Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1892 — SOMEWHAT STRANGE. [ARTICLE]

SOMEWHAT STRANGE.

ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF EVERY DAY LIFE, a i, Queer Episodes and Thrilling Adventures Which Show That Truth is Stranger Than Fiction. A very curious case has just been brought before one of the Rouen law courts. • Some time ago a tight-rope dancer was performing at a local music hall when the wire suddenly broke and she fell from a giddy height right on the unfortunate conductor of thp orchestra, who was so overcome by the shock that he fainted and when he recovered consciousness was found to be deaf and dumb. The affair created no little excitement in the Norman town, and a tremendous controversy soon prevailed. The inhabitants, indeed, were divided into two camps— one side inclining to the opinion that the unlucky conductor was only shamming, while the other stoutly and indignantly maintained that there could not be the slightest doubt as to his good faith. Although nearly two years have elapsed since the accident occurred, the unfortunate musician has not uttered a syllable, nor has he shown by the most feeble sign that he can hear a word that is addressed to him. His application for damages, however, has been rejected. In the judgment it is set forth that if he became dumb it was not owing to his “receiving” the tight-rope dancer on his head, but to the “saisissement” resulting therefrom, and attributable to his excessively nervous temperament. This judgment is exciting a certain amount of criticism, considerable sympathy being felt in many quarters for the unlucky victim of the music-hall accident.

Charles TV. Duntz lives on the Landing road, Kinderhook, N. Y., near the Halfway house. One morning recently, while his wife was engaged in cleaning a portrait that had been in their possession more than a quarter of a century, she accidentally broke through the cover on the back and saw underneath it a piece of paper. She pulled it out and found that it was an old $2 bill. She called her son’s attention to it and the lad took the cover off. Underneath it they found two SSOO bills issued by a bank in Massachusetts, one in 1856, the other in 1861. During the day Mr. Duntz took the bills to the Union Bank and learned that the bank of issuance was still in existence, and that the bills were probably genuine and worth their face value. Mr. Reynolds, teller of the bank, communicated with the Massachusetts bank people and learned that it had SSOO bills of the old state issue still out and was ready to redeem them if they were genuine. About twenty-eight years ago, says Rough Notes, this picture was sent to Mr. Duntz by a wealthy relative, who requested ihat it should be carefully kept in the family, the portrait being that of a daughter who is still living. Mr. Duntz thinks that the donor placed the money where it was found, expecting that it would be discovered some day when it would be of some real benefit to the Bnder. She was very peculiar in her ways at all times. Mineral Springs (Ohio) comes to the front with a monstrosity. The head of the child, if such it can be called, resembles a rhinoceros, and is of soft cartilage and almost transparent. By close observation the blood can be traced. The least touch will cause the child to open its mouth and make a noise like an enraged animal, says the San Francisco Examiner. A triangular mark of blue color extends ontirelv across its forehead. The oase is vouched for by Dr. Connor, N. TV. Cross and E. W. Johnson, of Mineral Springs. The freak consumes about three quarts of milk daily. The ehild belongs to a family residing near Blue Creek, in that county. Its left eye is black, while the right eye is a deep blue. Its hair from its nose back to the right side is light and fine, while the opposite is coarse and black. The left hand and foot resemble the claws of an animal. It makes short barks like a dog.

A suit for breach of promise of marriage was recently brought against a woman, and decided against her, too, at the Assizes in Chester, England. The plaintiff was a young farmer named Albert Timmis, and he sued Miss Mary Birch, a young woman of small fortune. The plaintiff said that for two or three years Miss Birch had “kept him dangling at her heels just to please her vanity, without the slightest intention to redeem her promise to marry him. At the last moment she threw' him over in a most heartless fashion. She said she was too good for a farmer’s wife. ” She also insinuated that he was after her money. The young farmer said he wanted to clear his character of these aspersions. The Judge said the young man had a real grievance, his letters revealed manly and touching sentiments, and he had been badly treated. The jury gave him £SO damages. I. Hough, a laborer at Castle Rock, Col., was driving a pin in the ground with a hatchet, when a bolt of lightning descended from a clear sky and struck him. The top was taken off his hat and consumed and the rim of the hat was split. His hair was singed all over his head and upon the crown it is burned in precisely the shape of a tonsure, a spot about the size of a quarter being left wholly bare. A livid mark is left across his breast from shoulder to shoulder and directly above his heart a hole was burned in his shirt. Around the body, below the waist, extends a belt of flesh about four inches wide, black and blue and dotted with numerous small holes. Down his back and legs are streaks, and the inside of his legs are burned. Hough remained unconscious till 10 o’clock, when he recovered his senses and is still alive.

There is nothing unusual in hair turning white, but a case in which the hair turned black again after being white was recently told by a gentleman from Detroit. A lady of that city originally had black eyes and hair, but in the course of time, when she had attained the age of about seventy, her hair turned pure white. This was expected, but about a year ago her hair began darkening and is now as black as jet. There is no doubt about the change, nor was any artificial means used to produce it, so the case is certainly one of the most remarkable recorded in the annals of medical history. The lady was not conscious of any change in diet or in her physical condition that would justify the curious phenomenon, so it is absolutely inexplainable on any known hypothesis. A unique collection of cats is possessed by Dr. Susan Janeway Coltman, of Germantown, Pa., a much respected lady who studied medicine but has not practised since she inherited her father’s fortune in 1883. The cats number twenty-two in all, and include yellow Persian, Manx, white Maltese, English tiger, “feather-tailed" Turkish, Skye, Zanzibar and other felines of unique

beauty or of illustrious pedigree. Mis* Coltman values her pets at $5,000. When her cat family grows larger than she wishes it to be, she sells the superfluous kittens and devotes the proceeds to charity. An equipage that would have attracted attention even in old Acadia is that driven by Uncle Dennett of Cape Elizabeth, Me., who supplies the summer cottagers of that vicinity with milk, eggs, and garden truck. It consists of a two-year-old bull, harnessed by means of a crooked yoke to a light cart, which is also a boat. By means of reins of rope attached to a ring in the bull’s nose and drove through rings on his horns, he is driven as easily as most horses. With, this queer outfit Uncle Dennett makestwo or three trips a week to the beach, crossing the Spurwink River on the wayThe bull swims the river like a dog, and the water-tight cart-body easily supportsthe driver and load. “Did you ever ride on a train where they stop to kill snakes?” asked a young: man a few days ago in the Blairsville(Penn.) Reporter. “Well, I did. Whilecoming over the Redstone branch, ia Fayette County, last week, the train suddenly checked its speed and stopped. On going to the windows and platform to learn the cause of the sudden stoppage the passengers were treated ton novel sight. The fireman, with a long: poker, and the engineer, with a ISnk, were making frantic efforts to kill a. large snake. When the task was completed the fireman coolly remarked to* his companion, ‘John, here is where we killed that one yesterday. ’ ” John S. Alles, of Pittsburg, Pa., is said to suffer with an annual recurrence of hydrophobia. When he was twelves years old he was bitten by a mad dog im the street. The wound healed in a few weeks, but a year afterward he becameill and developed all the symptoms of hydrophobia. Under the influence of powerful opiates he at last became quiet and slept, awaking exhausted, but apparently well. He is now twenty-seven; years of age, and every August since hes was bitten has had a recurrence of the hydrophobia symptoms, and each more violent than the last. The young and the old are smart in the Pine Tree State. Ida Gibbs, the ten-year-old daughter of John Gibbs of Brooks, Me., has driven a horse rake all over 100 acres of hay fields this summer, raking the hay up clean, and has taken care of the horses besides. The town of Cooper, Me., boasts of a lady of seventythree who rakes up after a mowing machine as well as any of the men.

A white swallow was seen in theMystic Valley at Vest Medford, Mass., the other afternoon, to the wonder of a. number of people of’that town. Thebird was pure white with the exception, of a little dark spot on the under side of the wings near the body. When lastseen a flock of common swallows wasdriving the white bird from the field. The danger of small boys fishing for big game was illustrated at Pottstown, Penn., by John Keim, a lad of thirteeni years. He stood on the Schuylkill Riverbridge and in attempting to land a fivepound bass he was pulled over the railing and into the water, thirty-five feet below. Friends pulled him out and. found his leg broken, but he got the fish. According to J. B. Winkler, there is only one penalty for all crimes in Corea. —to cut off the heads of the culpritsSome time ago Mr. Winkler charged a. servant with stealing his sleeve-buttons, and, believing that he had swallowed them, the tribunal before which he was arraigned politely offered to have him cut open in search of evidence. The Rev. John 11. Coleman, a Methodist minister of Troy, says that Ms father and his uncle are the oldest twins now living in the United States. His father is a farmer of Gloversville, N. Y., and his uncle is a Methodist minister of Fond du Lac, TVis. They are ninety-two years of age, have “never been sick a day” and “do not know the taste of liquor or tobacco.” Hard luck and constant disappointments caused a lady in Paris to commit suicide in a novel way. She applied leeches all over her body, and soon died of exhaustion.