1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,279 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,440 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:17,400 Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Okay, here 4 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:19,840 Speaker 1: is sort of an obvious heads up if you saw 5 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:23,680 Speaker 1: the title of today's podcast. The topic that we are 6 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: talking about today involves really unsanitary practices that took place 7 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 1: when there were not really laws regarding food safety and 8 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:34,040 Speaker 1: quality the way we think about it today. So it 9 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: is kind of gross. That's an understatement. Uh. And there 10 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:40,839 Speaker 1: is also mistreatment of animals, so it is also upsetting 11 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: on that front. Uh. Just know that going in, and 12 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:47,000 Speaker 1: maybe it maybe a little too intense for you. We 13 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:49,560 Speaker 1: are covering a period of time where the milk supply 14 00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:52,960 Speaker 1: in New York was anything but appetizing. It has had 15 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:55,800 Speaker 1: actually been going on for quite some time, but there's 16 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:58,680 Speaker 1: there's one kind of very pivotal moment in the middle 17 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:00,680 Speaker 1: of it, and that's really where we're focus sing and 18 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:02,720 Speaker 1: then we'll talk about the way that problem was brought 19 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:05,319 Speaker 1: to the public's attention and how it was handled after that. 20 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: But first we're just going to talk a little bit 21 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:11,880 Speaker 1: about why milk became known as an essential item in 22 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:17,039 Speaker 1: US kitchens, particularly for families with children. So if you 23 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:19,960 Speaker 1: grew up in the US, even if you don't drink 24 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:24,480 Speaker 1: milk yourself, you've almost certainly become accustomed to this idea 25 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:28,800 Speaker 1: that people think of milk as a staple food. I know, 26 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:30,640 Speaker 1: when I was a kid, I loved milk and I 27 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:32,679 Speaker 1: drink it all the time. My brother was allergic, so 28 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:36,319 Speaker 1: it was kind of a division in our household. This 29 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:38,280 Speaker 1: is one of the things that just flies off of 30 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:42,400 Speaker 1: supermarket dairy kase shelves anytime there's a heavy storm coming 31 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:45,080 Speaker 1: and people will joke about, like, what are people doing 32 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 1: with all this milk and bread? Is it French toast 33 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:53,280 Speaker 1: time during during the snowstorm. Uh. Milk has treated like 34 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 1: a cornerstone of every meal and a lot of families, 35 00:01:56,920 --> 00:02:00,360 Speaker 1: and it is really popular. We have talked about teas 36 00:02:00,520 --> 00:02:03,040 Speaker 1: and butter on the show before, which are of course 37 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:06,680 Speaker 1: also dairy items, but those are made with the idea 38 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:09,720 Speaker 1: of longevity, so a food that you can have on 39 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:13,360 Speaker 1: hand for at least a little while milk does not 40 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:17,360 Speaker 1: have that long shelf life, especially in the era before 41 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: artificial refrigeration, so it's kind of an impractical thing to 42 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:25,960 Speaker 1: just have on hand all the time. The concept of 43 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:29,400 Speaker 1: a lot of heavy milk consumption is pretty new if 44 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:35,480 Speaker 1: you plotted out on the timeline of human history. Yeah, 45 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:39,320 Speaker 1: for a long time, dairy milk as a human consumable 46 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:42,600 Speaker 1: was primarily used just as a means to feed babies. 47 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:46,040 Speaker 1: This is also tied up with a very passionate and 48 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:49,880 Speaker 1: centuries long debate about human milk versus the milk from 49 00:02:49,880 --> 00:02:53,760 Speaker 1: other animals and what is appropriate for children. Even famed 50 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:58,480 Speaker 1: Puritan Cotton Mother had opinions about breastfeeding being the only 51 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:01,960 Speaker 1: suitable way to feed a try filed and he intimated 52 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:04,560 Speaker 1: in his writing that God would take whether a mother 53 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:07,960 Speaker 1: breastfit or not into account when her day of judgment came. 54 00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:11,000 Speaker 1: And then during the nineteenth century there were plenty of 55 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 1: people willing to voice their opinion that breastfeeding was downright uncivilized. Obviously, 56 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:20,040 Speaker 1: those are two extremes to illustrate the vast range of 57 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:24,600 Speaker 1: positions people had on the issue. That debate continues. You 58 00:03:24,639 --> 00:03:27,519 Speaker 1: will still find people probably who feel both of those ways. 59 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:31,760 Speaker 1: That debate is thankfully way out of our scope here. Also, 60 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:34,680 Speaker 1: Tracy and I are not moms, so we don't have 61 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:37,720 Speaker 1: quite the same steak in that conversation that other people 62 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:40,080 Speaker 1: might have. So the key thing that we need to 63 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: focus on is that in cases where a mother's or 64 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:46,840 Speaker 1: a wet nurse's milk were not an option for whatever reason, 65 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:51,560 Speaker 1: over time people started turning to other milk sources for infants, 66 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:56,160 Speaker 1: and because cows are fairly docile and pretty easy to 67 00:03:56,160 --> 00:04:00,320 Speaker 1: work with and produce milk in quantity, they emerge over 68 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:04,360 Speaker 1: time as the most popular non human milk source. There 69 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 1: were people who studied the mortality rates of babies in 70 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:12,360 Speaker 1: regard to being fed animal milk. This was called artificial feeding. 71 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: They were comparing that to people who were fed milk 72 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 1: from their mother or a wet nurse all the way 73 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:22,200 Speaker 1: back to the seventeen hundreds, and germ theory as we 74 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 1: know it today was not really in the mix with 75 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:27,120 Speaker 1: this yet. So there were some stabs in the dark 76 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:30,680 Speaker 1: regarding cause and effect of illnesses that seemed like they 77 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:34,920 Speaker 1: were linked to milk. One idea, which was conceived by 78 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:39,240 Speaker 1: French doctor Alphonse LeRoi in the seventeen seventies was for 79 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:43,240 Speaker 1: children to suckle directly from an animal to get the 80 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:47,960 Speaker 1: freshest possible milk, so he was onto the idea that 81 00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:51,120 Speaker 1: spoilage could be a problem, but he didn't really know 82 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:55,240 Speaker 1: that bacteria was the culprit for that spoilage. But keeping 83 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:59,840 Speaker 1: live animals on hand for that purpose was not exactly 84 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:04,520 Speaker 1: realistic for a lot of places, especially places like orphanages 85 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:08,280 Speaker 1: or hospitals. Right and even like anybody that lived in 86 00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:11,839 Speaker 1: a more metropolitan area, it's not like um, go to 87 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:16,919 Speaker 1: the goat room or the certainly not a cow in 88 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:20,240 Speaker 1: the house. There have been also various types of formula 89 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:23,040 Speaker 1: over the years, which can include any number of ingredients 90 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:26,279 Speaker 1: such as flowers or even cane sugar mixed with water 91 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:29,640 Speaker 1: or milk or some combination of the two, and sometimes 92 00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:31,760 Speaker 1: that was used as a way to stretch milk where 93 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:35,440 Speaker 1: that supply was not as uh, you know, constantly available. 94 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:39,480 Speaker 1: But over time there were doctors that started to recommend 95 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:43,159 Speaker 1: milk with various added ingredients as something that could pretty 96 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:46,840 Speaker 1: effectively replicate the nutrition and infant would get from breastfeeding. 97 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:50,680 Speaker 1: So when doctor's touting its benefits, milk really started to 98 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:54,280 Speaker 1: take on an image as a nutritious and health bolstering beverage. 99 00:05:54,960 --> 00:05:58,600 Speaker 1: This was not a universally held opinion, though, and there 100 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,839 Speaker 1: were still plenty of instant says where milk caused people 101 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:05,919 Speaker 1: to get sick. This included episodes when multiple people and 102 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:11,040 Speaker 1: communities got milk sickness after milk from cows that had 103 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:14,840 Speaker 1: ingested some poisonous plants was introduced into the food supply. 104 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:19,799 Speaker 1: But the trend of feeding infants and children milk continued 105 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:22,400 Speaker 1: upward in the US and in other parts of the 106 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:26,760 Speaker 1: world as cities got bigger and populations boomed, so that 107 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:30,440 Speaker 1: just led a more and more demand for cow's milk, specifically, 108 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:34,800 Speaker 1: so naturally that growing population of metro areas that needed 109 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 1: and wanted milk lead to a boom in the dairy industry. 110 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:41,479 Speaker 1: But in many cases, the dairies that emerged to meet 111 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:45,640 Speaker 1: those demands were not exactly hygienic, and the cows that 112 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:49,360 Speaker 1: were used were not fed the best diet. Feeding more 113 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:53,120 Speaker 1: cows meant far greater overhead for milk producers, so some 114 00:06:53,279 --> 00:06:56,400 Speaker 1: of them worked out what seemed like a cost effective solution, 115 00:06:56,560 --> 00:07:00,159 Speaker 1: and they moved next to breweries and distilleries, and a 116 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:04,200 Speaker 1: lot of instances, distilleries started dairies of their own as 117 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:06,839 Speaker 1: a way to get a piece of the ever increasing demand. 118 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:11,280 Speaker 1: So a lot of alcohols start out with grain that's 119 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: combined with water to give the yeasts something to work with. 120 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:18,720 Speaker 1: But this spent grain is not part of the finished beverage. 121 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:22,960 Speaker 1: It's a waste product. And dairy producers made deals with 122 00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:26,400 Speaker 1: alcohol producers to take their run off to feed their animals, 123 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:29,760 Speaker 1: or in the cases of these combo businesses, the distillers 124 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:33,760 Speaker 1: didn't really bother to source any other food for their animals. 125 00:07:33,760 --> 00:07:36,920 Speaker 1: They were just feeding them the runoff from their distilleries. 126 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:40,880 Speaker 1: So we should mention here that there are cases where 127 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:45,280 Speaker 1: this is okay. If someone is soaking their grains and 128 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:49,120 Speaker 1: then straining them out before fermentation, these grains can be 129 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: an are fed to livestock. Like there are a lot 130 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:55,400 Speaker 1: of breweries today that are feeding their spent grain to 131 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 1: farm animals, and it's this is really just the grain 132 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:04,360 Speaker 1: mean that has been used to make the work to 133 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:08,400 Speaker 1: make the beer, not like runoff that also contains alcohol 134 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:12,320 Speaker 1: and other waste products. Um. The brewery that brewed the 135 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:15,360 Speaker 1: beer for our wedding had to deal with farmers. Lots 136 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:18,520 Speaker 1: of places do this, um and it is perfectly fine. 137 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:21,760 Speaker 1: So we are not coming if you know someone who 138 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:23,480 Speaker 1: does that or is part of one of those We're 139 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:25,600 Speaker 1: not dogging on them. What we are about to tell 140 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:29,160 Speaker 1: you will explain the problem. Yeah, yeah, So what we 141 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:33,960 Speaker 1: are talking about here is dairy cows being fed this 142 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:38,480 Speaker 1: watery spent swill of mash that had been through the 143 00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:42,840 Speaker 1: fermentation process and boiled without being strained. And this runoff 144 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:47,400 Speaker 1: swill was not only kind of gross, it really didn't 145 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:50,760 Speaker 1: have a lot of nutritional value anymore. It could also 146 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:55,080 Speaker 1: go bad really quickly. Unlike just the spent grain that 147 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:58,160 Speaker 1: is used today, this was not a good food source 148 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:02,000 Speaker 1: for animals or anyone really, and as a consequence, the 149 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:05,400 Speaker 1: quality of the milk being produced by animals being fed 150 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:08,960 Speaker 1: this swill was poor at best. That's a very kind 151 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:11,800 Speaker 1: way to put it. That milk was often watery that 152 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:14,559 Speaker 1: did not have the normal fat content of a whole milk, 153 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:18,240 Speaker 1: and also it was often blue in color. So to 154 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:22,240 Speaker 1: make that milk appear more wholesome than it was, dairies 155 00:09:22,280 --> 00:09:24,480 Speaker 1: that used the swill run off to feed their cows 156 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:28,240 Speaker 1: started adding all kinds of things to the milk. Food 157 00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 1: colorings and molasses were added to make it look and 158 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:35,439 Speaker 1: taste good, and in instances where the dairy watered down 159 00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:39,880 Speaker 1: the already watery milk to stretch profits chalk, and sometimes 160 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:43,880 Speaker 1: even plaster of Paris was also added to improve the texture. 161 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:48,080 Speaker 1: This uh sounds like it would be really bad for babies, 162 00:09:48,240 --> 00:09:52,640 Speaker 1: and it was, and infant mortality was really high. Some 163 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:56,280 Speaker 1: estimates are that nearly half of the babies in Manhattan 164 00:09:56,400 --> 00:10:00,760 Speaker 1: died pretty routinely. And because there were innumera boll issues 165 00:10:00,840 --> 00:10:03,800 Speaker 1: developing as the city became more and more crowded, it 166 00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:06,839 Speaker 1: actually took a while for people to realize that the 167 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:11,520 Speaker 1: milk supply had become poisonous. Yeah, there were lots of 168 00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:15,080 Speaker 1: lots of efforts at attribution about like, oh, crowding is 169 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:17,760 Speaker 1: making disease spread more quickly. Yes, that's part of it. 170 00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:19,679 Speaker 1: You know, there were lots of other things that they 171 00:10:19,679 --> 00:10:21,120 Speaker 1: could point to you and go, I think this might 172 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:24,360 Speaker 1: be the problem. It just it took a bit. Uh. 173 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:26,480 Speaker 1: And in just a moment, we will talk about the 174 00:10:26,559 --> 00:10:30,360 Speaker 1: journalists who started to write about this problem with adulterated 175 00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:32,559 Speaker 1: milk being fed to babies. But first we're going to 176 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:43,319 Speaker 1: pause for a sponsor break. Frank Leslie is usually credited 177 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:46,320 Speaker 1: with breaking the swill milk scandal open in his paper, 178 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:48,800 Speaker 1: and we will talk about that expose a in a moment, 179 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:52,520 Speaker 1: but activist Robert Millam Hartley, who is known for his 180 00:10:52,559 --> 00:10:55,680 Speaker 1: work in the Temperance movement, was an early criticizer of 181 00:10:55,720 --> 00:11:00,720 Speaker 1: the subpar milk supply, well before most other writers. Eighty 182 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:04,800 Speaker 1: two Partly published a book titled and Historic, Scientific and 183 00:11:04,840 --> 00:11:08,720 Speaker 1: Practical Essay on Milk as an Article of Human Sustenance, 184 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:12,600 Speaker 1: with a consideration of the effects consequent upon the present 185 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:16,600 Speaker 1: unnatural methods of producing it for the supply of large cities. 186 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:20,400 Speaker 1: Partly believed that milk produced in a wholesome way was 187 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:23,640 Speaker 1: a perfect food, and he traced its history and the 188 00:11:23,679 --> 00:11:26,880 Speaker 1: animals that produce it in this book. To support his stance, 189 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:30,640 Speaker 1: he includes a testimonial from a doctor in the book 190 00:11:30,679 --> 00:11:33,520 Speaker 1: that reads, quote, I live in the country, but occasionally 191 00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:35,640 Speaker 1: go to the city, and while there I make a 192 00:11:35,679 --> 00:11:39,680 Speaker 1: practice of securing, if possible, my accustomed glass of milk 193 00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:43,319 Speaker 1: morning and evening, instead of coffee and tea, which for 194 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:47,240 Speaker 1: some years I have laid aside. Altogether. Three years ago, 195 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:51,560 Speaker 1: last winter I took lodgings at a respectable house near Broadway, 196 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,599 Speaker 1: and bespoke as usual my glass of milk. I observed 197 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:59,600 Speaker 1: that the taste of this milk was unnatural, unsavory, and 198 00:11:59,679 --> 00:12:02,640 Speaker 1: I have no relish for it. In fact, it soon 199 00:12:02,679 --> 00:12:05,840 Speaker 1: became loathsome, and at the end of one week I 200 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:10,599 Speaker 1: found myself greatly enfeebled, with loss of appetite, a feverish 201 00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:14,199 Speaker 1: heat of the hands, and a slightly furred tongue, with 202 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 1: other indications of disorder. The milk, I was informed, came 203 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:22,960 Speaker 1: from a dairy supplied with swill from a distillery. I 204 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:26,360 Speaker 1: left the boarding house and took lodgings at the Clinton Hotel, 205 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:30,040 Speaker 1: where I found a well flavored glass of milk morning 206 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:33,720 Speaker 1: and evening, and in three days I was well. Mr 207 00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:37,200 Speaker 1: h the landlord, assured me that he was supplied with 208 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:40,360 Speaker 1: milk from Harlem by a farmer who fed his cows 209 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:44,360 Speaker 1: on wholesome food. So that Doctor's account goes on to 210 00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:46,880 Speaker 1: warn parents that if they are going to buy milk 211 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:50,200 Speaker 1: for their children, they should inspect the dairy the supply 212 00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:53,720 Speaker 1: comes from themselves, to see the horrible conditions the animals 213 00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:56,760 Speaker 1: live in, and how their teeth are in abysmal condition 214 00:12:56,880 --> 00:13:00,320 Speaker 1: from bad food, and how all of this smells anything 215 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:05,079 Speaker 1: but wholesome. Hartley's right up, which is credited with coining 216 00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:09,040 Speaker 1: the term swill milk includes a number of other accounts, 217 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:14,119 Speaker 1: and they're horrifying. This includes abysmal conditions regarding animal welfare, 218 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:19,480 Speaker 1: instances of dying cows too weak to stand still being milked. 219 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:23,120 Speaker 1: Hartley then lays out his own proof that the milk 220 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:27,920 Speaker 1: these poorly fed cows produced is bad. He had conducted 221 00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:30,240 Speaker 1: a number of experiments with it and found that it 222 00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:33,760 Speaker 1: couldn't be made into butter. And his words, quote the 223 00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:37,840 Speaker 1: nutrient properties of milk we have shown consists chiefly of 224 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:42,160 Speaker 1: oil and albumin. But so deficient is slop milk of 225 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:46,760 Speaker 1: these essential attributes that it is incapable of producing butter 226 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:50,200 Speaker 1: or cheese. The author proclaims, quote, there is not a 227 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:53,440 Speaker 1: more certain poison in the form of food than this 228 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:57,719 Speaker 1: swill milk. And his strongest case in terms of connecting 229 00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:01,320 Speaker 1: swill milk to public health is the statistics that he cites. 230 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:05,360 Speaker 1: In eighteen fifteen, thirty three of the deaths in Boston 231 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:08,560 Speaker 1: were children younger than five years old. By the end 232 00:14:08,559 --> 00:14:11,439 Speaker 1: of the nineteen thirties, that number had grown to forty three, 233 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:16,079 Speaker 1: and he includes similar numbers for New York and Philadelphia. 234 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:18,720 Speaker 1: And then he goes on to name five hundred dairies 235 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:22,440 Speaker 1: in New York that were actively producing swill milk. You 236 00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:25,320 Speaker 1: would think this information would be explosive, but it took 237 00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:28,840 Speaker 1: a long time for the issues identified by Hartley to 238 00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:32,840 Speaker 1: be investigated. Some of this was because of Hartley's association 239 00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:36,400 Speaker 1: with the Temperance movement, which was not popular in New York. 240 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:40,840 Speaker 1: There was a common perception that Hartley was attacking distillery 241 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:44,640 Speaker 1: dairies and an effort to hurt the distilleries themselves. This 242 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:48,680 Speaker 1: was all part of his Temperance activism. Swill milk wasn't 243 00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:51,440 Speaker 1: studied by the New York Academy of Medicine for another 244 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:56,120 Speaker 1: six years, and that study, of course, found it nutritionally deficient. 245 00:14:56,840 --> 00:15:00,560 Speaker 1: But the practice of producing swill milk continue and by 246 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:03,760 Speaker 1: the mid eighteen fifties and estimated two thirds of New 247 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:08,000 Speaker 1: York's six million dollar annual spend on milk went to 248 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:12,680 Speaker 1: swill milk. Slowly, though, the information in Hartley's book became 249 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:16,400 Speaker 1: more and more commonly known. People started to question where 250 00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:19,040 Speaker 1: their milk was coming from and whether that was the 251 00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:24,120 Speaker 1: source of child deaths from malnutrition. Finally, in eighteen fifty seven, 252 00:15:24,160 --> 00:15:27,760 Speaker 1: an investigation was launched by city officials of Brooklyn. We 253 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:29,760 Speaker 1: recall at this time, Brooklyn and New York were kind 254 00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:34,440 Speaker 1: of two different entities. The resulting report was horrifying, detailing 255 00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:38,600 Speaker 1: a seemingly endless array of animal mistreatment and the handling 256 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:41,960 Speaker 1: of the milk those animals produced. Those animals were crowded 257 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:45,120 Speaker 1: so tightly together that they never moved and their stalls 258 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:49,080 Speaker 1: were rarely mucked out. Life expectancy for a cow at 259 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:53,160 Speaker 1: a swill milk dairy was only about six months. This report, 260 00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:57,120 Speaker 1: which was documented through the official investigation, also had a 261 00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:00,240 Speaker 1: weight that skeptics may have found lacking in heart these 262 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:04,200 Speaker 1: anonymous eyewitness accounts. The swill milk issue at this point 263 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:08,440 Speaker 1: was at last getting very wide scale exposure. While the 264 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:13,000 Speaker 1: report compiled by Brooklyn authorities was really damning, it wasn't 265 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:17,200 Speaker 1: as though everyone was reading municipal documents. The story really 266 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:20,920 Speaker 1: broke open on the pages of Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper 267 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:24,880 Speaker 1: on May eight, fifty eight, with the first installment in 268 00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:29,000 Speaker 1: a series about swill milk and a five thousand word expose. 269 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:32,680 Speaker 1: Leslie shared all of the grizzly details that had been 270 00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:36,720 Speaker 1: part of the city's findings and more. Leslie said that 271 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:39,840 Speaker 1: he had been spurred into investigation when a bottle of 272 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:44,600 Speaker 1: milk delivered to his door had obviously contained heads up, 273 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:48,760 Speaker 1: this is gross pus floating in the milk, and the 274 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:55,160 Speaker 1: details his reporters had uncovered were accompanied with equally unsettling illustrations. 275 00:16:55,760 --> 00:16:58,400 Speaker 1: These articles alerted the public to the fact that even 276 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:01,520 Speaker 1: cows with bovine to brook losis were being used to 277 00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:04,359 Speaker 1: produce the milk they might buy from a vendor cart 278 00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:07,280 Speaker 1: right on their own street. That was reported that in 279 00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:10,320 Speaker 1: some cases, meat from the sick cows that had died 280 00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:14,240 Speaker 1: in these distillery dairies had been sold at markets in 281 00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:17,760 Speaker 1: poor neighborhoods, and this milk was being sold to the 282 00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:20,879 Speaker 1: public with the assurance that it was good and wholesome. 283 00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:24,800 Speaker 1: Often the bottles were labeled with things like pure Orange 284 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:28,880 Speaker 1: County Milk or some similar nomenclature to suggest that this 285 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:33,320 Speaker 1: was wholesome milk from presumably healthy cows. Keep in mind, too, 286 00:17:33,359 --> 00:17:37,560 Speaker 1: that all of this predated routine pasteurization. Louis Pasteur was 287 00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:40,160 Speaker 1: working on his idea that there were germs in play 288 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:43,399 Speaker 1: in the spoilage of liquids intended for consumption as the 289 00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:47,000 Speaker 1: swill milk scandal was playing out, but commercial milk pasteurizers 290 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:50,399 Speaker 1: weren't even produced until the late eighteen eighties, and that 291 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:53,040 Speaker 1: meant that every minute that even wholesome milk was on 292 00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:56,240 Speaker 1: a street cart, it was inching towards spoilage because it 293 00:17:56,240 --> 00:18:00,280 Speaker 1: had never been sterilized. But swill milk started out dirty 294 00:18:00,359 --> 00:18:03,840 Speaker 1: and just got worse, and milk wasn't yet being bottled 295 00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:06,000 Speaker 1: at this time. It was often doled out of pails 296 00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:08,720 Speaker 1: into smaller pails, and that meant that it was also 297 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:11,600 Speaker 1: on these carts open to debris falling in it at 298 00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:16,359 Speaker 1: any time. The images and Leslie's, which were drawings, of course, 299 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:20,239 Speaker 1: included sick cows being held up with straps that they 300 00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:24,600 Speaker 1: could be milked, cows with sores on their bodies from malnutrition, 301 00:18:24,840 --> 00:18:28,840 Speaker 1: and really filthy conditions. Leslie took out ads and other 302 00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:33,240 Speaker 1: newspapers to advertise the expose series on swill milk. He 303 00:18:33,359 --> 00:18:36,360 Speaker 1: sent his staff artists to try to sneak into dairies 304 00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:40,679 Speaker 1: and get material for their renderings. According to Leslie's quote, 305 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:44,199 Speaker 1: swill milk should be branded with the word poison, just 306 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:49,159 Speaker 1: as narcotics are. So Frank Leslie was genuinely exposing some 307 00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:53,240 Speaker 1: truly gnarly things going on in these diaries, but he 308 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:58,360 Speaker 1: was also definitely doing so in a very sensationalist manner. Uh. 309 00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:00,879 Speaker 1: It's worth noting that he had worked a T. Barnum 310 00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:04,000 Speaker 1: on his publishing endeavors prior to going out on his 311 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:07,800 Speaker 1: own as a publisher. Leslie not only reported the news, 312 00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:09,840 Speaker 1: but he did so in a way that he knew 313 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:13,639 Speaker 1: would incense readers. And he also published illustrations in his 314 00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:17,360 Speaker 1: articles that stereotyped Irish immigrants who worked in the dairies. 315 00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:21,600 Speaker 1: So while his expos a series was raising important issues 316 00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:24,919 Speaker 1: to public awareness, it came with its own problems and 317 00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:27,560 Speaker 1: in some ways that led him to be discredited by people. 318 00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:31,439 Speaker 1: He was also very clearly on the side of the 319 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:35,480 Speaker 1: temperance movement, and the third installment of the Leslie's Illustrated 320 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:38,919 Speaker 1: story about swill milk this was evident, and writing that 321 00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:42,000 Speaker 1: mentions the evil of drink in the same sentence as 322 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:45,919 Speaker 1: the dangers of swill milk. Quote. Wherever large masses of 323 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:49,639 Speaker 1: people congregate, thus creating a great demand from milk, a 324 00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:53,000 Speaker 1: distillery springs up at once, and while this furnishes the 325 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:57,680 Speaker 1: fiery alcohol which makes the fathers and husbands drunkers, loafers 326 00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:02,040 Speaker 1: and perhaps murderers. The phil the cow stables which hang 327 00:20:02,119 --> 00:20:06,520 Speaker 1: around it like bloated parasites, dispensed the poison that deals 328 00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:10,000 Speaker 1: death to the mothers and children, and the public did 329 00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:12,320 Speaker 1: get angry when they learned that they had been feeding 330 00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:15,600 Speaker 1: their babies milk that was purposely filled with things like chalk. 331 00:20:16,359 --> 00:20:19,359 Speaker 1: Because Frank Leslie had published the names and addresses of 332 00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:21,840 Speaker 1: dairies that were making swill milk and passing it off 333 00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:25,560 Speaker 1: as fresh milk from country dairies, many of those dairies 334 00:20:25,600 --> 00:20:29,240 Speaker 1: soon found angry mobs at their doors for people and 335 00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:33,200 Speaker 1: reporters who had been talking about the obviously gross milk. 336 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:36,159 Speaker 1: For a while, it seemed like there was finally some hope. 337 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:41,320 Speaker 1: A May eighteen fifty eight article titled how We Poison 338 00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:45,000 Speaker 1: Our Children that appeared in the New York Times read quote, 339 00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:48,640 Speaker 1: swill milk is no new thing in our city. Wherever 340 00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:52,760 Speaker 1: there is a distillery, there is a temptation to manufacture 341 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:57,280 Speaker 1: that particular rite. Up walked through all the investigations, the 342 00:20:57,320 --> 00:21:00,600 Speaker 1: completely gross things that had been found in milk, the 343 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:04,399 Speaker 1: stench associated with the dairies that had become more and 344 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:07,720 Speaker 1: more of a concern as cities grew and the neighborhoods 345 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:11,240 Speaker 1: were built adjacent to the stables. There's a tone in 346 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:14,200 Speaker 1: this piece that loads Leslie is sort of a savior 347 00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:17,960 Speaker 1: figure and encourages every head of a household to examine 348 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:22,200 Speaker 1: their own milk for contaminants, while the city manages putitive 349 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:26,119 Speaker 1: measures for the people involved in producing swill milk. On 350 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:28,960 Speaker 1: May twenty an article appeared in The New York Times 351 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:32,879 Speaker 1: titled Swill Milk and Infant Mortality. The lead of the 352 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:36,119 Speaker 1: story stated that the Health commissioners agreed with Mayor team 353 00:21:36,119 --> 00:21:38,760 Speaker 1: in that the problem of swill milk had to be addressed, 354 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:42,199 Speaker 1: and that they quote promised to enter upon the performance 355 00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:45,560 Speaker 1: of a long neglected duty. Essentially, yes, we should have 356 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:48,639 Speaker 1: been on top of this sooner, but we're doing it now, Okay. 357 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:51,600 Speaker 1: So the plan for the Health Commission was to quote 358 00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:56,160 Speaker 1: operate with energy and firmness to purify the stables where 359 00:21:56,320 --> 00:22:00,919 Speaker 1: the disgusting stuff is manufactured. The articles stated clearly that 360 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:04,440 Speaker 1: if the Board of Health functioned at all, this should 361 00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:08,000 Speaker 1: be something it addressed, and it called for wide sweeping 362 00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:12,359 Speaker 1: condemnation and punishments to everyone in the supply chain, stating, quote, 363 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:15,199 Speaker 1: we take it that the city inspector is prepared to 364 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:19,680 Speaker 1: serve his three days notice upon the distillers who furnish 365 00:22:19,760 --> 00:22:23,400 Speaker 1: the swill at wholesale, upon the proprietors at the stables, 366 00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:26,520 Speaker 1: and upon the milkmen who hawk the puriulent stuff at 367 00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:29,800 Speaker 1: the doors of citizens, that they all and severally show 368 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:33,719 Speaker 1: cause before the board why their work of death should 369 00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:37,480 Speaker 1: not be discontinued. That same article gets a jab in 370 00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:41,040 Speaker 1: at politicians who feigned to be virtuous and care about 371 00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:43,760 Speaker 1: their constituents, but then do nothing once they're in office, 372 00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:47,520 Speaker 1: and it entreats the administrators involved to act not like that, 373 00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:51,200 Speaker 1: but do proceed intelligently and remember that the public health 374 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:54,720 Speaker 1: is at stake. The writer also compares the milk crisis 375 00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:57,639 Speaker 1: to the yellow fever outbreak in eighteen fifty six, so 376 00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:00,320 Speaker 1: just a couple of years prior, during which a Board 377 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:03,879 Speaker 1: of Health convened daily and took action, comparing the relatively 378 00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:06,360 Speaker 1: low number of deaths from yellow fever in the city 379 00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:09,520 Speaker 1: to the eight thousand children they calculated had died in 380 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:13,679 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty seven from swill milk consumption. What came of 381 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:16,840 Speaker 1: all this information being shared and the calls to action 382 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:19,560 Speaker 1: in the press. You'll get into that in just a moment, 383 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:22,360 Speaker 1: But first we will hear about the sponsors that keep 384 00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:32,720 Speaker 1: the show going. The New York City Alderman assigned to 385 00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:36,040 Speaker 1: the swill Milk case did inspect the dairies. A team 386 00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:39,040 Speaker 1: was formed made up of Tammany Hall politician and newly 387 00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:42,960 Speaker 1: elected Alderman Michael Twomey, who led the effort, and Alderman E. 388 00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:47,880 Speaker 1: Harrison Reid and William Tucker, with two additional investigators assigned. 389 00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,920 Speaker 1: But the team gave the accused dairies a heads up 390 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:55,919 Speaker 1: that they were coming. There were reports of diseased cows 391 00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:58,600 Speaker 1: being moved in the night and replaced with healthy ones 392 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:01,879 Speaker 1: brought in from the country farm, and also of stables 393 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:05,200 Speaker 1: being hastily cleaned, and there was also a five day 394 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:08,920 Speaker 1: hearing in which testimony was heard regarding the whole matter. 395 00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:14,040 Speaker 1: In an unusual turn, the defense was heard first. Edwin P. Smith, 396 00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:17,320 Speaker 1: who was the superintendent of the Johnson and Sons stable 397 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:20,200 Speaker 1: on sixteenth Street, which was one of the dairy stables 398 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,720 Speaker 1: called out in numerous articles about swill Milk, was the 399 00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:27,960 Speaker 1: first to testify. He stated that there were about five 400 00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:30,600 Speaker 1: hundred cows in the stable, although there had been as 401 00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:33,600 Speaker 1: many as eight hundred earlier in the year. He said 402 00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:36,639 Speaker 1: there had been sick cows there at various times, but 403 00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:39,800 Speaker 1: very few, and he claimed that the facility was running 404 00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:42,880 Speaker 1: as normal as it always had, including before the expose, 405 00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:46,280 Speaker 1: and that his family always drank milk from the swill 406 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:50,200 Speaker 1: fed cows and were in fine health. The next witness 407 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:55,320 Speaker 1: was the stables feeding manager James Atchison, who corroborated Smith's story. Yeah, 408 00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:58,160 Speaker 1: I never found a very clear reason why they went 409 00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:01,000 Speaker 1: with the defense first, other than the fact that all 410 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:03,000 Speaker 1: of the accusations had kind of been leveled in the 411 00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:06,320 Speaker 1: press for a while before this started, so for some 412 00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:10,000 Speaker 1: reason they wanted to get first in. Atchison also added 413 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:12,240 Speaker 1: that some of the cows who may have appeared sick, 414 00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:15,840 Speaker 1: we're just reacting to routine inoculations, and that he had 415 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:18,640 Speaker 1: never seen any of his animals lose their teeth from 416 00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:24,000 Speaker 1: eating swill. He gave hard numbers, whether they're true or not, 417 00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:26,760 Speaker 1: regarding the proportion of sick cows. He said that three 418 00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:28,920 Speaker 1: of the five hundred they had at the time of 419 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:31,760 Speaker 1: the hearing were sick, and he also stated that cows 420 00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:34,960 Speaker 1: only very rarely quote lost the use of their limbs 421 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:38,520 Speaker 1: from standing in the stable that is, according to coverage 422 00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:41,120 Speaker 1: of the hearing by the New York Times. There were 423 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:45,000 Speaker 1: several other witnesses called on behalf of the swill milk stables. 424 00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:49,959 Speaker 1: A doctor Wells, who was Superintendent Smith's family doctor, testified 425 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:53,000 Speaker 1: that he cared for the entire Smith family and had 426 00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:55,920 Speaker 1: never seen any of them ill from drinking swill milk. 427 00:25:56,320 --> 00:26:00,240 Speaker 1: Animal keeper Louis Thomas testified that he had cared for 428 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:03,080 Speaker 1: a large number of the Johnson Dairy cows and that 429 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:06,680 Speaker 1: they did not milk sick cows. Even a butcher who 430 00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:09,879 Speaker 1: purchased cows from the Johnson and Sons dairy testified that 431 00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:12,399 Speaker 1: the stock was good and the meat he had sold 432 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:15,800 Speaker 1: was high quality. On the following day, the hearing was delayed. 433 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,239 Speaker 1: It was supposed to start at two pm, but the 434 00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:20,879 Speaker 1: Alderman showed up late, and then they went to a 435 00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:23,840 Speaker 1: private office instead of the hearing room, and eventually they 436 00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:26,679 Speaker 1: emerged into the packed City Hall room and announced the 437 00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:28,760 Speaker 1: alderman Tucker was sick, but that they were going to 438 00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:33,920 Speaker 1: carry on. They called Dr J. W. Francis to testify. 439 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:36,680 Speaker 1: Dr Francis, who had been studying the issue of swill 440 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,800 Speaker 1: milk for years at that point, and had studied dairy 441 00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:43,760 Speaker 1: practices both in the US and abroad, was very open 442 00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,080 Speaker 1: in his opinion that swill milk was terrible for children 443 00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:50,840 Speaker 1: that cows fed distillery swill were in a continuous state 444 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:54,400 Speaker 1: of inflammation. He also said that their livers and stomachs 445 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:57,600 Speaker 1: were disease, their tails and hoofs often fell off, that 446 00:26:57,760 --> 00:26:59,920 Speaker 1: was something that had also been shown in some of 447 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,679 Speaker 1: the illustrations that had appeared in the press, and that 448 00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 1: they were certain to become ill due to their diet. 449 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:12,200 Speaker 1: Twomy kept asking if Dr Francis had chemically analyzed any 450 00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:15,320 Speaker 1: of the milk himself, and the doctor replied that he 451 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:18,200 Speaker 1: had not, but had read many reports on the matter 452 00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:21,520 Speaker 1: and had treated children that had become seriously ill from 453 00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:25,600 Speaker 1: a diet of swill milk. Dr Francis also cited the 454 00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:28,560 Speaker 1: fact the issue of swill milks danger had been well 455 00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:33,280 Speaker 1: known and well documented in the medical community for years already. 456 00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:37,080 Speaker 1: Throughout the hearing, Alderman Twomy was hostile to witnesses who 457 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:41,040 Speaker 1: testified against the swill dairies, starting with Dr Francis, who 458 00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:46,200 Speaker 1: he interrupted repeatedly and accused of spreading rumors. The Alderman 459 00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:50,560 Speaker 1: also led the Johnson dairies medical expert question Dr Francis. 460 00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:54,480 Speaker 1: The next doctor called was a doctor Griscomb, who reiterated 461 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:57,520 Speaker 1: a lot of Dr Francis's points. Yeah, if you read 462 00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:01,520 Speaker 1: through the word by word accounts printed in the paper, 463 00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:04,720 Speaker 1: it sounds like Tomy was just constantly going are you done? 464 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:06,639 Speaker 1: Are you done? Are you done? Like while they were 465 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,680 Speaker 1: in the middle of discussing things. Uh, he was not 466 00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:14,800 Speaker 1: not cool. A farmer named Norman van Nostrand testified that yes, 467 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:17,520 Speaker 1: there were cows that were so ill in the sixteenth 468 00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:20,560 Speaker 1: Street dairy that they had to be suspended from straps, 469 00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:23,040 Speaker 1: but that he was under the impression that their milk 470 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:25,800 Speaker 1: was given to the hogs and never sold to the public. 471 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:29,520 Speaker 1: But after those first two days a lot of testimony 472 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,560 Speaker 1: backed up all the stories of horrible animal treatment and 473 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:36,600 Speaker 1: adulterated milk. Before the Saturday session of the hearings could 474 00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:39,280 Speaker 1: even begin, there was a lot of back and forth 475 00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:43,080 Speaker 1: about whether legal counsel should be on hand and whether 476 00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:47,600 Speaker 1: the hearing was considered a legal investigation. All present were 477 00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:50,840 Speaker 1: assured that it was not a legal matter, but merely 478 00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:53,520 Speaker 1: an inquiry by a committee of the Board of Health 479 00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:57,520 Speaker 1: with a narrow focus of determining whether swill milk was 480 00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:00,840 Speaker 1: detrimental to health. The next went is called was the 481 00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:04,560 Speaker 1: city inspector, a Mr. Morton, and his testimony was quite damning. 482 00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:08,880 Speaker 1: He spoke of having the stables watched years before and 483 00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:12,320 Speaker 1: seeing diseased cows dressed for market after they died there. 484 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:15,640 Speaker 1: He spoke of his employees that were sent to watch 485 00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:19,800 Speaker 1: the swill stables being driven away by dairy employees. He 486 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:22,200 Speaker 1: also noted that he had visited some of the stables 487 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:25,280 Speaker 1: to find cows being kept in stalls too small to 488 00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:27,520 Speaker 1: allow them to move around at all or even to 489 00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:33,320 Speaker 1: lie down. Health Warren Lewis J. Kirk also testified he 490 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:36,480 Speaker 1: had performed post mortem examinations of some of the swill 491 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:40,760 Speaker 1: milk cows and described them as being quote very much diseased. 492 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,360 Speaker 1: When asked about the conditions of the stables, he stated, 493 00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,280 Speaker 1: quote it is not just the place for a cow 494 00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:51,560 Speaker 1: if you want to keep her healthy. He was quickly dismissed. 495 00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:54,400 Speaker 1: The rest of the hearing played out in a similar way, 496 00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:57,200 Speaker 1: with witnesses who spoke well of the swill milk stables 497 00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:01,440 Speaker 1: being asked the same sorts of softball question, repeatedly reiterating 498 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,120 Speaker 1: the health of the animals and the suitability of the 499 00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:07,720 Speaker 1: milk for consumption. Witnesses who were critical of the swill 500 00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:11,200 Speaker 1: milk dairies were often cut off or interrupted, or had 501 00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:15,360 Speaker 1: their credibility undermined by the committee. Frank Leslie became so 502 00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:18,840 Speaker 1: frustrated that he stopped attending midway through the five day hearing. 503 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:23,440 Speaker 1: As the newspapers reported on the daily events and testimonies, 504 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:27,760 Speaker 1: these accounts often ran alongside expert opinions in the paper. 505 00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:32,640 Speaker 1: The June one eight New York Times included a statement 506 00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:35,920 Speaker 1: that opened with quote, now that the public mind is 507 00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,080 Speaker 1: aroused to the horrible evils of the slot milk trade 508 00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:43,280 Speaker 1: and its destructive effects on infant life, the time appears 509 00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:47,040 Speaker 1: opportune to present the testimony of physicians on the subject, 510 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:52,680 Speaker 1: For however indisputable and conclusive, maybe the language of facts 511 00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:56,120 Speaker 1: and experience and reference to the evil. Yet from its 512 00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:59,800 Speaker 1: very nature, the demonstration might appear incomplete in some minds 513 00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:04,000 Speaker 1: with out the testimony of medical men. That statement was 514 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:07,880 Speaker 1: signed by more than four dozen doctors. They included death 515 00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:11,200 Speaker 1: statistics of infants and their belief that swill milk was 516 00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:14,520 Speaker 1: contributing to many of the infant fatalities in New York 517 00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:17,800 Speaker 1: and Brooklyn. At the end of the investigation, the Alderman 518 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:20,680 Speaker 1: took several weeks to review the material and then they 519 00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:23,960 Speaker 1: issued their opinion, and that was the swill milk was 520 00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:27,920 Speaker 1: not dangerous to the health of infants or adults. The 521 00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:31,400 Speaker 1: only criticisms they made were that the ventilation in the 522 00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:34,760 Speaker 1: stables could be better and that the stalls could be widened, 523 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:37,959 Speaker 1: but that they saw healthy animals, in good condition and 524 00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:41,520 Speaker 1: well kept facilities when they visited. So we should mention 525 00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:45,080 Speaker 1: that there was one vocal dissenter on the City Council, 526 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:48,400 Speaker 1: and that was Councilman Charles H. Haswell, who was one 527 00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:51,360 Speaker 1: of the investigators assigned to the team. He wrote his 528 00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:55,800 Speaker 1: own minority report as the hearing's conclusion. He believed that 529 00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:58,560 Speaker 1: the stables had been cleaned only for the committee's visit 530 00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:02,400 Speaker 1: and that swill milk was, in fact, quote injurious to health. 531 00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:06,920 Speaker 1: One journalists called this a manly and sensible minority report. 532 00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:09,400 Speaker 1: That turn of phrase made me laugh a little bit. 533 00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:14,600 Speaker 1: Uh that majority report of the council caused outrage, of course. 534 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:17,760 Speaker 1: In the July sixteenth edition of the New York Tribune, 535 00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:21,760 Speaker 1: a commentary on the situation started with quote, upon printing 536 00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:24,160 Speaker 1: the second day's proceedings of the Committee on the swill 537 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:27,360 Speaker 1: Milk business on the third of June, we foresaw that 538 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:29,880 Speaker 1: the affair was to be a mere farce, that the 539 00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:33,040 Speaker 1: report would be made as favorable as possible to the swillman. 540 00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:36,440 Speaker 1: But when the highest medical talent in the city came 541 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:40,880 Speaker 1: forward to denounce the business as little short of licensed infanticide, 542 00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:44,080 Speaker 1: when the health officers showed that the rotten carcasses of 543 00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:48,040 Speaker 1: cows were surreptitiously sold for human food, even in the 544 00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:52,280 Speaker 1: best markets, when citizens of high standing added their personal 545 00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:55,080 Speaker 1: knowledge of the filthy nature of the business and the 546 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:58,200 Speaker 1: offensive character of the stables, when not a voice was 547 00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:01,760 Speaker 1: raised in favor of the nuisance, except from persons immediately 548 00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:06,360 Speaker 1: interested therein, we could not believe that could have induced 549 00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:09,320 Speaker 1: any three members of the committee to make a report 550 00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:12,720 Speaker 1: so utterly opposed to the evidence as that which they 551 00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:17,360 Speaker 1: finally produced. Frank Leslie's newspaper skewered the committee members on 552 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,920 Speaker 1: July tenth, writing quote, the Committee of the Board of Health, 553 00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,920 Speaker 1: selected by Mayor Timon, having ended their labors, have handed 554 00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:29,760 Speaker 1: in their report. Everyone predicted the nature of the report not, however, 555 00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:33,200 Speaker 1: from the character of the evidence brought forward, but from 556 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:36,880 Speaker 1: the character of certain men composing the committee. They have 557 00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:40,480 Speaker 1: subscribed their names to a series of deliberate lies. They 558 00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:44,440 Speaker 1: have distorted facts. They have become false witnesses, at the 559 00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:48,200 Speaker 1: same time being corrupt judges. They have trifled with and 560 00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:51,320 Speaker 1: periled the health of the city. They have taken counsel 561 00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,320 Speaker 1: with the owners of the nuisance they were looked to abate. 562 00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:57,600 Speaker 1: They have betrayed the trust reposed in them by their 563 00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:01,160 Speaker 1: constituents and the Board of Health. They have proved themselves 564 00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:06,600 Speaker 1: every way immeasurably false and capable and corrupt. This article 565 00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:11,160 Speaker 1: excludes haswell as a quote gentleman and consequently an honest man, 566 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:14,480 Speaker 1: for his dissenting report in an effort to prove that 567 00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:17,840 Speaker 1: Twomy had possibly taken a bribe to find in favor 568 00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:20,719 Speaker 1: of the swill milk producers, and affidavit that had been 569 00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:24,759 Speaker 1: sworn to Robert Strybig, Commissioner of Deeds, was printed in Leslie's. 570 00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:27,960 Speaker 1: A person not named by the paper, although they said 571 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:31,959 Speaker 1: they would provide that information to the appropriate authorities, said 572 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:35,840 Speaker 1: that they witnessed the aldermen visiting Bradish Johnson, the owner 573 00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:40,160 Speaker 1: of the Sixteenth Street Dairy on May, two days before 574 00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:44,120 Speaker 1: the committee visited the facility. That same person also saw 575 00:34:44,160 --> 00:34:48,200 Speaker 1: Twomy return to Johnson's home later that evening, staying three 576 00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:52,320 Speaker 1: hours from seven thirty to ten thirty pm. Michael Twomy, 577 00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:55,239 Speaker 1: along with Reid and Tucker, were also featured in a 578 00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:59,919 Speaker 1: cartoon and frank Leslie's illustrated showing the three men whitewashing 579 00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:04,839 Speaker 1: sick cows their pockets stuffed with money. Swomie and Reid 580 00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:08,680 Speaker 1: filed libel suits against frank Leslie, although those suits seemed 581 00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:12,200 Speaker 1: to fizzle out. They were abandoned, maybe at an effort 582 00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:15,480 Speaker 1: on the parts of these aldermen to distance themselves from 583 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:19,239 Speaker 1: this whole thing. And of course this entire episode had 584 00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:22,120 Speaker 1: the effect of scaring a lot of people away from 585 00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:25,960 Speaker 1: all milk, so that legitimate dairy farmers found themselves worried 586 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,960 Speaker 1: about their futures. A rite up titled the Milk Business 587 00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:32,880 Speaker 1: of Long Island appeared in the Brooklyn Evening Star on 588 00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:38,279 Speaker 1: June while the Committee was still prepping its report, and 589 00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:40,840 Speaker 1: in the Evening Star the case was made that only 590 00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:44,040 Speaker 1: about ten thousand of the one thousand quarts of milk 591 00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:49,160 Speaker 1: consumed in Brooklyn each day came via railroad from wholesome dairies. 592 00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:53,040 Speaker 1: It described the farmers producing this wholesome milk as quote 593 00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:56,799 Speaker 1: well conditioned Quakers, owning their own farms, and conducting their 594 00:35:56,840 --> 00:36:01,560 Speaker 1: affairs with industry and conscientiousness. It was just a matter 595 00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:05,240 Speaker 1: of getting consumers on board with this higher quality of milk, 596 00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:08,360 Speaker 1: which could be gotten in much greater amounts. According to 597 00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:11,200 Speaker 1: this placed article, there was also a list of the 598 00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:14,240 Speaker 1: dairies of Long Island that had been certified for their quality, 599 00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:18,480 Speaker 1: touting that they had full grazing pastures filled with healthy cows, 600 00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:21,120 Speaker 1: and that their farms were open for anyone to visit 601 00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:25,400 Speaker 1: for inspection. Michael Twomi ran for Congress later that year, 602 00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:29,840 Speaker 1: but was soundly beaten. He did continue a political career, 603 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:33,920 Speaker 1: but the swill milk scandal stuck to his reputation for decades. 604 00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:37,400 Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy eight, twenty years after the worst of 605 00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:39,920 Speaker 1: the New York milk crisis, this was still used to 606 00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:43,600 Speaker 1: skewer him in the press when he ran for coroner 607 00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:46,960 Speaker 1: that year. A long article came out that rehashed his 608 00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:50,360 Speaker 1: part in the events of eighteen fifty eight and reiterated 609 00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:53,440 Speaker 1: the commonly held belief that corruption had been at the 610 00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:57,120 Speaker 1: center of the committee's handling of this matter. Although the 611 00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:00,160 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty eight committees findings were a disappointment to New 612 00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,640 Speaker 1: York and Brooklyn activists and residents who hope that this 613 00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:06,560 Speaker 1: swill milk problem would be addressed, the issue did not 614 00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:10,640 Speaker 1: end there. Calls for reform to save the city's children 615 00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:14,799 Speaker 1: continue to be made of local and state government. Concurrently, 616 00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:18,680 Speaker 1: issues of adulterated milk and protests over it developed in 617 00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:22,200 Speaker 1: other U S cities as well, and as train transport 618 00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:26,200 Speaker 1: and preservation science advanced, it became easier to supply the 619 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:30,040 Speaker 1: growing needs of heavily populated area with healthy milk from 620 00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:35,680 Speaker 1: trustworthy dairies. On April eighteen sixty two, an Act to 621 00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:38,880 Speaker 1: Prevent the Adulteration of milk and prevent the traffic and 622 00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:43,439 Speaker 1: impure and unwholesome milk was passed into law in New York. 623 00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:47,160 Speaker 1: This is one of many steps towards the passage of 624 00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:50,440 Speaker 1: the Pure Food and Drug Act of nineteen oh six 625 00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:57,240 Speaker 1: at the federal level. So, uh, that's pretty pretty gross. 626 00:37:57,600 --> 00:38:01,239 Speaker 1: It's horrifying. Yeah, it's and I'm a lot of newspapers 627 00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:04,399 Speaker 1: from that time. We're really sensationalized and how they covered things, 628 00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:09,719 Speaker 1: but even taking that into account, still horrifying. Yeah, I 629 00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:12,560 Speaker 1: mean the a lot of them were running like the 630 00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,440 Speaker 1: word for word testimonies from the hearing, and so it 631 00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:19,600 Speaker 1: becomes pretty obvious like how that was playing out and 632 00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:23,920 Speaker 1: how utterly horrible it was. Um yeah, super gross and 633 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:28,000 Speaker 1: in the middle of a fascination with UM group poisonings 634 00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:30,359 Speaker 1: right now for no particular reason. So there might be 635 00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:34,000 Speaker 1: more of these, sorry in advance. Well before we get 636 00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:37,200 Speaker 1: to listener mail, should we talk about something a little 637 00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:42,920 Speaker 1: more pleasant, like like travel. That sounds grand. We are 638 00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:47,400 Speaker 1: hoping that it will finally be safe for us to 639 00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:53,600 Speaker 1: take our many times postponed trip to Italy this November 640 00:38:54,480 --> 00:39:02,440 Speaker 1: beggars crossed. Yes. Um. So this trip was originally planned 641 00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:06,200 Speaker 1: to take place in of course that that did not happen. 642 00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:12,600 Speaker 1: It's been postponed several times, hopefully happening November four through 643 00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:17,880 Speaker 1: eleven of this year, which is um, there's still space available. 644 00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:20,360 Speaker 1: A lot of folks have stuck with it through all 645 00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:25,879 Speaker 1: of these many delays and totally I mean obviously necessary cancelations, 646 00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:27,960 Speaker 1: but we also have some space on it because it 647 00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:30,920 Speaker 1: just has not worked out for some people, uh, some 648 00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:33,839 Speaker 1: people you know, not really comfortable with that idea at 649 00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:36,120 Speaker 1: this point. So there's still space available and you can 650 00:39:36,239 --> 00:39:42,600 Speaker 1: learn more about it at Defined destinations dot com. If 651 00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:45,759 Speaker 1: you're interested in learning more about that, we would love 652 00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:50,520 Speaker 1: to have you along. Yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm gonna 653 00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:55,279 Speaker 1: eat so much on that trip. Which is also I 654 00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:57,440 Speaker 1: thought it would be good to UM to do a 655 00:39:57,480 --> 00:40:01,880 Speaker 1: listener mail for this one that UM involves food in 656 00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:05,280 Speaker 1: a delightful way. Okay, so this is from our listener Kristen, 657 00:40:05,640 --> 00:40:09,240 Speaker 1: who writes greetings from sunny, boiling hot southern California, also 658 00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:12,400 Speaker 1: Man West Coast. I am sorry you've been having a 659 00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:15,600 Speaker 1: really rough summer, but Kristen goes on. I just finished 660 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:18,040 Speaker 1: listening to the Vacuum episode and the cooking talk at 661 00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:20,600 Speaker 1: the end got me. For years, I asked my mother 662 00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:23,240 Speaker 1: to write down various recipes, but the one I begged 663 00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:26,239 Speaker 1: for the most was her meat loaf. Yes, meat loaf, 664 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:29,480 Speaker 1: the staple of every seventies kitchen. Every time I would ask, 665 00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:32,400 Speaker 1: she would wagle a finger tis tisk and say, not yet, 666 00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:36,279 Speaker 1: I can't reveal my secret ingredients. What a jerk, right? Uh? 667 00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:38,560 Speaker 1: These kinds of stories often take a turn for the worst. 668 00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:41,959 Speaker 1: Mine is no different. She died in and my dad 669 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:44,759 Speaker 1: came to live with us. We bemoaned the loss of 670 00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:47,719 Speaker 1: that and other recipes. After a year or two, we 671 00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:49,920 Speaker 1: finally got down to going through all of the stuff 672 00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:52,279 Speaker 1: my dad brought when he moved in. To be fair, 673 00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:54,200 Speaker 1: some of it was mine, a foot locker of it. 674 00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:57,000 Speaker 1: To be exact. In it, I found old letters that 675 00:40:57,040 --> 00:40:58,759 Speaker 1: my mom had written when I moved out and went 676 00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:00,560 Speaker 1: to school on the other side of the country. It 677 00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:03,360 Speaker 1: was really nice to see and have her handwriting in 678 00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:05,640 Speaker 1: front of me. At the bottom of the pile was 679 00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:09,280 Speaker 1: a folded typed page. I opened it up and bam, 680 00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:12,799 Speaker 1: meat loaf recipe. I yelled, I got you, and ran 681 00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:15,280 Speaker 1: to my dad to show him my fine. He cheered. 682 00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:18,320 Speaker 1: I made it that night, Mom's meat loaf, green beans, 683 00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:21,439 Speaker 1: and baked potatoes. We laughed and cried and leaned back 684 00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:25,440 Speaker 1: with full bellies. It was great. Secret ingredient Lipton's onion 685 00:41:25,520 --> 00:41:31,000 Speaker 1: soup mix. I'm guessing that was the same thing every seventies, 686 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:33,960 Speaker 1: Mom used. I still laugh over how she guarded that secret. 687 00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:36,200 Speaker 1: I have attached a copy of the recipe here in 688 00:41:36,239 --> 00:41:37,680 Speaker 1: case you want to give it a go. She left 689 00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:41,640 Speaker 1: excellent instructions. Kristin also lost her dad this year, but 690 00:41:41,800 --> 00:41:44,880 Speaker 1: this whole story is one of her favorite memories with him. Uh, 691 00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:48,160 Speaker 1: she continues, like so many others who said, your podcast 692 00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:50,719 Speaker 1: has been a friend and companion through the last year 693 00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:52,600 Speaker 1: and a half and it comfort when I needed to 694 00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:54,880 Speaker 1: get out of my own head for me to actually 695 00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:57,319 Speaker 1: uh and thanks, I send you pictures of my cute 696 00:41:57,360 --> 00:42:00,480 Speaker 1: cats Angus, the orange and white, drooling sixteen pounds mean coon, 697 00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:03,160 Speaker 1: sweet timid Poto in her safe place. And last, but 698 00:42:03,239 --> 00:42:06,160 Speaker 1: never least, Tiny Kitten six pounds of fury who would 699 00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:09,560 Speaker 1: attack just as soon as she would snuggle. And unfortunately 700 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,279 Speaker 1: tiny Kitten is also no longer with Kristen, But what 701 00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:15,480 Speaker 1: a beautiful story. Also, I am one making your mom's 702 00:42:15,480 --> 00:42:18,239 Speaker 1: meat loaf recipe um. One because I love to cook, 703 00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:22,680 Speaker 1: two because I love meat loaf. Three because yes to 704 00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,480 Speaker 1: the onion soup mix in the meat loaf. Yes. Something 705 00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:29,400 Speaker 1: I love is the meat loaf sandwich made of leftover 706 00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:33,680 Speaker 1: meat loaf the next day. For some reason, I love 707 00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:37,520 Speaker 1: that more than just the meat loaf on the day 708 00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:40,480 Speaker 1: that it was made. Lots of people do. I'm more 709 00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:42,440 Speaker 1: for a reheat the meat loaf than put it on 710 00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:45,680 Speaker 1: bread for no particular reason than I just love meat 711 00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:49,000 Speaker 1: loaf on its own. So Kristen, please know that your 712 00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:51,839 Speaker 1: family recipe and your mom's memory is being kept alive 713 00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:54,279 Speaker 1: in my kitchen as well. Um. I think that's super 714 00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:57,480 Speaker 1: important in a great way to to keep everyone connected 715 00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:00,560 Speaker 1: through times like this and really anytime. We're all part 716 00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:03,279 Speaker 1: of living history. Your mom's recipe is now part of 717 00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:05,600 Speaker 1: my history. Uh So this is one of the things 718 00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:08,040 Speaker 1: that I love about recipes handed down through time. It 719 00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:10,319 Speaker 1: connects all of us. If you would like to write 720 00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:13,239 Speaker 1: to us and send us good meatload recipes, um, you 721 00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:16,360 Speaker 1: can do that, or any recipe for something yummy you 722 00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:18,560 Speaker 1: think people should be trying. You can do that at 723 00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:21,279 Speaker 1: History Podcast at iHeart radio dot com. You can also 724 00:43:21,320 --> 00:43:25,200 Speaker 1: find us anywhere on social media and uh if you 725 00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:27,319 Speaker 1: would like to subscribe and you haven't gotten around to it, 726 00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:28,920 Speaker 1: that would be grand. Also, you can do that on 727 00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:31,400 Speaker 1: the iHeart radio app or anywhere you listen to your 728 00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:39,239 Speaker 1: favorite podcasts. Stuff you missed in History Class is a 729 00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:42,480 Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from i 730 00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:45,960 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or 731 00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:47,920 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.