Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1876 — INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS. [ARTICLE]

INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS.

—The river drivers at Fairfield, Me., complain of a disease of the feet which they call “foot rot.” It breaks out in red pits very similar to small-pox pita, only they are red and very sore. Nearly every man driving on the river is or has been afflicted. One man had to have several toes amputated in consequence of it. —The town of Nqrthampton, Mass., is glorying in the honesty of a small boy, too young to undertake wicked jokes, who was found on the street the other day. earnestly inquiring where he could flui A. W. Faber. “ And what do you want of Mr. Faber?” asked a bystander. “ Why," replied the boy, “ you see I found a piece of rubber that had his name on it, and I’m going to take it back.” —Mr. Hermann Weigel, a well-known citizen of Toledo, fell ovei the precipice at Niagara Falls, on the Canadian side, a few days ago, and was instantly killed. The fall was eighty feet. Mr. Weigel was standing with a party of friends looking at the rapids. He leaned over the precipice. His wife thought him to be in a dangerous position, and, clutching his coat, she implored him to move further back. He jerked away roughly, and, in the act, losing his balance, was precipitated below.

—A queer contest was seen near Amherst station, New Hampshire, a few days ago. In the grass was a large black snake, Upon the back of which was a little weasel, who would bite him through, and then as the snake turned his head to defend himself, would jump into the air and very soon spring upon him and bite again. This wax continued until the snake was bitten from head to tail, his blood extracted and life extinct. It measured four feet and four inches in length. —A man was stopped on the road between Santa Cruz and Soquel, Cal., by a highwayman, with the order to stand and deliver what coin he had about him. He stood first-rate, but he didn’t hand over the cash worth a picayune. On the contrary, he put his hands in his pockets, drew out from one a twenty-dollar gold piece and from the other a six-shooter already cocked, and holding both toward the road agent asked him to take his choice. Then it was the footpad’s turn to show —which he did—a mighty rapid moving pair of heels, and got away. —Turner’s Falls, Mass., has a remarkable parrot, eighteen years old, that will throw back its wings in warm weather in imitation of a man throwing off his coat, and also simulate the taking of a dram, going through the motions of drawing the cork, pouring the contents of the bottle into a glass and emptying the contents down its throat, illustrating the whole operation with appropriate sounds. He was once attacked and roughly handled by a henhawk, and although terribly afraid at the approach of any of that species, he always tries to cover up his fears by crying: “ Look out for the chickens!” —The Springvale (Me.) Reporter gives an account, of a funny lawsuit in that town, brought in the name of the State by Brackett against John H. Powers, for assault and battery on a boy named Geo. A. Brackett. Ira Brackett, the grandfather, wanted the boy George’s hair cut, and told the barbfr to cut it as short as he could over the comb. It was done so, but that was shorter than they thought for, so he brought suit for damages. The family made the boy eat with his hat on, because they can’t bear his looks at the table, and don’t send him to school for the boys will laugh at him. No malice was shown, ana the barber was discharged. —An extraordinary case of hydrophophobia occurred in Augusta, Me., recently. A gentleman from Portland, while smoking with a friend in the front yard of his boarding-house, remarxed that a fit was coming on, as he felt the symptoms. He was soon rolling on the ground, frothing at the mouth and barking like a dog. Five persons attempted to hold him, but were unable to do so during his most severe convulsions.’" The poor fellow remained in this condition twenty-four hours, and did not appear to be greatly exhausted when he came to himself. He remarked that the reaction always came two or three days after the attack. He said that twelve years ago he was bitten by a dog, and ever since has had an attack like this once a year. Last year he was attacked in June.