Newspaper Clipping of the Day

It's been far too long since we've looked at a Mystery Blood story, and this one's a pip. From the "Buffalo Evening News," March 17, 1885:

Mysterious blood stains on the door-steps of several Linwood avenue houses are creating a great excitement in the neighborhood. Dr. Appleby, who lives at 180 Linwood avenue, observed some blood stains on a neighbor's house on Sunday. Out of politeness he said nothing till he observed his own marked the same way. Others were afterward discovered all spattered with blood. It looked in most cases as though some one had taken a brush broom and thrown the drops on with it. In others it appeared as though it had dripped steadily for a few minutes and collected in a pool.

"Cats," said one.

"No, the stains are 7 feet high on my front door."

"Some one with a cut finger went along spattering it on."

"No; there's none on the sidewalk and too much on the doorstep."

"Red paint," said another.

"No, it washes off."

"Mysterious," said all.

The most mysterious part of it is that only some of the houses are marked. The ones who got the benefit are Dr. Appleby, George Lewis, Mr. Leslie, Hudson H. Parke and Mr. Howell. Mr. Howell's house was the worst marked of all. The nervousness is so great that the men are not allowed to go "downtown" nights for fear something might happen.

The police know nothing of the matter and as it has not been reported to them officially have made no investigation.

As usually is the case with these sort of incidents, I've found no follow-up stories.

As a side note, this headline makes me think I have to start a new blog post label: "Ber-lud!"