Man Begs for Food with $83 In Pocket

1920

Claims He's a House Cleaner — "He Sure Is," Says Cop.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri. — Four pocketbooks and $83 were found on Steve Crumply by David Kepler, a Wyandotte County deputy sheriff, after Mrs. Kepler had responded to Steven's backdoor plea for food.

Crumpley explained the pocketbooks and cash by telling the dubious deputy sheriff that he was a house cleaner.

"House cleaner is right! Come with me," commanded Kepler. He led the man from the Kepler home to police headquarters.

Crumpley told Judge A. J. Herrod in the police court that he lived at the Helping Hand Institute. He refused, even tho he had $83, to pay a $50 fine, so he was locked up.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 5.

Wife Kills Man Beating Husband

1920

ST. LOUIS, Missouri. — Frank Smrcka, 43, was shot and instantly killed by Mrs. Ida Shea, 24, while engaged in a fight with Mrs. Shea's husband, George D. Shea.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 2.

No Use for $1,500,000 Fund

1916

Original Bequest Was Made to Aid Needy Immigrants.

ST. LOUIS, Missouri. — This city is trying to find some way in which it can make use of a fund of $1,500,000, which for many years has been growing continually but at present is utterly useless to anybody. It is known as the Mullanphy immigrant relief fund.

Bryan Mullanphy in 1851 bequeathed to the city one-third of his estate for the relief of poor immigrants on their way to homes in the West. The original bequest amounted to $500,000, but it has grown to $1,500,000, most of which is invested in tenement-house property, bringing in an annual income of approximately $38,000. Last year the trustees were able to spend only $2,141 for the stipulated relief.

Sixty years ago, in the days of the prairie schooner, the Mullanphy fund was very welcome and proved a blessing to the stranded immigrants, who were enabled to resume their journeys with new hopes. As the years went by, the stream of immigrants grew smaller. In time the western trails became busy highways, winding thru prosperous farming communities. The covered wagons of the immigrant bound for the West became so scarce that they were a novelty. The need for a fund to aid immigrants finally virtually ceased to exist.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 5.

Flag Again On Pike's Peak

1916

Thanks to a Patriotic Kansas City Woman.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Mrs. Emma Howell, 2614 Olive Street, while on her vacation in Colorado this summer, stirred Colorado Springs to provide funds for keeping the American flag waving above the summit house on top of Pike's Peak. It is said to be the highest point in the world where the Stars and Stripes are displayed regularly.

While on the peak, Mrs. Howell noted the absence of the flag. She asked about it when in Colorado Springs and was told a flag was whipped out by the wind on the mountain top in a few weeks and "it cost so much to buy new ones."

"For shame," the Kansas City woman said. And when she was asked to address a meeting of an auxiliary of the G. A. R. she advocated obtaining a permanent fund to buy flags. The money was found.

Mrs. Howell is a member of the women's auxiliary of the Sons of Veterans here.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 3.

Utilizing the Mayor

Dec. 1919

Several infuriated citizens took it on themselves to jump all over Mayor Chamberlin last week because of a current rumor that "the rest of the towns were getting all the coal they needed," says the Pleasant Hill (Mo.) Times. But the mayor took it good-naturedly and said that's what a mayor is for.


"Nobody Home."

Real prosperity item from the Springfield (Mo.) Leader: Despite the cold weather in Springfield during the past week, the city jail has not yet had any of its "annual guests" who apply for refuge from the elements. The record made by the city's "hotel" so far this year has been remarkable, Chief Rathbone said, as in previous years the holdover usually was in great demand by persons known to the police department as "sleepers."

Believe Squirrels Migrate

1919

Hunters Cannot Otherwise Explain Disappearance of Game.

SPRINGFIELD, 'Mo. — The disappearance of squirrels from many communities in the Ozark region of southern Missouri has caused many old hunters to marvel. Early in the fall the frisky little animals were in evidence in every patch of woods, not only making the hickory nuts disappear, but in many instances invading the cornfield.

Now they are reported scarce, and it is not due alone to the hunters. There has been a big migration, some hunters advance the theory. They think the squirrels migrated into Missouri from the Arkansas forests and returned when cold weather set in.

One Policeman Who Couldn't Get Fat

1910

ST. LOUIS. — Dismissed from the police force because he was too thin to present a formidable appearance to offending humanity, John Higgins, although not one whit larger in circumference and just as tall as he ever was, has been restored to his job.

It was merely a question of the police board coming around to Higgins' viewpoint.

In the Dayton street district Higgins had a record which his superior officers declared any policeman should be proud of. He never shirked; was always on his beat; was a terror to evildoers, and loved police work as few patrolmen of St. Louis love it.

But the police surgeons didn't see it that way when Higgins came before them for examination. They cast a withering eye upon him, looked at each other and shook their heads.

Higgins was fired.

Not enough weight to so great an altitude was the verdict of the surgeons.

Encouraged by the plaudits of his superior police officers, Higgins went away to get fat. He ate often and abundantly, planning in a short time to return to the exacting doctor, and present a girth which any St. Louis patrolman might carry with pride.

After weeks of experiment, Higgins, feeling puffy, weighed himself. The scales registered the same number of pounds the surgeons had frowned upon. There was nothing to do but eat more, and Higgins ate.

But Higgins couldn't get fat. He told the Dayton street officers he just couldn't. They shared his sorrows, but shook their heads ominously. The same doctors who fired him for being too thin and too tall for such thinness would, they declared, keep him off the force now that it seemed he would never get fatter.

Determined to make A last deliberate effort to regain his position and resume his beloved work, Higgins knocked again at the door of the police department, The door didn't have to open wide for him to get in, he was so thin. All he wanted was just a little crack to squeeze through.

The board took cognizance of Higgins' thinness and of his inability to get fat. They said they thought he had been punished enough for being lean, particularly as he couldn't help it. There was evidently no malice aforethought in his attitude, they said.

Higgins was restored to his job. They said any man who worked that hard eating to get fat, would work hard at his duties as a police officer.

The Polka Dot

1919

Because in 1835 a Bohemian peasant girl danced a new step in a little village near the Polish border a Hungarian dancing master introduced it in Europe under the name of Polka, which is the feminine of Polak or Pole. By 1844, at the time James K. Polk was running for the presidency, the dance had spread to America and the name "Polk" and the word "Polka" formed a coincidence at once appealing to everyone. The manufacturers, merchants and designers immediately presented Polka hats, Polka shoes, Polka gauze and the "newest design in fabrics for gentlewomen."


Pretty Smart Chickens

A recent morning a Missouri farmer placed three crates of chickens and five bushels of potatoes in his trailer, hitched the trailer to his automobile and started for town. He was almost there when he discovered he had no trailer. He found he had parted company with it a quarter of a mile from home, and when he got back to it the crates were empty and the potatoes frozen.

He presumed, of course, the chickens had been stolen, and was greatly surprised when he went to the henhouse early next day after breakfast to find every one of the chickens there. Not one was missing. They had all returned home, but how they got out of the crates probably will always remain a mystery.

Plunges Into Dark Shaft

Missouri, 1915

Mrs. Fred C. Pettis and her 13-year-old daughter, Gladys, were passing thru a patch of weeds near a persimmon grove at Chitwood, Mo. Suddenly a reptile writhed in front of them. Frightened, Gladys ran. The mother ran to where the girl had disappeared and found the mouth of an old deserted shaft. "Gladys! Gladys!" cried Mrs. Pettis, frantic with fear. No answer. The mother fled to a nearby mining plant for help. Soon several men with ropes were at the mouth of the shaft. They got busy at once to find the body of the child.

A rope was fastened around one of the men and his companions were in the act of lowering him into the dark hole when the frantic mother screamed and then fainted. Gladys had stepped out of the shaft and coolly remarked: "Gee, but its cold and wet down there."

Altho the shaft is said to have been 200 feet deep, it was filled to within twenty feet of the top with water. The child had doubtless hit the water head first, and when her mother called she didn't hear her, of course. When the girl had come to the top of the water her hand had grasped a piece of the cribbing which is placed two inches apart all the way up the shaft and, using this makeshift ladder as a hand and foot hold she had climbed to the top. She was none the worse for her plunge into the cold water.


Get Letter From Roosevelt

BONNER SPRINGS, Kan., Dec. 16. — Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt has just sent a letter from Oyster Bay to Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Smith, congratulating them on the event of their sixty-fifth wedding anniversary.

153 Pushed Overboard From Torpedo Boat

1909

Jam at Opening of St. Louis Carnival

ST. LOUIS, Mo., Oct. 8. — Fifteen thousand enthusiastic and curious persons tried to board four tiny torpedo boats at the same time. The boats wouldn't hold them, and part of the overflow, numbering 153, were pushed into the Mississippi, to be drawn ashore by police, sailors and others. Many were trampled under foot when two squads of police reserves charged the crowds to drive them back from the boats.

The torpedo flotilla, whose officers and crews are the first of the official guests at St. Louis' one hundredth birthday party, anchored at the levee, and the public was allowed to inspect the vessels. A small squad of police was stationed at the wharf-boat to which the boats were anchored to keep the visitors all in line.

In an hour the squad had been increased to sixty and the policemen were being hustled about roughly. There was not a square foot on the torpedo boats above or below that was not crowded and twice as many persons on the wharf-boat were trying to shove their way aboard.

Scores of women fainted. These were carried into the wharf-boat at the landing. The police, as a last resort, began to thump heads with their clubs, and the executive officer of the fleet ordered the boats closed to the public. The greater part of the crowd, which was good natured though rough, then dispersed. No sooner had they gone than another multitude arrived and the pushing, stampeding and cracking of heads were repeated.

Centennial week began in earnest here at 6 o'clock in the morning by the blowing of whistles and ringing of church bells. Sermons in the churches were devoted to centennial themes. In the afternoon, 15,000 children assembled in the Coliseum and sang patriotic and religious songs.

The aero grounds drew many thousands who viewed the airships and balloons which were made ready for the races. Ormon, with a Farman aeroplane, has arrived. Ten balloons will ascend and prizes have been offered for time and distance and the entrants hope to win the Lahm cup by exceeding 475 miles.

Scared Dog Bests Long Dead 'Gator

Printed Feb. 1920

Fearless Journalists and Compositors Pale at Scene of Devastation

SHELBYVILLE, Missouri. — A dead alligator caused more terror to a long, slim country dog that came to town the other day than a dozen live ones would have created. While the dog's owner was talking to the editor of the Herald, the dog went to sleep over in a corner, and when he woke up the place was dark and all the doors locked.

In the office was a baby alligator in a glass tank. The alligator had departed this life some time ago, and was preserved in some sort of fluid. But the country dog didn't know that. All he saw was some strange looking animal floating around in the tank of water.

Just what happened when the dog became aware that he was locked in with such an uncanny companion can only be surmised by such deduction as Sherlock Holmes might make on the ensuring homicide.

When the foreman of the print shop arrived at the hour prescribed by union labor regulations, he thought at first he might be in the wrong place. The shop he left the night before was orderly, everything where it belonged. Now it looked like a devil's dance had been going on. The alligator was sprawled out on the floor, and suggested a big toy that had run down. The glass tank was in more pieces than the Dutchman's clock. The doors and windows showed marks where the dog had frantically tried to gnaw its way to freedom and, the foreman said, "There were indications that he had climbed up to the telephone to send in any alarm."

Sheets of heavy editorial, country correspondence and poetry were scattered about, with imprints of dog feet upon them, as he had tracked across the press fountain and distribution plates in seeking some place to hide.

The foreman said that everything that wasn't spiked down seemed to have moved about. No cyclone from Kansas could have jostled things about more than did that poor country dog during his exciting night when he had the power of the press all to himself.

If that little 'gator had been alive he would certainly have enjoyed himself.

Progressing among the wreckage, the foreman found the dog over in a corner, seemingly all in, but when he opened the back door something whizzed past him and he heard the snapping of wind out in the alley.

The dog had gone back to the country.

She Swallowed 1,446 Pieces of Hardware

1911

Editorial Quips on the News

A post-mortem examination of a Missouri lady who had a mania for heavy diet resulted in the discovery of 1,446 separate articles of hardware in her little inside. If there is any truth in theosophy the lady was either a goat or an ostrich in her previous existence. (See note below and photo here. Click the photo for bigger version.)

A New York woman says she lost her respect for her husband when she caught him with five aces in his hand. She is perfectly right. A man who allows himself to be caught that way deserves no respect.

If that Buffalo man who would not give up a counterfeit bill to an agent of the government were to get the full penalty of $100 and a year's imprisonment he might think he had committed some real crime.

We have it from a Germany economist that American women will soon be forced to labor on farms like men. Here we have an outlet for the surplus energy of those fair damsels who seek "careers" in preference to husbands.

Most of those who tell about rearing a family and saving money on $1,000 a year do not have to and hence are better able to theorize in the abstract.

A florist in New Jersey turns his hennery into a summer garden with all sorts of flowers and is getting eggs of delicate flavor and various tints, violet, rose and carnation flavors being in the lead. A hen garden of this kind might be a handsome and useful addition to the combination clubhouse for the Ananias members and the nature fakers.

Note: The item about the Missouri lady with a mania for a heavy diet recalls someone who must have been another Missouri lady with the same problem, who I heard about while touring the psychiatric museum at St. Joseph, Missouri. At this site there's a small photo of the items, said to be more than 1,400, which were taken from the patient in 1929. Since I'm pretty sure my article is from 1911, and it specifically says "post-mortem," obviously this would have to be a different Missouri lady. The photo at the top is a photo I took of all the screws and things they said she had ingested. If you're ever in the area of St. Joseph, the museum is worth going to! Just don't let them keep you, which was what I was legitimately most afraid of.

Lily-White Record is Lost to County

1920

Along Comes Burglar and Spills the Precious Beans

JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri — The record of St. Clair County as a lily-white community has at last been broken. For seven years the residents of St. Clair, with a population of 17,000, boasted that not a single prisoner at the State penitentiary had been sent from the county. They pointed out their lack of representation in the institution was not due to laxity in the enforcement of the law, but to the law-abiding character of its citizens. Then along came Ivy Schuby.

Ivy forced an entrance into a dwelling and helped himself to the contents. It was burglary.

"Two years," said the judge.

And St. Clair County is no longer without representation.


Bitten by Ex-Prince's Dog

WIERENGEN, Holland. — A huge mastiff which the former Crown Prince Frederick William has adopted as a pet and which accompanies him on his daily strolls through this village, has been made the subject of an official complaint to the village council. Schoolmaster de Ruyter charged that the dog bit him, and wanted it declared a nuisance, but the petition apparently was tabled.

She Stops Traffic To Light Her "Fag"

March 1920

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Street car traffic on a busy street was tied up while a young woman smoked a cigarette. It wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't chosen to sit down on the street car track and light her "fag." She made matters worse when, after an argument with an angry motorman, she blandly asked him for a match to light a second cigarette.

Dick Allen, former policeman, removed the young woman from the track and escorted her to the police station.

"You're stewed," remarked the booking clerk.

"You tell 'em; I stutter," she said, as she was led away to the matron's room to sober up.


Inmates of Jail Escape

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — Sheriff W. T. Baker woke on a recent morning to find the county jail empty. Some time after midnight the eight prisoners sawed and cut their way to liberty.


New Electric Dental Engine

A new electric dental engine runs on either direct or alternating current or on that supplied by dry batteries where no other supple of electricity is available.

Get 10,000 Pounds of Fish

1920

Two Men Using Seine Make Record Catch, Mostly Carp

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — Edward and Joseph Larbey, fishermen, caught 10,000 pounds of fish with a seine at Grafton, Illinois, thirteen miles above Alton on the Mississippi near the mouth of the Illinois River.

The fish, mostly carp, were driven out of the Illinois by the breaking up of the ice, it is believed, and took refuge behind a dyke, where the Larbeys placed their seine.

The haul is valued at $600, and is said to have been sold in the St. Louis market.


"Dead" Soldier Returns Home Finds Wife Remarried and Is Granted Divorce by Court

NEW YORK, N.Y. — John C. Ries, an American soldier, who had been officially listed as killed and who later turned from overseas to find his wife had married again, was granted a decree of divorce today in the Brooklyn Supreme Court.

Ries served with a machine gun company of the 27th Division. He was gassed, wounded and left for dead upon the battlefield, but later he was picked up and sent to a hospital.

Hungry Lad Is Shot While Seeking Food

Feb. 1920

Restaurant Owner's Bullets Halts Attempted Burglary

TOPEKA, Kansas — Hungry, cold and unable to sleep, John Ross, 10-year-old lad, who recently escaped from the Topeka Boys' Industrial school, got a bullet wound when at 2 o'clock a.m. he attempted to steal something to eat from a local restaurant.

The proprietor, hearing the noise, shot, and the boy made his escape. Making his way to the Rock Island roundhouse, before telling that he was shot, he asked the men to help him get something to eat.

Young Ross, who says his real name is John Guinness, beat his way to Topeka some time ago from Philadelphia. He says his home is in West Virginia, and that he ran away because he could not get along with his stepfather.

Physicians called to the lad's aid were unable to determine the seriousness of his wound.


Boy Swallows 50-Cent Coin

Nature Removes It After Hospital Surgeons Had Their Try

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Old Mother Nature proved herself to be the best physician after all in the removing of the 50-cent piece swallowed by Francis Quinn, 14 years old.

The coin at first lodged itself behind the larnyx. An X-ray photograph was taken to determine how best to operate for its removal, but upon the development of the plate no trace of the coin was seen and physicians decided it had slipped down into the digestive tract.

The boy left the hospital with the silver half dollar tucked away in his deepest pocket.

Five Hens Lay Eggs in Deep Snow Nests

Feb. 1920

Fowls Dig Their Own Snug Roosts on Roof of Barn

HILERTON, New York — It being the warmest day of the winter, Chester Wasselton, a poultryman of this village, opened the door of his hen house to allow his hens to come out and enjoy the sunshine. Late in the afternoon Wasselton went to the hen house and seeing the hens were on the roosts closed the door.

Next morning the poultryman heard a loud cackling which came from the roof of the hen house. He secured a ladder, placed it against the structure and climbed to the roof, which was covered with three feet of snow. Wasselton says that when he reached nearly to the peak of the roof he was surprised to find five of his white leghorns buried in the snow. Furthermore, he says that when he removed the hens he was dumbfounded to find that each hen had laid an egg.

Wasselton placed the eggs in his coat pocket and threw the hens from the roof. He expresses the opinion that the hens flew to the roof the night before, dug their way down to the shingles through the snow and, as it was warm, made no effort to leave.


Cake 14 Years Old, Served At Wedding

First in Family to Marry Won the Fruity Confection

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — A wedding cake made fourteen years ago was served as a breakfast following the wedding her of Miss Geraldine Isabelle Buchanan, of California, Mo., to Lieut. Austin Smith Parker of Greenville, S.C.

The cake was made from a recipe for Chinese fruit cake and preserved in brandy to be served at the first wedding in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Buchanan, parents of the bride.

Cole Younger

1903

COLE YOUNGER. [Good link]

Unfortunately Minnesota omitted to stipulate that Cole Younger must not write a book.—Milwaukee Sentinel.

Cole Younger, the paroled bandit, is being given public ovations in Missouri, and yet the man never won a prize fight in his life.—Denver Republican.

Cole Younger is now in our midst; but this fact does not cause anything like the alarm it would have caused 26 years ago.—St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Cole Younger's refusal to consider himself a hero will be likely to give the country the impression that there really is some heroic stuff in him after all. —Denver Republican.

Cole Younger is indignant in his denial of intention to go on the stage. This entitles Mr. Younger to an unconditional pardon, nem con and eo instante. — Cincinnati Commercial Tribune.

Col. Cole Younger is preparing to enter Missouri by way of Kansas City and Kansas City is purple with mortification that Cole Younger should see her union depot at its worst—St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Cole Younger has advised the Missourians that he does not wish to be received as a hero. In deference to his wishes no brass bands nor beautiful maidens laden with high-priced flowers and with their sweet lips trembling with welcoming sons will meet him at the Lee Summit day-po.—Denver Post.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 4, 1903, page 4.

Unsuccessful Suicide Attempt, Drinking Listerine

Missouri, 1922

MAN TRIES TO COMMIT SUICIDE

Police Say Dwight Tannehill Drank Listerine in Unsuccessful Attempt to End Life

An unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide is thought to have been made last night by Dwight Tannehill, when he drank a small quantity of Listerine.

According to the police, Tannehill came in late last night from Quincy, where he has been working, and told the police that there was an automobile here which belonged to him. Later, according to the police, he called Emerson Roberts and told him that he was Doctor Clapp and that Dwight Tannehill had shot himself and taken poison and for him to come at once.

When Roberts and his wife entered the Tannehill home, the police say that Tannehill attacked Roberts. Doctors were called and Tannehill was quieted. Later the police found a bottle labeled "Listerine" outside the window. The man is supposed to have attempted to end his life by drinking the contents of the bottle. He will recover.

—Moberly Monitor-Index, Moberly, Missouri, November 27, 1922, page 1.


Fire Destroys Barn and Peanut Roaster

Oklahoma, 1915

Fire destroyed a barn and corn and peanut roaster belonging to Mr. Hopgood early Sunday morning. He has for some months operated this roaster on West Main street and as it was a valuable piece of property, he kept it in his barn on East 8th street at night. The fire, which was discovered about 4:30 was of unknown origin. Mr. Hopgood stated that the roaster cost him $1,000.

—The Ada Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, December 13, 1915, page 4.

Famous Missouri Parrot Dies At 52

Was a Wise Old Bird and a Great Talker.

Could Carry on a Conversation With Herself -- Cyclones Her Only Terror.

WEST PLAINS, Mo., May 20 -- "How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord" ----

The shrill voice of "Polly" Langston, singing her favorite hymn while perched on the rail of the front porch of the home of Mrs. T. J. Langston, will be heard no more, for "Polly," Missouri's most famous parrot, is dead. And in the yard where "Polly" was wont to strut before strangers and play with the children, a grave has been dug and "Polly" laid to rest.

"Polly" died at the age of 52, after a very strenuous career. Born in Cuba, she swore in excellent Spanish at the age of 3. Taken to New Orleans, she attracted the attention of Dr. Thomas Bradford, Mrs. Langston's father, who was killed in the Marshfield, Mo., cyclone in 1880.

Taught to Pray and Sing.
When "Polly" was in her teens she was taught to pray and sing. Her favorite hymn was, "How Firm a Foundation," and she could sing several stanzas. But persons not in the family taught "Polly" to swear equally well. One night Dr. and Mrs. Bradford took her to a Methodist camp meeting. When the minister began "Polly" interrupted.

"Preacher, preacher! Pray for that ornery ------" and "Polly" named a prominent citizen. It almost broke up the meeting.

On another occasion, when a prayer meeting was held in the Bradford home, "Polly," overcome by the emotion of a sister, broke into prayer, and concluded with a volley of oaths in English and Spanish.

In the late '70s, the Barnum and Bailey circus visited Marshfield. "Polly," on the porch, volubly cussed the passing performers, roustabouts, animals and canvass men. P. T. Barnum was attracted and tried to purchase her.

"Do you think we'd sell one of our children?" Mrs. Bradford demanded.

Polly Survives a Tornado.
The Bradford home was demolished by a tornado in 1880. Rescuers, removing the dead and injured from the ruins of homes, heard a voice wailing, "Mamma, oh, mamma."

Thinking it was a child, they dug into the ruins of the Bradford home. They found "Polly" near the unconscious form of Mrs. Bradford. The doctor was dead.

Mrs. Bradford recovered, but her son died of his injuries. The pitiful and almost constant calling of "Polly" for "Pa" and "Buddie" caused Mrs. Bradford to send the bird to a married daughter, of this city.

Could Imitate Women's Small Talk.
"Polly" always attended the meeting of the Ladies' Aid and W. C. T. U. in the Langston home. She remembered the small talk on such occasions and one of her favorite pastimes was to carry on a conversation with herself.

"Good-by, Mrs. Smith," she would say.

"I had such a pleasant time."

"The cream was excellent."

"Do come again."

"Yes, thank you."

"Polly's" experiences in the tornado made her wary of storms, and with darkening skies she would hurry into the house. At the first peal of thunder she would cry, "Cyclone! Cyclone!" and seek the darkness of a closet.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, May 22, 1920, page 7.


Comment: The following article is from almost a year later, and in it Polly is 53 years old at the time of her death, not 52.

Polly Remembered Cyclone.

A parrot, named Polly Langston, died recently at the age of fifty-three. A native of Missouri, Polly was a feathered prodigy whose remarkable talents included many vocal and linguistic accomplishments. She could sing and talk in English as well as Spanish, her mother tongue; pray and sing several of the old familiar hymns, which she had picked up at church and social gatherings, besides having a wide repertory of conversational "small talk." At one time, when the circus came to her local town, and Polly had poured forth her sage salutations to the passing paraders, the attention of the late P. T. Barnum was attracted to her and a large cash offer was made for her, but her owner could not be induced to part with her. She remembered to her passing hour an event of her early life when a cyclone wrecked the town and brought death to scores of the inhabitants. Polly survived by a miracle but for more than 40 years afterwards whenever the dark clouds gathered she became so frantic with fear that it was necessary to put her where she would escape the lightning's flash and the roar of thunder.

--The Indiana Progress, Indiana, Pennsylvania, April 27, 1921, page 4.