Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1894 — SOMEWHAT STRANGE. [ARTICLE]

SOMEWHAT STRANGE.

ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF EVERYDAY LIFE. Queer Facts and Thrilling Adventures which Show That Truth la Stranger Than Fiction. Oxi of the moat remarkable and puzzling atoriea of somnambulism haa recently come to light. The subject was a young eccleaiastifc at a seminary. The biahop of the diocese was so deeply interested that he went nightly to the young man's chamber. He saw him get I out of bed, secure paper, compose and I write sermons. On finishing a page he read it aloud. When a word displeased him he wrote a correction with great exactness. The bishop had seen a beginning of some of these somnambulistic sermona, and thought them well composed and correctly written, Curious to ascertain whether the young man used his eyes, the bishop put a card under his chin in such a manner as to prevent him seeing the paper on the table before him, but he (till continued to write. Not yet satisfied whether or not he could diatingu'h different objects plsoed before him, the bishop took away the piece of paper on which ho wrote and substituted several other kinds at different times. He always perceived the chhegc, because the pieces of paper were of different sizes. Wheu a pieoo of paper exactly like hia own was substituted he used it, and wrote hia corrections on the places corresponding to those ot his own paper. It was by this means that portions of his nocturnal compositions were obtained. His most astonishing production was a piece of music written with great exactitude. He used a cine for a ruler. The clefs, the fiats and the sharp* were all in their right places. The notes wore all made as circles, and those requiring it were afterward blackened with ink. The words were all written below, but once thoy were in such large characters that they did not come directly below thalr proper notes, and perceiving this he erased them all and wrote them over again. Dank notes have curious histories attacked to them in the way of human comedy, tragedy and melodrama, says the Now York Home Journal. A collector at Paris of such curiosities got hold, some years ago, of a £5 Bank of England note which had somewhat of a tragic interest connected with it. Somo sixty odd years ago the cashier of a Liverpool merchant had received in tender for n business payment a Bank of England noto wbicn ho held up to the scrutiny of the light, so as to mako sure of its genuineness, lie observed some partially indjstinct rod marks or worda traced out on the front of the note beelde the lettering and on the margin. Curiosity tempted him to try to decipher the wordß ao inscribed. With great difficulty, ao faintly written were they and ao muoh obliterated, the words were found to form tho following sentence: "If this note should fall into the handa of John Dean, of Longhill, near Carlisle, he will learn hereby that hia brother is languishing a prisoner at Algiers." Mr. Dean, on being shown tho noto, last no time in j asking the government of the Duy to : make intercession for his brother’s froe- | dom. It appeared that for eleven long years the Utter had been a slave to the Day of Algiers, and that his family and i relatives believed him to be dead. With a piece of wood he had traced in hia own blood on the bank note tho message which was to proouro his release. The government aided tho efforts of his "brother to set him free, this being accomplished on payment of a ransom to the Dey. Unfortunately the captive did not long enjoy his liberty, hia oodlly sufferings while working as a slave in Algiers havliig undermined his constitution.

A writer of thrilling stories of adventure for boy* wou.d find a plot ready to hit hand in the charges brought against two Frenohmen named Rorique, brothers, who are at present awaiting their trial at Brest. According to the case for the prosecution, theso men are latter-dajr pirates of a particularly daring description. On December 15, 1891, the French schooner Nlnroahitl, trading with Tuhiti, left that place under the command of a native skipper named Tehac a Tara. The first mate was Joseph Rorique, one of the accused, and the crew consisted of an Englishman named William Gibson, who waa the supercargo, four natives, and a halfcaste, who acted as oook. The vessel carried 40,000 francs’ worth of gpods, to be exchanged in some South Sea islands for mother»of-pearl and other products. At one of these out-of-the-way ports Joseph Roriaue’s brother, Alexander, came on board, and the two then planned the mutiny. The Captain and the Englishman were shot, and the crew, all but the cook, were killed by means of poisoned food; whereupon the brothers took command of the vessel, painted out the name, substituting that of “Leßoi,” and making a descent on a little island, forced some of the inhabitants to come and man the ship. Possibly they might have remained undiscovered, but for the fact that some time afterward they threatened to kill the half-caste, who thereupon went and gave information to the authorities of one of the Caroline Islands. A child has been born at Birmingham. England, which bears a strong resemblance to a frog. Its skin is warty and co'd and clammy to the touch. When it cries it is said to make an unearthly squeaking noise, sounding much moreTike the croaking of a frog than the crying of a child. Its form in general, as well as the contour of its limbs and the expression of its eyes, also suggests the genus Batrachia. It has but three fingers on each hand and four toea on each foot, both toes and fingers being “webbed” or joined one to the other by a thin membrane. Besides the points already enumerated it is said to have several other characteristics of the frog, even to the huge, knotty-looking, lidless eyes. The account says that the parents are almost distracted over the affair and hourly pray for their uncanny offspring to die. A prominent medical journal in making a record of the occurrence says; “There are two other ‘frog-child’ cases on record, one the offspring of a Piute squaw in NevadaTwhlch was born some twelve or fourteen years ago; the other a monstrosity whose parents formerly lived at Goshen, Ind., U. S. A., and which was born in January, 1889. A widow living in the Rue Butto-aux-Ciiilles, Paris, would have had her house rausneked recently while she was taking her habitual Sunday promenade had it not been for a faithful parrot which she regards now with particular affection as being a gift from her departed husband. About 4.80 in the afternoon the concierge of the house was roused from his siesta by a fearful sorecch from the parrot. Rushing up - stairs ho met a man coming down the “tops four at a time. He was a housebreaker, and upon meeting the concierge

the latter juet escaped a blow aimed at his head with a monkey-wrench. Tne eraby succeeded in stopping the thief and dragged him before tne Police Commissary of the district. He said he wm disturbed in hie work of ransacking the place by the parrot talking in the neat room. The bird asked repeatedly. "Who is there? Are you there, BUcuswl* and, upon seeing the intruder, ronsed the whole house. In Florida Life, a new monthly magazine published in Jacksonville, is an article from the pen of B. W. Partridge, of Monticello. In It he describes the effected thedroughtof 1891 on Lake Miccosokia, one of the largest lakes in middle Florida, when about 6,000 acres es water boeame dry land for a spell. The rainy season of 1862 filled it witfi water again. Mr. Partridge conceived the idea that the lake could be drained by boring holes ha its bottom, and organized a company la try it. Experts were engaged to examine and report on the plan, and the result was that the company haa bored a number of holes in the bottom of lake Miccosukie, and the water is rushing doww through them via a subterranean passage to the gulf. In a few months they expect to permanently drain the lake and thus recover 10,000 acres of valuable land. A correspondent of the North China Herald gives an account of a curious industry carried on in Chica. It is the manufacture of "cheat money,” to bn buried with corpses. From time immemorial it haa been the pious custom of the Chinese to bury with their departed friends a considerable aum of money, that they might not find themselves paupers in the other world. This custom they have found rather ooetly, and having no very high opinion of theshrewdness of epiritual shopkeepers they have takon to manufacturing a very cheap counterfeit of the Mexican dollar to pass off in the other world. It Is simply a bit of pasteboard with tin foil surfaces stamped with a die. A hundred of these dollars in a box retells for 34 cash. Stevknsok’s Mr. Hyde has been bettered in real life in Texas. la the ease of the famous character in fiction then* were some who eriticiaed the oreatioa oa the ground that such a debased glbrj in brutality waa impossible, even nnder the imaginary conditions of a double existence in which the man of the wosM wan combined with the human brute. Ba the triul of Dick Edwards, at Denison, far the murder of Mrs. llattie W. Haynee, one witness told how, when she charged tha prisoner with the crime, he answered, "Yeej I don’t care any more about killing a woman than a dog.” Wbat ha tho case of the hero of the novelist's story was the superinduced condition of Hyde was the normal condition of the Western burglar.

A touuh old soldier was run ever byn cab in the streets of Paris the other day. Jean Louis Leclerc is his name. Me was born in April, 1798, and served with Napoleon at Waterloo. When taken to the hospital be seemed to be vory weak and to be suffering terribly. In view ml his great age, the doctors thought ho must succumb, but tho old fellow soon rallied, and on the day after the accident was able to go baok to his heme in the Hue du Rhin. So lightly did ho treat the affair that he willingly aeceptod an offer from the driver, who was to blame, of one dollar, by way of whtiuin. "You see,” he eaid, ,r I hate going to law at my age, although 1 do not despair of living to be 120." A gang of ruffians, which haa jusfc fallen into the bands of the Paris ponee. rejoice in the title of "Lea Mange urn des Nez,” a name that fitly describes their outrages. Not content with garreting and robbing all the unfortnnato people whom they oould waylay at night in deserted streets and dark corners ml the great French metropolis, they alto bit off the noses of tbeir victims, which they carried off and attached to their cape in imitation of the red Indian sca'pers. Several persons waylaid in the early hours of the morning in the lonely suburbs are now in the hospitals In the courtyard of the palace of Versailles is a clock with one hand called! "L’Horloge de la Mort du Roi.” Iti contains no works, but consists merely of a face in the form of a sun surrounded by rays. On the death of a king tbs hand is set to the moment of his demise and remains unaltered till his suceemer has joined him in the grave. This runtom originated under Louis XIII. and. continued till the revolution. It was revived on the death of Louis XVIII. sad. tho hand still continues fixed m fbe precise moment of that monarch's death. On* of tfie strangest superstitions sf Chinamen is the awe with which regard the cockroach. John holds fbe ugly black pest as something snersd, claiming that it is specially fevered try the gods and a particular favorite es the great Jose. The most unfortunate mishap that can befall a Chinaman is to step on a cockroach. Instantly virions of terrible disasters and calamities arise before him. In some instances the superstition has been known to prey so on the minds of the Celestials as to drive them insane. A few days ago a tramp at Pacific, Mo., spied a railroad tricycle, belonging to a telegraph lineman, standing near the track. He stepped around under cover of the station-house, seized the put it on the track and mounting it sped away down the line at full speed. He had gone but a few miles when ly the fast express tore around a sharp curve and bore down upon him. Before be could even slacken speed the train struck him, and there was one less tramp in the oountry and a tricycle gone.