ness, June 28, 1900. The building with the later additions cost the government about one and one-half million dollars. In addition to the main office, the postoffice in Kansas City maintained in 1908, eight sub-stations— "A," "B," "C," "D," "E," "F," Westport and Sheffield.

Kansas City became a port of entry in 1882. R. C. Crowell was the first surveyor of the port. The names of the other surveyors of the port with the date of their appointment: M. Ross Guffin, January, 1890; Scott Harrison, November, 1893; Milton Welsh, August, 1894; W. L. Kessinger, June, 1898; C. W. Clarke, March, 1906.

The collections at the customs house in Kansas City for 1907 amounted to $582,203.56. The value of the merchandise cleared was $2,404,617.56. This is not the total value of the importations, because some of the importers have agents who clear their merchandise at the seaports.

The second largest government assay office in the United States is situated in Kansas City under the direction of the surveyor of the port. The largest government assay office in the United States is in New York city. The assay office in Kansas City issued 7,200 certificates of assay in 1907. Most of the samples tested were of ore shipped into the United States from Mexico. The supplies and equipment of the assay office in Kansas City cost the government $10,954.

The meat inspectors at the packing plants are employed by agents of the Department of Agriculture of the national government. Their respective places for work are assigned them by representatives of this department. Under the new law each packer is required to furnish adequate office room for inspectors in his plant. The inspectors have free access to any part or department of the packing plants at any time, day or night. They make to the chief of the local bureau, a daily report of any irregularity. He, in turn, reports to the Secretary of Agriculture at Washington. The Department of Agriculture may at any time cause inspectors to be changed from one packing plant to another.

The new law requires the inspectors to examine carefully all parts of every carcass. If a packer, a slaughterhouse owner, or even a butcher, who sends meat into another state, fails to see that every clause of this law is enforced he is subject to a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for two years, or to both fine and imprisonment. The law goes even further. It imposes this same penalty of a $10,000 fine and two years' imprisonment on every person, common carrier or corporation that carries or attempts to carry uninspected meat from one state into another or to any foreign country. Each establishment at which inspectors are stationed is given a number. Tags bearing this number are attached to each article inspected. Meat may in this way be traced and any irregularity will be found out and the offender

punished. Retail butchers who have been exempt from inspection are given numbers by which their products may be known.

It is the duty of the government meat inspectors to require all trucks, trays, chutes, platforms, racks and tables and all knives, saws, cleavers and other tools and all machinery used in handling meat, and all things with which meat may come in contact, to be cleansed daily after working hours. Aprons or other outer clothing of employees who handle meat which comes. in contact with such clothing, shall be of material which is easily cleansed and they shall be cleansed daily.

All animals to be slaughtered must be inspected first before they may enter any establishment where inspection is maintained. An inspector must be present when the animal is killed The post-mortem examination must then begin. Each part of the animal must be examined separately. The inspection must be finished before the part is washed or trimmed. If any trace of any disease is found in the animal, at either inspection, it is condemned.

All carcasses thought on inspection to be "tainted" must at once be removed to a compartment kept especially for this purpose, and there given a final examination. All carcasses found to be unfit for food are marked "U. S. Inspected and Condemned." They are taken to a special "condemned" room that is removed from any part of the plant where fresh meat is kept. This room must have cement floors and be securely locked. The keys are kept in the possession of the inspectors. No condemned carcasses are permitted to remain in the "condemned" rooms for more than twenty-four hours.

Condemned carcasses are placed in air-tight, sealed tanks where they are exposed to a sufficient pressure of steam and for a sufficient time to make them unfit for any edible product. It must be arranged so that the fumes or odors from these tanks shall not pervade compartments in which carcasses are dressed or edible products prepared. Seals of tanks containing condemned meats or the tankage of condemned meat may be broken only by an employee of the Department of Agriculture.

Meats inspected and passed for export are marked by the inspector "For Export." Export meat is kept in separate compartments from that for domestic trade. The law is very rigid in its demands that no dyes, chemicals or preservatives be used in the preparation of meats for home or for foreign trade. Common salt, sugar, wood smoke, vinegar, pure spices and pending further inquiry, saltpeter may be used. When the action of any inspector in condemning any carcass or part thereof is questioned, appeal may be made to the inspector in charge, and from his decision to the chief of the local bureau of animal industry or to the Secretary of Agriculture. His decison is final.

The Federal pure food laboratory in Kansas City is a place of mystery. Its operations are not known to the general public. The federal chemists whose duty it is to guard the pure food and drug act, work secretly. A corps of inspectors take samples of food and drug products to the laboratory for inspection. The records in the laboratory are used as expert testimony in cases where there are prosecutions for violation of the law. Some of the inspectors are lawyers, others are physicians, it is not known just who they are. of them are sworn to secrecy.

All

None of the samples of food and drug products is confiscated; the inspectors purchase them at the regular prices. In each case three samples are bought. One is used for analysis, one is kept on file at the local laboratory and one is forwarded to the Secretary of Agriculture. As soon as the samples are bought they are sealed with an official seal. If by any chance the seals are broken before the samples reach the chemical laboratory, they are not tested.

This precaution is taken by the government to prevent any possibility of the samples being changed or tampered with. Sometimes when dealers are prosecuted for violating the pure food law, they try to confuse the jury by asserting that the samples analyzed by the government are not the original ones taken from their stores. Tests made at the local laboratory are verified at Washington before prosecutions are recommended. All food and drug products, with the exception of meat and meat products, are subject to examination in the Federal building laboratory. The latter are tested at the laboratory of the bureau of animal industry.

These are some of the foods subject to test in the federal laboratory: Milk and milk products, such as butter, cheese and ice creams; the vegetable and fruit products, which include flours, meals; dried and canned fruits and vegetables, pickles, sauerkraut and catsups; sugar and related substances, such as molasses, syrups, candy, honey and the glucose products; the condiments which mean the various peppers, spices and flavoring extracts and the edible vegetable oils and fats; tea, coffee and cocoa products, beverages and they include the fruit juices, fresh, sweet and fermented; vinegar and salt, and the preservatives and coloring matters.

The food and drug act was approved by Congress June 30, 1906. The laws were enacted for the purpose of "preventing the manufacture, sale or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines and liquors and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes."

The Kansas City weather bureau was established in 1888 in the old government building at Ninth and Walnut streets. It was removed, in 1890, to the Rialto building, and to the Scarritt building in 1907. Patrick Connor

was appointed forecaster in Kansas City in 1890, and was serving in 1908. These are the duties of Mr. Connor: "The issuing of storm warnings, the display of weather and flood signals for the benefit of agriculture, commerce and navigation; the gauging and reporting of rivers, the maintenance and operation of telegraphic lines, and the collection and transmission of marine intelligence for the benefit of commerce and navigation; the display of frost and cold wave signals, the distribution of meteorological information in the interest of agriculture and commerce and the taking of such observations as may be necessary to establish and record the climatic conditions of the United States, or essential for the proper execution of the foregoing duties."

The bureau, however, is better known to the public through the medium of its daily forecasts and weather maps. These forecasts are based upon simultaneous observations of local weather conditions taken daily at 8 p. m. and 8 a. m. at about 200 regular stations scattered throughout the United States and the West Indies. Within two hours after the morning observations have been taken, the forecasts are telegraphed to about 1,000 distributing points, whence they are further disseminated, being delivered not later than 6 p. m. on the day of issue. This is at the expense of the government and is distinct from the distribution effected by the daily newspapers. The rural free delivery makes it possible to reach a large number of farming communities heretofore impracticable to reach with the daily forecasts. The weather map is mailed immediately after the morning forecast is telegraphed. On this map the salient features of the weather over the country are graphically represented, accompanied by a synopsis of the conditions.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE NEWER CITY.

With the beginning of the twentieth century, Kansas City entered upon an era of remarkable growth. In five years the erection of new skyscrapers, bank buildings, theatres, store buildings and other edifices changed the appearance of the down-town district. The transformation of Tenth street between Baltimore avenue and Oak street has been especially marked.

Three large office buildings were completed in 1907 at a combined cost of nearly four million dollars. They are the R. A. Long building costing $1,250,000; the Searritt building costing $750,000; the National Bank of Commerce building, built at a cost of $1,500,000. This building was the last of the three skyscrapers to be occupied. Its erection marked a new