Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 203, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1919 — Couldn’t Hurt That Toad [ARTICLE]

Couldn’t Hurt That Toad

There are many surprising stories «*hout toads, observes Philip Hale, editor of the ’‘As the World Wags" colainn in Boston Herald. Here is one of ♦hem. taken from a book containing the■bames and crimes of people in Northumberland, England. In It 93 a stone mason, Mr. George Wilson, “wantonly immured" a toad in a wall he was ,building, making for the toad a close

cell of lime and stone, to fit it snugly, and plastering to prevent the admission of air. Sixteen years afterward I a gap was made in the wall so that fearts could pass through. The toad Swas found alive. Torpid at first, it (was soon active, so that it made its way to a pile of stones and disappeared. There were cruel men in Northumberland. Mr. Thomas Anderson

was punished in 1681 for playing on a bagpipe before a bridegroom on a Sunday. Among the women, Elizabeth Milli? was brought into court for scolding and drying fish on the Lord’s day.