A Few Red Drops: Chapters 6–7

The work took tremendous strength and dexterity.

By 1903, fully 25 percent of the "Big Three” meatpacking companies’ profit on beef came from their ingenious ways of using what had formerly been thrown away.

But as he drew nearer to the address he had been given, the other languages fell away and the familiar lilt of the Lithuanian tongue enveloped him.

Ahead of him towered the Yard’s great gate, a wide center arch flanked on either side by ornately carved turrets and two smaller gates.

Ahead of him towered the Yard’s great gate, a wide center arch flanked on either side by ornately carved turrets and two smaller gates.

Inside the Yard, the apparatus of the world’s largest meatpacking facility sprawled over three hundred acres: animal pens large enough to hold 75,000 cattle, 300,000 hogs and 105,000 sheep; a horse exchange amphitheater; a sales pavilion; four hundred business offices; the National Live Stock Bank; and the three-hundred-room Transit House hotel.

Inside the Yard, the apparatus of the world’s largest meatpacking facility sprawled over three hundred acres: animal pens large enough to hold 75,000 cattle, 300,000 hogs and 105,000 sheep; a horse exchange amphitheater; a sales pavilion; four hundred business offices; the National Live Stock Bank; and the three-hundred-room Transit House hotel.

Men were now trudging away from the shapeups at the other slaughterhouses, looking dejected and hopeless.

Blacks, most of whom did not work for Swift, coalesced in the narrow strip of land just east of the immigrants, forming the community that came to be known as the Black Belt.

The world of Packingtown was tough and poor, a collection of shanties and shops in the shadow of the Yard.

Foot traffic flowed through the main business arteries of Packingtown at all times of day: men disappearing into and emerging from one of the more than five hundred saloons on “Whiskey Row”; women visiting the grocer, the shoemaker, and the like; children chasing pigeons or rodents in the streets as they waited for their mothers to finish shopping.

The unemployed gathered to commiserate after an unsuccessful morning at the shapeup; the employed gathered on the way home after work, stopping to forget their cares for a little while at the end of a long day.

In exchange, supplicants pledged their votes, helping the Democratic aldermen who filled the city council to fend off their Republican opponents.

Above the streets, the steeples of numerous Catholic churches jutted up across the Packingtown skyline.

Each parish served a particular ethnic group.

The final authority for them all was vested in Chicago’s bishop.

As one man remarked about the Irish bishop who led the Catholic church in Chicago from 1880 to 1902: “All are unanimous in proclaiming his wisdom and his fairness to each and every member of the Church.”

After a long day out in the world, families returned to their dilapidated homes.

Many of the newer immigrants from eastern European countries like Poland and Lithuania were relegated to the ramshackle houses just west of the Union Stock Yard in the neighborhood aptly called Back of the Yards.

Many of the newer immigrants from eastern European countries like Poland and Lithuania were relegated to the ramshackle houses just west of the Union Stock Yard in the neighborhood aptly called Back of the Yards.

Many of the newer immigrants from eastern European countries like Poland and Lithuania were relegated to the ramshackle houses just west of the Union Stock Yard in the neighborhood aptly called Back of the Yards.

Bleak as the area was, there was no money for anything better; the low wages paid by Swift and his fellow packers kept the unskilled masses living in squalor.

Bleak as the area was, there was no money for anything better; the low wages paid by Swift and his fellow packers kept the unskilled masses living in squalor.

One man lamented, “We punish our children until they become cowards and liars, and then we deplore their heartless ingratitude when we in turn become weak and helpless.”

One man lamented, “We punish our children until they become cowards and liars, and then we deplore their heartless ingratitude when we in turn become weak and helpless.”

In these dire circumstances, survival depended on specific, well-defined contributions from each member of the family.

Worn and invisible, summed up by a Packingtown man as “bitter brooding mothers,” many women were angry at the world—their husbands, their children, but mostly Swift and his compatriots and anyone else they saw as making their lives more difficult.

The younger ones admired the older boys who strutted about so tough, and they jostled with their playmates for a chance to run errands for the gangs of young men they looked up to.

Although it was understood that their earnings went into the family coffers, many pocketed a portion of their take, boys shelling out for an evening at the movies, girls treating themselves to indulgences such as fancy American hats, flat-out rejecting the old-country styles of their mothers.

Although it was understood that their earnings went into the family coffers, many pocketed a portion of their take, boys shelling out for an evening at the movies, girls treating themselves to indulgences such as fancy American hats, flat-out rejecting the old-country styles of their mothers.

At the top of the pecking order, the Irish “social athletic clubs” were in a class by themselves, wielding a level of power that other gangs could only dream of.

This powerful gang also acted out a deadly mission to vanquish outsiders.

Woe betide another gang or an oblivious youngster from a different neighborhood who happened to set foot in Ragen’s territory.

Woe betide another gang or an oblivious youngster from a different neighborhood who happened to set foot in Ragen’s territory.

Ragens protected their turf—sometimes with fists, often with a barrage of bricks known as “Irish confetti,” sometimes with guns.

Also like the Colts, the bread and butter of many Packingtown policemen was dependent on a good word from Frank Ragen or one of his cronies.

Closest to downtown, it passed through the vice district, home to the Riffraff and the Economically Dispossessed, where painted ladies walked the streets, unemployed men hung out on corners or gathered in bars, and wide-eyed, underfed children stared out of the cracked windows of dilapidated old buildings or played in the nearby garbage-strewn vacant lots, streets, and alleys.

A few avenues to the west, Model T automobiles delivered well-dressed ladies and gentlemen to the doors of imposing three-story brick and stone homes.

Ferdinand Barnett and other black lawyers and doctors hung out their shingles.

A small cadre of black policemen patrolled up and down, prodding and protecting.

A small cadre of black policemen patrolled up and down, prodding and protecting.

In 1900, the Tribune added its voice in a series of articles extolling the benefits of a segregated school system.

Facing the danger that the Tribune’s suggestions might take hold, Ida Wells-Barnett mounted a counterattack, bringing together powerful white friends who were able to stop the segregationists’ momentum.

On Sundays, blacks had the choice of more than a dozen churches of various Christian denominations.

The Defender proclaimed it “the popular promenade for the masses and classes.”