San Francisco Butchers' Board of Trade brochure on the Chicago "Meat Trust"

“The ahove drawing is a faithful representation of how The Butchers' Board of Trade has prevented the encroachment of The Beef Trust Agent Baden from sucking the life's blood from Consumers, Retailers and Stockmen alike, with its deadly tentacle. Note the helpless position of the Eastern Butcher and Stockman” [emphasis in the original].

In a brochure, the San Francisco Butchers’ Board of Trade (BBT) depicted the Chicago “Meat Trust” as a dangerous octopus attempting to strangle local butchers and packers. This was, of course, an allusion to the monopolistic power of another California corporation, the Southern Pacific Railroad, which author Frank Norris had famously depicted in his 1901 novel The Octopus: A Story of California.