head off of the farmers ' hogs, 25 cents off of his 
 cattle, 6 cents off of his sheep and 50 cents to $1 off of his 
 horses. They sell the corn in these yards to the farmers at 
 about 200 per cent, profit, and they sell the hay at more 
 
216 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 than 300 per cent, profit. They emploj^ men at very low 
 salaries. Stock yards have nothing but ground, and a few 
 sheds with an exchange building, all cheaply constructed. 
 They pay dividends on millions upon millions of watered 
 stock — yes, thin water, if it is properly looked after by the 
 powers. 
 
 You can properly take this up in your State, as you 
 have larger stock yards than any of the other States. If it 
 is not taken up in your State it will be taken up in some 
 other State, and possibly in Washington. A special session 
 of the legislature called on this question would be in keep- 
 ing with the popular sentiment throughout the country, and 
 there is nothing to my mind which would render greater 
 service to the farmer, and would be as far-reaching — yes, 
 farther reaching than any primary legislation. 
 
 You knew me fifteen or twenty years ago, I know you 
 now. I give you as reference Leonard Small, who is treas- 
 urer of your state, and I own the stock yards on his farm at 
 Kankakee. I could give you also Senator CuUom, as I have 
 spoken on the same platform with him, time and again, 
 more than twenty jnears ago. He was once a chief lieuten- 
 ant of mine at the Minneapolis convention. 
 
 I write this letter in confidence. You can take this up 
 with your friend, Len Small, and he will tell you who I am. 
 They are driving me out of your state with the stock yards 
 I have had leased at Kankakee, and the big stock yards are 
 the ones who are doing it. I am responsible for any charge 
 I make. At Kankakee I furnish yardage, commission and 
 feed for less than one-fourth charged at Chicago, giving 
 full measure of com or hay. 
 
 Stock yards can be operated with a big profit on the cost 
 
With the Beef Tkust 217 
 
 at 3 cents yardage on hogs, 6 or 8 cents on cattle, 2 cents on 
 sheep, and 20 cents on horses, and the feed can be furnished 
 at 25 to 30 per cent profit. I understand that the Chicago 
 yards are owned largely by an English .syndicate. That, 
 however, you can look into and s^et the desired information. 
 I also think I fully understand how the legislature has been 
 handled in your State, and also in this State, on this stock 
 yards proposition. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 R. R. SHIEL. 
 
 Indianapolis, Tnd., June 7, 1906. 
 Hon. E. D. Crumpacker, Congressman, Washington, D. C. : 
 
 My Dear Sir — Your letter of the 5th at hand, and the 
 contents of the same noted. I fully agree with you on the 
 importance of the right kind of a bill — one that will hold 
 good against the packers. 
 
 There is not one-half of one per cent, of the product in 
 Indiana, or Illinois, but what make wholesome food if they 
 are fed sufficiently. But the old dairies and what is known 
 as canners, picked up over the country, should not be per- 
 mitted to be sold after they are slaughtered and mixed in, 
 then adulterated to make them taste good, and canned, to 
 break down the price of the honest producers of the me- 
 dium and high grade stock. 
 
 I have, beyond a doubt, handled $100,000,000 of the 
 farm products for, it is safe to say, one hundred and fifty 
 different butchers, from Portland, Me., to Richmond, Va., 
 in the coast towns; always buying the best grades, never 
 buying what is known as the low grades. I have bought 
 
218 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 as high as $65,000 stock in a day for Nelson Morris. I have 
 bought for practically all of the towns in New England, 
 and all of the packers and butchers, and today there is but 
 one packing housg in New England, and that is the Swift 
 house. All have been absorbed, either by killing them off, or 
 by buying them and putting them out of business. The last 
 one, a sausage maker at Springfield, who made high grade 
 sausage, gave them all kinds of trouble, and they gave him 
 an enormous price to get him out of the way, so that he 
 wouldn't be a competitor. 
 
 If you make an argument, will you please put the ques- 
 tion, "What is refined lard?" Refined lard is the white 
 grease that they get out of the dead animals, afterwards 
 adulterate and fix up to sell, and pass it as a second or even 
 a first grade lard. A very large per cent, of the people 
 think that refined lard is better than kettle rendered lard, 
 that all of the country butchers make. No grades of lard 
 are as high sellers as the kettle rendered. 
 
 There is no bigger fraud than the fraud of the adul- 
 terated food, and no one is a greater sufferer, as I said be- 
 fore, than the one who raises the medium and high grades, 
 as they never get enough for their stuff. The original cost 
 for a steer at the present prices might be 5% to 6 cents 
 per cwt. It will malve 62 to 64 pounds dressed to the cwt. 
 The original cost of an old canner that is so poor that it 
 can hardly walk might be II/2 to 2 cents per pound, and he 
 won't make over 40 to 45 pounds dressed to the hundred, 
 so you readily see there is only about 4 cents difference 
 profit and not over 2 cents when you count the net weight 
 of the original cost of the packer, but when you go to sell it, 
 it undersells the good stuff, and makes a big profit off of 
 
With the Beef Trust 219 
 
 the low grade stuff. It is not fit food for a buzzard to eat. 
 Ten to fifteen years ago they shipped from Pennsylvania 
 and New Jersey the low grade stuff, dairies and canners, 
 that wasn't fit to kill, to Chicago packers to be canned. 
 
 I was put out of business here by the combine, an or- 
 ganization of packers and stock yards, because I paid a big 
 price for the good stuff and would not buy the common at 
 all. I bought six months in the year eighty to ninety per 
 cent, of all of the good stock that came to Indianapolis for 
 more than twenty years. The other six months I bought 
 thirty to fifty per cent. Six months in the year the East 
 was supplied by their own productions, largely. The other 
 six months they did not supply them. 
 
 I had a customer in every city in the anthracite coal 
 district and they paid the best prices and wanted the very 
 best stock. They have not been able to drive out the local 
 butchers in Pennsylvania up to this time, while they have 
 got them all driven out of Illinois, practically, and very 
 largely in Indiana, by buying a high grade of stock from 
 Benton county, and shipping back the low grade product to 
 sell to the local trade. 
 
 I believe that the government ought to pay the inspec- 
 tion; then the government can control it. I read a long 
 letter from Nelson Morris to Leroy Templeton today. Leroy 
 Tcmpleton has, probably, the best farm in the State of In- 
 diana. There is not one-eighth of one per cent, of all the 
 stock he markets that is not high grade. Nelson Morris ap- 
 peals to him on the ground that this bill will ruin the whole 
 cattle industry. But Templeton does not agree with him ; 
 no more than I do. It will ruin the dealer of adulterated 
 product, and surely reduce Nelson Morris' profit. I sup- 
 
220 Twenty Ybaks in Hell 
 
 pose I have bought five hundred boat loads of cattle for 
 Nelson Morris, also bought canners and butchers. 
 
 You might ask the packers what they do with the ones 
 that die in the yards, or what Butcher of the New York 
 Central does with the lard out of his dead hogs, or O 'Don- 
 ell of Pittsburg, Sam AUerton's lieutenant, what he does 
 with his dead hogs, or Sam Rauh, president of the stock 
 yards in Indianapolis and fertilizer, what he does with his 
 dead hogs, or the refined lard that may come out of them. 
 
 There is no one who will go back to congress this year 
 that is not in favor of the strictest kind of restriction on 
 this greatest fraud the world has ever known — the adul- 
 teration of the meat product. Beveridge has stubbed his 
 toe by saying that he is willing to let these men who have 
 poisoned millions of people with their unwholesome food, 
 not be disturbed with their hundreds of millions of dollars 
 that they have accumulated by doing so, call it bygones and 
 whitewash them with asking them to be good hereafter. 
 Pardon me this long letter. Still you couldn't expect me to 
 give my forty years ' experience in this short space. 
 Yours very truly. 
 
 R. R. SHIEL. 
 
 June 10th. 
 Mr. E. G. Swift, Boston, Mass. -. 
 
 Dear Sir — I write to you personally, as I feel that the 
 proper way for me to do, at this time, is to deal directly 
 with the men who are fully in charge. 
 
 The matter which I want to particularly call your at- 
 tention to, is the stock yards I have leased at Kankakee, 
 Illinois, from the Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railroad, with 
 
With the Beef Trust 221 
 
 the lease ninning for thirteen years yet. The first six 
 months, before th<e combination of the railroads came 
 against me and put up my freights five cents per hundred, 
 I did a very, very satisfactory business, showing a profit to 
 myself and also to my customers in the East that took the 
 output and to my country customers who brought the stock 
 in. I had something over one hundred customers from the 
 very best sections of Illinois, all of whom were highly 
 pleased and would have continued and the business in- 
 creased, had it not been for the discriminations against me. 
 Later the railroad that I had the yards leased from refused 
 to permit me to "mill" anything in transit. 
 
 I have it from a very reliable authority that your people 
 want these yards, and have had negotiations with the rail- 
 roads for them. I have been notified by the rail- 
 roads that they would cancel my lease and for me to vacate 
 the yards, a thing that you are no doubt aware of and a 
 thing which I do not expect to do. I have got things in 
 shape where I would much prefer not to get into a lawsuit 
 if any adjustment can be made. My attorneys want me 
 to bring suit against the railroad company and get an in- 
 junction, compelling them to permit me to ''mill" the hogs 
 in transit, the same as they do in Pittsburg and practically 
 everywhere else. This of cou'rse will bring up an impor- 
 tant question, one which has never been decided by the 
 interstate commerce commission or by the United States 
 courts. The fact is there is no doubt as to getting a deci- 
 sion in my favor, as every kind of product has been milled 
 at all points and my attorneys say there is no court will hold 
 that the hogs cannot be milled the same as the grain. They 
 have refused to let me substitute ten hogs to make up the 
 
222 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 weight where ten hogs had died coming in, and have gone so 
 far as to confine me to the actual count ; if two hogs died 
 and it showed 100 billed out at the shipping point, I should 
 lose the billing, if I did not have the exact number go out 
 that were billed. 
 
 I have some two hundred and fifty clients from the 
 ''Farm to the Packing House" at one time, and there are 
 one hundred or one hundred and fifty of them that I could 
 handle now, if I had the cars. They are thoroughly hon- 
 est, as I know the honest ones and they know me well. 
 When you became owner of the Squire house, the system was 
 changed whereby they saw fit to get rid of me. You kept 
 one man I had, who I knew would render you good service 
 and was competent, that is Johnston. But you must re- 
 member that he got all of his ideas from me of the Farm 
 to the Packing House. I doubt not whether you have got 
 twenty out of the two hundred and fifty customers, that you 
 are continuing to do business with. 
 
 If you would buy some hogs from me at anywhere near 
 a relative price to what they sell at in Chicago or Indian- 
 apolis, I would be able to forward you hogs on a commis- 
 sion basis from Kankakee and also from countrj^ points, 
 using your cars. You fully understand the position I am in 
 and it is useless to go over the matter. It may be possible 
 that your people do not want to do any business with me 
 whatever. If you do not then I would be glad if you would 
 say so ; then I will go forward and make the necessary ar- 
 rangements with other parties. I would not want to take on a 
 lot of clients in the East and promise to furnish them reg- 
 ularly when I could make arrangements with houses like 
 yours that use all kinds at anywhere near satisfactory 
 prices. 
 
With the Beef Trust 223 
 
 I have been kicked around from pillar to post by a com- 
 bination here, and I thought when I leased Kankakee I had 
 a place where I Was in full control and was able to know 
 that I was giving honest weights, and that the hogs had not 
 been salted in the country and filled with water in the vari- 
 ous stock yards before my clients could get them ; you un- 
 derstand I buy the hogs weighed off of the cars without feed 
 or water and give them to my Eastern clients at the weights 
 I get before they are watered and fed, also that the parties 
 East would get the hogs, when they went direct, in the cars 
 I put them in, without having them go through any stock 
 yards where there might be mixes. While I was in New 
 York about a year ago, Mr. Dutcher said that it was im- 
 possible for him to get keys to their pens in the stock yards 
 but what the stock yards people would get duplicates of 
 them, and said that they could not help mixes, no matter 
 how closely they were looked after in making transfers in 
 stock yards. 
 
 Let me hear from you at as early a date as possible, as 
 I expect to make some change in the program at Kankakee, 
 if I have to ask the court to grant me an injunction, which 
 I can get in fifteen days, to permit the milling in transit. 
 This will bring up the question. Also will ask the court to 
 pass on the railroads for putting up the freights five cents 
 per cwt. in the freight groups tributary to Kankakee while 
 they made no changes anywhere in the country, leaving 
 the freights at Peoria, St. Louis, Chicago and Indianapolis 
 stand where they were. My attorneys say that this is a di- 
 rect discrimination against my Kankakee stock yards. 
 Yours very truly. 
 
 R. R. SHIEL. 
 
224 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 June 18, 1906. 
 Hon. Jas. W. Wadsworth, Washmgton, D. C: 
 
 My Dear Sir — Pardon me for writing you. I have met 
 you frequently and I feel certain that I knew your father 
 in the war. I note the position you take on the meat in- 
 spection bill. I suppose you are aware that several years 
 ago they shipped the canners from New Jersey, and possi- 
 bly from New York State to Chicago to be canned, and get 
 the calves out of them for canned chicken. I understand 
 later they are canning them in the East. 
 
 I have bought probably as much high grade live stock as 
 any man living, in the last forty years. I have never dealt 
 in the low grades. I know that you make your cattle on 
 the farms good, and I assume that the ones off of your 
 ranches in the West are not marketed until they are good. 
 
 The producers of the medium, the good, and the prime 
 live stock do not get enough for their product that comes 
 out of their cattle, and the one who markets the canners and 
 low grades gets two prices for his. 
 
 This, of course, I think you understand, and that the 
 inspection cannot be too strict for the one who markets the 
 medium and the high grades, which all makes wholesome 
 food. The general public demands that there shall be a 
 strict inspection. 
 
 I presume I had as much to do as any one in the country, 
 that wasn't a member of congress during Harrison's admin- 
 istration, in getting the present law through, which is bet- 
 ter than no inspection, but is far from being perfect. There 
 can be but two classes of people opposing an inspection bill. 
 One is the producer that wants to put his unwholesome stock 
 
With the Beef Trust 225 
 
 on the market, and the other is the manufacturer, who 
 wants to manufacture and adulterate it. The packer makes 
 five times the profit on the low grade stuff that he does on 
 the high grade. 
 
 I presume you are aware that they have never been able 
 to kill off the Pennsylvania farmer as they have the New 
 York farmer, with their dressed beef, yet they have crippled 
 him some. At one time I had as many as twenty-five clients 
 in your State. Today I have got practically none, as most 
 of them have been either absorbed or killed off. 
 
 I am unable to account why you and Cannon, who rep- 
 resent districts that raise good stock, and especially Cannon, 
 in whose district they raise nothing but high grade stock, 
 should not be in favor of strict inspection. 
 
 I have been an inspector of packing houses for forty 
 years. In fact, every year when I visit the East they all 
 want to show me the improvements they have made. The 
 Eastman house in New York and the Squire house in Bos- 
 ton are two that always killed the high grade stock and 
 killed no low grades. They both have been killed off and 
 absorbed, and are now operated by the Swifts. No house 
 should be permitted after it has been absorbed to manufac- 
 ture and sell low grade product on the reputation of the 
 house that had always sold the high grade product. 
 
 May I ask you what you know of stock yards and their 
 connections with fertilizing establishments, and have you 
 had any of your good cattle swapped for poor ones in the 
 stock yards? A few years ago, while in New York trying 
 to collect claims off of Dutcher, who i» the whole thing in 
 the New York Central live stock business and has been for 
 
 [15] 
 
226 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 years, lie said there was no such thing as honest stock yards, 
 that he had had thousands of keys made for the stock yards 
 and the next day there would be hundreds of duplicates of 
 them. Stock yards and fertilizers should be separated from 
 packing houses and watched that they do not make the 
 white grease out of dead hogs into refined lard. With kind 
 regards and best wishes. 
 
 Your very truly. 
 
 R. R. SHIEL. 
 
Items from my Newspaper Scrapbook. 
 
 R. R. SHIEL SHUT OUT. 
 
 TROUBLE AT THE STOCK YARDS OVER PURCHASE OF HOGS. 
 
 LIVE STOCK EXCHANGE MAKES RULES AS TO PURCHASE AND 
 V^EIGHING OP HOGS WHICH THE FIRM OF R. R. SHIEL & 
 CO. REFUSE TO ABIDE BY AND IT IS SHUT OUT OF THE 
 MARKET THE FIRM ISSUES A STATEMENT TO ITS CUSTOM- 
 ERS AND THE PUBLIC GENERALLY. 
 
 A controversy has arisen at the stock yards between the 
 firm of R. R. Shiel & Co., purchasing agents, and the Live 
 Stock Exchange, composed of the other buyers and sellers, 
 which has resulted in the passage of a resolution by the ex- 
 change shutting Shiel & Co. out of the market. The trou- 
 ble has arisen over certain rules laid down by the exchange 
 to its members regarding the purchase and weighing of 
 hogs which R. R. Shiel & Co. refuses to abide by, claiming 
 the exchange is in effect a combination. Similar trouble 
 has been experienced at Kansas City, Chicago and Omaha 
 where the matter was taken into the federal courts. 
 
 R. R. Shiel has been in business at the stock yards since 
 they were built, over twenty years ago, and in that time has 
 done business aggregating $50,000,000. His average yearly 
 business is $2,500,000. He has been buying on order for 
 eastern packers in fifteen states in the East and frequently 
 his daily purchases are sent to that many states. Mr. Shiel 
 
 (227) 
 
228 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 publishes below a statement to his customers and the public 
 generally concerning the controversy and his future plans. 
 The statement follows: 
 
 STATEMENT BY SHIEL & CO. 
 
 To Our Many Customers, Friends, and to WJiom It May 
 
 Concern : 
 
 Dear Sirs — Last week we were in business and today 
 we find ourselves out of business. In June we bought $200,- 
 000 worth of stock, in July $290,000 and in August $255,- 
 000, and today we are not able to do any business as the 
 salesmen have refused to sell to us. We have been wiped 
 out of business by the resolution of a combine whose de- 
 mands, were we to meet them, would often compel us to 
 do business at a greater loss than our commissions 
 amounted to. 
 
 This is the second time I have been wiped out of busi- 
 ness, and practically the same cause that wiped us out the 
 first time wipes us out now; that is, that we would not 
 buy common hogs that shrink 25 per cent, at the same price 
 or within 5 cents per hundred of the best hogs that only 
 shrink 17 to 18 per cent. There ought to be a difference in 
 any market of 15 to 25 cents per hundred, as the good ones 
 will cost that much less dressed off the hooks if they are 
 bought at the same price as the common ones. 
 
 Eighteen or twenty years ago I was in the commission 
 business, a third partner in a firm of three. I was super- 
 intending the buying department, and my partners super- 
 intending the selling, and we had the same contention that 
 we have today ; that is that my partner wanted me to buy 
 the common ones of him at the same price I was bmnng the 
 good ones of him and others. Then we had a market, every- 
 thing sold on its merits. The feeder that bred and fed the 
 fine hogs got a price for them, and the one who fed them 
 on insane hospital and city slop, which will shrink 5 per 
 cent, more from gross to net, making a difference of 15 to 
 
With the Beef Trust 229 
 
 25 cents per hundred, got that much less for his hogs. 
 That is true today of other markets, but it is not true of 
 ours. 
 
 Fourteen years ago last June I was nominated for treas- 
 urer of the State of Indiana, and to my utter astonishment 
 my partners met in less than a month afterward without 
 my knowledge or consent and resolved that if I did not stay 
 there and quit politics they would put me out of business, 
 which they did, and in July, 1884, I found myself just 
 where I am today — out of business. Then every man did 
 business as he ^dshed. We used to buy hogs at $6 per dou- 
 ble deck then, and for a number of years the selling charges 
 were $3 to $4 per single deck, and $6 per double deck. 
 
 Now what has changed the condition of things? Let 
 me explain. After I was defeated for treasurer in Novem- 
 ber, I wanted to get back into business if I could, and I 
 took the buying side of the trade, and I have never sold a 
 carload since. I had friends then, which I believe I have 
 now, who put me back into business notwithstanding the 
 resolution that put me out, and in less than two months I 
 had every one of my old customers at the buying end, and 
 more. Not long after this a few commission men got to- 
 gether and organized what is known as the Live Stock Ex- 
 change, with the purpose of dictating how one another 
 should do business, and they commenced putting the sell- 
 ing commissions up, and restrictions on every man doing 
 business in the yards, until they resolved that no man 
 should do business at the yards unless he be a member of 
 the exchange, or that they would not do business with a 
 man who was not a member. Then they commenced shap- 
 ing the market to fit their resolutipns, and as we would not 
 accord with their resolutions, they have been shaping to 
 put us out of business ever since, and last Friday they re- 
 solved not to sell us anything, and last Saturday they re- 
 fused to weigh to us after we bought them and refused to 
 sell to us when we were bidding 5 cents more than anyone 
 else was paying. They forced every man doing business 
 
230 Twenty Yeaks if Hell 
 
 there into the exchange but us, while, in fact, they put 
 us in without our knowledge or consent, and afterward we 
 got out of it. 
 
 They have manipulated the paper and market reports 
 going out of here so that it won't cover any purchases we 
 make, for the purpose of breaking us down with our cus- 
 tomers East. 
 
 ONE day's transactions. 
 
 We will cite you the facts of last Friday. We bought 
 one deck of fancy light hogs, with eight big heavy hogs out, 
 at $4.10, of Middlesworth, Benson, Nave & Co., and another 
 load of fancy light from the same firm at 4.071/2? a^nd an- 
 other load at $4.05. We bought of Clark, Wysong & Voris 
 two loads at $4,071/2. We bought of Tolin, Totten, Tibbs 
 & Co. a full load of heavyweight lights at $4.05, and of the 
 Capital Live Stock Company a number of mixed loads at 
 $4.05, and bought of other firms at $4.05, and they refused 
 to weigh to us. They met that same afternoon and resolved 
 that these prices must not go into the Live Stock Journal, 
 and dictated to this paper until it said the top on hogs was 
 $4.02% and showed no account of any sale being over 
 $4.02%. The fact was we did not get enough fancy light 
 hogs, and would have been glad to have had more at $4.05 
 and $4.07%. This same paper showed there were no as- 
 sorted hogs of any kind over 130 pounds average sold less 
 than $4 or over $4,021/0. So you see every hog that day, 
 taking their market report, sold from $4 to $4.02%, mak- 
 ing only 2% cents difference between the best and the 
 poorest hogs. 
 
 Need we go any further to convince the most ignorant 
 man that it is not an honest market report or an honest 
 market? We have yielded point after point to their de- 
 mands, but if we were to yield to this demand it would put 
 us out of business entirely. On last Tuesday the writer 
 went with the president of the exchange. He had a num- 
 ber of hogs, between six and ten loads. He priced them 
 
With the Beef Trust 231 
 
 all at one price. In them he had hogs that were bought 
 for speculation by a man working in his employ — what are 
 known as wagon hogs— and he had several loads as good as 
 come to market. He wanted the same price for every load 
 of them, the wagon hogs and the fine-bred hogs. I bid 
 him 5 cents more for three loads of his light hogs than he 
 admitted to me he sold them for, but he said to me he got 
 off all his hogs at the same price ; the wagon hogs that the 
 man in his employ bought, that would shrink 25 per cent, 
 from gross to net, sold at the same price that the fine hogs 
 brought in by the customers from Illinois that would not 
 shrink 18 per cent. He invariably asks the same price for 
 his whole string of hogs. I have bought thousands of hogs 
 from him at prices named, and named the price when I 
 bought them, and when I went to my office found the prices 
 were changed on the tickets. This was not an uncommon 
 occurrence. I have said to him time and again this must 
 not occur, changing the prices from what they were bought 
 at, sometimes marking one man up and another down. This 
 same man is president today, dictating, by calling a meet- 
 ing of the exchange at any time he wishes, to take action on 
 anything that doesn't suit his wishes. 
 
 WHO THESE MEN ARE. 
 
 Who are these men who have put me out of business? 
 Most of them honest men, but poor, weak, ignorant mortals, 
 dictated to by a few. There are about seventy members of 
 the exchange, as I understand, many of whom 1 have ren- 
 dered great service. Three of them have been my confiden- 
 tial typewriters for years, another one my bookkeeper for 
 years. They are at liberty to tell any crookedness that I 
 have ever done. Bear with me until I tell you what I 
 have done for a few of them. One of them I took when he 
 was getting $10 per month and advanced him, and before 
 he was twenty he was getting $50. Another I took when 
 he was working at a livery stable, advanced him the money 
 
232 Twenty Yeabs in Hell 
 
 to buy a lot, and made him pay for it and build himself a 
 house in the building and loan association, kept him until 
 he could do better and helped him to do better ; an honest 
 man, but deluded by the bosses. Another I took when a 
 boy, paid him a salars^ for years, put him in business, and 
 he cost me $1,000 and T paid it; another I gave a check 
 for $2,500 to buy an interest in a firm, and indorsed him at 
 the bank for the amount until he earned the money and 
 paid it out individually. Another I negotiated a trade for 
 wkereby he sold an interest in his business for $3,000. An- 
 other I gave a check for $3,000 to keep the bank from clos- 
 ing them up aiad then indorsed them in bank to bridge 
 them over. Another who came to me at a critical time 
 when it looked like they were going to fail and said he 
 was going to put his property in his wife's name, and I 
 plead with him not to do it and indorsed him for $4,000; 
 and another I negotiated a partnership for with a capitalist 
 when he was a boy and put him in business. A number I 
 have given my check to to bridge them over for a day in 
 bank for from $500 to $2,000. All of these men — there were 
 none of them I could say were dishonest or that I believed 
 were dishonest, but I will say they are poor, weak mortals, 
 and they show the ingratitude of man when they turn on 
 me, and many of them will be wanting me to help them 
 again, and I expect I will have to do it. 
 
 GET MARKETS FROM SHIEL. 
 
 In fact, all of them come to me early in the morning to 
 know what the markets are, as I pay for early telegrams 
 from other markets, and have for years. Kingan & Co. are 
 honest competitors of ours, excellent gentlemen and our 
 friends, yet they beloni^ to the exchange. They for some 
 cause buy all their hogs at the same price, scarcely ever 
 making iVo to 5 cents' difference between the best and the 
 poorest assorted hogs. We don 't know why they do busi- 
 ness that way, and it is none of our business why they do. 
 It is a question if We have not bought as many hogs in this 
 
With the Beef Trust 238 
 
 market in the last month as Kingan & Co. did. We have 
 customers that want a fine bacon hog and are willing to 
 pay for it, and have other customers that want fine butcher 
 hogs and are willing to pay for them. The president of this 
 exchange has said to us : ' ' You cannot buy a light hog un- 
 less you buy my heavies, and you can 't buy my heavies un- 
 less you buy my lights and wagon hogs." 
 
 We feel that a man in the country who sends in a load 
 of light hogs ought to have them sold separately and on 
 their merits, and the man who sends in grassy, half -fatted 
 or slop-fed hogs ought to have them sold on their merits. 
 The way it is now every man goes into a pool, and the man 
 with the bad ones always gets the best of it, and the man 
 with the good ones gets the worst of it. 
 
 GOING TO START ANEW. 
 
 Now we have to start into business anew, and we ask of 
 the country shippers to either bill their hogs to themselves, 
 and we will buy their hogs of them, or bill them to us, and 
 we will sell them or use them for our orders at $3 per car, 
 and if we buy them of the shipper we will have them 
 weighed and settle their charges for $2 per car. We will 
 either buy them and weigh them straight with a dock, or we 
 will assort them, as we have been doing heretofore. We 
 will go back to the good old times when every man did busi- 
 ness on his own hook and when the shipper could come in 
 and sell his own goods. We will have a first-class cattle 
 man, and we will sell cattle at just half the commission 
 charged now under the rules of the exchange. Our buying 
 commissions remain just where they are, at $6 per double- 
 deck, the same as they were twenty years ago. It used to 
 be $6 for selling and $6 for buying. The exchange put up 
 the selling and put down the buying, or have members in 
 it who are offering to buy at $3 and $4 per double-deck 
 now. It is more work to buy a load of hogs than it is to 
 sell them. 
 
234 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 HOW TO SHIP STOCK. 
 
 In billing your hogs and cattle bill them all to New 
 York or Boston on the Big Pour system west of here, to un- 
 load at Indianapolis, care R. R. Shiel & Co. On the Penn- 
 sylvania system west and southwest of here bill them to 
 New York, Boston, Philadelphia or Baltimore, load in dou- 
 ble-decks whenever it is possible to do so. On the Pennsyl- 
 vania system use Keystone double-decks. On the Big Four 
 system use Western live stock exchange, Central Vermont. 
 Swift's live stock exchange or Mather double-decks. On 
 the I., D. & W. bill to New York and do not route them be- 
 yond Indianapolis, as we might want to send them via the 
 Big Four or the Pennsylvania. We will pay all telegrams 
 sent by us, you pay all telegrams sent by you, with the ex- 
 ception of when you ask the market we will send the answer 
 collect, or when we notify parties of shipment we send them 
 coUect. 
 
 To our customers East, who have done business with us 
 for years, and who know our manner of doing business, we 
 ask you to be patient with us during the next week until 
 such time as our friends in the countrj^, whose hogs we have 
 been buying through other parties, will send enough to sup- 
 ply our Eastern demand or come in themselves and sell 
 them to us. 
 
 The hardest demand was made on us a few months ago, 
 when they asked that we should buy just as Kingan's buy 
 them and weigh them all in one draft. The rule had been 
 before that if we bought hogs we could cut out the heaviest 
 and weigh them to one man and the lights to another ; that 
 we could weigh 5,000 pounds out of a load to fill a double- 
 deck for one man and weigh the remainder to another man. 
 But they made a rule in the exchange and enforced it, mak- 
 ing the penalty a fine of $25 if they cut hogs out of a load, 
 enabling us to weigh them down to the man we bought 
 them for. 
 
 To make it clearer, we bought a load of hogs — lights — 
 
With the Beef Trust 235 
 
 that we wanted to weigh down to a light-hogs man, with 
 two heavy hogs in the lot, and we asked leave to take the 
 two heavy hogs out and weigh them to a different man. 
 The party selling them declined, saying he would be fined 
 if he did it, making us weigh them into our assorting pen 
 to take off the two hogs. We have stood this for several 
 months. We have had a rule for years that all the hogs 
 we bought be weighed at the center scales, as it was next 
 to our assorting pen, unless we bought a load that were 
 uniform and would do to weigh down to the party we were 
 buying for, and then they could be weighed at any scales. 
 
 AS TO WEIGHING SCALES. 
 
 A few weeks ago the president of the stock yard com- 
 pany came to us and wanted us to permit them to weigh at 
 any scales, saying the exchange demanded it. We told him 
 we did not think we could do it, as weighing at the three 
 would get hogs faster than we could assort them, and that 
 we would have 2,000 hogs in our assorting pen at a time, 
 and that hogs weighed to us at 10 o'clock in the morning 
 we would not have assorted by 2 in the afternoon. Weigh- 
 ing at the one scale we could assort them about as fast as 
 they weighed them to us, and in that way our shrink would 
 be lighter, or we could approximate about the difference 
 between what they weighed in and what they weighed out. 
 But, however, to please the president of the stock yard 
 company, we told him we would try it and weighed at all 
 the scales. One day they weighed out 1,680 pounds less 
 than they weighed in. Our commissions were $60 and our 
 loss on shrinkage about $65, so we worked hard all day and 
 we had $5 less money that night than we had in the morn- 
 ing. Another day we had 1,300 pounds shrink, taking 
 nearly all our comrnissions ; another day 1,100 pounds, an- 
 other 960 pounds and another 700 pounds. 
 
 So we found we had either to quit weighing at all the 
 scales or go out of business. No honest man could or would 
 
236 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 put out hogs for more than they cost, and when our mar- 
 ket report goes out $4.02% for the top, when in fact the top 
 was $4.10, it makes it very hard on us. Our customer in 
 the East reads the top price here $4,021/2, and he, getting 
 his hogs at $4,071/2 and $4.10, might think we are dishonest, 
 and we could not blame him. This is enough at this time, 
 and you will no doubt hear from us from time to time. It 
 has been said one man cannot buy and sell at the same time, 
 but it is being done in all markets. 
 
 What we will endeavor to do is to give the country ship- 
 per with the good goods the market price relatively to other 
 markets and also to this market, and the Eastern customer, 
 that always wants the good ones, the goods at the market, 
 and if we err in doing it it will be an error of judgment 
 and not error of heart. 
 
 "With kind regards and best wishes, we beg to remain. 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 E. R. Shiel & Co. 
 
 Per Shiel.^ 
 
 Indianapolis, Sept. 19. 
 
 NEW TURN IN HOG WAR. 
 
 IT PROVES TO BE A LIVELY DAY AT THE STOCK YARDS. 
 
 A REPLY IS MADE TO THE STATEMENT OP THE R. R. SHIEL COM- 
 PANY BY THE OTHER SHIPPERS IN THE DAILY STOCK YARDS 
 JOURNAL— ^'^RHODY^^ CLAIMS THE EXISTENCE OF A TRUST 
 HAS REEN ACKNOWLEDGED. 
 
 The trouble at the stock yards between the firm of R. R. 
 Shiel & Co. and the Live Stock Exchange was given another 
 chapter yesterday when in yesterday's issue of the Indian- 
 apolis Daily Liv© Stock Journal, the official pAper of the 
 
With the Beef Trust 237 
 
 Union stock yards and horse market, appeared the follow- 
 ing reply to the statement of the firm of R. R. Shiel & Co., 
 printed in yesterday 's Sentinel : 
 
 NOTICE TO SHIPPERS AND DEALERS IN LIVE STOCK. 
 
 Indianapolis, Sept. 19, 1898. 
 
 In view of the fact that the firm of R. R. Shiel & Co. 
 have this day issued a circular to the country shippers of 
 stock, said circular containing statements the material part 
 of which is utterly false, we hereby desire to state the sim- 
 ple truth, and that is that R. R. Shiel & Co. have demanded 
 that their purchases of hogs shall all be weighed on a par- 
 ticular scale, and the one where the shippers reweigh nearly 
 their entire purchases and have a preference. The avowed 
 object of this move on their part is to compel the hogs they 
 buy to lie in the alleys a long time so that (as they ex- 
 pressed it) the country shippers will stand the shrink in- 
 stead of the buyers. This demand the salesmen refused to 
 concede, and also refused to sell them hogs until they would 
 accept them as the other buyers do, namely, to be weighed 
 on the scale most convenient ^ ' of the three scales ' ' provided 
 for that purpose by the stock yards company. This action 
 was taken purely in the interest of the owners of hogs 
 put in . our charge, as we feel that it is our duty to see 
 their interest protected in every reasonable way.' Re- 
 spectfully submitted. 
 
 H. 11. Fletcher & Co. 
 
 Jeffrey, Fuller & Co. 
 
 Helm, Lewis & Co. 
 
 Adin Baber & Co. 
 
 Tolin, Totten, Tibbs & Co. 
 
 Stockton, Gillespie, Clay & Co. 
 
 M. Sells & Co. 
 
 Middlesworth, Benson, Nave & Co. 
 
 l*owell, Beasley & Co. 
 
 Clark, Wysong & Yoris. 
 
238 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 J. C. Kershaw & Co. 
 
 The Capital Live Stock Commission Company. 
 
 Dye, Valodin & Co. 
 
 W. H. Hoshal & Co. 
 
 THE SHIEL company's REPLY. 
 
 To this statement the firm of R. R. Shiel & Co. makes 
 the following reply in the form of a letter to the editor 
 of The Sentinel: 
 
 To the Editor — Sir: Inclosed find admission of the 
 trust. It explains itself. Our reputation is well estab- 
 lished and our manner of doing business, and not for mark- 
 ing up one man and marking down another after a bona 
 fide sale. 
 
 We do say that we are glad that they have admitted 
 that we take care of our customers, and when our friends 
 from the country intrust us with their business Ave guaran- 
 tee they will have no reason to complain. We will take 
 as good care of our country customer as we have with our 
 eastern customer, and deal honestly with both. We will 
 commence weighing at 6 o'clock if the scales will open 
 and will have the bulk of our hogs out of the way before 
 the exchange market opens. We g-uarantee that every hog 
 at the stock yards that is consigned to us by 7 o 'clock will 
 be weighed and account of sale rendered by wire not later 
 than 10 o'clock, and every load we buj^ from the country 
 shipper we will see that they are weighed in an hour, or not 
 later than an hour and a half, and that he has a check 
 two hours after they are sold. We don't have to wait for 
 a market to weigh our hogs up, as we have our orders by 
 wire the night before, and a standing order from John B. 
 Squire & Co. of Boston, a house that kills about as many 
 hogs per year as Kingan & Co. do, for from three to fifteen 
 double-decks per day if the market is favorable. 
 
 Almost half of our hogs are bought on discretionary 
 orders, and we can give a load or two to any of our cus- 
 tomers most any day more than they order. They have 
 some confidence in our judgment. Today we bid $4.10 for 
 
With the Beef Teust 239 
 
 all light hogs here. The hogs we bid $4.10 for, the mar- 
 ket report shows sold at only $4,021/2- This is the honest 
 trust market. Send your hogs to our market and you will 
 be well taken care of. 
 
 With kindest regards and best wishes, we beg to remain 
 respectfully yours, 
 
 R. R. Shiel & Co. 
 
 Indianapolis, Sept. 19. Fer Shiel. 
 
 THE COMBINE BROKEN. 
 
 R. R. SHIEL CO. WIN A VICTORY AT THE STOCK YARDS. 
 
 To the Editor — Sir: We have won a great victory 
 today for the people against the combine. It is clearly 
 demonstrated that the few cannot combine against the 
 many. We bought about half the hogs in the yards. 
 Bought every country shipper's hogs that came in with 
 them but two. They were all consigned, but the shippers 
 took them away from the trust and sold them to us them- 
 selves. One of the generals in command of the combine 
 had eight loads consigned to him and we got five of them. 
 The $3 commission has come to stay. Three dollars saved 
 by the country shipper and have their business done 
 promptly is quite a saving to them. We weighed all of 
 our hogs straight and docked them, and there was not a 
 load of them that was not weighed within twenty minutes 
 after they were bought. We hire plenty of help to do the 
 work, while the combine generally has but one man to a 
 firm. The reason of the slowness of weighing the hogs that 
 they complain so much about, is some of them only have 
 one man to the firm to weigh, and they have cheap men. 
 
240 
 
 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 We won't have a cheap man or a slow one around us. We 
 will have easy sailing from now on as the country ship- 
 pers will realize what we are doing for them. 
 
 R. R. SniEL & Co. 
 Indianapolis, Sept. 20. 
 
 The following are the quotations of the Shiel market. 
 R. R. Shiel & Co. against the combine. Bought of the 
 country shippers the following hogs at the following prices, 
 the shippers taking their hogs from the combine, selling as 
 quoted to Shiel & Co. 
 
 Shiel wants hogs shipped by shippers in their own 
 name. He will buy all that are so shipped, or if sent to 
 Shiel & Co., will be sold. on their merits or taken by him for 
 his eastern trade. 
 
 Number. Ad. Bock. Price. 
 
 31 hogs 137 ... $4.00 
 
 20 hogs 171 ... 4.10 
 
 14 hogs 170 ... 4.10 
 
 2 hogs 175 ... 4.10 
 
 8 hogs 136 ... 4.10 
 
 29 hogs 207 ... 4.10 
 
 20 hogs 172 ... 4.10 
 
 88 hogs 141 360 4.10 
 
 23 hogs Ill ... 4.10 
 
 88 hogs 140 240 4.10 
 
 112 hogs 151 . 600 4.05 
 
 37 hogs 179 ... 4.10 
 
 35 hogs 179 120 4.05 
 
 72 hogs 185 400 4.05 
 
 80 hogs 132 ... 4.071/2 
 
 58 hogs 210 40 4.07i£ 
 
 43 hogs 190 200 4.O71/9 
 
With the Beef Trust 241 
 
 October 3, 1898. 
 
 WANT TO COMPROMISE. 
 
 BUT RHODY SAYS HE IS INDEPENDENT AND WON^T DO IT. 
 
 To the Editor — Sir : Thirteenth act of the great drama. 
 How they are trying to placate us. Sending our friends to 
 us suggesting a way out of the dilemma. A very warm per- 
 gonal friend of mine, whom I believe to be an honest man, 
 met me Friday and admitted that all that I have charged 
 is true as to the thieves and corruption ; said he was among 
 the first to advocate the organization of the exchange, and 
 believed it would be of general benefit to the business, and 
 that the exchange would right the wrongs and help wipe out 
 the corruption. He admits that it has not done so much as 
 he thought it would do, but said to me that I had under- 
 taken a great task; that there was no more corruption in 
 these yards than in others ; that there was great opportunity 
 in the business for corruption, and a great many corrupt 
 men were in it ; that it was a business that tried a man 's in- 
 tegrity, and the temptations were so great that men became 
 corrupt in this business that would not without this tempta- 
 tion before them. 
 
 He was trying to advise me to let up and effect a com- 
 promise. They would let me weigh on the scales I had been 
 weighing on ; they want to keep up their exchange and have 
 me join it. That, I told him, was an impossibility, as I 
 would not belong to an organization that had as corrupt 
 men as some of the men in it. He said that they all ad- 
 mitted now that I would get all the stock from the country 
 that I wanted, but their only hope was that I would not be 
 
 [16] 
 
242 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 able to get out all that I would get in. I told him that did 
 not worry me, for I had fifty customers or more for whom I 
 had done business in the last twenty years, more or less, in 
 the East that could use all the stock that came here, with 
 the exception of days of heavy runs. I had no fears but 
 what if we had more than we had orders for our local 
 packers would buy of us at the same price as they would of 
 others, and the commission we charged the country shipper 
 would be at least $1 a car better off if I sold them at 2I/2 
 cents less. Our commission would be only one-half of what 
 the combine's commission would be, as we only charge for 
 selling the same as we do for buying. He said to me that I 
 would break down under such a strain. I told him there 
 was no strain on me now, and there had not been much from 
 the start. They only shut me out for tw^o days. While we 
 had not been getting half the amount of stock we had orders 
 for, our customers East did not blame us for it, and are wil- 
 ling to fill their orders elsewhere until we are in shape to 
 serve them. I said we had gone too far now to make any 
 compromise. We had employed a number of men to take 
 charge of the receiving department, and from now on would 
 be better equipped than any firm in the yard to receive the 
 stock that came consigned, and to handle the stock the coun- 
 try shippers sold to us. 
 
 There are a few young men, for whom I have great sym- 
 pathy, that belong to some of the firms that come to me and 
 say that it is going to break them up in business ; that when 
 they have to sell at $3 a single deck and $6 a double deck 
 their expenses would eat them up. They admit that we can 
 do it cheaper than they can, as we get a double commission. 
 
 E. R. Shiel & Co. 
 
 Indianapolis, Oct. 2. 
 
With the Beep Trust 243 
 
 STOCK YARDS CONTROVERSY. 
 
 MR. SHIELDS RESPONSE TO THE STATEMENTS MADE BY MR. 
 
 RAUH. 
 
 To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal : 
 
 In your paper of the 13th, Mr. Rauh, president of the 
 Stock Yards Company, publishes a part of the agreement 
 which was written by him in a room selected by him and his 
 committee. My lips were sealed, and now that he has pub- 
 lished a pai-t of the agreement I hope that he will publish 
 the letter dictated by me, which was handed to him to sub- 
 mit to his committee as they were going to the room, and 
 also the part of the agreement which I dictated at my house 
 and sent to him. I am glad that he has unsealed my lips. 
 
 I have never denied, and do not now deny, that there 
 were negotiations for settlement, and in every case it was 
 solicited by Rauh, his traffic manager and vice-president. 
 The $100,000 to stop the building of the stock yards was not 
 half the amount claimed by my company, and Avould not 
 pay us for the damage done us and our customers. This 
 will be settled in court hereafter. Mr. Rauh well knew at 
 the time why he and his associates cut out a small part of 
 the agreement, and did not publish it all. One of the agree- 
 ments related to the weighing of corn in place of measuring 
 it in a basket. The $100,000 was largely going to my East- 
 em customers that I had bought for for fifteen to twenty 
 years. They were all damaged when the resolution was 
 passed against us by the exchange, of which Rauh is a mem- 
 ber. There w^ere a number of customers that were associ- 
 ated with me and wanted stock in the new stock yards com- 
 
244 Twenty Years in Helt. 
 
 pany. The way it leaked out that there was to be a new 
 stock yards built was that one of my customers came here 
 and Eauh got hold of him and the customer told it. 
 Rauh had him two hours in his office, and then had 
 him in the Bates House twice and made propositions 
 to him to give his orders to others instead of to me. He 
 took the proposition home, had it submitted to his house; 
 the house turned it down, and he came back here and still 
 wanted to get in the stock yards, which I had in contempla- 
 tion. I promised him $10,000 stock and that per cent, of 
 interest in it. He wanted more, and I would not let him 
 have it. So Rauh saw him again, and he has now quit 
 doing business with us. It is a well-known fact that Mr. 
 Rauh and his associates in his exchange notified Mr. 
 Squire 's buyer, Mr. Parsons, when he came here to take our 
 place, that if he did any business with us the other commis- 
 sion houses would riot sell him anything. I want to ask Mr. 
 Rauh if it is not a fact that he had $775,000 of the $1,- 
 000,000 water common stock, held in escrow, and went to 
 New York, Pliiladelphia, Pittsburg and Chicago, and 
 showed that this stock yards paid a dividend on a million 
 bonds, $500,000 preferred, and a million common water? 
 
 I want to state emphatically that Mr. Erwin's name or 
 anyone else's was not mentioned during our negotiations 
 with Mr. Rauh. The fact is no one now interested in the 
 Interstate Stock Yards Company, so far as I knov/, was in- 
 terested in the other company that I propose to settle for, 
 with one or tw^o exceptions. Rauh is largely responsible for 
 these gentlemen embarking in this enterprise, while there 
 are a number of them that are our friends and did not 
 w^ant to see us crushed by the » combination against us. 
 
With the Beef Trust 245 
 
 There was one of our Eastern customers that complained so 
 much about their treatment here, and censured us for stand- 
 ing the wrong done them and us as long as we had without 
 exposing it. I said that I was afraid of them, and it was 
 not an easy matter to fight such a combination. The reason 
 they are so provoked about the Interstate Stock Yards Com- 
 pany is that the gentlemen associated with it are strong 
 financially, and are all first-class business men. 
 
 A settlement was made a iew years ago by this stock 
 yards company. I negotiated partly the deal, and at that 
 time there was something like $150,000 or $200,000 paid; 
 and we have never heard much about it in the newspapers. 
 These new stock yards will be built and operated, and will 
 furnish everything at prices returning a reasonable profit 
 on the investment. It is silly to talk about stock yards hav- 
 ing any special right over any other business. 
 
 R. R. Shiel. 
 
 MR. SHIEL 'S LETTER. 
 
 IN WHICH HE PROPOSED TO ACCEPT FOR HIS ASSOCIATES 
 
 $100,000. 
 
 IT IS MADE PUBLIC FOR THE FIRST TIME BY PRESIDENT RAUH OF 
 
 THE BELT RAILROAD AND STOCK YARDS COMPANY MR. 
 
 SHIEL AGREED FOR THE SUM NAMED NOT TO BUILD OR IN- 
 TEREST HIMSELF IN NEW STOCK YARDS IN INDIANA OUT- 
 SIDE OP LAKE COUNTY — INTERESTING' READING. 
 
 The attention of Mr. Samuel E. Rauh, president of the 
 Union Stock Yards Company, was called yesterday to the 
 published statement of Messrs. D. P. Erwin and R. R. Shiel 
 
246 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 in the Sunday editions of The Sentinel and Journal pur- 
 porting to be in answer to a statement made by him in The 
 Sentinel of the previous day, and he was asked what, if 
 anything, he eared to say in reply thereto. Mr. Kauh said : 
 
 I have no desire to carry on a newspaper controversy 
 with either Mr. Erwin or Mr. Shiel, but in justice to my 
 company I deem it proper to say something further at this 
 time. 
 
 In his statement in the Journal Mr. Erwin is reported 
 as saying: ''The old company wants to buy me out and 
 is attempting to worry us into selling, but we are not to be 
 bought." I wish to state most emphatically that there is 
 not and never was any desire on the part of the Union 
 Stock Yards Companj^ to buy out the new company or the 
 promoters of it, and in view of what has been said by Mr. 
 Erwin and Mr. Shiel on that subject I will now state the 
 facts concerning the proposition made by Mr. R. E,. Shiel, 
 acting for himself and associates, to which I referred in 
 the interview with me reported in Saturday's Sentinel. In 
 the Sentinel of February 24 reference was made to a new 
 stock yards company and connecting Messrs. Squire and 
 Humphrey with it. Mr. Fred F. Squire is treasurer and 
 Mr. F. E. Humphrey is traffic manager of John P. Squire 
 & Co. of Boston. On that day a reporter called to see me 
 and asked me about the matter. I told him I knew nothing 
 about it. He then asked me if there wasn't some way of 
 getting information on the subject, and I said to him that 
 if Mr. Squire was interested he could likely get information 
 from him. With a view of advising myself whether there 
 was any foundation for the published statement, and while 
 the reporter was still in my office, I called up by telephone 
 at Chicago Mr. Fred F. Squire of John P. Squire & Co. 
 of Boston and told him of the published statement in the 
 Sentinel, of the reporter's call and asked him whether there 
 was any foundation for the statement. In answer to this 
 he asked me to tell him all there was in the published state- 
 
With the Beef Trust 247 
 
 ment. I told him it was too long to repeat over the tele- 
 phone at that time. He thei^i asked me to mail him a copy 
 of the Sentinel containing the statement, which I did on 
 that day. I asked him when he would be in Indianapolis, 
 a^ I would like to have a talk with him. He said that he 
 did not know when he would be here, but would write me. 
 He brought the conversation to an end by saying that he 
 did not care to talk about the matter over the telephone. 
 
 LETTER FROM MR. SQUIRE. 
 
 The following morning I received from Mr. Squire, by 
 special delivery, the following letter : 
 
 Frank O. Squire, President. Fred F. Squire, Treasurer. 
 
 John P. Squire & Co. 
 
 No. 40 N. Market St, 
 
 Transportation Department. 
 
 F. E. Humphrey, Traffic Manager, Boston. 
 
 Chicago, III., February 24, 1899. 
 
 S. Rauh, Esq., President Union Stock Yards, Indianapolis, 
 
 Ind. : 
 
 My Dear Sir — Referring to our conversation by tele- 
 phone this morning, as per your request, I would be pleased 
 to meet you at any time or place, preferably at Mr. F. E. 
 Humphrey's Chicago office, 619 Rialto building, next Mon- 
 day morning. 
 
 If, however, your object is to consult with me in regard 
 to Indianapolis matters, I must respectfully decline to en- 
 ter into any controversy, as both Mr. Humphrey and myself 
 have placed the matter in the hands of Mr. R. R. Shiel. 
 
 Kindly wire me at above address if you decide to take 
 the trip. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Fred F. Squire. 
 
 I made no answer to this letter. The same day that it 
 was received Mr. R. R. Shiel advised me that he, too, had 
 
248 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 received by special delivery a letter from Mr. Squire au- 
 thorizing him to act for him. 
 
 At this point I may add that Mr. Shiel had some differ- 
 ences with the commission men at the stock yards with 
 which my company had nothing to do, but because of which 
 he (Shiel) brought suit against my company to compel the 
 opening of the scales at the stock yards at 7 o'clock in- 
 stead of 8 o'clock in the morning.. This is the only litiga- 
 tion between Mr. Shiel and my company. 
 
 Before this talk with Mr. Squire over the telephone a 
 meeting had been arranged for Saturday, February 25, at 
 the Denison Hotel, between Mr. Shiel and Mr. Hansen, 
 Colonel Downing and myself, with a view on my part of 
 ascertaining and putting in substantial form what Mr. Shiel 
 wanted. 
 
 MR. SHIELDS PROPOSITION. 
 
 This meeting was held at the Denison Hotel at the time 
 appointed, Mr. Shiel and the other gentlemen named being 
 present. At this meeting, in talking with Mr. Shiel about 
 the matter, he said that there was something more than 
 these differences to be considered, and that there were other 
 parties interested, and he then began to talk about the new 
 stock yards company, and when he was finally asked what 
 he wanted, he made the statement embodied in the follow- 
 ing communication to the Belt Railroad and Stock Yards 
 Company signed by him and delivered to me at the time. 
 
With the Beef Trust 249 
 
 *'T. J. CuLiiEN, Manager 
 
 The Denison. 
 
 Indianapolis, Ind. 
 
 Erwin Hotel Co., Proprietors. 
 
 February 25, 1899. 
 Belt Railroad and Stock Yards Company: 
 
 Gentlemen — In consideration of $100,000, to be paid by 
 the Belt Railroad and Stock Yards Company, to be paid 
 as follows: $25,000 cash, $25,000 in one year, $25,000 in 
 two years and $25,000 in three years, all deferred payments 
 to bear 4 per cent, interest, the undersigned, who is em- 
 powered for himself and his associates, agree not to build 
 or interest themselves in any stock yards in the State of 
 Indiana, except Lake county, and further agree to use all 
 their efforts in advancing the interests of the Belt Railroad 
 and Stock Yards Company, and further agrees that he will 
 maintain a market at the Belt railroad and stock yards 
 equal to the Chicago stock yards prices on hogs. 
 
 This proposition or agreement to hold good and binding 
 until the 15th day of March, 1899. 
 
 R. R. Shiel. 
 
 At this meeting Mr. Shiel stated in his very positive 
 way that this proposition was final and that because of the 
 absence of one of his associates, Mr. Erwin, who was then 
 in Europe, there could be no change made in its terms. 
 The proposition, which speaks for itself, was rejected. 
 
 NO CONSPIRACY. 
 
 In his decision in the so-called Indianapolis stock yards 
 conspiracy case. Judge Artman of the Boone Circuit Court, 
 gave both sides a clean bill of health, declaring it to be his 
 
250 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 opinion that all involved were honest. It is well for the In- 
 dianapolis market that he decided the case as he did, as 
 there is no way of computing the damage that would have 
 occurred to Indianapolis as a live stock receiving point had 
 the judge decided that there was any basis for the claim 
 that the Indianapolis stock yards officials follow the prac- 
 tice of weighing stock light to the commission man and then 
 weighing them heavy to the purchasing representatives of 
 the packers. 
 
 The knowledge that a toll was being exacted of every 
 consignor of live stock to Indianapolis would have been a 
 revelation to the trade, and the farmers and breeders of the 
 State would speedily have turned to other markets where 
 they could get what was rightfully coming to them. In- 
 dianapolis is growing steadily as a live stock center, but a 
 decision in favor of the plaintiffs in this case would have 
 checked development and set the market back ten years. 
 
 However, the decision carries with it one regret — it 
 marks the retirement from active live stock business of 
 ' ' Rhody * ' Shiel, probably the most widely known live stock 
 man in Indiana. In his brusque and picturesque way he 
 has done much for Indianapolis ; taken part in the develop- 
 ment of this live stock market from the very first. It was 
 but natural that a man possessing such a powerful will and 
 determination, so emotional and impulsive, should encounter 
 obstacles. He has, for many years, been more or less an 
 Ishmaelite in the trade, his hand against them all and every 
 man's hand against him, but the conspiracy charge could 
 not be made to hold in the end. It is pleasing to note that 
 he emerges from this unequal contest with some of the fruit 
 of the long years of service in the development of the In- 
 dianapolis market still in his possession. • 
 
With the Beef Trusj 251 
 
 Saturday, September 19, 1896. 
 
 SPEECH BY R. R. SHIEL. 
 
 HIS OBSERVATIONS OF THIRTY-ONE YEARS ' BUSINESS EX- 
 PERIENCE. 
 
 THE PRICES OF LIVE STOCK AND GRAIN DURING THAT PERIOD. 
 
 THE DIFFERENCE IN RAILROAD RATES — EFFECT 
 
 OF THE CRIME OF '73. 
 
 R. R. Shiel was at the Union Station last evening, wait- 
 ing for a train to Brooklyn. He was going there to make a 
 political speech, based on his thirty-one years' experience as 
 a buyer of live stock in the Indianapolis market. He said 
 that his object included a demonstration that the "crime of 
 '73" had nothing to do with the fluctuation of prices of 
 farm products. He had handled sixty million dollars' 
 worth of the products of the Indiana farmers, and is now 
 handling two millions annually. As he outlined his argu- 
 ment, a crowd assembled about him in the station, and final- 
 ly he took out his speech and read parts of it. He said, 
 both there, and later at Brooklyn: 
 
 The first car of stock that ever I bought and shipped was 
 a load of hogs at Elwood, of W. H. Harmon, in 1865, and I 
 paid 5 cents a pound for them. 
 
 The first two loads of cattle I bought, I bought of James 
 Gwinn, still living near Pishersburg, in Madison county, the 
 last of September, 1865. I paid $4 a hundred for them, 
 and they weighed about fourteen hundred pounds. I ship- 
 ped the hogs to Cincinnati, and paid $30 for the car. I 
 could ship the same car today for about $15. I loaded the 
 two cars of Gwinn cattle at Anderson, and I biUed them to 
 
252 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 Buffalo. John Pence, now a banker in Anderson, was the 
 railroad agent, and Quincy Van Winkle, who is now gen- 
 eral superintendent of the Big Four, west of Buffalo, was 
 an errand boy, learning the telegraph business, and helped 
 load the cattle. The freight on the two cars of cattle was 
 $150. I can ship two cars today from Anderson to Buffalo 
 for about $60, less than one-half. 
 
 In 1867 I shipped the first two carloads from Moores- 
 ville, on the Vincennes road, that were ever shipped on it. I 
 bought two carloads of cattle of Mr. Alexander Conduit, 
 who at that time was your neighbor, and is now a citizen of 
 Indianapolis. I paid. him $4 a hundred for them, and the 
 cattle weighed 1,450 pounds. The same cattle today would 
 be worth $4.25. I paid $172 freight to Buffalo, and the 
 freight on the two carloads would be about $72 today. This 
 was before the ' ' crime of 1873. ' ' 
 
 COMPARISON OF PRICES. 
 
 Today I had my bookkeeper take from my books prices 
 that I paid for stock in August and September each year 
 since 1889, when- Harrison was inaugurated. They are as 
 follows : 
 
 Year. Hogs. Cattle. Sheep. 
 
 1889.. . $4 20 to $4 40 $4 30 to $4 50 $4 20 to $4 40 
 1890.. . 4 70 to 4 80 4 50 to 4 80 4 30 to 4 60 
 
 1891.... 
 
 5 60 to 
 
 5 70 
 
 5 50 to 
 
 5 75 
 
 4 20 to 
 
 4 50 
 
 1892... 
 
 5 50 to 
 
 5 85 
 
 4 50 to 
 
 5 00 
 
 4 50 to 
 
 5 00 
 
 1893... 
 
 5 75 to 
 
 5 90 
 
 4 00 to 
 
 4 50 
 
 3 50 to 
 
 4 00 
 
 1894... 
 
 5 50 to 
 
 5 85 
 
 4 40 to 
 
 5 00 
 
 2 00 to 
 
 2 50 
 
 1895... 
 
 4 75 to 
 
 5 20 
 
 4 75 to 
 
 5 25 
 
 3 00 to 
 
 3 25 
 
 1896.. . 3 10 to 3 40 4 25 to 4 75 2 50 to 3 00 
 
 This will show conclusively that the so-called ' ' crime of 
 1873" has nothing to do with the prices of the farm prod- 
 ucts. And no one, who wanted to be honest and fair, would 
 claim such a thing. 
 
With the Beef Trust 253 
 
 There has been a gradual decline in the railroad rates 
 ever since the war, while the farm products have varied, 
 which the above figures show, from year to year. 
 
 In 1869 I bought thousands of hogs here after the fail- 
 ure of crops here in 1868 and 1869, and paid 10 cents for 
 them, and as high as 7 cents for cattle and 6 cents for 
 sheep; and in 1872, before the great "crime," I bought the 
 same hogs for 4 and 4% cents, and the same kind of cattle 
 at 4 cents, and sheep at 3 cents; while in 1874 and 1875 I 
 paid 7 cents for hogs, 5 cents for cattle and 5 cents for 
 sheep, three years after the "crime." There is no year, 
 since 1865, with the exception of 1879, that hogs in Septem- 
 ber were as low as they are now. In fact, there is no year 
 they sold for less than 4 cents in August and September. 
 
 Now, as the figures show, we have had high prices for 
 hogs since 1891, both of hogs and corn, which have caused 
 the farmers to turn their attention to producing more hogs, 
 and the large crop of corn in 1895 enabled the farmers to 
 produce hogs in larger quantities than they had for sev- 
 eral years back. This, with new competitors that have been 
 opened up in Denmark and Russia the last two years, which 
 are furnishing England and Germany with great quantities 
 of hog products, is the cause of low prices now. There is a 
 packing house in Denmark that kills about three thousand 
 hogs a day, that three years ago only killed a few hundred, 
 and they are great competitors in England and Grermany, of 
 Kingan 's and all American exporters of hog products. 
 
 CROPS IN THE SOUTH AND WEST. 
 
 And another cause for the low price of hogs this year is 
 that the South had large crops of corn last year, and the 
 continued high prices since 1888 have caused them to turn 
 their attention to raising more hogs and corn. 
 
 This year, contrary to my custom for twenty years, I 
 have not bought a load for Louisville, and some of the best 
 customers I have in New York and Baltimore have supplied 
 
254 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 themselves in Louisville and have bought very few here ; in 
 fact, Louisville has been shipping hogs here to Kingan & Co. 
 They have never had the receipts there that they have been 
 having all this year. They are raising more cdrn and less 
 cotton every year. The last few years I have bought as 
 fat cattle as I ever bought, that came from Arkansas and 
 Mississippi, that were fed on cotton seed, where thirty years 
 ago this same cotton seed was burnt up. If Mr. Bryan 
 would post himself he could say to his farmers in Nebraska 
 that the great market, the South, that twenty years ago was 
 the largest consumer of the pork and corn of Nebraska, is 
 today producing corn and hogs of their own, sufficient to 
 supply over half that they consume. 
 
 Now, as to the price of wheat and corn. In 1867 I fed 
 a thousand hogs in Hamilton county. I bought the stock 
 hogs at 3% and 4 cents in January, and bought the com 
 at 27 to 33 cents. This was before the ' ' crime of '73. ' ' 
 
 Now, there has been no year since 1867, until this year 
 and last year, that corn could be bought in Hamilton county 
 for less than I paid for it in 1867 ; and, in fact, the price 
 has generally run in January and February at from 35 to 
 40 cents. In 1894 it sold up as high as 55 and 60 cents. 
 
 Now, if the ''crime of 73" made the corn sell low this 
 year, why didn't it make it sell low in 1893 and 1894? 
 
 As to the wheat, it varied in price from 1865 to 1873, 
 from a dollar to $1.50. Wheat has sold as high as $1.25 
 and $1.30 after the "crime of '73," in 1879 and again in 
 1882. The low price of wheat is an easy thing accounted 
 for. We have had two of the largest crops ever known in 
 this country, and in 1890 Russia produced 140,000,000 of 
 the surplus, India 30,000,000 of the surplus, Hungary 30,- 
 000,000 of the surplus ,and in 1895 Russia's surplus was 
 470,000,000, India's surplus 260,000,000 and Hungary's 
 surplus 130,000,000. Now, all this surplus had to sell in 
 the same market and in competition with ours. 
 
 When we had the high price of wheat in the sixties there 
 was no wheat raised in Dakota, very little in Kansas and 
 
With the Beef Teust 255 
 
 the West, and spring wheat sold for 10 and 12 cents less 
 than the winter wheat did. Now, spring wheat sells for the 
 same price as winter wheat. The great wheat country of 
 the United States is the Dakotas, Kansas and the West, 
 when prior to the seventies they did not raise any for 
 market. 
 
 If Mr. Bryan would tell you that the large crops in 
 Russia, Hungary, India and the Dakotas are what made 
 your low prices, the American people w^ould have more re- 
 spect for his judgment and integrity. Why don't he tell 
 you what the price of sheep was in 1892 when they sold 
 at 5 cents under the McKinley bill, while in 1894 under the 
 Wilson bill they sold at 21/2? He. has not told the little 
 farmer on his little thirty or eighty-acre farm that under 
 the McKinley bill in 1890 and 1892 that he got I21/2 and 15 
 cents per dozen for his eggs; 15 and 20 cents for his but- 
 ter, and 50 per cent, more for all his poultry than he is get- 
 ting now. 
 
 I have dealt so much with you for the last thirty-one 
 years that I feel that I am almost a farmer. I feel like de- 
 fending you when I hear the charge on every comer that all 
 the farmers are going to vote for the Populist crusade can- 
 didate. I say to them it is an insult to the farmer. The 
 farmer is as intelligent as any other one class of men, and 
 after the election is over I feel sure that there is no one 
 class of people that is more interested in getting an honest 
 dollar for their product than the farmer. And the election 
 will prove that my assertion is true. 
 
 I give you facts and figures from my thirty-one years of 
 actual experience in business. Bryan has been advocating 
 a theory. Theory won 't stand against facts and actual ex- 
 perience. 
 
256 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 LIGHT ON THE CITY COMPANY. 
 
 The Hon. Augustus Lynch Mason, in his interesting re- 
 port of his administration of the Citizens' Company, in- 
 timates in prett}^ plain language that the City company 
 tried to ''hold up" his company for big money — tried to 
 "sell out" its contract to his company at a dizzy figure — 
 tried to be ''bought off" to get out of the way — or what- 
 ever the right phrase in the language of Wall street or 
 Fifth street may be. It seems also that the Citizens' com- 
 pany M^as willing to "deal" with the City company until 
 the demand of the latter became too high. It would have 
 been "mighty interestin' readin' " if the Hon. Augustus 
 Lynch Mason had given us the exact amount that his com- 
 pany was willing to pay to the City company and the 
 amount that the City company demanded. 
 
 It has been in the air for a long time that a "sell-out" 
 was arranged at one time, but if we mistake not Mr. 
 Mason's statement is the first official confirmation of the 
 truth of the rumor. Vague reports have been circulated as 
 to the amount of money that was to be given, and as to its 
 precise disposition — how many tens of thousands of dollars 
 each investor of his name and of a. few tens of dollars in the 
 City company was to receive. These rumors have long been 
 floating about vaguely — doubtless growing somewhat as ru- 
 mors do grow — ^but they have been assiduously denied, in 
 part, at least, by the parties in interest. Now it appears 
 that there is ample and substantial basis for them. It is a 
 great pity that Mr. Mason could not have given us the full 
 details. The publication of them — if they are what his. in- 
 timations imply and what rumor has declared — would, to a 
 
With the Beef Tkust 257 
 
 certain extent at least, cause a reaction of sentiment in 
 favor of his company. The people of Indianapolis are not 
 interested in seeing local "financiers" '^get a whack" at the 
 Citizens' company. 
 
 The people of this city were brought to believe that the 
 organization of the City company was made in entire good 
 faith, and principally from motives of city pride and patri- 
 otism. It is for that reason that it has had the support and 
 encouragement of the press and of good citizens generally. 
 Had people supposed that the City company was a Nickel 
 Plate or West Shore enterprise, that it was formed more as 
 a trading enterprise than with a view to the actual carrying 
 out of its ostensible object, there would have been far less 
 confidence in it or expectation from it. But if Mr. Mason 's 
 intimations can be taken to mean what they seem to mean, 
 if the rumors that have long been current are really well 
 based in fact, we shall have to modify our opinion of the 
 City company. We shall have to think that the motive in- 
 spiring its formation and manipulation was not so much the 
 desire of benefiting the city by seeking to put the street rail- 
 way business on a sound and rational basis, as it was the 
 hope of using the street railway situation for large personal 
 gain, without incurring any risk of loss — without really 
 making any investment. 
 
 It is difficult to believe that some of the men in the City 
 company would lend themselves to a Nickel Plate enterprise. 
 But it has been stiU more difficult to believe that certain 
 others in the company could be influenced by any but mer- 
 cenary motives. We must think that those of the first class 
 were not fully conscious of the real purpose of the company, 
 but that they were led to believe that while the enterprise 
 
 [17] 
 
258 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 was designed to make money, money was to be made by 
 legitimate development and in subordination to the perma- 
 nent interests of the city. 
 
 This, you understand, was at a time when agitation was 
 going on before the legislature, when Taggart was mayor 
 and seeking to get a bill through the legislature nine years 
 before the charter would expire, which I will explain 
 later on. 
 
 Noblesville, Ind., Friday, Oct. 2, 1896. 
 
 TO THE FARMERS. 
 
 RHODY SHIEL, THE WELL-KNOWN STOCK DEALER, 
 
 DELIVERS THE BIGGEST SPEECH OF THE CAMPAIGN AT CICERO, 
 
 IND., GIVING FACTS AND FIGURES FROM PERSONAL 
 
 EXPERIENCE REFUTING POPOCRATIC THEORIES. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — I have been in- 
 vited here tonight to talk to may old neighbors and friends 
 on the political issues of the day. I am not going to make a 
 speech to you, but I am going to talk to you as one neigh- 
 bor should talk to another. My opinion is that the issues 
 today between the two great parties are the most important 
 probably in the history of this country. Thirty-five years 
 ago this last month I answered to the call of Abraham Lin- 
 coln for 300,000 men and went forward to battle for the 
 country's flag, enlisting in this very city. I felt sure that 
 after four years of war that it had been settled by the 
 sword, once and for all, that States' rights had been shot 
 to death, but we see a convention assembled recently in Chi- 
 cago where they assailed the President of the United States 
 
With the Beef Trust 259 
 
 for sending troops to that city to stop riot and bloodshed 
 and destruction of property and to enforce the law, and 
 also criticised the Supreme Court of the United States for 
 the decisions rendered according to the law and the con- 
 stitution in the light in which they saw it. The Supreme 
 Court is the highest tribunal known to the government, and 
 when it renders a decision any true American must bow 
 his head in submission, as it is the sole judge. I didn't 
 vote for Grover Cleveland and I didn't believe that he 
 ought to have been elected President, but when he received 
 a majority of the votes he was my President just as much 
 as the men who voted for him, and when he sent the troops 
 to stop riot and bloodshed and protect property, I felt as 
 proud of him as if I had voted for him. What has Grover 
 Cleveland not done that he or his party claimed he would 
 do if he were elected? He has carried out all pledges of 
 the platform to the letter of the law. The Republican party 
 believes that the principles of the Democratic party inaug- 
 urated into law would not be the best thing for the country, 
 and it has been clearly demonstrated that we were right. 
 When the Democratic convention assembled in Chicago they 
 denounced their own President, and every supporter of the 
 Chicago nominee, and the nominee himself, denounced 
 Cleveland and his entire cabinet for carrying out the 
 pledges of the party as inaugurated in the platform in '92. 
 Since I have come to your city this evening I have 
 learned that there has been a great crime perpetrated — a 
 wonderful crime — and I find many of your citizens up in 
 arms and excited over the crime. (A voice from the floor, 
 "What is the crime?") The demonetization of silver in 
 '73. (Another voice, "It took you a long time to learn 
 that.") I grant you that is true, but the great crime was 
 perpetrated in '73. A national Democratic convention as- 
 sembled in '76, another in '80, '84 and '88, and again in 
 '92, and not one of these Democratic conventions had 
 learned it, so you ought not to be astonished that I hadn't 
 learned it. But 23 years elapsed and a convention assem- 
 
260 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 bled with a new Moses, and they discovered the ^eat crime 
 that had been perpetrated 23 years before, and the records 
 show that nearly every Democratic Senator and member 
 of the House had voted for the crime. What was the crime ? 
 They claim it was the stoppag^e of the coinage of silver. Let 
 us see if the coinage of silver was stopped. Since 1776, the 
 foundation of the government, up to 1873, there had been 
 something over 8,000,000 standard silver dollars coined in 
 all, and after that time, during the last 23 years, there has 
 been $442,000,000 coined, or about 57 times as much in 
 the last 23 years as had been coined in 97 years previous, 
 or 57 dollars for every dollar. New anyone can readily 
 see that the coinage of silver was not stopped and that this 
 great crime was never committed. 
 
 They tell me that the farmers are all going to vote for 
 the free and unlimited coinage of silver, but let me show 
 you why I think the farmer will be the last one who will 
 vote for it. The silver miner is a farmer, and there is just 
 one difference between a Colorado farmer and an Indiana 
 farmer. The former employs cheap labor to work his farm 
 and produce silver bullion, while the Indiana farmer la- 
 bors on the farm himself. Now just go with me seeking the 
 markets of the world for the products of a few States. I 
 see two carloads of silver bullion loaded on a train in Colo- 
 rado and start East, hunting a market; they come to Ne- 
 braska and take on two carloads of corn, then to Iowa and 
 take two cars of cattle, in Illinois two carloads of wheat, 
 and from Indiana two carloads of horses ; from Ohio they 
 take two carloads of wool. 
 
 Going over the mountains of Pennsylvania the owners 
 of all the products, riding in a car attached to the rear of 
 the train, the bullion owner asks the Ohio man, ''Where are 
 you going with your wool?" The Ohio man answers: "To 
 New England. I understand that is the best wool market. ' ' 
 Turning to the Indiana man, he asks: "Where are you 
 going wdth your horses?" Indiana answered: "To Glas- 
 gow, Scotland ; that is the best horse market at present. ' ' 
 Of the Illinois man he asks: "Where are you going with 
 
With the Beef Trust 261 
 
 your wheat ? ' ' The answer was : ' ' Paris, France. ' ' Then 
 he asked the Iowa man, "Where are you going with your 
 cattle?" "To London, England, as I understand it is the 
 best cattle market," replied the Iowa man. Of the Ne- 
 braska man he questions: "Where are you going with your 
 corn?" "To G-ermany," said he; "it is the best corn 
 market at present." Then the Indiana man addresses the 
 Western man and says: "Mr. Colorado, where are you 
 going with your silver ? ' ' The answer came : " I will leave 
 you at Harrisburg ; I am going to Washington. Bryan has 
 been* elected President, there has been a populist congress 
 and a populist senate elected and you have all voted for 
 them and they have had a special law passed for me; 
 every 53 cents' worth of my product is going to be coined 
 into a dollar under the new law. You have to hunt the 
 markets of the world for your product and you have to 
 labor with your hands producing your product, but I em- 
 ploy cheap labor and produce mine, and gulled you folks 
 into voting for Bryan to enable me to get a special law 
 passed. How do you like it?" 
 
 Then the farmers began to see what a great mistake they 
 had made. After the Colorado man gets his 53 cents coined 
 into a dollar it is still his dollar and you can't get any of 
 it. I see Mr. Bryan, in his Madison Square speech, said 
 that the farm products had gradually declined since the 
 "crime of '73," and in fact everything else but railroad 
 rates. Now, he was either ignorant of the facts or he wil- 
 fully lied." 
 
 Thursday, October 15, 1896. 
 
 ORATORY AT NOON-DAY. 
 
 GROV^TH OF THE MID-r»AY MEETINGS IN MERIDIAN STREET. 
 
 The noon meetings at the Sound Money League Hall, in 
 North Meridian street, have grown in attendance, and the 
 hall is crowded daily. George W. Julian will speak at noon 
 
262 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 tomorrow, and many old friends are arranging to give him 
 a pleasant reception. 
 
 ^ If, for any reason, the appointed sound money speaker 
 fails to appear, there are orators in abundance. Rhody 
 Shiel was one of today's speakers. "I have believed from 
 the start," he said, "that this campaign should be carried 
 on, not as a Republican campaign, not as a Democratic cam- 
 paign, but as an American campaign. 
 
 ' ' The first meeting I attended this year, and, in fact, the 
 first time I learned of the danger of this crusade, I went to 
 a meeting at English's Opera House, and heard my long- 
 time friend, John Kern, say that free silver would bring 
 ruin, and a panic such as the country had never witnessed, 
 and, of course, I believed John. Then, I listened to my 
 friend, Grreene Smith, and he strengthened me in the belief. 
 And last, but not least, if I had had any doubt in my mind, 
 it would have been removed after I heard my old friend 
 and comrade. Captain Meyers, who convinced me beyond a 
 doubt that it was a crusade of the worst kind, and that no 
 honest man could be a party to such a crusade. But, later, 
 T find that my friends, Kern, Smith and Meyers, were poor, 
 weak mortals ; that their love of a party discipline was far 
 more important to them than national honor, sound money 
 or love of country. I could not have believed it possible 
 that my old, beloved comrade. Meyers, could have deserted 
 Hancock, Sigel, Sickles, Black and Palmer — in fact, every 
 captain and colonel who had fought in the war for the old 
 flag and glory, are all joined hand-in-hand following their 
 leaders. Our own captains. Madden and McHugh, and 
 Cols. McLean and Havens, who will follow me here, have 
 joined in the support of Palmer or McKinley and an honest 
 dollar. Indeed, T don't know an officer above a corporal's 
 rank in the State, who served in the last army, with the ex- 
 ception of Meyers, who has deserted and enlisted under 
 Coxey, Bryan, Tillman and Altgeld's army." 
 
With the Beef Trust 263 
 
 MASSES AND CLASSES. 
 
 Rhody Shiel spoke yesterday at Carthage in the after- 
 noon and in Rushville at night. At the latter place he said : 
 ' ' I can 't find out where the masses end or where the classes 
 begin.' I do not know which 0^9 I belong to, and if I belong 
 to the classes, when I got to be a member. What must a 
 man be worth to belong to the classes? Must he have 1,000 
 acres of land, 300 acres, 100 acres, 50 acres, 20 acres or 
 10 acres? Must he be worth $1 or $2? Here, take Farmer 
 Ellis out here, whom you all know. He's worth 600 acres 
 of land. Say his daughter marries one of his hired hands, 
 and the father gives with his daughter's hand 100 acres of 
 the land to his new son-in-law. Is the son-in-law trans- 
 ported all in one night from the masses to the classes? 
 Thank God, the truth of the matter is there are no mases 
 and classes. 
 
 ''Who are the anarchists." said Rhody, again; ''who 
 were they in the Chicago troi'.'^les ? They were not the men 
 who struck for better pay. They were not the honest rail- 
 roaders. They were the men whom Governor Altgeld let 
 out of the penitentiary. They were the disciples of Till- 
 man. I am against these anarchists. They kill my fellow- 
 countrymen — the policemen. You know nearly all police- 
 men are Irish." Rhody says the silver question has been 
 talked to death, and that patriotism will be the kejoiote of 
 the remaining days of the campaign. 
 
 Shiel shows a letter to himself from the Republican 
 national headquarters, thanking him for the good work he 
 is doing, and informing him that the best parts of his 
 speeches have been selected and printed in pamphlet form, 
 to be distributed to 3,000,000 readers. 
 
264 Twenty Years if Hell 
 
 The Indianapolis Sentinel, October 29, 1896. 
 
 THE LAST CARD. 
 
 The Republican managers are in a state of desperation. 
 They realize that they are completely whipped on the 
 money question. The people have seen through their falla- 
 cies and inconsistencies offered in support of gold mono- 
 metallism, and are determined that they will have no more 
 of it. The effort now is to turn the issue back to the Civil 
 War, and by a vigorous waving of the bloody shirt bring 
 back if possible the silver Republicans who have become 
 disgusted with Republican slavery to the money power. 
 The following is a copy of a letter now being sent out to all 
 parts of the State by one of the most prominent Republican 
 leaders in this campaign : 
 
 My Dear Friend and Old Neighbor — You no doubt will 
 be surprised to receive this letter from me, but I have learnt 
 that you have been talking of voting for the silver craze. 
 
 Now I am not going to argue with you as to the right 
 or wrong of the money question, as you or I don't know 
 much about the government finances; I am sure that I 
 know but very little about it, and don't suppose you know 
 much more than I do. I do know the so-called demonetiza- 
 tion of silver in '73 has no more to do with the low price 
 of products this year than it has to do with the hog cholera, 
 in one neighborhood and another, but it has got beyond the 
 money, tariff or any other question now: it has got to the 
 question, Have we a government, a President and a Su- 
 preme Court, or are we going to have State's rights that 
 I had fought for for four years, and thought we had shot it 
 to death, and have it inaugurated again, and the exiles and 
 scum of foreign countries come here and run this govern- 
 ment under the form of anarchy led by Altgeld, Tillman and 
 Coxey, and this wild man, Bryan, whose only recommenda- 
 tion is his big mouth and lots of wind ? God forbid that we 
 
With the Beep Trust 265 
 
 should ever have such a man elected President. He never 
 did a day's work in his life, like you and I have done. He 
 undertakes to win with false and lieing representations, and 
 appealing to the passions of the ignorant. God forbid that 
 such an intelligent man as you are, and one who came loy- 
 ally to the flag in time of trouble, and now thirty-one years 
 after the war, would be a i)arty to dissectional strife, as to 
 arraying the masses against the classes. God knows we 
 have no masses or classes. You knew me in my humble log 
 cabin home, and if my position in life has been changed, I 
 have changed it myself, and the same avenue is open to 
 every American boy. I spent thirty-five years of my life 
 in fighting for what I thought was right, four years in the 
 war and the rest in the Republican party, and to my mind 
 there never was in the history of the country such an im- 
 portant election as this one for the perpetuation of the 
 government. I hope you, as the honest boy I knew you, 
 and as still the honest man, will weigh this matter, and 
 weigh it seriously before casting your vote. Think of the 
 hundreds of thousands of lives and the four years of suf- 
 fering in the late bloody war, and you ^vill be a party to 
 help blot it all out. I appeal to you in the name of every- 
 thing that is sacred, your wife, your children and the chil- 
 dren who will come after you, to help stay the hand of the 
 President, the court and the government, and let us settle 
 the question of money at some other election. Yours, 
 
 R. R. Shiel. 
 
 Mr. Shiel has been rated, as one of the most efficient of 
 the Republican speakers on the money question. He has 
 made dozens of speeches on that subject, many of which 
 have been printed in the Journal. Many Republicans have 
 said that he understood the money question better than any 
 speaker they had except Beveridge. Now he confesses that 
 he "knows very little about it," and probably in confiden- 
 tial conversation would admit that he knows nothing at all. 
 
266 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 Still more striking is his closing sentence : ' ' Let us settle 
 the question of money at some other election. ' ' What does 
 this mean? As plainly as words can say, it means: "We 
 are wrong on the money question. I know we are wrong. 
 But for heaven's sake stay with the party and we will get 
 straight hereafter." And why does he ask his friend to 
 stay with the party? For the memories of the Civil War. 
 He objects to " dissectional strife," but waves the bloody 
 shirt and tries to rouse the feelings of sectional strife of 
 thirty years ago. And he does it in a false issue. Gen. 
 Harrison and Mr. Shiel have entered into an effort in the 
 last hours of the campaign to save the Republican party 
 from deserved defeat. Harrison with his tongue and Shiel 
 with his pen make a strong team. Their arguments are 
 identical. Their thought flows along the same lines. But 
 they will not succeed in deceiving the people. The money 
 question will be settled at this election, not "some other 
 election." 
 
 "RHODY" SHIEL 'S TALK. 
 
 Following is a verbatim report of the speech of Rhody 
 Shiel: 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens— I ask your forbear- 
 ance for a few moments, -as a citizen of Indianapolis, and I 
 trust that tonight there is no disturbing element in this 
 meeting that will keep the most humble citizen from ex- 
 pressing his honest opinion. No doubt there are many that 
 expect me to enter into a personal abuse of individuals and 
 the press which has vilified me, but that I am not going to 
 enter into. Whatever success I have had in life or in my 
 business I have gained by not seeking to build myself up by 
 tearing others down. Permit me now to state my views on 
 
With the Beef Teust 267 
 
 the question that is agitating the people of Indianapolis. I 
 believe, and am willing to stake my reputation as a business 
 man, that in 1901 if the honest people of all parties, who 
 have the best interest of the city at heart, will stand firm 
 they can let a franchise then at 2 cents straight fare and 3 
 cents for a transfer and the company that gets the fran- 
 chise can make more money at 2 and 3 cents than the John- 
 sons did ten or twenty years ago under their mule system. 
 I believe the people ought to have some benefit of this 
 grand invention of electricity, and not let a few wealthy 
 men, who can organize themselves into a great corporation 
 for the purpose of controlling the public press, and also the 
 State and city legislatures, and they get all the benefits, to 
 make themselves still richer, while the poor man with his tin 
 bucket going to his work will have to pay the same fare, 5 
 cents, in 1930, as he did under Johnson 's mule system thirty 
 years ago. 
 
 Is the poor man to have no advantage of all the great 
 discoveries that have been made since 1865, when the Citi- 
 zens' franchise was let, until 1931? I think I see the one 
 and two-cent street car fare in twenty years from now, as 
 common a thing as the five-cent fare is now. The working- 
 man today, starts to work with ten cents in his pocket, and 
 pays it out for street car fare ; if they all stand together, 
 and see to it that no one is elected mayor of this city or to 
 the council in any ward from now until 1901 who is not but 
 a true friend to the laboring man, and one who has been an 
 advocate for low fares, I will stake every dollar that I have, 
 and my reputation, that the workingman in 1902 can start 
 to work in the morning with ten cents in his pocket, and pay 
 four of it out for street car fare, and return in the evening 
 with three loaves of bread, for the six cents he has saved by 
 the reduction of the fare, and the street car company will 
 make almost as much money under the low fare, as by the 
 high, as twice as many will ride, and they will run cars 
 twice as often as they do now; they will have to do it to 
 accommodate the people. 
 
268 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 Why let a franchise in ''93" that could not go into 
 effect until 1901. There is certainly not an intelligent man, 
 that wants to be honest, but what knows that we can get a 
 better franchise today than we got in ' ' 93 " under the mid- 
 night council, and knows that we can still get a better one in 
 1901, than we can today. Might as well buy a dress for 
 your wife, and have it made in "93" for her to wear in 
 1901, it would be clear out of style; the five-cent fare will 
 be out of style in 1901, everything is tending to lower prices 
 and why not street car fare? It don't matter to me, who 
 owns the street car tracks, w^hether they live in Philadel- 
 phia or here, and don 't think it matters much to any other 
 citizen, only the few stockholders and their friends. I am 
 sick of this howl of stop thieves, when the stealing has prob- 
 ably been as bad on one side as another, and the people hold- 
 ing the sack for both sides. 
 
 I feel it due to myself and the community that I make 
 some reference to myself being howled down the other night 
 in a mob. It is the second time in my life that I have been 
 suppressed, and I have been in some very close places, I 
 was shot down at Chickamauga, by Longstreet's corps and 
 had to succumb. I attacked a mob in the streets here a few 
 years ago, during the street car strike, of about 20,000 and 
 succeeded in getting a hearing, but this mob of a few hun- 
 dred under the charge of the city officials at the English 
 Opera House, succeeded in suppressing me, when if they 
 would have permitted me to talk, I was only going to ask 
 them a few questions and that was on a point where I had a 
 right to talk. As a member of the Board of Trade since 
 1867, I was going to raise the point that there never had 
 been a meeting called of the Board of Trade, which consists 
 of 500 members, or of the Board of Governors, which con- 
 sists of forty, and that that resolution was only gotten up 
 by four members of the Board of Trade, and was not the 
 expression of the Board o£ Trade. 
 
With the Beef Trust 269 
 
 The Indianapolis Sentinel, April 22, 1898. 
 
 PATRIOTIC RHODY SHIEL. 
 
 HE URGES MEN TO VOLUNTEER — SCENES AT RECRUITING ROOMS. 
 
 Last night was an eventful night at the recruiting sta- 
 tion of the ''First Volunteer Indiana Regiment" on N. 
 Pennsylvania street. Patriotic oratory was the feature of 
 the evening and the room, which holds several hundred peo- 
 ple, was jammed full most of the time. The speakers stood 
 on the table, where the recruting rolls are signed. Col. B. 
 C. Shaw, a veteran of the last war, and G. W. Wal^moth and 
 Charles Korbly, jr., of thp younger generation made patri- 
 otic speeches and were enthusiastically received. 
 
 There was a stir when Rhody Shiel was introduced by 
 Vic Backus, the colonel to be of the volunteer regiment. 
 ' ' Rhody ' ' was a private in the last war. ' ' I enlisted on the 
 day I was eighteen years old, ' ' he said. ' ' We have got war 
 on us right now and I tell you if you don't want to fight 
 you'd better not join this regiment under Vic Backus. Let 
 me tell you this : It's no matter now whether this war was 
 brought on rightfully or wrongfully. That's something you 
 don't have anything to do with now, but right or wrong 
 your duty now is to stand by your country. ' ' 
 
 Great cheers followed this outburst. Mr. Shiel con- 
 tinned: "I have said that I wouldn't enlist in this war, 
 but, at the age of fifty-eight, I will go before I will see this 
 flag dishonored. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Backus talked briefly, saying that it was the pur- 
 pose to organize a regiment that would be ready to leave in 
 fifteen minutes after permission was granted. He spoke of 
 the great honor that it would be to belong to the first regi- 
 
270 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 ment of Indiana volunteers. Enlistments were made rapid- 
 ly. In order to incite the crowd John Murphy stood two 
 young boys, who had enlisted, on the table and told the 
 crowd of older men to imitate the example. 
 
 There were some interesting incidents at the recruiting 
 station yesterday. One man, seventy-eight years old with 
 gray hair and drooping form, walked up to enlist, and when 
 Mr. Backus told him he was too old the tears rained down 
 his cheeks. He acknowledged that he was forty-five years 
 old when he was mustered out of the union army in 1865. 
 
 A deaf mute walked up and handed in a carefully writ- 
 ten application, giving his name as H. C. Anderson. In this 
 petition he said : ' ' The crucial test of valor is on the battle- 
 field and not by loud mouthings or vain vaporings. You 
 are well aware I am deaf, but I beg you will leave this out 
 of your consideration, for I have eyes to see and hands for 
 action which I assure you I will endeavor to use to the best 
 advantage within my power." 
 
 He seemed greatly disappointed when told by the re- 
 cruiting officers that his services could not be accepted. 
 
 (October 6, 1896.) 
 
 MR. SHIEL'S NEW SPEECH. 
 
 ONE OP THE UNIQUE STUMP EFFORTS OP THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 SHOWS WHY FINANCIERING SHOULD BE DONE BY MEN WHO 
 HAVE A TRAINING FOR IT. 
 
 There was a large crowd of people sitting in the head- 
 quarters of the Citizens' Sound Money League last night. 
 
With the Beef Tkust 271 
 
 and as they were there to hear politics discussed R. R. Shiel 
 volunteered to entertain them for a while, and he did it 
 royally, too. He showed the folly of men who have never 
 studied the question of finance attempting to put their 
 views above those of men who have done nothing all their 
 lives but study these matters. For the purpose of his illus- 
 tration he spoke figuratively. 
 
 ''Now, say I am a free silver man," he said. "I am 
 not, but then for the present you can imagine I am, and 
 then we can understand each other. Well, in 1897 I was 
 elected to the United States Senate to succeed Mr. Voor- 
 hees — that's a fact and you needn't smile about it — but I 
 resigned soon after when I found I knew nothing about 
 financiering for the government and went to buying hogs 
 again. You know I am a good hog buyer. I stand as high 
 as a hog buyer as John Sherman does as a financier, and 
 any stock man in the country will tell you so. 
 
 "Well, that part is settled. I was elected in 1897 and 
 went down to Washington with an idea that I knew all 
 about this thing of financiering for the government. I was 
 just going to turn things over and see that laws were passed 
 that would give every man plenty of money. Sure enough, 
 I was appointed on the finance committee to take Mr, Voor- 
 hees's place. Well, it took me about four days to find the 
 committee room in that big building down there they call 
 the Capitol, but what more would you expect of a first-class 
 hog buyer who had turned government financier ? At last 
 I found it and stumbled into the room one day. There was 
 John Sherman, who has been in the financiering business 
 for forty years, and Senator Hoar and Senator Allison, 
 who have served almost as long financiering for the govern- 
 
272 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 ment. Then I saw G-eneral Morgan, of Alabama; he's been 
 financiering for the government for a long time, .too. To 
 make it short, there they all were — men who had been do- 
 ing the government financiering for a long time— longer 
 than I have been buying hogs. 
 
 '^Pretty soon there came a rap, rap, rap, and John Sher- 
 man said the committee would proceed to do the govern- 
 ment financiering. Then old Senator Hoar got np and said 
 something. Senator Allison had his say. General Morgan 
 got in a few words and then I arose with all the dignity I 
 had and John Sherman said : 
 
 " 'Mr. Shiel, the new senator from Indiana, has the 
 floor.' 
 
 "I knew that. Then I told them that they were all 
 wrong ; that they did not know what they had been talking 
 about; that for all these years they had been financiering 
 for the government in the wrong way, and that what they 
 needed was a little advice from an Indiana hog buyer. 
 Then I proceeded to tell them how much more money the 
 people would have under free coinage of silver, and you bet 
 I told them at the same time how they had committed the 
 crime of 1873 and that stuff. About this time 'I am a 
 Democrat' .iumped to his feet. 
 
 ** 'Mr. Chairman,' he said, 'I rise to a point of personal 
 privilege. ' 
 
 " 'State your point, sir.' 
 
 ** 'This man is crazy, and I move that we have a com- 
 mission set on his sanity.' 
 
 " 'Well, the commission was appointed and it sat on me, 
 and it sat hard, too. The next thing I knew I was in an 
 insane asylum, and Avhen I was told why I was there I got 
 
With the Beef Teust 273 
 
 to thinking, and I did some tall thinking, too. ' Now, Rhody, ' 
 I thought, 'you Ve got no business here. You were making 
 money buying hogs in Indiana and you were known as one 
 of the most reliable hog buyers in the country. You Imow 
 nothing. about doing the government's financiering and you 
 had better go back and buy some more hogs.' I sent for 
 John Sherman and I apologized to him and told him that 
 I was a good hog buyer, but that I didn 't know much about 
 financiering for the government. When he let me out I re- 
 signed and came home, but I thought that would teach me 
 a lesson. 
 
 ' ' Things went all right for a year, then one morning my 
 little colored messenger boy came rushing into my office at 
 the stock yards and said : 
 
 ** 'Mr. Shiel, yo' bettah git out heah. Dey's some 
 strange men down theah and dey's jest buyin' evahthing in 
 sight and yo' won't get nothin' ef yo' don' hurry.' 
 
 ' ' I jumped up and rushed out to the pens and there was 
 old John Sherman in the cattle pens buying everything 
 offered and paying 50 cents more than the market price. 
 And there was Senator Allison just paying anything asked 
 for sheep ; and hogs ! "Well, Senator Hoar was paying $12 
 a hundred pounds. That beat me. I knew they couldn't 
 sell them and come out even, and so I walked up to John 
 Sherman and asked him what he meant by this. He said 
 he had found that the farmer was not getting enough for 
 his stock and he was going to teach us stock buyers some- 
 thing. Well, us stock buyers then got together and we had 
 a sanity commission appointed, and those men were sent out 
 here across the river where they keep such people. Why, 
 my little ten-year-old messenger boy knew more about hog 
 
 [18] 
 
274 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 buying than those big senators who had been doing the finan- 
 ciering of the country for more than a generation. After 
 they had been locked up a short time they concluded that 
 they did not know much about hog buying and they apolo- 
 gized and were turned loose. 
 
 ' ' Now, that is just how the matter stands today. Here 
 are a lot of little two-by-four politicians and hog buyers 
 who want to do the financiering for this government, and 
 they don't know any more about it than John Sherman 
 knows about buying hogs, and that is precious little, I can 
 tell you. I am not a senator any more and John Sherman 
 has quit buying hogs. ' ' 
 
 Throughout the peculiar speech there was the closest at- 
 tention, but Mr. Shiel's remarks were broken a number of 
 times by the laughter of his listeners at the odd manner of 
 treating the subject. When Mr. Shiel closed with the re- 
 mark that he was no longer a senator and that John Sher- 
 man had quit buying hogs there was a long and loud ap- 
 plause, and many were the remarks that, odd as the talk 
 was, it was a good illustration of the point made. 
 
 September 24, 1896. 
 
 A LESSON IN CONFIDENCE. 
 
 R. R. SHIEL MAKES A PRACTICAL ARGUMENT AT JAMESTOWN. 
 
 Special to the Indianapolis Journal. 
 
 JAMESTOWN, Ind., Sept. 23.— Hon. Charles B. Landis 
 and Roger R. Shiel spoke at a big meeting here this after- 
 noon. The speech of Mr. Shiel was something novel and 
 
With the Beef Tkust 275 
 
 interesting in the line of a political argument. He said in 
 part: 
 
 ' ' I have been invited here to make a speech to you today. 
 I don't expect to make a speech, but I come to talk business 
 to you. Thirty years ago I made my first visit to your 
 place. At that time this part of Boone county was a wil- 
 derness compared to what it is now; in fact, they talked 
 of it as a frog pond or swamp of Boone county. I came 
 here on horseback and bought about three hundred hogs of 
 Mr. Van Ausdel, then your neighbor, living about a mile 
 and a half east of here. Permit me to occupy your time a 
 few minutes to show you the difference in the manner of 
 doing business then and now. At that time, when a trader 
 went to the country to buy farmers' stock, he had to carry 
 with him the money to pay for the stock at the scales, and 
 I brought with me about $7,000 in currency. The hogs 
 were driven by Mr. Van Ausdel to Indianapolis for me 
 after I purchased and paid for them in currencj^ the price 
 being $4.60 a hundred. My next visit was in the fall of 
 1868, when I purchased two carloads of Van Ausdel & 
 Lowry, then living in Lizton, the first two carloads ever 
 shipped on your road, then the I., B. & W. We loaded them 
 at Mr. Van Ausdel's farm and used a wagon bed for a 
 chute to load them, as the railroad had provided no load- 
 ing pens. There has been no year since that I haven 't been 
 buying your stock. I continued to come here and bring the 
 currency up until about 1874 or 1875, when the trade 
 changed. I have often carried $25,000 to this and Hen- 
 .dricl^ county to pay for stock, but since 1875 my checks 
 have been going all over your county and Plendricks and 
 Montgomery, and when I purchase stock from any farmer 
 
276 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 I have given my check for it, and he has usually carried 
 the check home and deposited it in his bank, and I under- 
 stand that all local buyers now give their checks to the 
 fanners when they buy and very little, if any, money is 
 paid out at the scales where the stock is delivered. I re- 
 member, two years ago, that I purchased $28,000 worth of 
 cattle of your neighbor, Crit Clay, who lives a few miles 
 south of here in Hendricks county, and I gave him my 
 check for it; he carried the check home, and it was a 
 week before he deposited it in his bank at Danville. At the 
 time I gave the check for $28,000 I didn't have a thousand 
 dollars in the bank where I did business, but the same day 
 I deposited a draft in my bank on Tim Eastman, payable 
 in five days in New York, and I don't suppose Eastman had 
 any money to meet the draft. I happened to be in New 
 York when the Clay cattle arrived there; saw Eastman 
 killing the cattle and loading them on a vessel to ship them 
 to Liverpool. Mr. Eastman called me up to the desk and 
 said, 'You see my bookkeeper is making a thirty-day draft 
 on Liverpool to take up your draft that is due today. ' 
 
 ' ' When the thirty days rolled around and the draft was 
 due in Liverpool Eastman had sold the cattle in his butcher 
 shops that he had in Ireland, England and Scotland, and 
 collected the gold for them from all classes of people in 
 those countries. So you see it does not take the actual cash 
 to be paid down at the scales to carry on business as it used 
 to thirty years ago. Clay had confidence in me when he 
 took my check home. Fletcher had confidence in me when 
 he allowed me to draw the Eastman draft and gave me 
 credit for it ; and the bank in New York had confidence in 
 Eastman when it allowed him to draw on Liverpool and 
 
With the Beep Teust 277 
 
 give him credit for it. In fact, I do two millions of busi- 
 ness in a year and don't handle $500 in currency, while 
 thirty years ago I had to pay out currency for all the stock 
 I bought. 
 
 ''I can remember one time carrying home from Pitts- 
 burg $46,000 in currency — this was in 1869 — and in 1872 
 a number of times carried $25,000 and $30,000 from Cin- 
 cinnati and came to this and adjoining counties and paid 
 it out for stock at the scales. 
 
 ''Now, I am not going to talk to you about government 
 finances, but I can see readily that it don't take as much 
 money to do business now as it did thirty years ago, yet 
 from what I know of government finances there is as much 
 or more money per capita than there Avas thirty years ago. 
 We hear it every day that there isn't enough money to do 
 the business of the country. That is not what is the trouble. 
 It isn't more money; it is more confidence we want. 
 
 ''I was in Fletcher's bank the other day when Mr. 
 Fletcher threw down his balance sheet and showed me that 
 he had $3,600,000 on deposit, and he said that he had some- 
 thing near six thousand depositors. I asked him how much 
 he had loaned out of that deposit; he said he had Siy^ 
 per cent, of it in bank. I asked him if he thought that was 
 good banking; he said it wasn't profitable banking to the 
 bank, but the $3,600,000 belonged to the depositors and not 
 to him, and while this agitation was going on he wasn't 
 going to loan another man's money when the man might 
 come in any day and call for it. He said: 'Some of it is 
 3^ours ; you are liable to call for it at any hour, and I have 
 it here for you. If this agitation wasn't going on we could 
 loan our deposits safely down to within 30 or 40 per cent. 
 
278 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 Years ago the manufacturer used to borrow money and 
 manufacture in the fall for the spring and in the spring for 
 the fall, but now our best manufacturers only manufacture 
 to fill orders and don't carry any stock, and they don't need 
 the money they used to ; there is not the demand for it from 
 the manufacturers and we are glad of it, because we prefer 
 to keep the money, in these kind of times, in our vaults. 
 When an individual leaves the money on deposit he leaves 
 it here for safe keeping and wants it when he calls for it, 
 and these kind of times we are prepared to pay it out to 
 him when he comes. JMany of our customers have deposited 
 gold and they expect gold when they come for their 
 money.' " 
 
 SILVERITES EXPOSED. 
 
 R. R. SHIEL SHOWS UP THE HYPOCRISY OF THEIR CLAIMS. 
 
 Special to the Indianapolis Journal. 
 
 LEBANON, Ind., Oct. 7.— The soldiers and sons of sol- 
 diers of Boone county held a big meeting here last night, 
 with R. R. Shiel, of Indianapolis, as the speaker. Mr. Shiel 
 said in part: 
 
 "I am informed, since coming to your city, that the 
 Populist orator has been telling you that your county has 
 been growing poorer since the great 'crime of '73'; that 
 you have been going backward instead of forward. Now, 
 there is just about as much truth in that as there is in any- 
 thing else that these Populist campaigners tell, from Bryan 
 down to the government financier on the street corner, who 
 has his wife, keeping boarding house and has not done a 
 
With the Beef Tkust 279 
 
 day's work for five years, I asked your auditor to give me 
 the appraised value for taxes of all the property in Boone 
 county in 1870 and also in 1896, in order that I might see 
 whether or not you had been going backwards/ I find, ac- 
 cording to his figures, the appraised value in 1870 was 
 $4,772,980, and in 1896 $14,706,695, a gain of $9,933,715 in 
 twenty-six years. Now, you see you have not been getting 
 poorer, and that looks like a wonderful increase in the ap- 
 praised value, but it is nothing compared with the increase 
 of the silver miners. I see that Senator Stewart, of Nevada, 
 has made from his silver mines, $40,000,000, and Senator 
 Jones $25,000,000. Senator Stewart making over four times 
 as much as all the increase in value in your whole county, 
 and Senator Jones more than twice as much. Certainly you 
 can see why they are for the free and unlimited coinage of 
 silver, and I have no doubt if Senator Jones or Senator 
 Stewart were to come to Boone county to make a speech, or 
 their emissaries, Mr. Harvey or Mr. Bryan, they would tell 
 you that you have been getting poorer all the time. I saw 
 an account in the New York World (a Democratic paper) 
 the other day stating that there were thirty silver mine own- 
 ers who had made $681,000,000. Now, while the farmers of 
 Boone county have made wonderful progress, it is nothing 
 to compare with the progress made by the silver mine own- 
 ers. If Bryan were to tell the farmers of Indiana the truth 
 he would say that the silver section was the enemy's coun- 
 try instead of the East. Every carload of corn, wheat, cat- 
 tle, sheep or hogs, the products of Boone county, goes to the 
 enemy's country for consumption. Every engine pulling a 
 trainload of the products of Boone county is turned East, 
 hauling the same for consumption into what Bryan terms 
 
280 Twenty Years in Hell 
 
 the enemy's country. Who ever heard of a carload or a 
 trainload of the products of Boone county, or any other 
 coanty in Indiana, being shipped for consumption into the 
 silver-producing territory? When I first came to your 
 county in 1867, before the 'crime of '73,' you had but five 
 miles of gravel road running out of this city, and but ten 
 miles in the entire county. I understand that you now have 
 something near 200 miles. You then rode horseback over 
 corduroy roads; you now ride in carriages over gravel 
 roads. This readily proves how you have been going back- 
 wards. If Bryan, Stewart, Jones and Harvey can gull you 
 farmers into voting for Bryan and electing him president 
 they will make $100,000,000 in the next twenty years, while 
 you will be in great luck if you remain where you are. What 
 you want is a home market for your product, and the silver 
 bullion producer doesn't furnish it." 
 
 BRIGHT OUTLOOK FOR TENNESSEE. 
 
 INDIANA MAN THINKS STATE BEST IN UNION IN MANY RESPECTS 
 
 HHjLS and MOUNTAINS V^ILL BE COVERED WITH SHEEP IN TEN 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 [Nashville, Tenn., Banner. Feb. 23, 1909.] 
 
 Col. Roger R. Shiel, of Indianapolis, a multi-millionaire, 
 and at one time one of the largest stock dealers in the United 
 States, stopped over in Nashville Friday, Saturday and a 
 part of Sunday on his way from Little Rock, Ark., to Wash- 
 ington. Col. Shiel is one of the fathers of meat inspection 
 and the pure food law, first under President Harrison. In 
 
With the Beef Trust 281 
 
 1888 he had practical charge of the Palmer House and was 
 selected by President Harrison to conduct the convention 
 at Minneapolis in 1892. He is also the author of ' ' Commis- 
 sion on Country Life," a brief referring to farm and farm 
 products, which has a wide circulation. Colonel Shiel thinks 
 there is no place like the South, and speaks optimistically 
 of the future of the South, and especially of Tennessee. 
 
 ''There is no place," he said, ''in the Union that can 
 come nearer diversifying its industries than Tennessee. 
 You can raise anything on a farm here from a grapevine to 
 an apple tree, and do it better than anywhere else. The 
 fact is, the hen in Tennessee will lay two eggs where the 
 hen in Iowa or New York will lay one, and with eggs selling 
 at thirty cents a dozen will pay for herself at the most in 
 thirty days. 
 
 ' ' Middle Tennessee is far advanced in the raising of cat- 
 tle and hogs, and is the only state in the South that is, in 
 this respect, with the exception of parts of Kentucky and 
 Northern Missouri. This section of the state can develop 
 these resources still further by proper breeding. 
 
 ' ' Tennessee has a great interest in the building up of the 
 waterways, coal and iron industries, and there is no state in 
 the union that can develop the farm industry better than 
 Tennessee. The South is, however, somewhat behind in 
 the use of scientific agricultural methods. In my travels 
 through this section and also in Cuba, I saw the farmers 
 still plowing with wooden mould board as they did in Indi- 
 ana sixty or seventy years ago. 
 
 "Mississippi has got possibly a larger and l>etter body 
 of land in the Yazoo valley, one-half of which is unculti- 
 vated, than any other State. Arkansas, too, has a large body 
 
282 Twenty Yeaks in Hell 
 
 of uncultivated land, but Little Rock is one of the liveliest 
 towns I have been in and has one of the best hotels I have 
 visited during my travels. 
 
 '' Tennessee is fast getting away from her slow, ultra- 
 conservative methods, and in the near future she will be in- 
 viting people to come here from all over the world to help 
 diversify her industries. The grape, apple and fruit peas- 
 ants of France will be covering the mountains of East Ten- 
 nessee with their fruits. The greatest possibility in Ten- 
 nessee is the sheep, and it is also true that as much blue- 
 grass can be raised in Tennessee as in any other State in 
 the Union. Bermuda grass can also be grown with success 
 in the northern portion of the State and alfalfa in any part 
 of it. 
 
 " It is my prediction that in less than ten years the hills 
 and mountains of Tennessee will be covered with sheep, the 
 same as in West Virginia, where twenty years ago they had 
 none, and they will be of the highest grade. Montana is a 
 great sheep State today, but twenty or thirty years ago she 
 had very few, and Tennessee is as well adapted to sheep 
 growing as Montana. You can breed earlier lambs in Ten- 
 nessee than in any Northern State, and as you can there- 
 fore get them to market earlier you can obtain better prices 
 for them. The lamb can be marketed at least two months 
 earlier from Tennessee than from Montana, I)akota, Ohio 
 or West Virginia, as there are only a few months in the 
 year too severe for the young lambs, and the grass will grow 
 practically the whole winter if it is protected from shade 
 and properly drained. 
 
 ' ' The main trouble with Tennessee has been that she has 
 been unable to get away from her politics, but has permitted 
 
Wjth the Beef Tkust 283 
 
 a few selfish politicians to stunt her growth. I am not a 
 prohibitionist, but I am against brewery rule, and if we 
 must have prohibition to control the breweries, godspeed it. ' ' 
 
 RHODY SHIEL'S CHOICE. 
 
 HE IS FOR PERRY S. HEATH FOR UNITED STATES SENATOR. 
 
 Rhody Shiel ha^ entered the senatorial race. No, he is 
 not a candidate, but he has expressed his choice. He has 
 named his man. It is Perry S. Heath, first assistant post- 
 master-general. 
 
 "Perry Heath is a man," said Mr. Shiel last night, 
 **who, when you T\T:nte a letter to him asking for something, 
 sits down and tells you in reply that the matter will be at- 
 tended to at once. And it is attended to. You get results, 
 and it is results you want. 
 
 ''Now with your man Fairbanks and some others you 
 have there, when you write to them for anything you get 
 a nice little note telling you that yours of a certain date has 
 been received and contents noted and the matter will re- 
 ceive attention in due time, and that is the last you hear of 
 it. No results. Now, which kind of a man do you want — 
 one you can get results from or one that tells you 'yours re- 
 ceived and contents noted?' For my part I want results. 
 That's why I am for Heath." 
 
 R. A. BroT\Ti, clerk of the supreme court, was standing 
 near, and with some warmth he replied : 
 
 ** We don't want any more Ohio domineering of Indi- 
 ana politics. We have too much of that already. ' ' 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" a^ked Mr. Shiel. 
 
284 Twenty Yeaes in Hell 
 
 "Why, Heath represents the administration and he 
 would be nothing but an administration candidate. The 
 trouble with you is, Rhody, that you are looking after the 
 pie counter, and nothing else." 
 
 ''You don't, though, do you?" retorted Mr. Shiel. 
 "Why, you have had your mouth full of teats for fifteen 
 years. One hasn 't satisfied you. You have to have a whole 
 mouthful at the same time." Bob admitted the joke was 
 on him. 
 
 The talk of Heath is beginning to be commented upon as 
 being significant. It is recalled that for several days a well- 
 known Republican who is probably nearer to Senator Fair- 
 banks than any other man, not excepting A. W. Wishard, 
 has been throwing out hints of a coming dark horse. This 
 talk taken in connection with Rhody Shiel's position is 
 being regarded as possibly significant. It is generally be- 
 lieved by the friends of Mr. Shiel that he gets inspiration 
 from some source and hence his talk for Heath is received 
 with more than amusement by the more thoughtful. Rhody 
 assures his hearers (and they are always many) that his 
 man will cut a considerable figure in the fight. 
 
 The Indianapolis Sentinel, Thuraday, May 5, 1898. 
 
 Ex-President Harrison's speech at Camp Mount on 
 Tuesday was a gem. The American case has not, to our 
 knowledge, been stated more concisely or more strongly 
 than in the following: 
 
 We could not escape the compact. Spanish rule had be- 
 came effete. We dare not say that we have God's commis- 
 sion to deliver the oppressed the world around. To the 
 distant Armenians we could send only the succor of a 
 faith that overcomes death, and the alleviations which the 
 
With the Beef Teust 285 
 
 nurse and the commissary cdn give. But the oppressed 
 Cubans and their starving women and children are knock- 
 ing at our doors ; their cries penetrate our slumbers. They 
 are closely within what we have defined to be the sphere 
 of American influence. We have said, "Look to us, not to 
 Europe," and we cannot shrink from the responsibility 
 and the dangers of this old and settled American policy. 
 We have, as a nation, toward Cuba the same high commis- 
 sion which every brave-hearted man has to strike down the 
 ruffian who in his jjresence beats a woman or child and will 
 not desist. For what if not for this does God make a man 
 or a nation strong? 
 
 From the Loiaisville Times. 
 
 RHODY'^ SHIEL IN LOUISVILLE. 
 
 GIVEN MUCH ATTENTION DURING HIS STAY IN THE BIG KEN- 
 TUCKY CITY. 
 
 The Hon. R. R. Shiel, a leading cattle and hog dealer of 
 Indianapolis, is in the city. He came down Saturday night 
 and spent Sunday with Mr. Charles Byrne and other lead- 
 ing stockmen. He will return home this evening. 
 
 Mr. Shiel, who is better known as "Rhody," was for 
 many years a leading politician at the Indiana capital, and 
 is one of the best-known men in the State. At present he 
 is fighting what is termed the ^ ' trust, ' ' and is buying hogs 
 for Boston packers. He is meeting with great success, and 
 most of the Indiana farmers ship to him. 
 
 Mr. Shiel is well pleased with his trip to Louisville, and 
 he was given much attention during his stay. The visit 
 may have an important bearing on the hog market, as Mr. 
 Shiel is probably now the largest buyer in the West, outside 
 of Chicago. 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introductiou 3 
 
 Biography of Roger R. Shiel 7 
 
 Preface 13 
 
 Mr. R. R. Shiel's Letter to the President 21 
 
 Commission's Letter to Mr. Shiel 29 
 
 Mr. Shiel's Letter to the Commission 29 
 
 Live Stock in Denmark, etc 31 
 
 Conditions in Ohio 33 
 
 Conditions in Indiana 38 
 
 Conditions in Illinois 54 
 
 General Observations 55 
 
 Mr. Skelton's Letter 74 
 
 Fruit Question, etc 76 
 
 Letters of Individual Expression 79 
 
 Mr. Shiel's Second Letter to the Commission 113 
 
 1. The Pennsylvania Railroad Co 114 
 
 2. N. E. Hollis & Co ." 132 
 
 3. Nelson Morris & Co 144 
 
 4. Swift & Co 148 
 
 5. Hammond & Co 153 
 
 6. Schwarzchild & Sulzberger 154 
 
 7. Kingan & Co 156 
 
 8. Armour & Company 166 
 
 9. Cudahy & Company * 167 
 
 10. National Packing Company 168 
 
 Cincinnati and Louisville Packers 169 
 
 Conditions in the South 175 
 
 Prominent Men I Have Known 183 
 
 Richard Webber's Sixtieth Birthday 187 
 
 Death of Richard Webber 194 
 
 A Word for the Soldiers 210 
 
 (287) 
 
288 Index 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Letters on the Trusts 212 
 
 1. To Attorney-General Moody 212 
 
 2. To Governor Chas. R. Deneen 215 
 
 3. To Congressman Crumpacker 217 
 
 4. To Mr. E. C. Swift 220 
 
 5. To Hon. J. W. Wadsworth 224 
 
 Items from My Newspaper Scrapbook 227-285 
 
 1. R. R. Shiel Shut Out 227 
 
 2. Statement by Shiel & Co 228 
 
 3. One Day's Transactions 230 
 
 4. Who These Men Are 231 
 
 5. Get Markets from Shiel 232 
 
 6. Going to Start Anew 233 
 
 7. How to Ship Stock 234 
 
 8. As to Weighing Scales 235 
 
 9. New Turn in Hog War 236 
 
 10. Notice to Shippers and Dealers 237 
 
 11. Shiel Company's Reply 238 
 
 12. Combine Broken 239 
 
 13. Want to Compromise 241 
 
 14. Stock Yards Controversy 243 
 
 15. Mr. Shiel's Letter 245 
 
 16. Letter from Mr. Squire 247 
 
 17. Mr. Shiel's Proposition 248 
 
 18. No Conspiracy 249 
 
 Speeches by Mr. Roger R, Shiel 251 
 
 1. Thirty-one Years' Experience 251 
 
 2. To the Farmers 258 
 
 3. Oratory at Noonday 261 
 
 4. Masses and Classes 263 
 
 5. Rhody Shiel's Talk 260 
 
 6. Patriotic Rhody Shiel 269 
 
 7. Mr. Shiel's New Speech 270 
 
 8. Lesson in Confidence 274 
 
 9. Silverltes Exposed 278 
 
 Mr. Roger R. Shiel's Interviews and Newspaper Opinions. .280-285 
 
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