Coon Hunter Kills Big Eagle

1915

Bird Shot Measures Seven Feet From Wing Tip to Tip

ST. LOUIS, Mo., Dec. 16. — An eagle, measuring seven feet from tip to tip of its wings, was shot by Eugene Gertges, when the latter was coon hunting in the vicinity of Friedens' Church, six miles west of St. Charles. The eagle was perched in a tree and the hunter mistook it for a hawk.



Man Operated On 131 Times

Patient at St. Louis Hospital Is Cheerful at All Times

ST. LOUIS, Mo., Dec. 16. — Harry Smyth, 42 years old, is one of the most cheerful patients at the city hospital here, despite the fact that 131 surgical operations have been performed on him. Tuberculosis of the bones have made these operations necessary. Since childhood Smyth has passed most of his time in hospitals.

To occupy his time Smyth took up sewing and crocheting and he is now an expert with the needle. He is always good-natured.

Child Carried Off by An Eagle

1901

Child Rescued Half a Mile From Where the Bird Flew With Its Prey

Denver, Col., Jan. 31. — Tony Giovanni, a 2-year-old child, was seized and carried off by a gray eagle while playing in the yard of his home in a Denver suburb. The child's screams brought the father and two other men to the door of their home in time to see the bird and child disappear over the bluff of the Platte river. The men gave chase and saw the eagle alight on a small island covered with undergrowth, half a mile from the child's home. When the men arrived at the island the bird attempted to rise again with the boy, but his clothing caught in a bush and the eagle, seeing the men close at hand with clubs, dropped his prize and flew away.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, IA, Feb. 1, 1901, p. 3.

Eagle Always an Emblem

1918

From Mythological Times the Monarch of the Air Has Been Chosen as Representative of Power

In mythology the eagle usually represents the sun. The great mythical eagle of India, the Garuda, is the bearer of the god Vishnu, victorious by his brightness over all demons. In Scandinavian mythology the eagle is a gloomy figure, assumed by demons of darkness or by Odin himself, concealed in the gloomy night or in wind swept clouds. The storm giant Hrasweigr sits in the form of an eagle at the extremity of heaven and blows blasts over all people and on the great tree Yggdrasil sits an eagle observing everything that happens. When Zeus was preparing for his struggle with the Titans the eagle brought him a thunderbolt, whereupon the god took the bird for his emblem.

It naturally became the emblem of nations after its long use in mythology. Ptolemy Soter made it the emblem of the Egyptian kingdom. In the Roman story the eagle was the herald to Tarquinus of his royal power, and it was one of the most important insignia of the republic, and was also assumed by the emperors, and adopted into medieval heraldry after the time of Charlemagne.


Keeping the Faith

A man returning from Philadelphia tells of a ragged newsboy, who, after his papers were all sold, still stood near Independence hall lustily shouting the news of Germany's surrender, "I'm just a-doin' what the Liberty bell would do if it could," explained the little patriot.


There is no graduating from the school of experience.