54 Hits in 58 Shots by the U. S. Ship Florida

1916

Norfolk, Sept. 23. — Fifty-four hits in 58 shots with 12 inch guns is said to be the record established by the battleship Florida, in the Atlantic fleet's individual target practice at short and intermediate ranges off the Virginia coast this week. Officers tonight predicted that this record would put the Florida at the top of the gunnery list by a wide margin.

The fleet came into Hampton Roads tonight for the week end. The records of the various battleships are not available, but it is known the Texas made the second best showing and the Wyoming was third. The Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Arkansas, the newest superdreadnaughts, have not yet finished their initial firing.

Practice will be completed next week and the ships will proceed then to their home stations for repairs, preparatory to winter maneuvers in the tropics.

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.

Ends Long Hike

1919

Man Walks From Chicago to Lynn, Mass., in 22 Days.

BOSTON, Massachusetts — Michael Doyle, the champion pedestrian of Lynn and one of the best known walkers in New England, has completed his walk from Chicago to Lynn, covering the distance in twenty-two days and eighteen hours. His friends declare that he made the distance in a few hours less than the record made several years ago by Weston.

When Doyle arrived in Lynn no one was about to greet him. His friends had expected him to reach the city later and had waited up to give him a reception. When he arrived he visited a barber shop and then repaired to his home for rest. He completed the last leg of his long hike from North Brookfield, Mass., to Lynn, a distance of sixty-seven miles, between noon and morning.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 10.

Insures Prize Hen for $5,000 Policy

1919

Washington Chicken Holds World Record for Egg Production.

PORTLAND, Oregon. — It isn't every hen that can carry around a $5,000 life insurance policy, but that is the amount of insurance placed on one of the hens at the poultry show here.

This hen is a White Leghorn, owned by Dr. Tancred of Kent, Washington. She set a world's record for production by laying 300 eggs in 365 days, ended Sept. 16. This is about four times the production of the average hen, so her value in the poultry world can easily be seen.

Her owner consented to allow her to be placed on exhibition by one of the poultry feed companies, but stipulated that she must be insured for $5,000.

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.

Leo Whitton Claims to Be the Fattest Man

1896

Weighs 715 Pounds

"The fattest man in America" is the way in which Leo Whitton announces himself. Up to a year ago Leo had been growing broader, rounder and more uncomfortable for the past thirty-seven years. He weighs 715 pounds. Daniel Lambert, the Norfolk giant, tipped the beam at 729 pounds, scoring the world's record.

Whitton's tremendous girth is not so apparent when he stands, but when he sits he is startling. His measurements are: height, 5 feet 10 inches; neck, 26 inches; biceps, 28 inches; chest, 6 feet; waist, 7 feet; thigh, 49 inches; calf, 26 inches. He comes of stock noted for fleshiness. He was born in Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, of English parents. Up till the age of twenty-one years he worked on the farm at home. Then he went into the butcher business at Brighton, Ont., which he attended to up to three years ago, when his extraordinary girth rendered it impossible for him to handle the chopper.

When asked if he had endeavored to avoid growing so fat Mr. Whitton replied that he had tried all remedies. He has never tasted alcoholic drinks in his life. He loses from ten to fifteen pounds during the summer, but does not feel much relief from the loss. In winter he regains the amount that was missing. He is married to an average-sized woman, and has five children, the eldest of whom is seventeen years old. None of them shows any signs of abnormal stoutness. — New York Recorder.

No More Last Forty Winks

1914

Fiend Has Invented an Alarm Clock That Simply Insists on One's Rising in the Morning

It has often seemed, after the announcement of an invention to which the attention of the entire civilized world has been called, that the human mind could scarcely invent anything more and fashion it in material form, but the countless dreams of inventors continue to be realized in astounding numbers.

Every week, every month, the trade journals advertise and comment upon new things in the lines which they represent and publish new ideas which this material labor-saving age seizes and makes its own.

An alarm clock which awakens you with the words of a disgusted wife who has breakfast on the table, and a large vessel which carries submarines over long distances by means of a "pouch" are among the newest offerings.

As an ever present need, the alarm clock will probably be put into more general household use than the ship with the "pouch" for carrying submarines. In the evening before retiring you set the clock for 6:30; at 6:30 you will probably get up. Here is what will waken you:

"Six-thirty, six-thirty, six-thirty; time to get up; get up, can't you? Get up you miserable, lazy man. Get up, get up, get up!"

The first clock of this kind was exhibited in 1900, but it cost $2,500 to make it. The present offering costs $25. If you are awake in the middle of the night and wish to know the time, press a button and the clock will tell you the nearest quarter hour as: "Two-fifteen," if it happens to be 2:13 or 2:18. The phonographic record is on an endless belt and the grooves in which the voice vibrations are recorded run lengthwise of the belt. The belt continues to give out sound until shut off when once started. So far the clocks have been supplied with belts which talk in thirty-five languages.

Room Belongs to The Children

1921

Properly Equipped Playroom a Paradise for the Little Ones.

The most interesting feature of a New York home, according to Town and Country, is the "Do Do Room," a completely equipped playroom where the word "don't" is never heard. The idea of this juvenile paradise originated with paterfamilias, whose childhood was marred by continually hearing "Don't do this!" or "Don't break that!"

The room itself is a large sunny place, splendidly ventilated by plenty of windows, which are safely barred. One end of the hardwood floor is uncovered, while the other has a thick woolen rug, fastened down so securely that acrobatic feats or any amount or running or sliding cannot loosen it. The walls, which are deadened, so that noises cannot penetrate to other parts of the house, are covered with blue paper from which finger prints can be easily washed off. The pictures and electric lights are caged, this precaution making possible a mild game of baseball or any amount of handball or bean bag tossing.

The chairs (minus rockers) and the tables are made with rounded corners. The fear of breaking dainty bric-a-brac does not bother the little inmates of the "Do Do Room," and the built-in bookcase, where favorite books and magazines abound, has no glass doors to be kept away from, or silk curtain which must not be touched.


Twenty-One Yards of Sausage

In the rivalry to make the biggest sausage some wonderful specimens are being produced by Germans in Pennsylvania. The latest record-breaker is the work of Jacob Ackerman, of Limeport. It is 64 feet eight inches long.

Teen Breaks Arm Five Times

1909

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — Forbidden by his parents to play football after he had broken his left arm three times in the game, 15-year-old William Eminger found that he could not even watch the game with safety to his delicate member. He was a spectator on the sidelines at a high school game and the team in a scrimmage fell over his chair. Eminger's arm was broken when one of the players landed on top of him. This makes the fifth time the arm has been broken. The only time football was not responsible Eminger broke it falling out of bed.


Love's Young Dream

LOS ANGELES, Cal. — When Levi Hall, who is of the impressionable age of eighty-nine years, went to call on Miss H. W. Coe, a fair and sprightly maiden of seventy-five summers, he was greatly surprised when John Moore, ninety years old, emerged from an adjoining room and began to belabor him with a stout hickory cane. Hall hurried from the home of his inamorata to the receiving hospital, and then to the police station, where he caused the arrest of his rival on a charge of battery. Hall does not believe that Miss Coe will think any the less of him because he retreated.


Makes High Flight Record

POTSDAM, Germany — Orville Wright, the American aviator, broke his own and all other records for high flying. He reached the unprecedented height of more than 1,600 feet, although an official measurement was not taken. He had a red-letter day in a double sense in his experience as an aviator, taking up Crown Prince Frederick William as a passenger and more than doubling the altitude record which he made recently over the same field.

Ambulance Horse Sad To Be Replaced By Monstrous Motor Ambulance

Atlanta, 1913

Replaced by Motor Ambulance, "Faithful John" Dying of Grief

Faithful John awoke in his stall attached to Grady Hospital one morning not so long ago and began munching the customary breakfast of hay. As his eyes roved over the familiar interior of the stable they alighted upon a bulky intruder which looked as if it had come to stay. There was something suspicious about the monster-on-wheels that stood near Faithful John in the stables, and when he had finished his morning meal he began to inspect it and to meditate. In the midst of meditation there came a whirr and clang clang from the big gong at the far end of the stables. It was the emergency ambulance call.

Faithful John threw up his head, champed his bit and stamped and pawed the ground in eager anticipation. The stable attaches never did come quick enough for the loyal horse when the overhead gong summoned him to a wild dash across the streets. Faithful John awaited nervously, but no attache came to unloose him and lead him under the swinging harness.

Instead, a small, alert young man leaped to the seat of the suspicious monster who had come that morning, started a roar somewhere in its depths, clanged an unfamiliar gong and yelled a precautionary Lookout. The huge thing snorted and raged and chugged through the door of the stable, leaving a choking, blinding cloud of vapor behind.

John realized his doom. They were replacing him with one of the horseless devils he encountered every day on the streets — one of those things that whizz by with a snort and a roar. He had been a good horse and faithful and had never failed to answer the joyous summons from the big gong overhead. But now they were done with him, he was out-of-date and science had furnished something that could do more than he, and do it better and faster.

That was about a year ago. Ever since Grady's auto ambulance has performed the duties that once were performed, unassisted, by "Faithful John." The only runs he makes nowadays are when the machine ambulance is in the repair shop or on another call. And, although he dashes through the streets with the same avidity as of old he is breaking down with grief and his heart has been broken by the automobile.

He is 23 years old and has been in service for the hospital for seventeen of these. Dr. W. B. Summerall, superintendent of Grady, estimated yesterday that Faithful John had made as many as 25,000 runs and had covered fully as many as 50,000 miles, or more. In that time he is estimated to have saved as many as 100 lives or better. He is the fastest horse ever connected with the hospital or with any ambulance service in the city.

So far as can be ascertained, this horse's record outrivals the record of any heretofore brought to notice. Recently a fire horse in New York claimed a record of 15,000 runs. This was said to have been the highest ever attained.

Even though he becomes of no use whatever to the hospital Faithful John will be retained by Grady until his death. Then he will be buried with deserving honors and his grave will be somewhere in the fields where there are no roadways and where no rival automobiles can snort their noisy way to disturb his final slumbers as they disturbed his peace and happiness in life.

— The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia, April 13, 1913, page 2B.