SOMEWHAT STRANGE. ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF | EVERYDAY LIFE. | i Queer Facts and Thrilling Adven- | tures which Show that Truth is Stranger Than Fiction. i i A WRITER in a Vienna daily paper | gives a realistic picture of the man-| ner in which many persons living | along the banks of the Danube make | & living. He says that every year | hundreds of corpses floating down | the river are pulled ashore and robbed, after which they are thrown back in- | to the water. ‘Year after vear,”’ says the writer, ‘hundreds of lifeless | bodies——the mortal remains of sui-| cides, victims crime and victims of accidents—rise to the surface of the Danube, are swept along with the current and washed up on the land on one bank or the other. Here they are discovered by the ‘hyenas’ who rifle the corpses, and then, as a rule, kick them back he waves, after which no human being worries about them more. Thousands of people vanish from the scene in this man- ner, no one ever learning what fate befel them. Blood-curdiing crimes remain undiscovered, and the uncer- tainty whether 8 man is dead or will return again to his family and friends is often fraught with heavy losses to the latter. No mound marks the spot where these unfortunate people rest; they are struck of the roll call of humanity; no trace the course of their last long journey; they have simply vanished from the | world like the lost wanderer in the desert who is buried beneath enor- mous sand waves, the fam- ished traveler in the wilderness whoge | body the food of birds of prey. we are livin 1 Eu- rope.’ of ont out reveals or like becomes And yet F 11 2g 1 TrHomas Jesxixcs, of Pittsburg, possesses a cow that discounts all the billygoats in the taste for old rubbish, but good digestive organs. ‘@ow and has not of umbrellas and old cans. But dur- ing a late storm, while hay was scarce, she ate sn umbrella. One day she was taken ill. It is supposed that the umbrella opened the cow had swallowed it. At all events one side of the became much enlarged and the owner called in Dr. Coleman, a veterinary surgeon, diagnose the case. This paid his patient a visit and found an abscess in the ight of the mal, near the shoulder. He was con. vinced that had e the abscess, pincers he @ hasn't She is 1 bl foe MOOI to aediet he been used after vi bovine to morning he side ani- something tered and i sue tour 0 of the umbrells inches in length was the brace length. Another lowed and anoth Again inserti came upon a soft {felt certain was th of the H:« rewarded in brin an umbrella, 22 b other rib was also mal is still living and will recover, although the doctor i opinion that there are stil under the skin. examination or rib was taken out ar she ne his COW, Dy ured | other ribs “THE strangest test and endurance ever ms D. Gonsauls, of the City o ““was in Mexico, the characters ticipating being a Mexican girl an American and the girl's consent to any wi she should marry a wealthy Mexican | suitor. At the of the | girl they agreed to die together, and | to test the strength aud endurance of | each other's love they chose a means | of suicide unlike any ever dreamed of before. Food and fruit were | placed on a table in the centre of a | room occupied by both, the girl hav- | ing escaped from her home, but being | unwilling to elope with her lover. It] was agreed that they should starve r death with plenty befcre them, afd | should either succumb to nature and | partake of the food then both were | released from the bond of death, and | there should be an everlasting sepa- | ration. For twelve days they endured | the pangs of hunger without a] murmur or a thought of wavering from their purpose to die together. | The twelfth day the father of the girl discovered her whereabouts, and, | breaking the door, they were carried out, too faint to stand alone, It took them several days to recover their strength, and when they did they were married. This is a true statement, and the American isliving with his Mexican wife to-day.” A most remarkable case of theft was in Whitfield County, Georgia. A family living in the country left their home for a few months’ visit. When the family returned there was no house, no barn, no stables and no fences, while a large hole had been dug where the house had formerly stood. Buspicion pointed to a man who occupied an adjoining farm, and after a rigid examination it was learned that he had first entered the house and stolen the cook stove. Then he took some other articles. His next move was to take the bal- ance of the furniture to town and sell it. He then appropriated the fences, and later the outhouses to Pepait his own fences and buildings. bold- ened by success he tore down the dwelling-house and sold the lumber, and, not sa*isfied with stealing the furniture and house, he began t) ex- cavate the ground in order to fill a low place upon his own land. Oueroker County Ala, has a ¢ par- and Thev were lovers, | refused their ion, insisting that an parents suggestion and incarcerated in the jail at Cene a powerful chain was locked close about his neck and fastened to the eroct also, Some of his feats of skill locks, pulling chains apart, drawing iron spikes from the walls, and break- It is said he ean break the bars of the dungeon windows as easily as if they were toothpicks, and can ease that an ordinary man H. exciting experiences during his shoot- ing expedition in the Rocky Moun- tains, While north of the Canadian line the party lost themselves for two horseflesh. ‘‘Being driven to the starvation point,’’ writes one of the party, ‘‘we killed one of our horses and roasted the meat before the fire. It didn’t taste bad under the circums- During the twelve days that had horseflesh straight and noth- travelled a couple of time our iv that gone, and we had We horse, as stances. wae ing else we hundred horse meat was all to decide upon killing a didn’t care to kill another we couldn't spare We were about to kill dog when we dis- covered one of the Hudson Bay posts Fort McLeod, and hardships ended.” Tue Mayor of a Germany has discovered an effectual way of stopping duelling among the hot-headed citizens of that place. A few weeks ago two physicians quar- » miles, dog. one. the our small village in lenged one another to fight with The village chief magistrate heard of the quarrel. He informed the village firemen, and drawing a machine, they proceeded to the lonely spot in the I - Just as the seconds had stepped pistols, together, woods where place £ 1314 the encounter was take the distance a heavy stream of water the physicians in the struck of neck. A doctor was drenched to the skin their ‘1 ping clothes, looked so ridiculous that one moment later second also. The would-be fighters, in drip- they both burst out laughing. shook } ids and returned ing the Mayor to their homes nar thank for his interven- tion, A YOUNG named 1 living iviii man at Kine been an {11 i un : : nd scared the 5 el whet Oe. a distans i about tw tudy. who had before been harmless be da "Hine nH has now proves the Rudy now acts with : id he 4 s as More Wii Is ni by the nn (aiks ht} intelli “x @1 parative nteiligen . B : iI§ fis eS 3 3 LHATINIeSS looked upon wonderful as 0 reef sf ind after an inac- tion of twenty-five years oration « Coroxer A. T. Fraser has sent to London Nature an from Bellary with regard to two Hin- du dwarfs which he photographed 111 the Kurnoul district of the Madras Presidency, not far south of the River Kistna. In speech and intelligence the dwarfs were from ordinary natives of India. From interesting note peared that he belonged to a family all the male members of which have been dwarfs for several generations, They marry ordinary native girls and the female children grow up like those of other people. The males, however the normal rate until they reach the age of six, then cease to grow and become dwarfs, are almost helpless, and are to walk more than a few yards, Tue San Francisco Chronicle issues a sixty-four page paper devoted to and State during the past year. Cali- fornia mines yielded $20,000,000 in 1898, of which $18,000,000 was gold. The wheat crop was 86,000,000 bush- els; grape brandy, 2,000,000 gallons ; pounds; raising, 63,500,000 pounds; dried fruits, 154,000,000 pounds; prunes, 47,000,000 pounds; wool, 30,500,000 pounds; hops, 48.000 bales. The total exports of Cal- ifornia are estimated thus: Vegeta. bles, 110,000,000 pounds ; dried fruits, 92,000,000. The value of wheat ex. ports was $13,000,000; flour, $3,500, 000; exports of wine amounted to 11,000,000 gallons. Tuere is an interesting anomaly on a ranch ness Burbank, Cal. A gen- tleman who moved out recently from the city and commenced farming on a small scale for the benefit of his health, bought, among other stock, a cow and eight young pigs. After a while it was noticed that the pi thrived and rapidly grew fat, while the cow seemed to be eating her head off and Siving ho milk to speak of for family use, 0 cause was soon dis- covered in the fact that the little porkers were in the habit of sucking the cow, and the latter seemed to en- joy it immensely. In fact, when she was shut up away from the pigs she mourned as though she had lost her offspring, Ax automatic sculpturing machine operated by electricity has been pat- ented by 8 French inventor. It is not intended to take the place of ar- tists, but is used for making copies, and is also capable of making rough- hewn statues, upon which the talent better advantage than upon the rough block. The principle is that of the pantograph, there being two parts to the machine, one of which exactly re- The operator guides one part over the tines of the statue which it signed to copy, and a swiftly revolv- ing chisel in the other cuts away at the outside of the block until the lines of the model are exactly repro- duced. is de- Ir is odd to hearof a Chinese being seared merely by the means of alittle Such a did occur the other day at Singapore, we learn from the Straits Times, when a Chinese went into a house at Neil road and took up what he thought to be a cash box. He started off down the street when suddenly the box broke forth into the melodious strains of the Wandering Minstrel.” The man dropped the box on the road, gave one look at it, turned his back upon it and bolted-——straight into the arms of a constable, music. case In Cuba a woman ‘never loses her maiden name. After adds her husband's name to her own. In | being spoken Of she is called by marriage she always and maiden it is often out whose wife a the name, her Christian NAmes, To a quite a task to { woman stranger ind Never hearing the husband's ¢ rail . naturally does not 18. wife One called by 1 associate them to- rether The DOLL parents children take the names but place the moth- name after the fathe Poo ular 1 A ation of the new Lord Mavor ith § in accordance s which had dts 1379. resolved d livery of Chancellor Master off teers Lord and Tue Rev MOre, rece A ir ron John ntiy ivesd le Opening parts of ax if they held Nort hampton f oe Of ovsters from Reedvil Va i t he pon two which an ovster il one-half inches 11 and began 1 put in water The re Was no OY #- wie (3 Was Vr j § : the lish being the sole Ants Bigger Than Foxes. Il res Fhie oar avd from the se fire carried to i up in hil tor Pliny y per Pliny savas this rows was always side and throw: remem of El bigness This REM xeeceding that of a palace debris—sand, earth, ete.—was found to be wonderfully rich ir small gold The danger was greater, however, than the Indians in the early days of gold digging in the Western I'nitxd States, and many stories are told of men who were literally de- in a few moments by the owners of some disturbed bur. nuggets of from the ants that from voured fierce row Some observing old hunter at last discovered that the giant ants slept during the hottest hours of the day. After that ater the yel- low metal only made their incursions 1 bp gens lo = spo ma they only stayed long enough in the fill their sacks with the golden sand, which they took home to «ift at leisure. With all this precau- “swiftly pursued the fleetest horses, and it was only by using various stratagems that the invaders managed to escape alive, ws {Chicago Times. The Canadian Sledge Dogs. Mr. Cameron in his talk with a Courier reporter Sunday told of the dogs that are used for sledging during the winter in the Northwest territo- ries of Canadas. Six or eight dogs are used on each sledge. They are fed only once in each twenty-four hours, and that is in the morning before the start is made and after the dogs are in har. ness. At that time about four pounds of frozen fish sare given to them. Everything must be in readiness for the start, and the men must look to it that they are at hand to jump on the sledges, for at the very instant that the last morsel of fish disappears the dogs are off at a break-neck speed. Strange as it may seem the drivers do not dare to feed the dogs unless they are in harness, Otherwise they would scatter, and nothing more would be seen of them, They are driven with one long rein attached to the leader. A whip with a very short handle and very long lash is used to urge them on, though in most cases they need no urging, for they seem to feel that the faster they go the quicker they will come to the post, where and warmth and a lazy life await them. travel often as far as ninety miles a day.—{ Buffalo Courier. FOR THE YOUNG FOLKS, A COASTING BONO. Hurry, scarry! Through the snow, Bobby's sled and Bobby go. In the storm or pleasant weather, Bobby and his sled together. Blow your fingers, stamp your toes, Don't let Jack Frost nip your nose! Up the hill, and down again, Lots of fun for little men! ~[8t, Nicholas, LITTLE PEOPLE IN OTHER LANDS, If you were a German child of four years, you would know how to weed your mother's garden without ever pull ing up a flower or a vegetable, and yon would do it, too, for little German boys and girls are taught to work in the fields almost us soon as they can walk. By the time you were twelve years old you would be quite an experienced farmer. If you remained in Germany the law would require you to go to school ten months out of every year until you were sixteen years old, but during the vaca tions and holidays your parents would train you to work out of doors, only there would not have to be any force about it for work would have become a habit to vou, and you would enjoy it, A Japanese baby never learns how to creep; so if there is any truth in the old adage that you must “creep before you walk,” it is no wonder that they are not very graceful walkers. The poor, tiny tots are taught to Legin walking ou their hands and the soles of their feet, and when they sit they squat on the soles of the feet, which must be tire some enough. —[ American Agriculturist, THE LITTLE PEOPLE FROM JAVA, In the great Dream City that stood last summer by the blue waters of Lake Michigan there were as mamy as 50,000 real inhabitants To the visitor they seemed to be only a part of the scene: but to an inhabitant the visitors were the fleeting show, and he came to know and to like or dislike his neighbors as their mancers or his fancy gave him cause. Near part of the city where | lived was a district inbabited by the little people from Java. Their streets were so clean, their he 80 pretty, and thev looked out stranger with such cheerful, timid that they soon won the hearts of their neigh vors, and their coffee house came to be a favorite gathering. place When I first visited their streets, | inquired of a bright little woman who sat before a tiny loom on the portico of her house whether she spoke English She re quit kly ““Na, na: no spik Inglis—all spik Chicago nax week”: and thers the little woman went on WEeAVIDg a sarong, mean while singing softly to herself, A sarong is a piece of batik, or cloth, about three feet wide by six feet It is used by the Javanese men and women as a Kind of skirt, being folded about the hips and tucked in under a beit, But a batik part of the work of making Under another wide an! beautiful designs on the First she made a border exactly likea backgammon each end of the cloth; then an inner strip of fantastic pictures of birds flying and spreading their wings: and then a mare of that seemed to get all tangled up, vetall came out in a regular figure in the end, as the riders do at the circus when all canter dressed as teenth centary cavaliers The pencil with which this design was drawn should not, perhaps, be called a peocil at all —it is very different from the ones Ni Nicholas's artists ase: it is a tiny bowl, about as big as an acorn, with a little curved spout, and is fastened on the end of a short bamboo handle. bow! is filled with hot wax, which the woman keeps melting in a copper vessel over a charcoal fire Every mo- ment or two she dips the bowl in the vessel of wax, then blows in the spout, lines before the wax the reETi the smiles, on plied cotton long. weaving is only a small a sarong, portico a patient, drawing the vhite cloth skilful woman most Doard at fines 1st Ltuey out seven. cools. When the design is complete the cloth is dipped in dyes, and when dry is washed in hot water, Then all the wax leaving a white figure wherever they were traced. for the dye cannot get through the wax. The most fantastic sarongs are made For them, velvet bodioes with gorgeous figures in TAR DOLLA’ TEA PARTY, It was very bright in the nursery. moon's rays coming in through the big windows. But it was midoight, and no | one but the dolls were there, and, of | course, they could not read. Elizabeth and Marguerite, two wax | beauties, lay in their handsome beds, | Their young owner had not taken the trouble to undress them, but they re. | posed under the covers, their eyes closed | as peacefully as if they were proper! robed for the night. BIopery Old Dinah, a battered, black doll in a turban, was stretched, face down, half Way under the nursery lounge, Tim, a Chinese boy doll with an Irish name, stood propped up in one corner. Dot, a dainty bisque figure, with fluffy hair and a pink dress, sat in her own high. chair. In the doli-house a family of china babies stood or sat or lay just where they had been left at teatime. “Oh, oh,” sighed poor black Dinsh as the cuckoo clock stopped striking twelve, She turned herseif slowly over and sat ap stiffly. “Hello! to have our fun,” said Tim, stretching him. self and walking out from his corner. At this all the dolls in the nursery started up and began to rub Shale wjed “What shall we do to-night?” ed Elizabeth, to which Dot replied at once: “let's play ten.” The feast consisted of crackers and fruit from the nursery cracker jar and fruit dish, and a pi of water. They had a merry time, for one told a funny story or some pleasant in. cident which the rest did not know about, “Now, hu't this nice?” said Dot, with . of delight, “Isn't 1t better than you up snd you have to stay there and cannot say a word? | like night time better than daytisne, anyway, because then there is no one around and we can | move and speak, I wonder why it is | against the rule for dolls to do that when | people are hy?” {| “1 wish it would be night time for a | whole yenr,” suid one of the doll-house i dolls. ‘Ob, what's that?” ‘What's what?" cried all the dolls, jumping from the table and rupsing | around wildly. | The door handle was rattled and then | the door opened, to the dolls’ horror. A | white figure, startling in the moonlight, came softly in. It was the dolls’ mis- tress. Her feet were bare and her eyes anything, She walked towards the lounge, stepping on Dinah as she passed. Then she stooped and picked up the doll, lay down with her on the lounge, drew the gray worsted afghan over her- self, and did not move again. All the rest of the dolls remained pet. rified with fright, and when the nurse came in early very much alarmed+to find her there “She must nave been playing half the night,” she said, when she the table. **Poor lamb! I shan’t her until late this morning.” And she went out, carrviog the little sleepwalker to her own warm bed again. Oh, that was a parrow escape, Elizabeth and Marguerite in the breath Le been awnke when We should have been punished, | sm sure.” ‘It was a great scare,” the little dolls ‘“‘But for piaving with what us I, for one, Nor LL” York World. dolls RUW said SHINE uppose our mistress had she came int said one of deserved it % we didn’t ver do it again the rest, — elon y will nv avreed all SPANISH MATCH BOYS. The Tynical Street Urchins of Madrid. Madrid's 1 ypical street urchin I can best }sa his bods £13 rs heey fusion they off u rove crowd Lye persot whole perforinanes f » + name of Ramon ny dang five He d Year exposing the methods of Black Hand Society As 8 rule Madrid '« vender dirt 3 black-eyed uhiquit is raged juite a perfect little mp who will not accept a refusal, and whose appealing glances and insinuating whine only the hardest can wit In Madrid every SINOXEeS cigars or hstand grown-up person cigarettes ecighteer hours out of twenty-four demand for matches is constant the chico de las cerillas bound make a living if he remains His favorite resort Sol. the centre of the capital's whirl, hence the and to i% the hum of the passing throng is heard his shrill rillas! He carries his wares little square box suspended in front His stock consists of va- of matches, paper boxes, and the large odoriferous Vesuvians of English importation. His most costly about three cents, the cheapest for one penny. These match-boys are a fond of forming into cliques with fierce rivalries, leading often to personal encounters. On such occasions the Spanish boy is unfortunately not sat- has given him, but will seize a knife or stone to attack his adversary. His redeeming trait, however, is his in. tense love for his parents, to whose necessities he will devote his last penny .~{ Harper's Young People. a —— They are MHigh-Toned. The common Greeks in Athens, as well as in Constantinople, do not re- gard themselves as Europeans, though they would probably feel insulted if you ealled them Asiatics, says a writer in the Queen, Dunstantinople may consequently be divided roughly into Pera, the European quarter; Galata, the Greek quarter, and Stam- boul, the ancient ish city, which was Greek before It became Turkish by conquest. There is also a smaller Greek r left on the Stamboul side, which contains the Patriarchate. There are half a mfllion Greeks in Constantinople. Pera is the least in. teresting portion of the city, but its sanitation is the best, and you are not linble to be kille by a faithful son of the. prophet or eaten up by dogs for venturing out at night. THE LIMEKILN CLUB. Brother Gardner Enlightens the Club on the Essentials of Sacred His- tory. “If Brudder Comealong Jackson an’ Brudder Standup Johnson am in de hall to-night I wish "em to step dis way,”’ said Brother Gardner when the routine business of the last meeting of the Limekiln Club had been dis- posed of, The brothers named were present and after conziderable hesitation they arose and advanced to the platform. It was seen that Comealong had lately lost three front teeth and that Stand- up had one eye closed and a battered Nose, “frem'len.’ 1 observed the president i “by-law Serious countenance members of dis club shall t ngage ments or three no discushuns A bout fast iy alled speshual atts aw. On three different occasl int rule. 11 dat has bin members § i dun bye Vv D f £3 breakin break Jacksor if? arew words Ci am (OT yf de thousands size of {eir foapt a Dar was a dd Ni aroun’ ah built an an was saved. We doan’ was married or single or short We ark an floated We choke off rig! keer whether he white or black i joan’ keer ained fo'ty lays or only : a half. “Cain killed hiz brudder Abel wid a slub. It's none 0° our bizness to ax whether dot club was of oak or hick- ory—-whether de Killin’ took place Sunday mornin’ or Wednesday even. in. Wedoan keer whether it was outdoahs or in de house. “Pan’l was cast intoaden of lHlons— mehbe Mebbe dem lions was hungry-mebbe « not, Dey didn’t wan't no fuss wid Dan’. Why dey didn't am none o’ our business. All we keer for am dat Dan’l got out all right. “Jonah was swallered by a whale an’ cast up agin. Was it a small whale or a big one? Was he black or white? Was he waitin’ dar to swal- ler Jonah, or did he just happen "long at de right minit? None o’ our biziness! All we keer fur is dat he was cast out agin, “Dis am whar I stand, gem’len, an’ whar I shall continer to stand, an’ such as can’t stand wid me kin take a walk! Brudders Jackson and John. son, yo kin make yo'selves skass! Git out an’ stay out! Yo’ can’t come yere nomo'! If, in gwine down de alley together, one of you declares dat Job had chilblains ‘stead of biles an’ de odder calls him a liar an’ gits up a fight, it won't be nuffin’ to dis club and nobody will interfere. We will now blow out de lamps and prog- nosticate homewards,”’ — [Chicago Times. it dar it an nine six. Anything to Oblige. During the strike of the officials of the North British Railway a few years ago much difficulty was experienced in finding qualified engi rivers to maintain the necessary train service, Upon one occasion a young fellow was put upon a section in Fife. One day he ran some distance past a cer. tain station, and, upon putting back, he yout as far the other way.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers