Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1879 — CURRENT CURIOSITIES. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT CURIOSITIES.

A Connecticut curiosity is a robin with a snow-white head. A four-legged goose is one of the curiosities of Madison, Fla. Oregon has a boiling lake, from the bosom of which a black smoke constantly arises. A Woodbridge (Ct.) hen has built her nest in a willow tree, eight or ten feet from the ground. The scarf around a little boy’s neck in Mankato, Minn., caught on a nail when he jumped out of a window, and he was choked to death. The physician told Thomas Smith, of Warrenton, Mo., that he must die within a few hours. “Are you sure of that?” Smith earnestly asked. The medical man said there could be no mistake about it. Then Smith confessed the murder of Greenbury Clark, forty years ago. A couple of Bucksport, Me., were married by a Justice. He afterward discovered that his term had expired at the time of the ceremony, and that it was illegal. The “husband ” proposed a second marriage, but the woman said she believed she did not care to, that she had had enough of married life for the present, and she left town for Boston. The Portland Advertiser relates the story of the mare of a physician in that place being allowed to browse on rose bushes in a yard. A few moments thereafter the animal was heard kicking on the front doorsteps and holding out her tongue, as though she wanted it examined, which was done, and a thorn was found stiding in it. The objectionable matter was removed, and the animal seemed well contented. We don’t know whether to class this as one of the current curiosities or a current fraud. Leastwise we print it exactly as we find it in the Knoxville (Tenn.) Tribune: “ Col. John Hannah died on Sand Mountain, Jackson county, Ala., a few days ago, aged 136 years. He was born Feb. 12, 1743, and died March 20,1879. He served under Gen. Washington in the French war, and obtained the rank of Captain. He knew the great Irish-American orator, Patrick Henry, when he was but a mere boy in Virginia. Capt. Hannah had never been ill until he was a century old, and his eye-sight was perfect at the time of his death.”

And now we have the opening fish story of the season. It comes from Prince George’s county, Va. Dr. Rowland, while walking near the banks of a gurgling brook, discovered, in tolerably shallow water, a school of fish of large size. Being unable to resist the invitation to the sport called up by the sight, he determined to fire upon the fish with an ordinary pocket revolver, the only weapon at hand. The result of his shot was remarkable, three largesize pike and a freckle rising to the top of the water and remaining motionless. Upon being taken from the water three of the pike showed plainly the marks of the single pistol-ball, but the freckle was untouched, and was no doubt killed by the concussion. The Paris National publishes the details of a wonderful gastronomical feat performed by two Hayti negroes. They betted S2OO that they would eat without stopping for six hours, and won easily, sitting down to table at noon and not rising before half-past 6. In the long interval they succeeded in consuming eight soles an gratin, twelve lamb cutlets, a joint of roast veal weighing eight pounds, three kilogrammes of asparagus, and an omelet of twelve eggs, besides a Dutch cheese, twelve pounds of bread, and fifteen bottles of wine. At the conclusion of the performance the two negroes left the house with a very satisfied expression of countenance, dividing between them the 50 louis which they had thus pleasurably earned. The first snake story of the season reaches us through the medium of a Georgia exchange, and it isn’t bad for a beginner. B. J. Rutherford, of Berrien county, in that State, shouldered his trusty rifle and sauntered into the woods f«r a shot or so at squirrels. He had gone a little way when his dog started a rabbit. The rabbit bobbed into a briar patch near by and began fooling the dog out of the little sense he had by dodging here and there until Rutherford concluded to put a stop to the thing. Going up to the briar patch he was surprised to see the rabbit lying dead at the edge of it. The dog bounded bravely up to the dead rabbit, but dropped his tail between his legs and slunk away. Rutherford stood trying to account for the death of the rabbit, when he heard a rattle. As he sprung back the wiry length of a rattlesnake shot past. The gunner quickly drew a bead on the snake’s head, which, unhurt, quickly made a second spring, alike unsuccessful. Rutherford, not having time to reload, threw away his gun and seized a stout club from the thicket. He drove the snake, which retreated tail foremost until the briars we_re reached. Then the reptile made another dash. Rutherford’s club fended the blow, hurling the snake like a whip lash broken from the stock, ten or fifteen feet. Again the combatants approached each other, but Rutherford’s second blow was given so fairly that the snake ran back tail foremost and head up, and so into a gopher hole, evidently his abiding place. Rutherford went to the house, got a shovel, and soon killed his enemy, which measured fjvg feet from tongue so rattle.