Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1893 — SOMEWHAT STRANGE. [ARTICLE]

SOMEWHAT STRANGE.

ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF EVERYDAY JAKE. Queer Facta and Thrilling Adventures Which Show That Truth Is Stranger Thau Fiction. Babies do many queer things, but two-year-old Joseph Wiggins, Jr., of 202 G Mountain street, Philadelphia, beat the record the other day when he swallowed an orange seed ami at once proceeded to grow the sprout of a tine Florida orange tree in his throat. The Record says that the experiment would have proved disastrous for Baby Joseph hut for the kindly intervention of doctors. The little boy’s mother gave him an orange after carefully preparing it for him. Unfortunately, however one seed remained in the pulp and this seed became lodged in the baby’s windpipe, causing a slight difficulty in breathing. Little attention was paid to the matter, but next day the child’s breathing became more painful and was constantly accompanied by a slight choking. Doctors H. R. Wharton and J. P. Tunis were called in and informed by the mother that the trouble was caused by some of the orange pulp. The usual remedies were applied and some relief obtained, but on the following night the condition of the child became serious. After a careful examination the physicians decided that the only means of saving the little sufferer’s life was to perform tracheotomy. Next morning this was undertaken, and a long incision was made in the neck, opening the windpipe. Ak, the point where the latter joined the lungs a hard substance was detectod deeply imbedded in mucus. When removed it proved to be au extraordinarily large orange seed. The wound was closed up and dressed, and next day the boy was ou the road to recovery. The seed was in a particularly dangerous position aud would undoubtedly have caused suffocation in a very short time. While lodged in the throat, the heat had caused it to open at one end and to sprout slightly. It was also swollen greatly beyond the original large size. Is the amphitheater of the Massachusetts general hospital, Boston, on a recent afternoon, one of the operating surgeons, Doctor John W. Elliot, showed a Globe man a little child about three-years-old who had inhaled a bean into the lung, and on whom on operation was ]>erformed for its removal. The operation has proved remarkably successful. The bean, which was of the ordinary size of a white bean, had been inhaled into the right bronchus, aud, as tho right lung was thus shut off from receiving its proper amouut of air, the danger of broncho-pneumonia with a fatal termination became imminent and tracheotomy was performed. The incision, about an inch long, was made in the median line of the neck, and after going through the superficial structures of that part the trachea was reached and incised in a vertical line. The incision was made large enough to admit a very long and slender pair of forceps, which were carefully passed down the trachea and into the right bronchus. A short distance beloiv where the windpipe divides, the end of the forceps touched the bean, which was firmly lodged. Grasping the bean with the forceps, the surgeon broke off a small hit of the offending substance and withdrew it. Three attempts resulted in getting only small particles. It had become softened, aud the soft part of the bronchus had swollen and closed in about it. The next attempt was more successful. The tine teeth of tho head of the forceps buried themselves in the substance of the bean and with careful manipulation it was extracted. Immediate relief was experienced by the little sufferer, and the child is practically well.

“TnEKE are many queer legal papers on file in probably every court of record in the world, but the only court that ever indicted a man for the murder of a sheep is in Gilmer County West Virginia, said Harry L. Sperry, a Wheeling lawyer, at the Southern, to a reporter for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. “In June, 1875, William F. Lively, who has since been prominently mentioned for Governor on the Democratic ticket, and has several times been in the Legislature, was the prosecuting attorney for Gilmer Couuty. He drew up an indictment which went to show that oue Jacob Wiatt, with a gun, the value of which was $2, and which was then and there charged with gunpowder and lead or some ,other destructive substance, in his hand, did willfully discharge and shoot off, to, against and upon the said sheep, the property of one Jacob Burke, and the lead or other destructive substance did strike, penetrate and wound the said sheep, causing it to linger and fall, and that said David Wiatt did set upon the said sheep, and with a sharp and dangerous instrument wound, cut and maltreat it, that it died. All this was according to the testimony of one William Greenleaf, an eye-witness, and against the peace and dignity of the State of West Virginia. Lively got the grand jury to find a true bill, but the case never came to trial, and, legally, Jacob and David Wiatt are still under indictment for murder. The only ease of the murder of a sheep on record.” A “Cai»e Codder” tells the Boston Journal how he cured a setting hen. “I made,” he says, “half a dozen snowballs and soaked them in water. In the morning they were solid ice. I shaped them as near like an egg as possible and then placed them under the setting hen. She smiled. I stood by and watched her. She cuddled the ice eggs under her and chuckled softly to them. In about ten minutes she appeared to get uneasy. She arose and scratched the darlings together and shook herself; then, evidently satisfied, settled down again. Soon she got up once more, this time with evident concern; something was wrong, surely; perhaps the weather was getting cold. She felt wet and ohilly, but, with great perseverance, she sat down again, and again got up, this time for good. She walked out of the box aud then turned and looked in, but she had had enough.” A Portland (Me.) piano tuner says that within the past year he has found mouse nests in four different pianos. The other day he was called iD to see a piano, the hammers of which struck the strings several times when a key was touched. He knew that this was because something was the matter with the hammer-tapes, the purpose of which is to hold the hammers so that they ehaii strike the strings but once. He found that every one of the eighty odd pieces of tape had disappeared and the mouse's nest was soon discovered. It was a bunch large as one’s fist, composed of the missing tapes, chewed into a pulpy mass. The mice generally eater a piano by climbing up along the pedal shafts, and almost invariably make use of the hammer tapes for their nests. A strange case of imbecility is reported from the public schools at Alli-

ancc, Ohio. Btate School Commissioner O. T. Corson is is receipt of a letter from C. C. Davidson, superintendent of the Alliance schools, inquiring what can he done with one of their pupils. It is stated that the pupil referred to is a boy who has been attending school for seven years, and yet is unable to read or write. In conversation and appearance the hoy would impress an observer as being possessed of unusual intelligence. Yet he is absolutely uuable to learn anything. In this connection Doctor Doren, of the imbecile asylum, relates an incident of how a fivc-year-old child was attracted by a drum used by a strolling minstrel band and performed the feat of watkiug, which it had never before attempted. The only man who, it is said, ever escaped from Moyatueusiug Prison, Pennsylvania, died recently in Frankford. There was an execution at the prison the day he escaped and the door of his cell was left open. While the condemned man was on the scaffold the occupant of the cell, who had not yet been convicted and was consequently dressed in his own clothes, walked out and stood among the jurymen and others. Noticing that they had left their hats in the office of the prison, he went to the office, made the excuse that he coukl not bear to see a man hanged and, picking up a hSt belonging to a visitor, signified his intention of getting a little outside air. The obliging clerk on duty opened the door and the quondam prisoner walked out and was soon out of the state. He was not rearrested. Since the great caves of this country were turned into show places a close watch has to be kept on visitors to prevent their annexation of stalactites, “cave acorns,” gypsum crystals, and other curious and beautiful formations. Not even the broken stalactites lying about the floor can he appropriated, for these are gathered and sold by the owners or lessees of these holes in the ground. The slabs cut from cross sections of stalagmites are beautiful when polished, as they show concentric bauds of brown, yellow, gray, cream, and greenish, white, like agates. A big bear chased Peter Hanes, an old man of sixty years, through the woods in Clarke county, Wash., the other day, and was close nt his coat tails when lie ran into the clearing of a neighbor named McCoy. As both neared the house the door opened and Mrs. McCoy appeared with a rifle in her hands, promptly let drive at the bear, and bowled him over dead. Then the ungrateful Peter Claimed the hide, as the finder of the bear, and insisted on his demand until as a compromise it was agreed that he and his rescuer divide the proceeds of its sale.

Ax ice-floe, which carried away a couple of sportsmen from the neighborhood of Odessa, was subsequently driven by a southerly wind over against Otchakoff, where the fisberfolk discovered the frozen corpses lying clo?e together on the ice and still guarded by a faithful aud half-famished dog, which had made no attempt to reach the shore. The animal had apparently preserved its existence on some of the wild duck shot by its unfortunate owners. Mice have caused conflagrations by nibbling matches, aud lined their nests with fractional banknotes, but yield the palm of destructiveness to the California gophers, with their penchant for undermining dams, and the Australian rabbits, whose depredations are estimated to aggregate $5,500,000 a year. A resident of Mobile, Ala., has a strong affection for a pet cat. The animal is said to be twenty-seven years old, has no teeth, aud is also blind. The owner cares for it as attentively as though the cat were a child, feeding it constantly on raw oysters, of which the cat seems very fond. New .Guinea has the credit of producing the only venomous bird known to ornithologists—the Itoir N'Dood or “Bird of Death.” There is no antidote to the bite of this bird, which causes excruciating pains in every part of the body, loss of sight, convulsions, lock-jaw and certain death within two hours.