Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1894 — “Such Going up Stairs.” [ARTICLE]

“Such Going up Stairs.”

At the great slaughter-houses it the Parisian suburb of La Villette there is a granary from which the beasts awaiting execution are fed. The way to it is up a substantial ladder staircase. One of the bullocks having escaped from the pens, climbing up this staircase before he could be stopped. When his escape was first discovered he was seen on the stairs slowly and laboriously making his way upward. As soon as he reached the granary two or three attendants followed him and endeavored to get him down, but all their efforts were unavailing. There was nothing to be done, therefore, but to leave the beast there to eat his fill and then see whether he would be clever enough to return by the way he went. Possibly some thought of exhibiting him in public may have crossed the minds of his guardians, but if so they were doomed to disappointment. The stupid animal, instead of trusting to the staircase, got out of a window on the opposite side of the building, and put one foot on a little thin ladder standing against it. There was a crash, the ladder broke in half, and the too adventurous bullock fell, breaking all his legs, so that he had to be killed on the spot.—[London Mews. i