Twins Puzzle Father; He Makes New Will

1912

Unable to Distinguish Sons Apart, He Finds He Had Put Error Into Document

Fort Worth, Tex. — John Cobb Harris, a wealthy Mansfield farmer, came to Fort Worth to make a new will because he was unable to tell his twin sons apart. The will he destroyed gave John Harris certain property and Cobb, the other twin, property just opposite to his own desires.

Harris's sons are 22 years of age, and among the most remarkable twins in the country. Both are six feet six inches tall and muscular. With their hats on their father cannot tell one from the other.

The twins keep a common bank account, and always speak of "our money," "our horse," and even "our girl," as they frequently play a joke on their sweethearts by exchanging them.

Drinking Cup Sediment Kills a Pig

1910

CHICAGO — Public drinking cups are dangerous. They are excellent mediums for transmitting the germs of disease. Especially is this true in public and parochial schools where a large number of children are compelled to use the same cups, according to the health bureau.

Statistics show about one person in sixty has tuberculosis, and among school children there always are those who have some of the communicable diseases in light form, and these undoubtedly are communicated by the use of the common cup.

So fully is this understood that several states have passed laws abolishing the public drinking cup, and compelling railroads and public carriers to supply individual ones. The plan also has been advocated in schools, but the better and safer plan is believed to be the installation of what are known as "bubbling" cups with the water flowing over the rims all the time.

A cup used in a high school for several months without having been washed was found to be lined inside with a thick brownish deposit. Under the microscope this deposit proved to be composed of particles of mud, thousands of bits of dead skin, and millions of bacteria. Some of this sediment was injected under the skin of a healthy guinea pig and forty hours later the pig died. An examination afterward showed that pneumonia germs had caused death. A second guinea pig was inoculated with some of the sediment from the same cup and developed tuberculosis. Careful inquiry showed that several pupils in this school from which the cup was taken were then suffering from consumption.

An agitation is urged asking the school board to install the "bubbling" cups in all schools.