Owns Two Wonderful Pigs

1915

Pair of Jersey Reds That People Come Miles to See

GOSHEN, Ind., Dec. 16 — Two pigs, thought to be the most curious specimens of their kind ever born, altho dead are being preserved in alcohol by their owner, Frank Baker, of West Goshen. Scores of people have come miles to see the freak pigs, which were born with a litter of fifteen.

One has two bodies, but only one head; also has eight legs, two tails, four ears, one having a horn growing from it. The other pig has a trunk similar to that of a baby elephant; has one large eye in the center of its forehead, with a three-inch tail just above the eye, also a long tail at the natural place. The pigs are Jersey Reds.



Dinner Dish 167 Years Old

Owner Has Traced Meat Platter Back That Far

LEWISTOWN, Pa., Dec. 16. — Mrs. B. Ballentine, of this place, has in her possession a large steak platter that is over 167 years old. She can trace its existence back that many years.

Whale Fought Ocean Liner

1905

The Pacific Mail Company's liner Acapulco, which arrived early yesterday morning from Panama and way ports, had an exciting experience with a whale off San Blas. The leviathan, floating high out of the water, was enjoying a morning nap and giving its tough hide a sunbath, when the Acapulco came along.

The lookout sighted the whale and called the attention of the man at the wheel to the slumbering mountain of flesh that floated directly in the liner's path. The quartermaster, who was steering, gave the spokes of the wheel a twist and the Acapulco's head sheered off a little. A collision was avoided, but the Acapulco's side grazed the starboard shoulder of the big fish and jarred the whale from slumberland.

The whale was fully awake before the liner had entirely passed. He awoke in a bad temper and made a furious rush at the Acapulco's stern. The whale found the disturber of his dreams a pretty solid sort of fish, but, undaunted by his failure to ram his head through the steel plates, gathered himself for another charge.

He struck the steamer under the stern, and as he bounced off, slashed at the retreating hull with his tail. Then one more rush. This time the whale found his match, for the rapidly revolving propeller landed a bewildering succession of uppercuts on his lower jaw. With a splash of defiance, the leviathan dived and disappeared and the people of the Acapulco saw him no more.

Chief Officer Bailey interviewed the quartermaster, who had avoided the whale by such a narrow margin, and concluded a heart to heart sailor talk by advising the steersman in future to "let sleeping whales lie." — San Francisco Call.

Playhouses of the Past

1905

An interesting picture of the stage of our forefathers was drawn by Sir Henry Irving during an address delivered in Bath, England, at the unveiling of a memorial tablet to James Quin. After his retirement in 1751, Quin lived in Bath for fifteen years. He had been an actor for more than thirty-five years. For more than half that period he had held his own against all competitors until the advent of David Garrick, who reformed the stilted style of declamation then in vogue.

"Theatrical audiences in those days," said Mr. Irving, "must have been rather 'fearful wildfowl,' and often exacting more when they were pleased than when they were angry. There was always a danger that they would tear up the benches, or that some of them would rush upon the stage and deliver a general assault and battery. On one occasion, when Rich was attacked by a drunken nobleman, Quin saved his life by some vigorous swordplay.

"The actor's vocation then was full of stirring variety. Quin was a man of the readiest wit, and he is said to have employed it successfully in telling stories to an audience to keep them from rioting when the play was waiting for some royal personage, who had forgotten the time. Horace Walpole tells us that Quin, when pressed to play the part of the Ghost in 'Hamlet' — a part he considered beneath him — would make no answer but, 'I won't catch cold behind.' 'The Ghost,' says Walpole, 'is always ridiculously dressed, with a morsel of armor before and only a "block" waistcoat and breech behind.'

"The story how Quin befriended James Thomson, whom he found in prison for a debt of £70, is a worthy illustration of the actor's character. He ordered supper and claret — a good deal of claret — and when the bottle was going round he said with grim humor, 'It is time we should balance accounts.'

"The unfortunate poet, who was already alarmed at this burly visitor, took him for another creditor.

"'Mr. Thomson,' said Quin, 'the pleasure — I have had — in reading your — works — I cannot estimate — at less than £100 — and I insist on now — acquitting the debt.' And then he put down the money and walked out without another word."

Ship Rigger Braves Death

1905

His Vocation Is One of the Most Perilous There Is

Men who delve deep into the bowels of the earth and those who rear buildings to great heights in the skies represent the extreme in perilous endeavor. The men who work downward, according to statistics, face far greater danger than those who toil slowly skyward. Yet here is an altitudinous calling fraught with peril every minute, says the Detroit Free Press. It is the ship rigger's job, and, compared with steeple climbing, it is much the more onerous.

The men engaged in it are as well trained as circus athletes, though in the rigging of a ship the performers are carefully safeguarded. The ship rigger, however, does not know at what minute a rotten bit of timber or a worn rope may give way and precipitate him to death. With a wider use of steam vessels the decline of sailing ships is a natural result, so that now the rigger does not find as much work to do as in the palmy days of the fast clipper when American commerce whitened every sea.


Test Weldless Chain

There have been sent to the navy yard, Boston, for testing, several samples of a new kind of chain, in which the links are made of thin steel and molded without welding. It is believed that this weldless chain is stronger than the other chains now in use in the navy, and if the tests prove this it will probably be generally adopted for use by the bureau of equipment.

Portable Merry-Go-Round

1905

Device of Eastern Inventor That Delights the Children

One of the curious things which has been seen recently moving around the streets of the poorer quarters of Philadelphia is a perambulating merry-go-round, which makes an instant hit.

The apparatus is much the same as the larger ones, and is mounted on a tow and substantial truck, with a step in the rear to permit the exit and entrance of the delighted youngsters. Where a stop is made on sloping ground it is necessary to level the apparatus, which is accomplished by means of a telescoping rod fixed in the front. Likewise in the front there is a crank handle, by which the thing is revolved manually, and sometimes it will be connected with a hand organ and the usual amount of music turned out for the delectation of the tots who are fortunate enough to be possessed of the necessary penny which admits them to the interior.

The first one of these appeared on the streets some time ago, and was of somewhat crude construction, being largely the handiwork of the inventor and associates. The novelty proved such an attractive one that it has been decided to make them on a more elaborate scale, and, as stated, they will be leased on a royalty in much the same way as the hand organ business is done at the present time. For this purpose a stile has been added to the machine which is arranged to register the number of children riding, so that a proper division of the profits may be arrived at.

Sharks Bite? Oh, They're Afraid, Hawaiians Claim

1915

Fisherman Swims for Hours Near "Man-Eaters"

HONOLULU, Hawaii, Dec. 16. — South sea fishermen have branded the shark story as a myth, made up by authors of adventure stories.

They say there is no such thing as a man-eating shark.

There is "Dudie" Miller, for instance. Every one in the South Pacific knows "Dudie" Miller of Honolulu.

Recently he dangled naked in the tide, hanging in a life preserver in 100 fathoms of water, spearing fish. A 11-foot shark began circling him, attracted by dead fish the man carried in a sack strapped to his waist.

Hobnobs With Shark

"I want to show you something," said Miller, summoning two canoemen.

They watched the "man-eater" sweep around the fisherman poised in his life belt.

"Dudie" merely laughed. The canoemen lifted him from the water and deposited him again 100 yards away. And there the fisherman and the shark hobnobbed all afternoon.

Kahia Moe, maker of hula drums, is another of these myth shatterers.

Rides on Shark's Back

Kahia Moe, a native Hawaiian, stretches shark-skin across his far-famed dance drums. And to make them properly resonant, as well as to consecrate them fittingly, the shark, "must be slain in mortal combat," he maintains.

And so Kahai Moe kills his shark in the water, with a knife, slitting the pallid belly with a dexterous slash. He has dispatched hundreds in this kind of "mortal combat." And he speaks of them as "cowards."

David Mahu is an expert killer. When the water is low he leaps into the Pakule and rides sharks, straddling them with his naked limbs.

"Shark attack living men?" chuckles David Mahu. "It is a joke! They are even afraid to bite a dead horse until they're almost gone with hunger!"

Displays His "Happy Family"

1915

Printing Firm's "Zoo" Proves Real Attraction

PERRY, Oklahoma, Dec. 16. — In the front show window of the Southern Printing Company's office here is a "Happy Family" that attracts the attention of hundreds of people. Living happily together and eating from the same dishes are many beautiful canary birds, guinea pigs of different kinds, squirrels, white and spotted rats, horny toads, and a pair of beautiful Persian kittens. It is a sight worth looking at.

Back of the office is a garden of beautiful flowers, and cages in which are tame possums, pet coons that will follow visitors around like dogs, over a hundred guinea pigs of many kinds, pigeons and other birds and animals. "Wish you could all enjoy them with us," is the company's message to Blade readers.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 7.


1910

A Funeral in Japan

Tokyo, Japan. — In Japan a funeral procession is supposed never to go out of the front gate of a house, the back gate being generally used, and if there is no back gate an arch or ring of bamboo is held by two men within the front gate and the bier passes through that. After a funeral salt is sprinkled on the threshold and the house is swept out.


Natural Antipathy

Work kills a few men, but that isn't why so many are afraid of it.

Hit by Five Bullets; Hurt? Certainly Not

1915

Leaden Pellets From Revolver Strike His Breast, but Leave Only Slight Bruises

ATLANTA, Ga., Dec. 16. — A. W. Villard, 33 years old, signal operator of engine house No. 1, is apparently bulletproof. This was most convincingly demonstrated when S. W. Bacon, Jr., 36 years old, want ad manager of an Atlanta paper, fired five .32-caliber bullets "into" Villard from a revolver held a few inches from his body.

The shooting occurred in the Empire Life building, where Villard said he found Bacon in an office with Mrs. Villard, his wife, from whom the fireman has been separated for some time.

When Bacon started shooting at Villard, the latter was very close to the gun. Bacon fired at Villard's chest; the latter, said Bacon, instead of dropping to the floor, cursed him; Bacon fired again, and, he said, Villard cursed him again. This performance was repeated five times.

Then Bacon stood with the smoking, empty revolver in his hand, while Villard, somewhat dazed and confused from loud noise of the gun and the thumping shock of the five leaden pellets striking against his chest, reached down and picked up two of the bullets which hit him.

Later Villard picked out the other three bullets from against his skin, where they lodged harmlessly, leaving nothing more serious than blue bruises.

The police could not assign any reason for the bullets not taking fatal effect upon Villard, except that at the time Villard was wearing a heavy coat and overcoat.

Mrs. Villard, her husband declared, formerly worked for Bacon as a stenographer, and for about a year had been "going with" Bacon. For a long time Villard and wife have been living apart. He said he began to suspect recently that she was still going with Bacon. So, on the afternoon of the shooting he followed Bacon to the Empire Life building, and then up into the building and to an office of a friend of Bacon's, where the shooting occurred.

Plan to Play Ice Baseball

1915

Big Leaguers Get a New Idea — Scheme In the Making

Winter baseball played on the ice by major leaguers will be offered to New York fans who can't get enough of the old ball game in the summer, if plans of the promoters pan out.

"Wild Bill" Donovan, Heine Zimmerman, Rube Oldring and Harry McCormick are the promoters, and they reason it this way:

The winter rent on the Polo grounds could be paid from the proceeds of the skating ball game; the games would be played on skates with an indoor baseball; the ice would benefit the sod of the field, and the tariff on pleasure skaters when games are not in progress would leave a nifty profit.

The plans are only in the making, however.


Athletics Sign Boy of Seven?

The claim has often been made that Connie Mack, manager of the Philadelphia American League team, signs his ballplayers when they are infants, and Jack Doyle, Chicago White Sox scout, claims to have the dope in one case.

"I got a tip on Davies, an outfielder," says Doyle, "watched him in several games and decided to sign him.

"I found he had been signed by Connie Mack when he was only 7 years old. He is only 17 now and was with Mack's team last season."

Eskimo Bill of Fare

1905

Salmon the "Staff of Life" of the People in Far North

You are indebted to recently returned explorers from Eskimo land north of Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, for information in this article.

A whole winter spent near the villages of these curious people afforded an intimacy in regard to their regular bill of fare which in some respects is new to us. It is hardly consistent with the truth, however, to mention "table fare" in this connection, since tables there are none. Each person eats from his hands, nor are finger bowls to be mentioned, for use either before or after meals. There are circumstances incident to meal time in an Eskimo igloo which, to a refined stranger, are surprising. The process of mastication is carried on with faithful observance to gastric demands, and in utter oblivion to the presence of others than the performer. The teeth of the men and children are good, while those of the women are notably poor. This last is on account of the constant chewing of skins and sinew which is necessary for the proper softness of clothing. "The chewing mill" must operate all day long, and all the long years of an Eskimo woman's life.

Salmon is the staff of life to the Eskimo. In the absence of cereals of any sort, it is corn and wheat. During the three or four months of summer time the fish are caught in nets and harvested. Long lines of rawhide are stretched between trees or poles, upon which the fish are hung to cure. When dried, this harvest is placed on a high scaffold by the side of the igloo, or native house, out of reach of dogs and other animals. This scaffold, always to be seen with its accompanying igloo, is the cellar, pantry, kitchen cupboard and preserve closet of the family. It is also the refrigerator. Perfectly cured salmon is not a food to be despised by anyone. The natives strip off a piece, as salted codfish is stripped by any Yankee, and hold it over the lamp or fire. When the skin begins to crack and writhe, the fish is "done." This heating liberates the oil and improves the taste. It is then bitten off in small pieces and chewed for a long time.

When Food Supply Is Short

The Eskimo are sometimes neglectful in harvest, and their supply of food runs short. They then resort to decayed fish, which has died on the river banks after spawning in the fall. During the winter they go to these wholesale slaughter houses and sled the provisions back to their igloos. This food, eaten often with rancid seal oil, so infests with its offensive odors the persons and houses and vicinities of these people that association with them at this season is almost impossible.

Little cooking is ever done, much of the flesh of beast or bird being taken raw. When on a journey up or down the water's edge, it is no great trouble to row ashore, draw the kayak up on the beach, invert it for a roof, and under its cover prepare dinner or supper.

One of the white men whom I know spent a night in a native igloo and was waited upon by the "lady of the house" in true hospitable fashion. After the dried salmon had been divided and handed around among a half dozen Eskimo and the one white man stranger, this "lady of the house" dropped down on her knees, crawled through the low, long entrance to the igloo, and returned with a birch-bark basket. Glancing at the stranger with an assurance that "the best on the scaffold was at his pleasure," she proceeded to break in pieces the contents of the basket. It was frozen huckleberries in chunks, for even seal oil cannot resist a temperature of 70 below. She reached into a corner and brought out a true white man's frying pan, which she put over the fire and into it dropped the chunks of preserves. As it melted, she stirred the mass with her fingers, now and then putting them, dripping with the purple oily juice, into her month, and sucking them with a peculiar sound of satisfaction, again passing looks of assurance to the stranger for whom she was taking all this trouble. When the mass was melted she poured it into a dirty can and passed it to her guest. Not one of the family was offered so much as a mouthful. It was a "company dainty."

Every sort of bird is trapped or shot by the native Eskimo. Little birds, like the chickadees and red poles, are given to the grandparents of the family. Whether this is on account of superstition, or the idea that these little things are really the proper diet of old age, no one knows. It may be simple courtesy. The main supply of bird food is obtained from the flocks of ptarmigan, a bird closely allied to the prairie chicken of the Western states. These birds do not fly, but walk long distances. They may be easily tracked after a light snow. They subsist, during the winter, on willow buds along the ravines and watercourses. The natives lay snares for them in the same way in which they catch the fish under the ice.

Snaring the Ptarmigan

Branches are woven together and laid along the margin of a willow thicket, here and there being left an opening about which a noose is placed. The ptarmigan have a method of pushing their way through any obstruction, and so, when they come to these little openings apparently among the willows, they push, and are caught in the nooses. One reason why these birds do not fly is from the fact that they are so gorged by their food that they are too heavy. They eat as many as they can hold of the willow buds, which expand in the crop to immense dimensions, giving an almost deformed appearance to the bird. Only the tiny center of the bud is edible, the husks being of no service, and so large quantities must be taken to make a square meal. These soften by reason of the snow taken with them melting in the crop of the bird.

Another bird which the native Eskimo eats is the spruce grouse. It subsists upon the spruce buds and the flesh is highly flavored with this, to the white man, objectionable feature. During the winter prospectors drink freely of spruce tea, believing it to be preventive of scurvy, though they could be induced to partake of spruce grouse only with difficulty, it may be that the bird does possess some remediable agency to the natives. Hawks and owls are eaten with the rest of the birds. One exception, however, exists in favor of the Alaskan jay, which may not be so much as touched by the natives. These birds are never hunted, and are so fearless that they would come in at the door of the white man's cabin, and help themselves to anything in the line of cheese or pie or cake. One daring and curious fellow went so far as to snatch a piece of laundry soap and carry it away to his home in the pines. Whether this was for common family use or for food no one knew; probably the latter, since the native Eskimo are said to eat soap when they can obtain it. Little marvel when they are so fond of decayed fish and rancid seal oil.

Birds that are caught are simply stripped of their feathers before being eaten, unless the skin is needed for wearing apparel, when it is stripped off and hung away to dry before being chewed by the women tanners.

The greatest delicacy of any bird is the eye. This is always given to the babies or little children of the family. It is plucked out and eaten at once with great relish, while the older members look on with pleasure, very much as civilized parents look on when their children partake of gumdrops or gooseberries.

Still in the Kindergarten

1905

Those Who Can Be Interested in Nothing That Is Not a "Game"

After an intelligent and watchful mother had sent her children to a famous kindergarten for several months she withdrew them because she found that they were being ruined by "getting the attitude of regarding everything as a game" — that is, instead of learning through games how to go about the serious business of life, they were learning to approach everything in the careless, make-believe spirit of play.

There is a hint in this for our colleges. There is a hint in it for all those who do puzzles, and play chess, and ride to hounds, and fool with rings and bars to develop their minds and bodies. The world is cursed with tens of thousands of human beings who have the best natural advantages, but can get up the steam of enthusiasm only for some "game" that is useless in its aim, and no more useful in its method, than its corresponding reality would be.

It is as certain as cause and effect that he who takes play seriously will take serious things playfully. — Saturday Evening Post.


Sour Expression Caused Divorce

Carrie Fields has been granted a divorce from Dr. L. S. Fields at Sanborn, Iowa, because the husband did not like her make of pancakes and ridiculed them. She testified that the expression upon the doctor's face when eating the cakes was such it might work permanent injury to her health.

Boys Play Skittles With Skulls

1905

Numerous bones and skulls hare been recently dug up near the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, and boys of the locality are playing skittles with them.

This will soon be stopped, as the human debris is to be carefully collected by the workmen who are excavating in the district.

The skulls and bones come from the old graveyard of the Abbey of St. Martin-des-Champs, which existed where the Commercial Conservatoire now stands. There was also another cemetery, that of St. Nicolas, in the same district, and it was built over in the eighteenth century. — Paris correspondence, London Telegraph.


Japanese Live By Rule

Their Diet and Habits Regulated Strictly Through a Thousand Years

An army officer, discussing recently with friends the surprising immunity from sickness of the Japanese troops as manifested in the present war, said that, while the first cause was doubtless the diet prescribed, the real reason was to be found in the way the dietary is adhered to.

The Anglo-Saxon fighting man might be told what to eat and what to eschew, but centuries of personal liberty in eating and drinking and the ordering of his daily regimen to suit himself had given him a certain independence. With the gallant little yellow man, however, the adherence to the instructions they receive on such matters was slave-like.

Their minutest personal actions had been regulated through a thousand years of feudal strife and dependence, which, taken with their peculiar temperament, had made them submissive to a degree unknown among the freer races, or races which, if not freer, had freer institutions, in which minute details of life were not so closely regulated.

Saying He Never Felt Better, Died

1905

The death of W. H. Rockhill, ex-clerk of the courts of this county, here verifies in a way the thesis of Goethe that no man can survive a happy moment.

He had been feeling ill and went to the office of his physician to tell the doctor that he was improving in health and that he never felt better for many days.

The words had no more than escaped his lips than he keeled over and died of heart disease. — Lebanon correspondence, Cincinnati Enquirer.


Effects of Prosperity

In the six years of the country's greatest prosperity, from 1897 to 1903, average prices of breadstuffs advanced 65 per cent, meats 23.1 per cent, dairy and garden products 50.1 per cent, and clothing 24.1. All these were products of the farmer and stockman who profited more than any other class of the community by these advances. The miner benefited 42.1 per cent by that advance in the average price of metals. The only decrease in the average prices of commodities in that period was in railway freight rates which decreased from .798 per ton-mile in 1897 to .763 in 1903, a loss of 4.4 per cent. The report of the Interstate Commerce Commission shows that the average increase in the pay of railroad employees in the period was trifle above 8.5 per cent.

Get Measurements of Earth

1905

Elaborate Methods Used by Scientists in Getting a Base Line

Ever since the caliph, Almamoun, in 814 A. D. set his astronomers to measure a degree on the earth's surface with wooden rods, there has been a craving for greater accuracy in this supremely important starting point of geodesy.

Science and ingenuity have been employed to devise some measuring rod which shall be absolutely reliable and not subject to variation. The American Inventor has some interesting remarks upon the subject:

The science of geodesy is making rapid strides along the line of accuracy, and there is not much left to be perfected in the way of method. The all important problem of modern, as well as ancient geodesy, of course, is the measurement of the dimensions of the earth, which enters into all practical work of surveying, navigating and terrestrial physics.

The International Scientific association several years ago undertook the problem, the different nations having agreed to contribute their share toward an accurate determination.

The determination was undertaken in Ecuador in 1901, and extended from the Colombian to the Peruvian frontier, and every possible refinement to attain the maximum degree of accuracy was adopted.