Cockroaches Large As Mice

1920

Woman Catches Them With Mousetrap — May Try Cat.

TOPEKA, Kansas. — One Topeka housewife is offering a reward for some way to rid her house of cockroaches. She is wondering if any breed of cats will catch these pests. They have grown so large that she is catching them in mousetraps.

The other night she heard a suspicious noise in her kitchen. She set a trap. Next morning she found a cockroach which tried to steal the bait and met disaster. Thinking it was just a mistake on the part of the roach, she tried again, hoping to catch the mouse that had been keeping her awake.

The same thing happened, only the roach was twice as big — the size of a full-grown mouse.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 4.

He Lands 95-Pound Catfish

1916

Winona Man's Catch Is Thought Season's Record.

WINONA, Minnesota. — William Dixon of this city made what is thought to be the season's record catch along the upper Mississippi, when he landed a catfish weighing 95 pounds, near Dresbach, this county. The fish measured four and a half feet from tip to tip. It is said to have been caught on a set line.

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

820,000 People in Detroit

1916

DETROIT, Michigan — Detroit has a population of 820,778, according to the city directory estimate. The directory makes Detroit as the fifth largest American city. New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and St. Louis are given higher ranking. Detroit was ninth in the population list of 1910.

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

The Boy Who Tipped the Scales to a Generous 450 Pounds

Raised In Nebraska

Not long ago one of the most corpulent persons in the country died at Cedar Rapids, Neb. His name was C. Hemingson and his photograph was submitted to GRIT by Roy Meson, of Cedar Rapids. Hemingson was but 17 years old when he died. He weighed 450 pounds. In spite of his immense proportions he managed to move about quite actively. He was helping to extinguish a small fire when he succumbed to over-exertion. He was born and raised on a farm near Cedar Rapids.

—Grit

The Heart of Jumbo the Elephant

1904

It's the Biggest Heart in the World

ITHACA, N. Y., Jan. 30. — The biggest heart in the world, that of the elephant Jumbo, is preserved in the museum of the department of neurology, vertebrate zoology and physiology of Cornell University. If the heart were not so large it would stand in a glass jar on the shelves of the museum with hundreds of those of other animals and men.

But Jumbo's heart is so big that it lies in a barrel stowed away in the cellar of the museum, glass jars not being made large enough to hold the great mass of muscle. Some time it will be dissected by a class of students and then thrown away.

Jumbo had a heart ninety-eight times as large as the average human organ. It now weighs 36½ pounds, after having soaked several years in alcohol. A human heart, which weighs a little more than a pound, soaked in alcohol for the same length of time, weighs 10 ounces. The human heart is less than six inches long. Jumbo's is 28 inches, and 24 inches wide. The ordinary heart could be contained in the main artery of Jumbo's heart. The walls of the artery are five-eighths of an inch thick, while the walls of the ventricle are three inches thick.

When Jumbo met his heroic death at St. Thomas, Ont., trying to save the baby elephant and being himself killed by a locomotive, his carcass was sent to the Ward Natural Science establishment at Rochester. The skeleton was presented and put on exhibition and the hide mounted.

Dr. Burt G. Wilder of Cornell purchased the heart of the animal to add it to his colossal collection. The brains of Jumbo were also desired, but these had been shattered in the collision. When the heart reached Ithaca it was found impractical to preserve it by the process which retains its original shape, and so the organ was put in a barrel of alcohol. It had not been removed for years until Dr. Hugh D. Reed lifted it from the barrel to show to The Herald correspondent.

—The Sunday Herald, Syracuse, New York, Jan. 31, 1904, p. 23.