The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-05-18
MEN DRINKING HOT BLOOD.
A STRAIN GE MORNING SCENE AT A
NEW YoRK ABATToIR.

The Killing of the Bullocks, and the Eager
ness of Ladies' and Gentlemen to secure
Mugs of Hot Blood.
A New York Journal reporter
visited a large abattoir in that city to
witness the operation of slaughtering,
and to CLEAN some facts concerning the
c~annibalistic tastes of a civilized people.
1t was hardly z o'clock in the morning,
and a 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: "Idon't know
nothing bout that. 1 brings a lady,
an L don't think she buys much
beef.''
Passing through a wide wagon-way,
paved with large cobblestones, the
floor being on a slant, the reporter o
came upon a small group, composed of
five ONE and eight men. Three of
the former and one of the men had ar
rived in coaches. AS this group stood
there in the early morning, each with
a glass, a mug or tin cup, looking
a~uxiously toward the east in the direc-
ton of the Strengthening pens, they
were hungry for blood.
Presently a 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 mid-air, head downward. A
butcher, blood-begrimed from head to
foot, wearing a huge hat and heavy
boots, with his trousers tucked inside,
entered the pen armed with a knife,
the foot-long blade of which glistened
in the gas-light. He waited a moment
until the animal ceased to beat in 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 crimson tide flowed from the
incision.
At the sight of the life blood of the
now dying bullock the eyes of all
present glistened with au 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 re-
ceptacles and hold them under the
fountain of blood until full, returning
then to their respective wner One
gentleman after draining his mug had
it reflled and offered it othe reporter,
who, after a little battle with himself,
tasted the fluid. 1t was not Dad, and
he drank the entire contents of the
mug. The taste was not much unlike
fresh-milked tactical fluid sweetened.
In fact, it tasted so superior to what
had been imagined that there need be
no surprise at the remarkable growth
of the habit.
After the departure of the custom
ers the reporter asked the foreman
whether he had many every morning.
eyes. 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
"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 disgu ted and
never come again. Others come a few
times and think they ar 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
50 grown on them that they cam t
stay away"
"How 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
evers leaving impoverishment of the
blood, and some extremely aged peo.
pie, requiring al infusion of new life
"Do you charge them anything for
the blood they drink"
"Nary a red. We are only too glad
to give it to them, so long as they
don't annoy us or interfere in ouI
work. The boys who get the blood
for them and wash their mugs gen.
orally get a 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 ar'
well-to-do, and some days there are a
least a dozen c~onveyances outside
waiting until their occupants have hac
their morning drink"
, A Small Boys Composition.