Iowa
Old Press
The Independent
Forest City, Winnebago co. Iowa
January 2, 1896
Future of the Horse
When railroads were first put in operation, it was predicted that
there would be a great fall In the value of horses, a
deterioration of horse flesh, and finally that the animals would
soon become curiosities on the way toward extinction. Of course,
says the Boston Transcript, everybody knows that nothing
of the kind happened. Horses increased in number, value and
quality. The business the railroads developed all along their
lines occasioned a demand for more and better horses. Just at
present the popularity of the bicycle and the application of
electricity to transportation are causing some people to repeat
the predictions of fifty years ago concerning the horse. It is
even said that the horse In the near future will be raised simply
for slaughter for food. If the horse could learn of this
prediction his intelligence and his sense of his value would
prevent him from taking it seriously. He might ask: "What
good is the electric car off the rails? How does a bicycle act on
ploughed ground, and what can it draw without the assistance of
human energy? If horses become very cheap will not more people
buy them, and will not the aggregate of individual wants occasion
a great demand that will send up prices?" The intelligent
horse asking these questions could well afford to munch his oats
calmly, while the alarmists were cogitating as to what reply was
possible.
Half Cooked Pork May Kill a Hancock County Family --
Death-Dealing Trichinas
The dread disease of trichinosis has broken out in a family six
miles west of Goodell, in Hancock County, and a report received
from there indicates that at least two members of the family are
likely to die. Several weeks ago the family had pork for dinner
one day which was poorly cooked. All partook of it heartily, and
it looks as if the carelessness in cooking the meat will have to
be paid for with several lives. Prof. J. Christian Bay,
bacteriologist of the State Board of Health and one of the most
eminent of scientists, examined the pork, and in a very short
time discovered that it was literally alive with trichinae.
Trichinae are destroyed by the thorough cooking of pork, but in
this instance the meat was not half cooked.
[transcribed by P.N., February 2012]
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The Independent
Forest City, Winnebago co. Iowa
January 23, 1896
Tremendous Sensation over Wholesale Body-Snatching at
Drake University, Des Moines - Graves Are Desecrated.
A double grave robbery was unearthed at Des Moines Saturday. The
bodies of Mrs. George Townsend and of Sandy Bell, a miner, were
found to be missing from their graves. The Des Moines police when
informed searched the Des Moines Medical College and found the
bodies of four men and one woman. That woman was identified as
Mrs. Townsend. The body of Sandy Bell was also identified.
Seventeen arrests of Drake students were made, and before night
two more cases of grave robbery were discovered. The police have
no hope of convicting the students. There is no evidence against
them except that the bodies were found in their dissecting room.
The arrest was made more to
satisfy public clamor and indignation than anything else. All day
Saturday the morgue to which the bodies were taken was surrounded
by a big mob and there was some excitement. Gov. Jackson has
suspended the jail sentence against John W. Schaeffer, the
medical student convicted of grave robbing two years ago. Friends
among the medical profession are assisting him to raise the $500
to pay the fine part of the sentence. He was a student in the
same medical college in which the stolen bodies were found. The
dean of the medical faculty at that time, Dr. J. W. Overton, who
was the chief grave robber with Schaeffer jumped his bail bond,
and has not been heard of since.
[transcribed by P.N., February 2012]