Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1893 — SOMEWHAT STRANGE. [ARTICLE]

SOMEWHAT STRANGE.

ACQIDENTS AX’D INCIDENTS OF EVERY D„\Y MKE. Queer Facts and Thrilling Adventures Which Show That Truth Is Stranger Thau Fiction. “Speaking of strange bets on an election,” said Col. Joe Rucker of Colorado. 1 “the one that takes the ribbon over anv I have ever seen mentioned was bet, lost, and paid by an enthusiastic Greenbacker many years ago. One of these enthusiasts at that time, whose view of the political situation was seen through the roseate-hued spectacles of a reform organ, was certain that a man by the name of Brown would be elected Governor of Missouri, and bet everything he had except the clothing on his’back and a young wife. Either his affection for his wife or his knowledge of law prevented his making a wager of her, so as a last bet he wagered his services for a year agaiust SSOO. “Of course he lost, and, borrowing a few dollars from a friend, he sent his wife back ‘to her folks’ in Missouri, while he presented himself to the saloon keeper in Denver with whom he had made the bet. The latter, more as a joke than anything else, grubstaked him aud sent him out to prospect. The first month a small find rewarded his labors, and cupidity then caused the saloon keeper to insist on the payment of the wager in full. To curtail the narrative, he carried out his wager of a year’s service scrupulously, and located two more mines, from which the winner, though now wealthy, is still drawing dividends. Upon tiro fnlfii-

' ment of his obligation he sent for his wife, and is now employed by one of the street car companies of llcnver at about SSO a month, and will probably never get above that figure.” At the head of the extensive widening of the St, John’s River, in Volusia township, Florida, that is known as Lake George, lie two or three swampy islands. One of these has a few acres of ground that stand high enough out of the water to encourage orange trees and other remunerative growths, and also to afford room for a, cabin. The cabin is occupied and the trees are cultivated by a queer old fellow who has built a long ramshackle bridge from dry land to a little dock that stands in the sedge close to the main channel; Here the steamer stops on his signal to take oranges and letters, or to deliver flour and other groceries. He is a hermit who seldom ventures to the mainland. Passengers on the river steamers occasionally see him busied about the little shed on his wharf, an extraordinary figure in a homespun suit of brown, with a patch of startling white on the seat of his trousers and an indescribable liat that may once have been a “plug,” but that has been chopped aud banged and battered and unroofed until it resembles the wreck of a Napoleonic chapeau more than anything ehe. He is indifferent to criticism, however, for he lives apart "from men. His nearest neighbor is a lighthouse keeper, who would have to hunt for him with a telescope. Some affect to believe that in his younger days he was a pirate.

A very strange freak of nature is reported from Roseburg, S. C. It is a baby, whose right hand bears the imprint of a human face. The face occupies the entire palm, and is as clearly outlined as though painted on porcelain. It is the countenance of a little child about three years old lying asleep, with the eyelashes drawn in fine dark lines on the full cheeks. The mouth seems to be slightly parted, and the lips are delicately tinted'. The baby whose hand contains this singular portraiture is the clild of Clarke Osborne, a merchant of Roseburg, and Mrs. Osborne declares that the face in the infant’s palm is that of a little girl she lost about three months ago. Relatives and intimate friends profess to be able to see a strong resemblance to the dead child. When the baby was first put into its mother’s arms she looked at the hands, and with a loud cry fainted away, but on coming to herself exhibited the little creature’s hands to the attendants, who saw at once the strange likeness to the dead and gone sister. Mrs. Osborne was at first much frightened over the singular ciicumstance, but at last became convinced that the strange portrait was sent to comfort her. The image on the palm was clearer the first few days of the baby’s life than now, and it is thought to be gradually fading away. A little post office near Witmer’s, on the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, enjoys the unique distinction of being the only office in the country wherein a dog officiates as assistant postmaster. Postmaster Musselmns’s canine assistant is a little St. Charles spaniel called Beauty, upon whom hus devolved for five years the task of bringing irom Witmer's Station, a half mile distant, the bundle of morning papers from Philadelphia. Two bundles, a large and a small one, are thrown off at the" station, says the Philadelphia Record. Regularly every morning Beauty (trots over the fields to the station aud patiently awaits the arrival of the train. When the two bundles are thrown off Beauty seizes the smaller one in her mouth and trots directly home. She never makes a mistake, always taking the small bundle; neither does she loiter along by the roadside, but covens the distance between Witmer’s and the cross-roads post office at a speed that would almost do credit to Nancy Hanks herself. Beauty has l>een assistant postmaster almost since her birth, and could hardly be replaced. A most peculiar custom which has been preserved since the Middle Ages at Friburgen-Brisgau is .that of climbing 'the cathedral tower upon the anniversary of the birth of the reigning Duke of Baden. This tower is 400 feet high, and to scale it from the ground to its apex is a very difficult performance attended with great danger. It is done bj; climbing from one projection to another, these being on the average one foot apart. A ■single false step neans death. To descend is also no easy task. Each person who makes the climb and the descend safely receives five marks from the State and a ticket of admission to the annual dinner given in honor of the day. The seventy-six anniversary of the birth of the present Duke was recently celebrated, and three men performed the feat successfully. One of the three was 1 coolheaded enough to pause when be had climbed about 200 feet and indulge in an acrobatic performance. He was warmly applauded by the enormous crowd of' spectators which always gathers oa the Duke’s birthday anniversary. A curious freak of nature has taken place in the person of a young man named Jones, aged 22 years, living at Stamping Ground, Ky. About <two years ago he complained of a severe pain' in his left > shoulder and arm to the elbow. He suffered intensely for several months, when the part affected began to change color until it became a dark brown, and at the same time the pain diminished until it finally ceased, when it was.

noticed (this was about a year ago) that a thick growth of brown hair had made its appearance on the brown or disco.ored parte, extending from the elbow to the collar bone, covering the shoulder blade, and at this time the hair is over one inch in length, the pain has entirely disappeared, and the young man has almost twice the strength in that arm that he lias in the other. George B. Clark of Derby Village, Conn., had extraordinary luck bagging a partridge a few days ago. He was driving along a country road at the edge of a wood in Wood bridge, when h's dog, that had been scouting about the forest, flushed a couple of partridges. The birds burst out of the brush witn a great whirr, flying side by side, and as they were passing over Mr. Clark’s head he made a sudden vicious cut with his whip at them. Curiously, the iongseiff whipstock smote one of the birds and broke her neck. -The selectman exhibited his bird to all his neighbors, triumphantly declaring that he is the only man in tho world who ever stopped a partridge on the wing with a whip. The little village of Berated, near Bognor, possesses an uuique curiosity in the form of an inn room papered with postage stamps.* The apartment is fanci- ■ tully decorated with many descriptions of used stamps, and even the passage leading to the room is similarly papered. Some five years was occupied in making the collection, which numbers some thousands of stamps. The room being completed in 1887 received the name of the “Jubilee Stamp Room.’’ Indeed, some members of the royal family, interested in the collection, are said to have added to it a number of stamps on their own account.

There is a big hotel in San Francisco that pays delicate attention to its guests, and also gets some valuable advertising for itself, by the liberal use of flowers among the guests. There, when a man and wife arrives, aud are ushered into the most cheerless of habitations, a hotel bedroom, the desolation is soon relieved by a bell-boy coming with a basket of flowers, which he says “Mr. , the manager of the house, sends to Mrs. Blank, with his compliments.” This little attention has made the hotel famous.

The great attraction at the London Aquarium continues to be the “slugging” matches between Professor Laudermann and an Australian kangaroo. The kangaroo is seven feet in height, and according to all reports he is no mean “slugger.”' Several men who faced him for a few rounds are now in the hospital. Sarah Bernhardt offered the Professor $5,000 for the kangaroo, but he is considered worth many times that sum.

William Spooner, about seventy years of age, died suddenly at Milan, Tenn., recently. He had gone to a neighbor's house and eaten breakfast, when he dropped dead. He was a. singular character. For eight years he has refused to live in a house, and for a number of years lived in a hollow tree, doing his own cooking and washing. He was robbed of several thousand dollars and this loss probably unbalanced his mind and caused him to live a hermit’s Life.

A woman in Kingston. N. Y., recently met with an accident which necessitated the amputation of one of her feet. Her husband is buried in St. Mary's cemetery in that city, and as she ex poets to be interred in the same grave with him she caused it' to be opened and the foot buried there. Is this the “burial by installments” system?

A “jungle man” was recently caught in China and is now being exhibited in Ceylon. The creature stands two feet in height, has a head and a face, like a monkey and a body which, but for its diminutive size, appears to be similar to that of a humati being. The hauds and feet are perfect. The missing link is about four years old and is attracting a great deal of attention. '

While some Wesleyan students were practising baseball on the college campus, one of them saw what he supposed to be the ball rapidly approaching him. He put out his hauds to catch it, when much to his surprise it was found to be a fullgrown quail. The bird was given to Ornithologist E. H. Hubbard.