A White Frog In a Solid Rock

1895

The sensation of the Salt Lake valley some years ago was the finding of a queer white frog, with enormous eyes, in a solid rock blasted out at the Varley & Everill quarry at Salt Lake City. The rock in which the little hermit was found had been blasted from a strata several feet below the surface and was being separated into pieces suitable for loading when the pocket, or cavity, which contained the frog was discovered. The local account at the time says that "the discovery created an immense sensation among the workmen, and all operations at the quarry were for a time suspended."

Examination by the Salt Lake scientists proved that the creature was of a species supposed to have been extinct for thousands of years. Its immense eyes were sightless and covered with a thick, tough, horny substance, and the mouth was entirely closed up. Mr. Everill, one of the proprietors of the works, took charge of the curiosity, but it died within 24 hours and was presented to the city museum, where it is now preserved in alcohol. — St. Louis Republic.

Toads as Medicine

1901

"Out of the queer use of a common creature regarded as most potent in old time medicine there came the most surprising and nearly the most important of inventions," says Harvey Sutherland in Ainslee's.

"Every schoolboy knows that a toad can cause warts or make the cow give bloody milk, but not everybody knows that toads are also powerfully medicinal. It is a fact. Martin Luther says so. These are his very words: 'Experience has proved the toad to be endowed with valuable qualities. If you run a stick through three toads, and, after having dried them in the sun, apply them to any pestilent humor, they draw out the poison, and the malady will disappear.'

"Pope Adrian always carried a bag about his neck containing dried toad, pearl, coral, gum tragacanth, smaragd and other articles of junk. It did him a power of good, he said. It was all that kept him up. And lest you think that they only did that hundreds of years ago, I want to say here that when my father was a boy and suffered from quinsy they used to tie live frogs about his throat. The frogs nearly clawed the hide off. They did not cure the quinsy, but that's a detail."

Old American Bottles

1902

In early American glassware the history of our national art progress has been written. Choice and precious indeed are the crude blue-green and brown amber bottles made early in the nineteenth century — the portrait bottles bearing busts of Washington, Franklin, Lafayette, De Witt Clinton, Zachary Taylor, Kossuth and Jenny Lind.

Local decorative subjects on many lines of idea were treated by the first American bottle-makers; and the most exquisite Venetian bottle cannot outrank in value, to a patriotic American collector, the primitive old flasks ornamented with Indians, Masonic emblems, the eagle, stars, flags, log cabins, cannon and steamships, or such outdoor themes as the seasons, birds, fruits, trees, sheaves of wheat, the fisherman, deer, the gunner and his hounds, and the first bicycle. The earliest American railway, with a car drawn by a horse, is historically celebrated on a glass flask, as well as the bold Pike's Peak pilgrim, with his staff and bundle. — The Century.


Frog Farming

After laughing at the French people for their frog-eating proclivity, the United States is doing very well in that line, for the Food Commission estimates that we catch in this country about 2,000,000 frogs.

These frogs, which have been hopping for years more and more into gastronomic favor, are sought for in all parts of the country, furnishing a paying industry, not only for the hunters of them in their natural haunts, but for scores of persons who have frog farms and raise them as they might raise chickens. To these persons the frogs mean an annual investment of $100,000, according to the report of the commission, and that means $150,000 to the consumers.

Frog Jumps Inside Woman's Bathing Suit

1910

Interrupts Lesson, Causes Commotion

New York. — It is written in the philosophy of Capt. James Fitzgerald, instructor at Piasa Pool, that there is always a way — that is, nearly always. But there was no way that he could suggest when a bullfrog jumped inside of a woman's bathing suit.

Captain Fitzgerald was giving a swimming lesson when a bullfrog sat in a crevice at the edge of the pool and watched the proceedings with interest. "One, two, three," chanted Captain Fitzgerald, and just as he said "three," a boy running by on the brink of the pool, startled the frog and he leaped wildly into the pool.

The woman pupil wore a low-cut bathing suit, a trifle loose at the neck. The frog landed inside and both tried to get out. While Fitzgerald hesitated and stammered, another woman swam to the one in need of help, reached inside of her bathing suit and caught the frog and withdrew it and thereby earned the gratitude of the woman — and the frog.


Made Sure of Death

A student of a school in Shinshu, Japan, recently committed suicide by jumping into the crater of Asamayama. The tragedy was not discovered until three days afterward, when some documents left by the suicide near the crater were picked up.

Advertisement (1895) — Two Frogs in The Milk Can Fable

Middletown, New York, 1895

TWO FROGS.

Once upon a time, two frogs without being consulted in the matter, found themselves shut up in a milk can and on their way to market. They soon found they could not live below the surface, and they had to kick vigorously in order to keep your heads above the milk. One of them, after working hard for a time, became discouraged and said, "There's no use kicking longer; let's give up and go the bottom." The other frog said, "Oh, no, let's keep on kicking as long as we can, and see what the outcome will be; we may get out alive yet." The other frog said, "It's no use," and went to the bottom. The other frog did not give up but kept on kicking, and when the can was opened he had kicked out a lump of butter on which he was floating with ease. The moral is plain — during such times as these, do not get discouraged and go down, but keep right on kicking, and perhaps a few more kicks will bring the butter.

We take this opportunity to remind you that we are still kicking way at 30 North street, and will appreciate very much any orders or business that you can give us or turn our way.

Our special kick, to-day, is Japanese Tooth Brushes. The Japs beat the world on good Tooth Brushes at low prices. We've captured a window full of 'em. Try one with our Ivory Tooth Wash.

McMonagle & Rogers, Druggists.

—Middletown Daily Argus, Middletown, New York, March 18, 1895, p. 5.

Singular Freaks of Nature — Cut Hair Continues to Grow

1878

Says an exchange: Our old friend, Dr. S. Haly, has exhibited to us a lock of hair cut from his boy's head when eighteen months old, and since carefully wrapped up, marked and laid away in the family Bible. At that time the lock was two inches long. Now it is fully six inches, and seems to be still growing with all its old-time lustre, fineness and beauty preserved. The son is alive and sixteen years old. The Doctor assures us there can be no mistake as to the identity of the hair, and wants an explanation. We know the hair and nails of corpses are known to flourish for a while, but these have whereupon to feed. This lock of hair had not.


A Strange Fish

One day last week, after a hard struggle, George Whitney captured on Cockenoes bar off Norwalk, a fish seldom seen in these parts. It answered the description given by ichthyologists of the goose fish or angler, also known as the fishing frog. It was four or five feet long, nearly as broad, flat, had one flap on each side something like a scale with an opening or pocket behind running forward under the mouth, and two small legs with five toes webbed together. The strangest feature, however, was its immense mortar-shaped mouth. When open it was frightful to contemplate, and would just about comfortably take in an ordinary keg. It was on exhibition for several days. It is a worthless fish and lives on muddy bottoms. — New Haven Palladium.

New Zealand's Many Names

New Zealand has been called by its inhabitants "The Fortunate Isles," "The Star of the South" and "The Wonderland of the Pacific."
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And "Safe"
The New York savants who have been trying to pick out the 25 most beautiful words in the language seem also to have overlooked the inherent beauty of the word two-bagger.
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Acting a Part
During courtship, be it long or short, is it not a fact that both Phyllis and Corydon with the best intentions in the world, are acting a part as much as if they were assisting in private theatricals? -- U. Caldwell.
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The Ruins of Yucatan
There is in Yucatan a chain of ruins three hundred miles long where once stood buildings richly decorated and erected with a vast amount of architectural knowledge. The buildings belong to the Stone Age, when the figures were carved with pieces of flint. The people of this age had not the use of either bronze or iron.
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Sagacity of Frogs
In the manner of disposing of their eggs many species of frogs exhibit remarkable peculiarities. A tree frog, native of Paraguay, makes its nest in a bush overhanging a pond. The lower ends of a number of leaves are drawn together and fixed in that position by a number of empty egg capsules. The eggs are also covered with a shield of empty capsules to protect them from the sun and air. When the eggs are hatched the plug at the bottom appears to fall out and the tadpoles tumble into the water.

--The Ellis Review-Headlight, Ellis, Kansas, 1911.