A New Zealander in America

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 124, 24 November 1893, Page 2

A New Zealander in America

A resident in this district, Mr Charles Purkiss. of Awahuri, lias just received a letter from a friend who is travelling in America, dated Chicago September 27th, from which we have been permitted to make the following extracts : — I stayed in New York for a week and had a look round that as well as Brooklyn and Jersey cities. New York is very large and took some looking over as it is' another Lon•don. I had letters of introduction to a gentleman who was very kind and drove me round in his trap, I was also his guest at his private house where I got information as to what I should see. I went to Albany, Iloosick Falls where I had a day. I then went on to Buffalo, stopped and had a look round and came on to Niagara Falls, one of the great wonders of the world ; it was a sight I shall never forget. I left there for Chicago passing through Ontario County, Canada. It is a fine country with plenty of grass. I had breakfast in London in that county so I have been in two of them. I then passed on to Michigan where the land does not look very much, being stoney all the way till we got to Indiana, when it got better. In this State they go in for growing a lot of corn, ancl fatten hogs. We were nineteen hours coming from Niagara which was a long ride and I was glad to gat out of the train. I have just come one thousand miles, ancl have yet got to go three thousand five hundred miles more by train to get to San Francisco which will occupy six days and nights. You see this is a big country and takes some travelling to get over. When I get home I shall have been quite a traveller. I must now say a few words of Chicago. It is a big scattered city twenty-two miles long and fifteen miles wide. The longest street is .twenty two miles. The buildings are very high, and to look up yon have to bend your head right back. The highest is twenty two storeys, over three hundred feet elevation. Others are sixteen and eighteen storeys high and look inmense. Homes over fifteen storeys are not now permitted to be built. From what I see it is a dirty looking place the houses are black, an unpleasant contrast to NewYork which is a nice clean place. I was at the Chicago stockyards, which are the largest in the world, covering three hundred acres. They will hold 55,000 cattle, 160,000 hogs, 125,000 sheep, and 2000 hoi S3f. As lar as I could sea it was yards everywhere. This is a great place for pork butchering. I was through Armour and Company's works. They kill 1,800 bullocks, 4,000 hogs, and 4000 sheep, a day. They told me they kill and dress 400 sheep an hour and employ 9000 men. The fat is made into butter by special machinery, and sold as butterine. I tasted it and it was really like butter. . I next went through the works of Nelson, Morris and Co., who can kill and dress 10,000 hogs a day, besides sheep and cattle. They employ 6000 men. Messrs Swift and Co. do 5000 bullocks a day besides hogs and sheep, and employ 8000 men. All of these are big places and a stranger could easily get lost without a guide. I came to America to see big things and verily 1 have not been disappointed. I had a look through the World's Fair, which took some time as the buildings cover two hundred and fifty acres. Every country has a stand so that visitors can compare the produce and manufactures of the several nations. There are men of every nation under the sun, from the North Pole to Central Africa, and some of them are very queer folks to look at. In the machinery ball there is a great display of all the latest improvements, and the perfection arrived at is simply wonderful. I have not seen or heard of a machine to make old people young again, but after my Chicago experiences I would not be in the least surprised to be told that one had been patented. I saw the big cheese which weighed 220001b5, from the milk of 10,000 cows, milked by 1666 dairymaids. One day 213.000 people visited the show, I never saw so many men and women together before. This country is full of thieves and robbers. At present it is a daily event for trains to be stuck up and the passengers and guards' vans robbed. The train on the line I came from Chicago in was stuck up the day before, and railway accidents are very common.