Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-08-15
Drinking Blood.

Drinking Blood.
A Journal reporter visited the large
abattoir at the foot of West tiity-nlith
Street yesterday to witness the opera
ton of slaughterlng, and to CLEAN some
facts concerning the cannibalistic taste
of civilized people. II was hardly
seven o'clock in the morning and Il
slight 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 brings lady, an don't think
she buys much beef.
Passing through a wide wagon-way
paved with large cobble-stones, the floor
being on slant, the reporter soon came
upon a 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 with u glass,
mug or tin cup, looking anXiously
toward the east i'm 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,
blood-begrimed from head to foot, wear
ing u huge hat and heavy boots, with
| l. t.o,,aa,.s t,oGnI inc;In antaraI tho
pen armed with n knife, the foot-long
blade of which glistened in the gas
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 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 Qor
| 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 reiillcd and offered it to the
| 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, ii tasted so superior tc
what had been imagined that there neeG
be no surprise 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 { have more than dozen blood
thirsty ladies and gentlemen here ii is q
poor day. Some days there are as many
as thirty
+" DO the same persons come oftenP'
well, as a rule, they are patient:
who are sent here by their doctors
Some try it once, get Disguised ant
never come again. Others come few
times and think they are cured of con
sumption or something else and stay
away, but there are some who como
regularly every day or every second day
| for months ut time, and although
there is seemingly nothing the matter
with them, the appetite for blood ha.
so grown on them that they cannot stay
| away
"How much blood can your oldcs
customers drink ut one time?"
"Gencrally they coniine 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 ar,
treated by imbibing blood?'
1.-THE majority who come here ar,
consumptives, while there are II mum
| Der of rheumatics, cases OF protractet
fevers, leaving impoverished blood, TN,
some extremely aged people, requiring
an infusion of new life. "
"Do you charge them anything fo
the blood they drinkp'
"Nary red. We are only too gla,
to give it to them, so long as they don
annoy us or interfere i'm our work. Tn,
boys who get the blood for them an,
wash their mugs generally get n few
cents from the rich, but they are no
permitted to demand anything
"Do many wealthy persons seek thi
kind of incidence
"Thc greater portion of them ar,
well-to-do, and some days there are n
least dozen conveyances outside wait
ing until their occupants have had thci
morning cocktail
Are the other abattoirs also patron
lied so extensively"
"No. The other slaughtcr-houscs d,
not make the killing of becvcs n speci
atty as we do. They kill everything
bullocks, cows, calves, sheep and hog
and at irregular hours, SO that peopl,
don't go much to them. Whenevcl
you want good glass of young bull
luck's blood come here at the begin
ming or close of the week.
''How about the hot-watcr cures?'
asked the reporter.
Nothing in that" answered the
man of blood; "hot blood is the thing
Anyhow, blood Is thicker than water
Put that in your pipe and smoke it,
~ Y Journal.