Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1878 — INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS. [ARTICLE]

INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS.

—A Florida fanner fainted in his barn-yard, and the hogs ate off the calves of his legs. —A collision between the great steamer Faraday, during her recent voyage from New York, and a large emigrant ship, was averted by the use of the electric light. It was on the Banks of Newfoundland, at night, during a danse fog, that the brilliant light on the steamer revealed the sailing vessel straight ahead. There was just time to reverse the engines and prevent what would have been an awful catastropher—- “ —Mr. Bishop, the guide at the Profile House, in the White Mountains, recently loosened a rock that weighed at least three tons, on Canyon Mountain, about twenty rods north of the Old Man of the Mountain. It went plunging down toward I the Pemigewassct, cutting off trees a foot in diameter, and making a complete path through the woods in its descent. It filled tne air with stones and made a terrific noise. Persons in that neighborhood who were in the woods ran for their lives. —A young Frenchman died in Lyons, recently, from the effects of lighting a match. He scratched it with nis thumb-nail, and a piece of the incandescent phosphorus penetrated under the nail and made a slight burn, to which he paid no attention. But, after an hour, tne pain became very great, the thumb swelled, then the hand and next the forearm. He was obliged to alight at the first station and send fora medical man, who declared that instant amputation of the arm was necessary. The patient insisted on postponing the operation for a few hours until the arrival of his father, for whom he had telegraphed. But before the latter could reach the spot it was too late; the poisonous matter had passed into the arm and shoulder, and an operation was impossible. He died twentyseven hours after the burn, in horrible agony —A little brother who had been sent by his big sister to the Postoffice in Arkport, near Hornellsville, N. Y., found a letter in the box. It was addressed to his sister. He tore it open and handed it to the Postmaster with the remark: “ See if there is anything important in it. If not I will not go right back home with it.” The Postmaster glanced at its contents as requested. He saw that it was from a young man of the place, who asked to meet the young lady. He told the boy he did not think the letter was very important. Afterward the young lady went to the Postoffice and asked for the letter. It was given her, and when she found it had been opened she accused the Postmaster of having done it. Her brother, to shield himself, declared that the Postmaster had opened it. The consequence was that a Special Agent was ordered to investigate the case, and a number of witnesses testified that they saw the sftiall boy open the letter himself.

—A good-looking young Irish woman walked into the Jersey City Police headquarters the other morning, and inquired for Chief Nathan, and, on his appearance, told him she wished to be arrested for murdering her child. The astonished Chief, satisfying himself she was sober and rational, took her to his office, where she told her story, crying violently. She said her name was Mary Phillips. She was the wife of Isaac Phillips, a plumber, of Jersey City. She was married a year and a half ago, and theissueof the union was a son, who, at the time of his death, was five, months old. -Her husband’s family were, she alleged, most bitterly opposed to the marriage, but that did not prevent the young couple from making their home with them. Life with them finally became unendurable, she says, and she determined to leave and earn her own living. She got a situation in New York, but her relatives refused to keep her baby, and told her she must look after him. She took him with her into the streets. Discouraged, she knew not where to go with him, and finally resolved to kill both herself and the child. She bought some laudanum, took part of it herself and gave the baby the rest. She was not affected beyond vomiting, but in a little time the baby died, despite her frantic efforts to rouse him. She returned to her husband, and they buried the baby the same day. Since then She had been unable tb sleep, and was going mad from her guilty conscience.