Band of Youthful Till Tappers.

New York, 1895

George Bartley, 16 years old, of Long Island City, made a written confession in Justice Duffy's Court Wednesday, implicating eight Greenpoint boys in the organized gang of till tappers now under arrest. Justice Duffy held the youthful prisoners for examination.


Found in the Nissequogue.

A number of the papers belonging to the Presbyterian church at Smithtown, which were stolen three weeks ago from the safe in Conklin & Jayne's store, which was blown open by dynamite, were found floating on the Nissequogue river.


Saved a Drowning Girl.

Clara Zimmer, 14 years old, while swimming near the College Point Casino at 5 o'clock Monday afternoon, ventured out too far, and was being carried into the sound by the strong current when a young man named Edward Raw heard her cries and jumped in to save her. He got the girl around the waist and swam ashore. When he reached the wharf the girl was thought to be dead. She was revived with difficulty.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 1.

FIRED THE TRESTLE FOR FUN.

New York, 1895

A Boy Tries to Destroy Part of the Long Island Railway.

Lucien Haurdberg, 15 years old, employed as a wiper in Lalance & Grosjean's agateware factory in Woodhaven, was held without bail by Justice Hendrickson Wednesday morning on a charge of setting fire to the Long Island railroad trestle at Woodhaven Junction. The fire was discovered in the trestle just before midnight Tuesday by Night Watchman Charles Daggatt.

The last train for the night had crossed when Daggatt saw smoke ascending from the trestle. He and several others clambered out over the string pieces to the blaze and extinguished it. At first it was supposed that the fire originated from a hot coal dropped by a locomotive, but Daggatt eventually discovered what appeared to be a bundle of greasy rags partly burned. They proved to be the remnants of two small pairs of trousers, soaked with oil and grease. Detective Sarvis arrested young Haurdberg, who lives near the trestle with his parents.

To the detective and Justice Hendrickson the boy acknowledged that the trousers were his. Tuesday night, he said, his mother told him to take them out and burn them as they were no longer fit to wear. He thought it would be great fun to get the firemen out, so, with the trousers under his arm and a handful of matches in his pocket, he climbed up the earth embankment. He clambered out on the heavy wooden stringpieces, and, placing the trousers in a convenient corner formed by the beams, he struck a match and set fire to them. Then he hastily retraced his steps. Upon reaching the ground he became a little frightened and ran home and went to bed. Soon he heard the village fire alarm and then he knew his blaze had been discovered.

But for Watchman Daggatt's timely discovery the trestle would probably have been destroyed or the timbers charred and weakened sufficiently to wreck the first train that crossed in the morning.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 1.

Looted the Oyster Sloop

New York, 1895

A reward has been offered for the apprehension of the vandals who riddled Capt. Edward Dayton's sloop Sunday night. The sloop was anchored in Patchogue river. On boarding her Capt. Dayton found her almost a wreck. Riggings and cables were cut, halyards unspliced, and several large rents were found in the sails.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 1.

Students Take A Cow Up Two Flights

1900

Sensational Acts of Students of Mount Union College

Alliance, Ohio, Oct. 27. — At midnight last night 100 students of Mount Union college, robed in white and closely masked, obtained entrance to the ladies' hall by breaking in a window sash. President Riker's family cow, which had been captured, was then taken into the building and shoved and carried up two flights of stairs to the third story and securely tethered.

Then, amid cheers and songs, the students made their way to the college, overpowered the watchman and overturned the stoves and piano and threw all movable furniture out of the windows. The family were then serenaded, after which the white-robed figures made their way downtown and ended up the night's demonstration with a war dance on the public square.

It is expected that any action from the faculty as a result of demonstration will meet with concerted resistance.


Grandpa's An Ape?

At a dinner-party a young man was once talking rather foolishly about Darwin and his books, speaking very contemptuously of them, and be said to the Bishop of Winchester (Wilberforce): "My Lord, have you read Darwin's last book on the 'Descent of Man'?" "Yes, I have," said the Bishop; whereupon the young man continued: "What nonsense it is, talking of our being descended from apes! Besides, I can't see the difference it would make to me if my grandfather was an ape." "No," the bishop replied, "I don't see that it would; but it must have made an amazing difference to your grandmother!"


100 Years Ago

Just a hundred years ago last July the Frenchman Lebon made the first public demonstration of the use of gas for illuminating purposes.

First Money Mark Twain Earned

1906

Marshall P. Wilder, in his book entitled The Sunny Side of the Street, says that he once asked Mark Twain if he could remember the first money he had ever earned.

"Yes," replied the famous humorist, "it was at school. There was a rule in our school that any boy marring his desk either with pencil or knife, would he chastised publicly before the whole school or pay a fine of $5.

"One day I had to tell my father that I had broken the rule, and had to pay a fine or take a public whipping, and he said:

" 'Sam, it would be too bad to have the name of Clemens disgraced before the whole school, so I'll pay the fine. But I don't want you to lose anything, so come upstairs.'

"I went upstairs with father and came down again feeling a tender spot with one hand and $5 in the other, and decided that as I had been punished once and got used to it, I wouldn't mind taking the other licking at school. So I did, and I kept the $5."