Fulton County GaArchives News.....Witherspoon is Fined $100 on Charge of Selling Bad Meat February 1, 1900
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Meredith Clapper http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002801 August 10, 2006, 8:16 am

The Atlanta Constitution February 1, 1900
Witherspoon is Fined $100 on Charge of Selling Bad Meat 

Startling Story Told to Recorder When the Case Was Heard 
By Him Yesterday. 

Meat was Shown in Court

Dr. Jolly Said It Was Undoubtedly from an Infected Animal.

Burdett’s Story a Sensation 

He Declared He Had Seen Choleratic 
Hogs Slaughtered at the Pen
W. D. Harris Charged with 
Selling Some of the Meat. 

Charles Witherspoon was fined $100 and costs by Recorder Broyles yesterday for 
violating sections 784 and 785 of the city code, which provides for the 
punishment of persons selling infected meats. 

Witherspoon is the proprietor of the slaughter pen just out of the city where 
the cholera-infected pork seized by Chief Sanitary Inspector Lowry, Tuesday, 
was butchered.  A large quantity of the condemned meat was taken from him by 
the inspectors. 

J Kreis, who was arrested on the same charge, was discharged, as it was shown 
that he had nothing to do with slaughtering or selling the meat and only owned 
the place which was rented by Witherspoon.

W. D. Harris, against whom a charge of the same kind is pending, was not 
arrested
In time to be tried yesterday, but was taken in custody late yesterday 
afternoon and is now confined at police barracks.  His trial will occur this 
morning. 

Inspector Straton, of the sanitary department, and Chief Lowry appeared as 
prosecutors against the men. 

In passing sentence on Witherspoon, Recorder Broyles said: 
“If it was proved that you knowingly tried to sell this infected meat to 
people, I would not stop at a fine.” 

When the case was called by the recorder, Inspector Straton told of the 
seizure of the meat.  He said it had been reported to the office of the 
sanitary department on Monday that the hogs out at Kreis’s slaughter pen were 
in bad condition and that they were being butchered and brought to the city 
for sale.  Early Tuesday morning he and Veterinary Surgeon Jolly, of the 
department, drove out there.  They found about seventy hogs, many of them 
affected with cholera.  Most of the hogs were hanging their heads, he said, 
and looked as it they were about to die.  Four were lying dead in the pen.  He 
thought about half of the hogs were sick.  He learned that a dozen of the hogs 
had been butchered on Sunday and brought into the city.  The two came back and 
set out immediately to locate the meat that had been brought in from the pens. 

Bad Meat is Found.
Ten carcasses were found in the butcher shop of Hiram Bain at the corner of 
Spring and Marietta streets.  These he found had been left there by Charles 
Witherspoon.  Inspector Straton took the meat away.  All of it was in bad 
condition.  He found upon inquiry that some of the meat brought in from the 
pens had been sold to W. D. Harris on Marietta street, near Alexander.  He 
hastened out there and found two carcasses and several pieces of pork that 
showed plainly that it was affected.  This he seized and took away. 

Charges were preferred against Witherspoon, Harris and Kreis, who owned the 
pens where the hogs were slaughtered.  Some of the meat found at Harris’s 
place had been trimmed, he said, with an evident view of removing 
discolorations that might show too plainly the condition of the pork.  Harris, 
he said, had stated to him that the meat was trimmed that way when it came to 
his shop. 

Dr. Jolly the veterinary surgeon, told of their trip out to the slaughter pen 
and said that the disease with which the hogs were affected was cholera.  Pork 
affected with this disease, he said, was dangerous food. 

“We counted seventy pigs in the two pens,” he said.  “Four were lying dead in 
the pens and fifteen were very sick; in fact, on the verge of death.  Others 
were showing symptoms of the disease more or less acute. I dare say 50 per 
cent of the entire seventy will die if left alone. 

Court Views the Meat

Here Attorney C. D. Austin, who represented Witherspoon, said to Recorder 
Broyles,
“Your honor, we admit that the carcasses came from Kreis’s; that they were 
found in our possession and that they were affected with cholera.  We do this 
to save time”

Chief Lowry told Recorder Broyles that one of the carcasses was outside and 
that they would bring it in for the court to see. 

“Bring it in,” said Recorder Broyles, “and let us see what it looks like.” 
The carcass of a sixty-pound pig was brought in and laid on the table in front 
Of the recorder’s desk.  It presented a mottled appearance, dark red spots 
showing all over the skin.  The spots were so thick that the carcass looked 
almost purple.  Dr. Jolly pointed out the aspect presented by the meat under 
different stages of the disease and the effect produced by it. 

Mrs. Harris, wife of W. D. Harris, who was charged with selling some of the 
tainted meat, appeared before the recorder and stated that her husband had 
gone to Mableton to purchase cattle, leaving home before the officers came 
with the charges against him.  She said the meat taken from his place by the 
sanitary inspectors had been purchased from Witherspoon’s wagon, driven by 
George Burdett, his driver, on Monday morning, that her husband had been 
dealing with Witherspoon for six years and had always been served with good 
meat; that he thought the meat he was offering for sale was good or he never 
would have sold it. 

Recorder Broyles asked Inspector Straton if he had any witnesses he wanted to 
introduce.  Only one was brought forward, but he gave testimony of a startling 
nature. 

C. G. Love was the name of the witness.  He testified that on Sunday he took a 
walk out by Kreis’s slaughter pen.  While passing the pens he was accosted by 
George Burdett, who worked there. Butdett [sic] asked him if he would not like 
to stop and see them butcher some pigs. 

Burdett’s Story
“I stopped,” said the witness, “and went in.  There were five hogs in the 
small pen ready to be butchered.  Six pigs that had already been killed were 
hanging up.  One of them looked red, as if the blood had settled under the 
skin.  I called Burdett’s attention to it and said, ‘You got that hog pretty 
bloody when you killed him’ He said, ‘That’s not blood; that’s cholera 
marks.’  I watched them when they butchered the other hogs.  There were three 
men at work—Burdett, a young man named Charley, whom I think is a son of Mr. 
Kreis, and a negro.  Some of the hogs looked sick and I noticed one lying in 
the pen that was dead and stiff.  I noticed him particularly, because one of 
the men hit the body with a clod while they were catching the other pigs. 

“When they had slaughtered the pigs they started to bring them out.  The five 
pigs they killed looked very sick. One of  them had nearly all the hair off.  
They told me they put lime in the water to whiten the skin of the hogs they 
killed.  The five pigs were brought out one at a time.  When the negro went 
back the second time he took the hind legs of the hog that was lying dead in 
the pen and started to drag him out.  I told him that hog had not been killed, 
that he had died before they commenced killing the others. The man named 
Charley said, ‘That’s all right, bring him on, he may clean out white all 
right.’  I do not know that this hog was cleaned and hung up with the others, 
but it was taken where the others were being cleaned.  I left before they 
finished cleaning them.’ 

Attorney Austin, for the defense, said he had no questions to ask the witness 
as his testimony was not relevant to the case. 

Hiram Bain, in whose shop at Spring and Marietta streets the ten carcasses 
were found by Inspector Straton, was called as a witness by the defense.  He 
stated that the hogs were left in his place by Witherspoon.  He frequently let 
Witherspoon leave meat there until he found a sale for it.  The meat was left 
there by Witherspoon’s wagon, he said, and later in the morning Witherspoon 
himself came in, and looking at the meat told him not to sell the meat as it 
was not in good condition, and that he would have it taken later in the day to 
the tannery.  He said he had sold none of the meat and only let Witherspoon 
put it in his shop. 

Kreis Only Rented Pens

Charles Witherspoon said he and Mr. Kreis had been partners until the 20th of 
January and the hogs now at Kreis’s pen had been shipped to them from 
Tennessee.  They had dissolved partnership and he had been trying to dispose 
of the hogs for the benefit of the man from whom they were received.  The hogs 
were in good condition when they came, he said, and he had been looking at the 
meat as it came in and it was in good condition.  He said he had been very 
busy in the city and had not been out to the slaughter pen for more than a 
week.  He knew nothing of the hogs being sick.  When the lot came in Monday, 
he said, he saw it was bad and told Mr. Bain to let it hang in his place only 
until the wagon could take it to the tannery.  The meat was not offered for 
sale he said and none of it had been sold.  He declared he had sold no meat to 
Harris for several days. 

J. Kreis, against whom charges were made as against Witherspoon, said that he 
and Witherspoon had been partners but had broken up on the 20th and that since 
then he had nothing to do with the hogs killed at his pen.  That the business 
was run by Witherspoon, who rented the pens from him.  He said he had refused 
to accept the car of hogs, of which those at the pen were a part; that he had 
turned them over to the agent of the man who had shipped them and taken his 
receipt and that it was by the agent’s instructions he had turned the hogs 
over to Witherspoon.  He said he had nothing to do with the hogs since the 
20th. 

Recorder Asks Questions

In answer to the recorder, Inspector Straton said that he had commenced making 
inquiries about the spoiled meat Monday afternoon about 2 o’clock.  From aBin 
[sic] the recorder learned that Witherspoon had instructed him not to sell the 
meat some time Tuesday morning.  Recorder Broyles asked Inspector Straton if 
Witherspoon could have heard that he was making the inquiries.  The inspector 
said he could, as several persons had heard it and that it had created 
something of a sensation in the part of the city where he was searching for 
the meat.  Straton said Bain told him when he found the meat there that 
Witherspoon had instructed him not to sell it. 

Recorder Broyles asked Witherspoon why he did not know that his hogs were sick 
when other people found it out so easily.  Witherspoon said cholera was a very 
treacherous disease, and the hogs could become affected in a day or two.  He 
had been busy and had not been out to the pens. 

Recorder Broyles said: “You ought to look after your pens more closely.  The 
testimony of one witness here shows that a wanton disregard for the welfare of 
people exists in those pens.  Every one of those men ought to be prosecuted to 
the full extent of the law.  And some of this meat has been sold by this man 
Harris.  There is no telling how many people will be made sick or killed by 
this.  Hog meat is looked upon as the most dangerous kind we have anyway, and 
Germany has passed laws against the sale of American pork within its borders. 

”Anybody who would knowingly sell diseased meat or would allow its being sold 
deserved the full penalty of the law.  I cannot imagine how any one with a 
conscience the size of a mustard seed could for a moment engage in such work.  
You have been grossly negligent.  The fact that this is a treacherous disease 
should only have served to make you more careful more watchful.  It is shown 
by your own admission that it has been days since you were out at those pens, 
when you should have known everything that was going on there. 

“To punish you as a warning to others I fine you $100 and costs, and if it was 
proved that you knowingly tried to sell this diseased meat to people I would 
not stop at a fine.” 

Witherspoon paid $50 of the fine and gave bond to pay the other $50 and left 
the courtroom. 

W. D. Harris Is Arrested 

W. D. Harris was arrested yesterday afternoon by Inspector Straton and locked 
up. Last night he made the following statement in regard to his case

“I conduct a meat market at 443 Marietta street.  I always sell what I believe 
to be good meat, and if anything in my place is not up to the standard I will 
not have it.  Last Monday morning I purchased a hog.  It was sold me by a 
strange man who was driving a wagon of Kreis & Witherspoon.  I hung it in 
front of my place Monday afternoon, and Tuesday morning it was condemned and 
carried away by Inspector Straton. 

“Every one knows that hog meat when out in the wind will turn black and get 
hard and dry.  The skin of a hog becomes very tough under such circumstances. 

“If I had believed the meat tainted I would not have sold it, but I believe it 
was perfectly good.  I know it was just as white and pretty as any meat I had 
ever seen when I purchased it, and it could not have spoiled in one night.  I 
have not been paid by the way, for the hog that was carried off by the 
officers, and the money has not been returned me by Kreis & Witherspoon.” 

He will be tried this morning. 







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