Accident to Mr. De Bevoise.

New York, 1895

Charles De Bevoise, of New York avenue, Jamaica, when returning home from market on Friday stopped in Brooklyn to make some purchases. While he was in the store his team started to run away. He caught them by the head and was thrown down, one of the animals stepping on his right hand and breaking the finger bones.


Locust Post Thieves Sentenced.

August Weibker was sentenced by Justice Hendrickson of Jamaica to six months' imprisonment in the county jail and $50 fine, and Matthew Funck to six months in the county jail for stealing locust posts from the premises of Garret Van Siclen at Black Stump.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 28, 1895, p. 8.

KILLED BY AN ELEVATOR.

New York, 1895

Reckenbach Caught Under a Descending Car and Crushed.

Charles Reckenbach, a 19 year-old boy, who worked in the Lalance & Grosjean factory at Woodhaven, was crushed to death in the elevator shaft on Friday. Reckenbach wanted to go to an upper story and leaned over a guard rail to see if the car was coming up. The elevator was coming down at the time and struck Reckenbach upon the head.

The car continued its descent, and the youth's body was lifted two foot from the floor. When the car first struck him Reckenbach gave a series of frightened screams. When his body was taken from the shafting the neck was found to be broken. Frank Dominge, who was running the elevator, says he saw Reckenbach, but could not stop the car.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 28, 1895, p. 8.

Fell Sixty Feet and Came up Smiling

New York, 1895

Joseph Donnelly, of Hempstead, fell from the top of the Garden City hotel to the cellar through the elevator shaft Tuesday — a distance of 60 feet. Donnelly was not the least injured, his life probably being saved by a sand sieve that was in the cellar directly in the line of his fall.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, April 19, 1895, p. 2.

A Scotsman's Humor

1895

A notable instance of Mark Tapleyism, not to say heroism, was supplied recently at the Royal infirmary. The case was in the hands of Professor Barlow and was that of an iron worker who had met with a frightful accident. As a result of an explosion in a furnace a piece of redhot iron four inches in length imbedded itself in the man's eye and cheek, necessitating the removal of the dreadfully burned eyeball. This done, the question arose among those present at the operation as to the nature of the metal extracted, when the patient himself, with extraordinary nerve, asked to be allowed to handle the substance, and pronouncing it to be cast iron quaintly added, "Better send it back to the works, or they'll be having me up for stealing!" — Glasgow News.


Poor Business Instinct

Irate Landlady — I want you to take back that folding bed you sold me, and I want my money back. One of my boarders smothered to death in it, and he owed me a week's board.
Furniture Dealer — Madam, you have no business sense. If you were in the habit of making your boarders pay a month in advance, you would have been away ahead. — Cincinnati Tribune.


One Good Point

Waiter (to gentleman who is looking at napkin half full of holes) — I'll bring you another napkin.
Diner — Never mind. The holes seem to be clean. — London Tit-Bits.

Mr. Tonge's Narrow Escape

New York, 1895

Henry W. Tonges of Flushing had a narrow escape from being crushed to death Saturday. Mr. Tonges is a commuter on the Long Island railroad. He was late and the train was pulling out of the station when he arrived at the platform. In attempting to jump on the cars he fell and came near falling between two coaches. He escaped with a few slight bruises.

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

Hotel Keeper Hahn Hurt

New York, 1895

G. Hahn, a hotel keeper of Winfield, met with an accident which, it is thought, will prove fatal while jumping from a trolley car of the Newtown and Flushing road Monday morning. Hahn was on his way home from New York, where he had been visiting friends. When the car got to Fisk avenue he asked the conductor if they had reached Winfield, and upon being informed that they were passing through the village Hahn rushed to the platform and jumped off. The car was going at a rapid rate, and before the conductor had time to stop it Hahn jumped and landed on his head on the frozen ground.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, unknown page number.

Didn't Kill Himself

New York, 1895

Cornelius B. Seaman, a blacksmith of Port Washington, on Tuesday got a verdict in the Supreme Court of $525 against the Prudential Life Insurance company on two policies that be held on the life of one of his workmen, Jacob Mettloch. In January a year ago Mettloch was found dead in Seaman's barn. A rope used to lower feed from the haymow was found wrapped around his neck and his body was in an upright position leaning against a ladder. A Coroner's jury found that Mettloch committed suicide. The insurance company refused to pay the policies, asserting that the man had taken his own life. Lawyer Merrill set up the theory that Mettloch was seized with heart disease while descending from the mow, where he had been sleeping after a spree, fell, and became entangled in the rope, which had nothing to do with his death. The jury rendered a verdict for the full amount with interest.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, unknown page number.

Farmer John Leddy Hurt

New York, 1895

John Leddy, a Flushing farmer, is lying in the hospital suffering from injuries received by falling from his wagon Tuesday night. Leddy was going home from market. He was fast asleep and the horses were going at a rapid gait. The wagon struck a curbstone and Leddy fell out. He landed on his head. Leddy's father was killed a few months ago by being thrown from the same wagon in a like manner on Metropolitan avenue.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, unknown page number.

The Myrtle Avenue Motor Accident

New York, 1895

Samuel E. Cozine, of Jamaica, denies that he heard the whistle blow as a warning to Mr. Ostrander, the driver of the Central American tea company's wagon, which the motor ran into and wrecked the other day. Mr. Cozine, who was driving two horses attached to a farm wagon, says the whistle blew to warn him, as the motor was coming swiftly down a steep grade, and he barely had time to pull out of the track. The tea wagon came suddenly on to the track from a side lane and was struck almost as soon as it reached the rails. He is certain that the driver of the tea wagon had no warning whatever.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, unknown page number.

New Hampshire Neighbors — Sweden

New Hampshire/Maine, 1916

Leslie Chandler, who got so badly burned by the bursting of a gasolene torch while soldering some milk cans recently, is gaining.

The remains of Miss Louise Brackett were brought from Cumberland Mills to her sister, Mrs. Martha Chandler's. The funeral was held Thursday. [*]

Sweden grange held its regular meeting Saturday evening, Sept. 9, with nine members present.

Charlie Bailey hauled stove wood for Walter Evans Monday.

Miss Mable Trimback is doing housework for Mrs. W. E. Evans.

M. E. Perry and wife and Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Moulton were in Portland Saturday, going in Mr. Perry's new auto.

Mr. and Mrs. James H. Bennett are visiting his brother, Charles Bennett.

Mrs. Fordyce Gammon and daughter Emily are visiting her sisters, Mrs. Ernest Bennett, and Cleora Saunders, also her brother, Lindon Merrill.

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Saunders and daughter of Portland are visiting his father, Lincoln Saunders, at O. P. Saunders'.

Miss Marion Moulton is visiting Mrs. Charlie Bailey and Mrs. Forest Hutchins.

Miss Louisa Moulton has gone to Massachusetts to visit her sister.

George Thompson and Ernest Bennett cut corn fodder into the silo for Lindon Merrill Thursday afternoon.

Hugh Smart helped Thell Bennett get in oats and hungarian Saturday.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 3.

[*] Note: Original newspaper breaks this line "Thurs-" followed by "Number Four. [another linebreak] No. Four."

New Hampshire Neighbors — South Conway

New Hampshire/Maine, 1916

A very pleasing entertainment was given at the chapel Tuesday evening by the young ladies of the summer colony, ably assisted by the few young gentlemen. Tableaux, singing, charades and finally the pinning of the Donkey's tail by the children all gave much amusement. Ice cream, cake, home-made candy, pop corn balls and peanuts were sold which with 10 cents admission netted the church $35.

Mr. T. P. Ivy has a new automobile and Will Jackson is his chauffeur.

Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Cook are also enjoying a new Ford automobile.

Mr. John Legere lost a nice young horse last week, tetanus caused by stepping on a rusty nail being the disease. Dr. Lord was sent for, but too late.

Mrs. Abbie Blood and daughter of Franklin, N. H., visited at A. E. Davidson's last week.

Miss Persis Davidson came home from Pendexter's Mansion last Wednesday.

Mr. John Potter and family called on friends in this place Sunday.

Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Stewart visited at J. M. Hatch's Sunday.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 3.

South Conway

1916

All of Mrs. Peare's friends in this place were shocked and grieved to hear of her serious accident Friday evening and are waiting anxiously for more favorable reports.

A party of five from this place went through and over a miserable old bridge in Madison, N. H., Sunday, the auto landing on its side six feet below. The three ladies in the party were badly bruised and Mrs. Cotton had three ribs broken. Fortunately the two men were unhurt and able to get the ladies onto terra firma when Dr. Wiggin of Conway was sent for. The rest of the party came home in a hired auto but Mrs. Cotton had to remain with her uncle Mr. Costello Robbins.

Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Dennett visited Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Hatch Sunday.

Sanville & Chick's mill was shut down for repairs the latter part of the week.

"Going to the Fair" seems to be the song here lately.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 3.

The "False Alarm Fiend" and His Deadly Joke

(Click graphic for bigger.)

Chicago, 1916

More Firemen Killed and Maimed Responding to Calls of Mischievous Adults and Children Than in Going to Real Fires — St. Louis Fire-fighters Find One in Eight Alarms Are Fictitious — How Jack O'Connor Was Killed

The practical joker is always with us, and while the world may sometimes cry, "The joker is dead — long live the joker," it has long been acknowledged that the human zero in chronic deviltry is the chap who sends in a false alarm just to see the boys or "hosses" run. These hopeless boneheads are constantly bobbing up in nearly every community in our land, with results that sometimes land them in deep trouble or cause them to part with more or less of their precious dollars as penalty for their indulgence in a foolish and sometimes tragic amusement. However, a good, stiff monetary fine, or a term behind jail bars, seldom fails to cure the city or village cut-up of all further desire to "monkey" with fire alarm box, telephone or any other means of sending the fire lads on a hazardous run when no reason for it exists further than the silly joker's ambition to startle the public.

A St. Louis paper has found it quite necessary to take up this subject, and with good reasons, as the "false alarm fiend" seems to have carried his deadly joke far beyond the limit of tolerance in that city, with the result that lives have been lost and much human and mechanical energy expended for naught.

At 11:15 o'clock on the night of Aug. 8 some person, perhaps bibulous and certainly with a perverted sense of humor, observed a fire alarm box at Natural Bridge road and Sophia avenue, says the Post-Dispatch. At once he conceived the outlines of what appeared to be a brilliant joke. He walked up to the box, broke the glass in its front and pressed on a lever. Then, perhaps, he chuckled and walked to a safe spot and waited to see the fun.

Most of the firemen of Engine Company No. 31 were in their bunks when the alarm came in. They sprang to their places. The horses flew to their positions and, when the automatic harness fell, pawed impatiently to be away.

John O'Connor, a fine, stalwart, courageous man. sprang to the driver's seat and reached for the reins. One of them dropped. As he tried to recover it, the horses lunged and he fell headfirst to the floor, where he lay all crumpled up. Somebody pulled him to one side, another driver took his place, the engine went on its way.

Then a doctor came and looked at Jack O'Connor. Jack was dead, with a broken neck.

It is interesting to wonder whether the man who pulled the hook enjoyed his joke. It is interesting also to speculate on the nature of the mental make-up of such a man — whether it permits him to feel that he is guilty of Jack O'Connor's death.

"Hooks" in Bad Wreck.

It was a similar "joke" that sent Hook and Ladder Company No. 15 to Euclid and Cote Brilliante avenues on the night of July 4. The truck collided with a street car at Euclid. Captain Farrell and Firemen A. Gradell and J. Haberstroh were thrown to the ground and so cruelly mangled that they are not yet able to return to duty.

Capt. John Detwiler lay on a bed of suffering for 67 days, early in 1914, with both arms and his nose broken and his back badly wrenched because another idiot turned in a false alarm from Klemm street and Flora boulevard. Fireman George Harbaugh was out of service for 53 days with a fractured skull and Fireman E. Sedivec was out 30 days with a wrenched back from the same accident, a collision between their truck and a street car.

On the night of Nov. 7, 1915, Edward A. Murphy, a citizen, was run over by a fire truck responding to a false alarm, and was sent to the city hospital with both legs broken.

On the night of Dec. 5, 1915, Lieut. William Haas of Engine Company No. 11 was thrown from his wagon when responding to a false alarm and was severely injured.

On the night of July 27 last, G. Wadsack, a fireman, was badly hurt when the truck on which he was riding, after a false alarm, struck a tree.

In every one of these affairs, honest, decent, law-abiding men, trying to do their perilous duty for the public, were hurt because of a quirk in the brain of some other person. It is part of a fireman's job to take risks, but he has risks enough, heaven knows, in his regular work without having these added to them.

When Firemen Get Sore.

"You see, it is this way," one of them said to the writer recently. "We know we are taking chances all the time. You never hear a holler from us, tho, when we get hurt at a fire or going to one. It's when some fool turns in a false alarm and an accident smashes up some of our fellows that we get sore. Whoever sent Jack O'Connor to his death, for instance, is a murderer, pure and simple, in our eyes. It'll go hard some of these days with one of those guys if the boys ever get him dead to rights."

Every man from the Chief on down to the newest hostler in the department believes that there is a strange and especial danger in going to false alarms. They declare that their records prove it. It is comparatively rare, they say, that there is a collision or an upset in going to an actual fire.

The number of false alarms turned in is simply amazing. The total from Jan. 1, 1913, to Aug. 1, 1916, was 1,934, an average of a little more than 45 a month. Last year one out of every eight alarms recorded was a false one. The smallest number in any month was 20 for August, 1914, and the largest was 72, for November, 1913. Thus far in the current year the smallest number was 35, for April, while January and February each had 41.

There is a popular impression that most of these alarms are turned in by children. This is not true, according to Chief Henderson. Most of them, the Chief says, are turned in by men and particularly by men who drive various kinds of delivery wagons late at night. One of these sees a box, the Chief declares, turns in an alarm, drives on a block or so and waits to see what happens. The streets usually are deserted at the time, they are not detected at their work and consequently escape all punishment. The law provides a maximum penalty of imprisonment in the penitentiary for this offense, yet it is rarely inflicted because it is hard to obtain evidence for an arrest, to say nothing of conviction.

Children Sometimes "Jokers.”

Children are caught more frequently. They are invariably turned over to the Juvenile Court and an official of the Fire Department takes a hand in the prosecution. Whenever it is found to be a case merely of prankishness, the matter is usually ended by a stiff reprimand and by a recommendation that a parent of the child administer a sound spanking. This recommendation is generally followed and the result, Chief Henderson says, in most cases is salutary.

"It is with adults that the real trouble comes," the Chief added. "If we could only get the public to realize the enormity of the offense and to look upon the man who turns in a false alarm as an individual dangerous to the public welfare, who ought at once to be surrendered to the authorities, we could soon break up the practice.

Most of the serious accidents to trucks going to fires come from collisions with street cars. City ordinances require that when the bells of the fire engines are heard, motormen must stop their cars and drivers of all vehicles must draw up to the nearest curb and stop. Most of the motormen do this, the Chief says. Some of them do not but try to beat the engines across a street intersection.

"The United Railways, as a corporation, invariably cooperate with us," the Chief explained. "Some of the individual motormen do not. They usually advance the plea that, shut up in their vestibules, they did not hear the bells. It is often hard to disprove this. When we can do so, the street car company always fires the man and he cannot get his job back again. As a general thing, we have little trouble with motorists. They nearly always give us right of way when they can."

Want Better Traffic Regulations.

Most firemen believe that the traffic regulations of St. Louis for such emergencies are antiquated and insufficient. Altho our ordinances require all cars and autos to stop when the fire engines are coming, they are not rigidly obeyed as they are in other cities — in New York for instance. There the law says that traffic shall stop and it does stop. However, there are three or four traffic policemen on all corners in congested districts to see that it does.

Kansas City and other towns also have an admirable arrangement to stop traffic in congested districts. There on downtown corners are electric gongs. As soon as engines are started these gongs begin ringing, much like the bells at block signals on certain railroads. This is a signal to clear the thorofare, and the fire engines have an open road for minutes before they actually appear.

Chief Henderson has tried to get a similar arrangement authorized by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen. It would cost about $30,000 if electricity is furnished free by public service corporations, and our city lawmakers have not seen fit to incur the expense.

"If we had such gong signals, tho," the chief declared, "I would rather put them at places outside the downtown district. Really we have very few accidents downtown. They usually happen out in the quiet neighborhoods, late at night.

"I'll tell you what our worst trouble is, tho, and it's going to cost St. Louis a big conflagration some day. It is the congestion of traffic on downtown streets, where autos are parked. Some of these days we are going to have a fire on a street where it will take us half an hour or maybe more to get these cars out of our way, and by the time we have got a place cleared to work in the fire will be out of our control. A loss of five minutes getting to a fire is likely at any time to mean two or three additional hours getting the fire under control."

Some Motormen Are Reckless.

Curiously enough, many of the drivers of fire wagons believe that most collisions are really unavoidable accidents. "The bust-up usually comes so quick you don't know what has happened or how," one of them said, "until somebody is pouring water in your face and bringing you to. We always try to get the horses under control when we approach a street car crossing and most of the motormen do the best they can. But sometimes you are going along at a good clip and a street car is going at a good clip and before either you or the motorman realizes the danger — zowie!

"We are always afraid of the motorman who tries to beat us to the crossing. Maybe he is a minute or two behind schedule or is trying to get to the end of the line a minute or two before so he can stop for a bit of lunch. There is usually a bunch of excited people on the corner. Some of them motion to us to come on and maybe some of them motion to the motorman that he can make it. The law says he oughtn't to try to make it, but he goes ahead anyhow — there always are a few fools like that — and then it happens!

"The public could do a lot of good and save a lot of danger in these cases if it could only be properly educated. If a few of these reckless motormen were reported to the street car company once in a while, it would stop such foolishness. Understand, we haven't any quarrel with the motor men in general. Most of them try to obey the law and help us out all they can. It's the occasional fellow that takes a chance who makes all the trouble.

Public Should Help, Say Firemen.

"Maybe I feel pretty strongly about this, but it's a serious matter for us fellows. You just put it into your paper that if the public will cooperate with us in this matter and, above all, help us put the false alarm fiend out of business, we'll be satisfied."

Policemen, as a rule, cooperate with firemen in every way possible. Chief Henderson says he has never made a request of one at a fire without getting immediate and satisfactory response. However, strict enforcement of the rules requiring street cars and autoists to stop at the approach of a fire engine has always been lax and there have been few arrests and prosecutions.

The new parking ordinance for automobiles is proving helpful in keeping some of the downtown streets clear, altho the fire fighters would like to see it extended until no autos were left in the streets without drivers in charge of them.

They Had Better Watch Out.

Ten times in the last five days false alarms of fire have been sent in from the alarm box at Fifty-eighth street and South Wabash avenue. Last night, says the Chicago Journal, when Engine Company No. 51 arrived at the corner, its members questioned a little girl standing at the curbing.

"'Stubby' McGovern and 'Billy' Barry did it," she said. "They do it most every day and then they run away and hide.

"Stubby" and "Billy" are 8 or 9 years old. A policeman will talk to them today.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 12.

Seeks Action, Kills Self

1919

FREEPORT, L. I. — The desire of Stanley Simon, 19, for "more action" in a short story he was writing caused his death according to a coroner's verdict. A magazine returned a story to Simon, suggesting he get "more action" in it. Simon was experimenting with a revolver, when it exploded, killing him.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 5.

Memory Lost After Fall on Ice

1903

As the-result of falling on the icy sidewalk, Samuel A. Chapman, of Boston, a student at Annandale College, is suffering from a peculiar malady.

On the evening of January 20 Chapman, in company with two other students, called on friends near the college. On their return Chapman slipped on the icy path and, falling backward, struck the base of his spine. He suffered no immediate effects, and being helped up by his companions, walked on to the college. Next day he was unconscious, remaining so for two days. Upon regaining consciousness his memory was a blank. In about two weeks he made some progress, looking to the improvement of his memory. He is nineteen years old.


Cats' Eyes

Cats and other beasts of prey reflect fifty times us much light from their eyes as human beings.

Death of Venice Cecil Creveling.

1907, Leon, Iowa area

Venice Cecil Creveling, daughter of Clemul and Joannah Creveling, was born Dec. 8, 1896, at the old Creveling home near Lamoni, where she lived with her parents to the time of her death which occured Aug. 31, 1907, by falling from her father's load of lumber and being crushed by the wheel of the wagon. The only words she spoke were, "Papa, take me home."

By faith we are assured that the good Father hastened to this mournful plea and received the spirit to give it light and immortality and forever to dwell in that blest land where flowers, youth and beauty will never fade. We rely in the promise of Him who said: "Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom."

The funeral was from the home Sunday evening at 4 o'clock, conducted in the grove near the dwelling by Rev. Frank Spurrier of the Baptist church. The remarks were very appropriate, from the text: "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh." — Matt. 25:13. The funeral was largely attended with many sad hearts and sympathizing friends who with words and flowers paid their last tribute to all that was left of the mortaled innocence of the loved one. May the word of the Lord come to those sorrowing ones as in Abram's vision, saying "Fear not; I am thy shield." Submissive then may they reply: "Thy will be done."

This lovely bud, so young and fair,
Called hence by early doom,
Just came to show how sweet a flower
In Paradise could bloom.

Thou no more will join our number;
Thou no more sorrows know;
Yet again we hope to meet thee,
When this toiling life is done.

J. F. M.

Note: This article is from an old scrapbook from the Leon, Iowa, area. The last poem is inset slightly and each second line is indented. The signature J.F.M. is original to the article.

Death at the Supper Table (and Other Unfortunate News)

1907

MUSKEGON, MI. — Charles Bromstra, 37 years old, while working complained of pain in the region of his heart and said he thought he would die. At the supper table he expired.

MONTROSE, MI. — A broken brakebeam tumbled 14 box cars of a Bay City to Durand train on the C., S. & M., four miles south of here. Four of the cars were reduced to kindling wood and the track torn up for a long distance. Nobody was hurt.

DETROIT, MI. — Florence W. McGill, upon looking into the bathroom, found her mother lying dead in the tub, face downward, with water covering her head. She had been taking a foot bath and it is presumed that she was overcome and fell head foremost into the water.

PORT HURON, MI. — Guests at the Windermere hotel, Gratiot beach, have complained because of the fact that the waitresses employed at the hotel bathe in the lake at the same time as the guests take their daily plunge. The lake being very large, however, no attempt has been made to put a stop to the practice.

LANSING, MI. — William Henry Harrison, a quaint character, 72 years old, who worked for years at Delta and refused to accept any employment from his employer, dropped dead on the street here from apoplexy. He had just emerged from Beck's clothing store when he toppled over against a passerby and was dead before he could be lowered to the sidewalk.

AMERICUS, GA. — Bram Goodwin, a Sumter county farmer, dropped dead in a cotton field. His brother Arnold summoned and at the sight of the body he fell on it and expired.

JOLIET, ILL. — William Myers, a young man of McKeesport, Pa., who was stealing a ride on top of a coach of a passenger train was struck by the viaduct under the Michigan Central tracks at New Lenox and beheaded. Two companions, with whom Myers boarded the car in the yards at Chicago, escaped because they were lying flat on the car roof.

NEW YORK — Mrs. Catherine Gillighan, at the age of 107 years and four months, is dead at her home in the Bronx. She had lived in New York 35 years, coming here from Ireland at the age of 79 to join her eight children. Mrs. Gillighan ascribed her longevity to her habit of eating onions at every meal and her refusal to worry about anything. She never tasted medicine.

LIGONIER, IND. — Pat Summers, one of the best known horse breeders in this section and owner of Edifice, was killed by lightning while in a barn at his stock farm near this city during an electrical storm. Summers had just returned from Kendallville where he was training a large number of horses for the fall track. Several valuable colts were saved by Summers' son from the burning barn.

— Daily Eagle, Traverse City, Michigan, Aug. 3, 1907, p. 5.

In Safety and Danger

1905

The Scientific American recently called attention to the odd fact that the man who rides a few score feet in a New York City elevator runs a greater risk of injury than the man who travels from New York to Chicago and back on the fastest trains. No fewer than thirty persons were killed, and many more hurt, in New York elevator accidents in the first nine months of this year. No such proportion of those who traveled on the fastest passenger trains between the two cities were even hurt.

Yet the average man buys an accident insurance ticket whenever he starts on a railway journey of any length, and never thinks of such precautions before entering the car that lifts him to his office. Whenever a notable railway accident occurs he talks for days about the great loss of life. But he never thinks of the proportionately greater loss of life every day from accidents that befall men at home in their own houses.

The returned missionary who publicly complained the other day that, after living entirely unhurt for four years among the wildest savages of Africa, he had no sooner returned to civilization than he met with a railway accident that kept him in a hospital for six months curiously illustrated the habit of the human mind to dwell upon remote dangers and ignore those near.

Yet the fact is indisputable — the accident insurance companies have proved it to their financial loss and gain — that one of the most dangerous places a man can be is in his own home, whereas one of the safest is in a first-class railway train at full speed, while the very safest place on earth is aboard a first-class steamship in the middle of the Atlantic. — Chicago Inter Ocean.

An Arabian Druid in Paris

1905

Strange mystics are discovered in Paris every now and again. The latest is described as an Arabian Druid who inhabited the Rue de la Michodiere, a street in the center of the city.

His neighbors were startled at midnight to hear weird and discordant sounds issuing from the dwelling of Ali Bonem, followed by ritualistic incantations and liturgical chantings, alternatively plaintive and fierce. The reflection of flames was also observed.

When the door was burst open by the police a man of huge stature was seen, clothed in a long white sheet, his eyes rolling wildly, and in his hand a bloodstained knife. Around him a number of wax candles shed a mystic light, and on a piano, which had served as an altar, lay a disemboweled lamb. As a measure of precaution Al Bonem, the high priest, has been taken into custody. — London Globe.


Honesty Carried to Extremes

An American millionaire while driving an automobile in France ran over and killed a dog. Near the scene of the accident was a peasant, presumably the owner of the dog. To him the millionaire gave a bank note. But the peasant was not the owner of the dog and he was honest, but before he could make up his mind to return the money the automobile and its driver were beyond recall.

None the less the peasant would not keep the bill, and when the automobilist next rode past that place some months later he discovered the dog's skeleton at the side of the road with the bank note attached to it and a penciled line calling attention to the mistake.

Hunter is Shot By His Dog

1915

Act of Playful Animal May Cost Master's Life

OSKALOOSA, Iowa, Dec. 16. — Wilbur Kentfield may die as the result of a strange hunting accident near here. He was shot by his dog. Kentfield was leaning with crossed hands on the muzzle of his shotgun, which was cocked. His dog jumped at him for a caress and his paw struck the trigger, discharging the gun. The charge tore off Kentfield's right hand and badly mutilated the left. Part of the charge entered his neck.



Rare Fish is Caught

Six-Foot Acrotus Willoughby Landed at Gig Harbor

GIG HARBOR, Wash., Dec. 16. — In 1887 Charles Willoughby, Indian agent on the Quinalt reservation, forwarded to the National Museum in Washington, D. C., a most peculiar fish, which was named the Acrotus Willoughby. Another fish of the same variety has recently been taken here. It is six feet in length, has no scales and has a small head shaped like that of an oyster. It is smooth and brown and in shape resembles the perch, but is larger.