Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 209, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1914 — Venomous Cinder Beetle. [ARTICLE]

Venomous Cinder Beetle.

The cinder beetle, hitherto considered as a tranquil little parasite that devoted itself exclusively, to rails, spikes and other railroad property, has developed some new and alarming symptoms, according to a letter to the Coolidge Enterprise from Judge Adna P. Gristlebone. The cinder beetle has lately beebme vicious, and worse than that —its bite has been followed by a poisonous infection. Last Wednesday, so the judge writes, a fast train tore through Coolidge, without stepping. Suddenly it came to a halt half a mile down the track, and the engineer was seen to climb down, examine the cylinders and the piston rod, and then throw up his hands in despair. A cinder beetle had ’jumped from the track to the cow catcher, and with one bite of its venomous fangs had killed the engine. After a delay of a few hours, a relief engine wearing a flynet arrived and pulled the train on its way. —Kansas City Star.