At its height during WWI, it took in all of the household trash of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx, and the daily remains of all five borough¡¯s animal dead. This refuse was sorted and rendered and converted to major profits as glycerin, fertilizer and glue by a community of immigrants¨Cmostly Polish, Italian and Irish, with a small population of blacks¨Cwho lived on the island and worked its factories. Tasks were sorted according to social rank, with black families getting the worst job, converting daily tons of dead fish to fertilizer. Second to that was the job of rag-pickers, who used their bare hands to feel for and sort out valuable fabric from the garbage; comparatively less horrifying were the jobs of sorting bone and scavenging metal and paper. The smell from the island was so intense that at one point a group on mainland Brooklyn calling itself the Anti-Barren Island League held considerable sway in city politics, continually proposing legislation to close down the island or somehow curb the stench.posted by unliteral at 3:48 PM on August 26, 2013 [4 favorites]
Residents of Barren Island were completely separated from mainstream life in the city, and their daily reality was as distinct as if it were another country: at the turn of the last century, the island had no electricity, no post office, no doctors or nurses, four saloons, five factories boiling vats of garbage day and night, and a one-room schoolhouse. School let out early so children could help their parents sort garbage.
The flesh from along the back of the neck and to which the horse's mane is attached is boiled separately from the other part of the horse meat; this portion yields an oil of superior quality and is sold for the manufacture of a hair restorer of the kind recommended by the bald headed barber to his often too credulous customer, who is desirous of increasing the growth of that part of his personal adornment.posted by unliteral at 4:28 PM on August 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
In addition to our contract for removing the dead horse, we also have the contract for removing the cats and dogs from the dog pound. The flesh of the cats and dogs is treated the same as that of the horses, except there is no oil pressed from the cats. The oil from the dogs, or dog grit, is largely used as a cure for rheumatism, and the skin is used for making dog skin gloves.
The Indian title to the island was relinquished on May 13 1664 ¨C "Know all men, etc that we, Wawmatt Tappa and Kack-a-washke, the right and true proprietors of a certain island called by the Indians Equendito, and by the English Broken Lands, lying. &c., &., in consideration of two coats, one kettle, one gun, one new trooper coat, ten fathoms of wampum prage(?), three shirts, six pounds of powder, six bars of lead and a quantity of brandie wine."
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posted by tavella at 2:38 PM on August 26, 2013