Farmer Solves Mystery of Disappearing Chickens

Indiana, 1906

CAUGHT CHICKEN THIEF

Thomas Covington Solves Mystery of Disappearing Fowls

Repeated thefts of chickens from the farm of Thomas Covington, on the Covington road, west of the city, were solved this morning when Mr. Covington discovered that a steel trap which he had set last night to catch the thief had been drawn entirely through the small opening into the chicken-roost. Mr. Covington in triumph drew the trap and its prisoner into open daylight, acquiring at the same time a knowledge of the identity of the thief and a closer and more intimate acquaintance with a member of the skunk family than he had ever before enjoyed during his long experience as a farmer.

—The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Feb. 24, 1906, p. 1.

$75,000 In Gems Lost During Fire

1920

NORTH ATTLEBORO, Mass. — Details of police guarded all day the ruins of the Codding block, which was destroyed by fire, at a loss of $75,000, and employees of the water department made vain efforts to thaw out the ice in the surrounding streets, trying to locate thousands of dollars worth of diamonds and precious stones which were literally swept away by the force of water which the hosemen played on the flames.


Taken After 6-year Search

Trailed Across Country, Man Charged With $20,000 Theft

After a six year search during which the trail led across a dozen states, Joseph E. Meredith, former freight agent for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad at Libertyville was arrested in Westchester, Pa., and brought back to Waukegan, near Chicago, for trial.

Meredith was indicted in 1914 by the Lake County grand jury on the charge of embezzling $20,000 from the St. Paul railroad.

Although he was being sought by railroad detectives, Meredith got a job in Westchester as yardmaster for the Delaware & Lackawanna. He is 42 years old, and has a wife and two children living in Buffalo.

Man and Wife Killed By Gas

1920

New York. — Gas which escaped when a rubber tube was disconnected from a feed plug in the floor by a cat caused the death of Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Weber in their Brooklyn apartment. The dead cat, its paws resting on the tube, lay under the gas stove.


Constantinople

Within its girdling walls Constantinople rises, like Rome on its seven low hills, crowned by the splendors of mosques, whose gleaming cupolas and minarets, silhouetted against the blue sky, look down on the waters of the Bosporus. A strange, incongruous huddle of palatial buildings and tumble-down hovels, of stately avenues, and filth-littered lanes, flanked by malodorous bazaars, through which the human tide streams and surges.


$31,632 Stolen From Post Office

Cleveland.—Thefts of $31,632 in currency and Liberty bonds, addressed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, from the mails by a former employee of the registry department of the local post office, were revealed.

—Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, January 9, 1920, page 4.