Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1894 — SOMEWHAT STRANGE. [ARTICLE]

SOMEWHAT STRANGE.

ACCIDENTS ANO INCIDENTS OF EVERYDAY LIFE. Queer Facts and Thrilling Adventures Which Show that Truth is Stranger than Fiction. The conquering of the cactus in a little Mexican town on the south bank of the Rio Grande furnished a gentleman of Dallas, Texas, with inspiration for the following: *Tn this particular town there was a goodsized church, with aflat roof. A large number of cactus seeds had lodged in the moss on the roof of the church, and in the course of time there was a big crop of cactus up there. Now it is the custom when they want to destroy this thing to first burn off all the thorns, and then the cattle will eat the plant. The people became tired of seeing the plants on their church, and a mass-meeting was called to devise some means of getting rid of the things. After deliberating for some time a man was hoisted to the roof, and after three days’ labor had burned the thorns from all the stalks. A cow was then hoisted up to the roof, and in about a week there was nothing left on the roof but the cow, which was lowered to the earth again. The people were delighted with the result, and now point with pride to their church.” In the Museum of Natural History in Dublin is the skeleton of a man, a native of the South of Ireland, who was called the ossified man. His body became ossified during his lifetime. He lived in that condition for years. Previous to the change he had been a healthy young fellow of superior strength and agility. One night he slept out in a field after a debauch, and some time later he felt the first symptoms of the strange transformation. The doctors could do nothing to avert the progress of his malady. His joints stiffened. When he wanted to lie down or rise up he required assistance. He could not bend his body, and placed upright he resembled a statue of stone. He could stand,but not move in the least. His teeth were joined and became an entire bone. The doctors in order to administer nourishment had to make a hole through them. He lost the use of his tongue, and his sight left him before he died. Michael O’Reilly’s lucky star must have shone over him, for he had about as narrow an escape from instant death at the Barus mine at Butte, Mon., as was ever recorded. He was ascending the ladder-way in the pumping shaft above the 400 level, when one of the ladder rounds broke, and he lost his balance and fell into the shaft. He dropped about fifty feet and in some manner managed to grasp hold of a waterpipe or something of the kind and clung to it. Otherwise he would have fallen 200 feet to the 600 level and into seventy-five feet of water. He managed to swing to the ladder again. Another miner assisted him to a level. He was raised to the surface, and Drs. Wells and McCrimmon were summoned. They found that, aside from a fractured ankle and some painful bruises, the man was not seriously hurt, but the shock had been great. J. D. Fahnestock, a Cincinnati dentist, has for a pet a cat that is onehalf raccoon, or a raccoon that is onehalf cat. This freak was born near Portland, Me., nearly five months ago, and is already half a size larger than the usual cat. Its father was a pet cat owned by a woodchopper. The mother was a wild raccoon, whose nest and litter were discovered by the woodsman one evening when the cat was paying his sharp-featured spouse a visit. The head of the rare half-bred is that of a cat, but is exceptionally broad between the ears, the mouth pointed. The fur on the head, breast and fore quarters is unmistakably cat hair, .while from the waist back, so to speak, the fur is entirely coon. The tail is broad and thick, the hind quarters low and the hind feet have only four toes, like the regulation coon, instead of five, as would be the, case on an “all-cat cat.” Reelfoot Lake, in Western Tennessee, is one of the most remarkable bodies of water in the United States. It is popularly supposed to have a subterranean source from the Mississippi River, it having no visible outlet or inlet, but the evidence seems to be decidedly against this theory. There is a considerable area in the center where no line has yet been found long enough to touch bottom. It is not affected by the rise and fall of the river, but, has a tide corresponding with that of the sea. The oldest settlers can remember when the land where the lake is now was a fertile farm. One night there was an earthquake, distinctly felt but doing very little damage to the surrounding country. The next morning the land was gone and Reelfoot Lake was there and has been there ever since. It is one of the most noted fishing resorts in the South. The so-called “Monkey tax” of the Commune of Riesenberg, in Bohemia, is sureiy the most eccentric in its origin of all surviving feudal impositions. One of the lords of Riesenberg, in the later years of the Middle Ages, had a monkey bought for him in the East, for which he paid an enormous sum. One day the monkey escaped from the castle and fled into the woods. The peasants who had never seen a monkey, supposed it to be the devil in a quasi-human shape going about seeking whom he might devour, and they shot it dead. They imagined they had done an act of Christian piety, for which they deserved thanks. The angry Baron, however, was inconsolable at the'; loss of his ugly pet, and imposed a yearly fine upon the peasant commune, which it continues to pay up to the present time. A very singular case is that of a young man in Minneapolis ndmed Chandler. For years his mouth has shown a tendency to grow up. Four years ago it became so small it' was feared he would starve and a fund was raised by neighbors and he, was sent to Chicago, where the was cut to the natural size 'and pieces Of flesh grafted into thecor-

ners, thus hoping to prevent the closing. This has been overcome and his mouth is rapidly growing up again, the opening at present not being larger than an ordinary goose quill, through which he takes all his nourishment. It is thought that he must eventually starve to death, as there seems no way of preventing the complete closing of the mouth. Otherwise the young man seems healthy, and is capable of doing considerable work. A shave in Brooklyn caused a great deal of trouble recently. Isaac Kobolouski had * splendid red beard, of which he was very proud. He got drunk and took a nap in the barber chair of his friend Cohn, and when he awoke his beard was gone. Cohn had thought that it would be a good joke to shave it off. Kobolouski was very mad, and he was still madder when he went to see the maiden whom he was to marry the next day, and she declined to recognize him or keep her engagement. He swore to be avenged on the joking barber, and persuaded all his friends to boycott the shop. This so seriously affected Cohn’s business that it almost broke him up, and he took to drink to drown his sorrows. Drink soon took him to jail, and there he is now, a striking warning to practical jokers. Some of Chicago’s old detectives have reputations as successful criminal chasers, but they do not seem to be well up in physiognomy. A joker pasted portraits of W. D. Howells,the American novelist, and Archibald Forbes, the English war correspondent, in a note-book, and went to the Chicago police authorities to have them identified. The almost unanimous opinion of detectives, inspectors and police magistrates was that, although the faces were not shown in the rogue’s gallery, they looked suspicious and were undoubtedly the counterfeit presentments of professional crooks. Lieutenant Collins, for instance, “sized up” Howells as a burglar and Forbes as a confidence man, and Justice Brodwell declared that Mr. Forbes had been before him in court several times. The employes of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway at Fort Wayne felt very comfortable on a recent Saturday when they were paid off in nice, crisp, new bills issued by the Youngstown (Ohio) National Bank. They felt differently, however, Monday when they undertook to spend some of their nice, new money. People to whom it was offered, finding that the signature of the cashier of the bank was missing from the bills, refused to take them. It occasioned a great deal of trouble, but it was remedied. It was just a careless mistake of the bank cashier, and as soon as it was called to his attention he hastened to make arrangements to redeem the defective money.

Poultry has found a new use in Boston. In the police court the principal evidence against a chicken thief was furnished by a hen. She was tied so that she could not move, placed in a darkened room, and covered with blueing, while the suspected thief, with others, was directed to go into the room and lay his hand on the hen. It was expected by the proposer of this plan that the hen would cackle when the thief touched her. So, too, the thief evidently believed, for after the ordeal all hands were covered with blueing but his. He was very much embarrassed at his exposure, but soon confessed that he had been the guilty party. Mbs. Harriet Condit, a colored woman of State street, Hartford, bought some herrings the other day, and upon cleaning one of them she found imbedded parallel with the backbone a gold bar evidently belonging to a lady’s pin. It is set with a moonstone about one half-inch long in the centre, and at each end a large pearl about the size around of a lead pencil. It was valued by a local jeweler at about S4O. The wedding of Colin P. Hardy and Miss Eva Maud Byers at Canarsi, N. Y., the other day was the result of a peculiar romance. Hardy had twice saved the life of Miss Byers within the past year, and her hand in marriage was his reward. Frank E. Breen, who was to have been arraigned in a New York court a few days ago, charged with passing a bogus check, did not appear, as he swallowed the check, thus destroying all evidence against him.