The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-06-09
Drinking Blood.

facts concerning the cannibalistic taste
of a civilized people. 1t was hardly
seven o'clock in the morning and a
slioht shower was falling. A coupe
and two coaches waited outside and the
reporter asked one of the drivers
whether purchasers of beeves came thus
early to lay in their stock, to which he
replied: II don't know nothing bout
that. 1 brings a lady, an don't think
she buys much beef. "
Passing through wide wagon-way
paved with large cobble-stones, the floor
being on slant, the reporter soon came
upon small group, comprised of five
women and eight men. Three of the
former and one of the men had arrived
in coaches. AS this group stood there
in the early morning, each witha glass,
mug or tin cup, looking anxiously
toward the east in the direction of the
slaughtering pens, they were hungry
for blood.
Presently fine young bullock was
brought into the pen and the gate was
closed behind him. Two men, by a
dexterous movement, slipped the moose
of two ropes around the bullock's hind
legs, and in another instant he dangled
in midair, head downward. A butcher,
plood-begrimed from head to foot, wear
ing huge hat and heavy boots, with
his trousers tucked inside, entmaIesS;
pen armed with knife, the In TpadS
blade of which glistened in IT, Us
light He waited moment until the
animal ceased to beat the air with his
forelegs, and then hastily cut down a
small portion of the skin at the neck
and severed the arteries, when a Grim
son tide flowed from the incision.
At the sight of the life-blood of the
now dying bullock the eyes of all pres
ent glistened with an eagerness to get
the first cup, The blood-suckers (for
that is what the butchers call them) are
not permitted inside the pen, but boys
working about the premises make it a
point to be on hand every morning
when the killing is in progress and
they take the receptacles and hold them
under the fountain of blood until full,
returning them to their respective own
ers. One gentleman after draining his
mug had it refilled and offered it to the
reporter, who, after little battle with
himself, tasted the fluid 1t was not
bad, and he drank the entire contents
of the mug. The taste was not much
unlike fresh-milked tactical fluid sweet
ened. In fact, it tasted so superior to
what had been imagined that there need
be nosurprise at the remarkable growth
of the habit.
After the departure of the customers
the reporter asked the foreman whether
he had many every morning.
Yes. That is a small lot. When
we don't have more than dozen blood
thirsty ladies and gentlemen here it is a
poor day. Some days there are as many
as thirty"
g Do the same persons come often?"
" Well, as a rule, they are patients
who are sent here by their doctors.
Some try it once, get disguised and
never come again. Others come a few
times and think they are cured of con-
sumption or something else and stay
away, but there are some who come
regularly every day or every second day
for months at a time, and although
there is seemingly nothing the matter
with them, the appetite for blood has
so grown on them that they cannotstay
away"
Chow much blood can your oldest
customers drink at one time?'
''Generally they cOnfine themselves
to one glass or mug, but we have one
lady who comes every alternate day.
She insists on having three full bump
ers, while that old man you saw here
drinks two of his cupfuls every day."
'What are the complaints that are
treated by imbibing blood?"
The majority who come here are
consumptives, while there are a num-
Der of rheumatics, cases of protracted
fevers, leaving impoverished blood, and
some extremely aged people, requiring
an infusion of new life"
"Do you charge them anything for
the blood they drink"
mary a red. We are only too clad
to give it to them, so long as they don't
annoy us or interfere in our work. The
boys who get the blood for them and
wash their mugs generally get few
cents from the rich, but they are not
permitted to demand anything"
''Do many wealthy persons seek this
kind of medicine?"
"The greater portion of them are
well-to-do, and some days there are at
least dozen conveyances outside wait
ing until their occupants have had their
morning cocktail y
Are the other abattoirs also patron
lied so eXtensively?n
''No. The other slaughter-houses do
not make the killing of beeves a speci-
atty as we do. They kill everything
bullocks, COWS, calves, sheep and hogs
and at irregular hours, so that people
don't go much to them. Whenever
you want a good glass of young bull
luck's blood come here at the Begin
ming or close of the week -
GLOW about the hot-water curesp''
asked the reporter.
Nothing in that" answered the
man of blood; shot blood is the thing.
Anyhow, blood is thicker than water.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it,
N. Y. Journal.
"A fisherman on the Straits, saws the
Benicia (Cal.) NeW Era, after having