Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1894 — The Fate of the Hen. [ARTICLE]

The Fate of the Hen.

Harper's Young People. • _ Once an ardent bicyclist was relating his latest adventure and explaining to the inquiring family the reason of the strange condition of his new bicycle trousers. "Yousee, the road wassmoothand straight and I was going for all I was worth—the old wheel was just humming—when—suddenly -one of those dreadful hens these country people persist in keeping ran out in front of my ‘bike/ When the hen saw the wheel coming after she began to run. only instead of getting out of tire way she lan straight ahead. I shouted and halloed, but she kept on. “Then I slowed up. and so did the hen. Then I turned a bit to the right—just after the hen turned that way. Then I turned to the left, and there was that hen. I did all I could to make her to get out of my wav or to get out of hers, but it was no use. ISa at last I gave up trying to save her from her fate." I ran my wheel straight ahead, faster and faster, until I overtook her and run over her. And the jump that bike made when it struck that hen gave ine a ’header, and over 1 went into the ditch! Of course there was a good : puddle there—there always is; and i of course, too. I got a good splash- | ing, and that's what’s the matter with my trousers. you see!’’ /‘But- what beeaifie of the hen?” asked the interested small listener. "The hen? Pshaw! I didn’t care particularly what became of the hen. It was my trousers I cared about. But if you want to know badly I’ll tell you: I believe that hen was ‘in the soup’! "In the soup?” ‘‘Yes. she was decidedly ‘in the soup'! Indeed. I may say that I know she was 'dead in-it.’ ” , “ ’Dead in it?' ” “Indeed she was! I shouldn’t wonder if the man that owned her had chicken soup for a week. For that hen was so ‘dead in it’ that she never even win ked when the bike struck her.”

1 A Kemarkable Case of Insanity. Forty years ago Mrs Perry James, of Warren county, Indiana, became insane. Her peculiarity was an aversion to company and a desire to be alone, and she was given a room in the family residence. Here she lived a hermit life, tenderly carcd son by - hftr husband 'Tintil his death four years ago. and after that by her two daughters. Neighbors moved into the community, and children grew to maturity without knowing of her presence, and a son-in-law lived in the house for many years without seeing her, although he was attentive to everything which might conduce to her comfort, of little family comparatively speaking, and she lived alone from robust womanhood until enfeebled by old age. She is now seventy-five years old. Recently her mind indicated a restoration, and she made inquiry concerning relatives and neighbors, many of whom had been dead for years, there were three or four still remaining, and these were invited to call, with whom" she conversed rationally on a variety of subjects. She now shows a desire to emerge from her retreat, arid she is beginning to take a lively interest in tilings about her. She is enfeebled both by old age and inactivity. The case, in many respects, is one of the most remarkable of record.