SOMEWHAT STRANGE. | ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF | EVERYDAY LIFE. loging a ring. He first noticed that it was gone one morning when he was Heo glanced down at his | As | in church. Queer Facts and Thrilling Adventures | Which Show that Truth is Stranger than Fiction. “WHILE traveling from house to | house in Charlton county last Janu- | ary,’’ said a well-known canvasser at | Waycross, Ga., “1 heard a strange | story about an alligator. A farmer who lives in close proximity to an alligator pond was at work en the | plantation and his family was at a neighbor's house. Returning home | about sundown, they heard a strange noise in one of the living rooms. The farmer supposed that a burglar was in the house and quickly opened the | front door and took down his shot- gun. He went in the room where the noise was, and lying restlessly upon the bed with his head on the pillow, was a medium-sized alligator. The man was surprised and frightened. The alligator heard a noise, and look- ing around, saw the gun pointed to- ward him. The man banged away with his gun and a dozen buckshot entered the alligator’s head. Another load of shot was sent whizzing at the reptile, causing death instantly. The dishes and tables in the dining room were broken and the pantry was robbed of its victuals. Having satis- fied his appetite, the reptile crawled’ upon the bed and prepared to take a nap. The alligator was, with diffi- culty removed from the house.” A curious case of word blindness is reported in the Occidental Medical Yimes by Dr. A. W. Hoisholt. The patient was a musician, aged sixty- three, with confused memory but co- herent in language and free froin hal- lucination. Speech was normal, with ho misapplication of words. He understood everything said to him and could spell correctly and write properly at dictation, but when asked to read what he had written could not do so, not even his own name. Single letters of the alphabet he erally read correctly. but he could not put letters together and pronounce them. This he attrib- uted to poor sight, yet he recognized objects at a long distance. When furnished with a violin he could play most difficult passages of music without a fault, but when requested to play by note hesitated and played something not on the paper. His vision could not be improved with glasses. At the antopsy the cortical surface around the posterior end of the first temporo-sphenoidal fissure was found somewhat depressed below the surrounding surface and present- ed several hemorrhagic spots about the size of a small pea. gen- three even Tae Mayor and employes of the city hall of Versailles, France, were terribly frightened when a bold em- ploye the other day suddenly discov- ered a bomb the building, plunged it into a bucket of water to extinguish the fuse, and then showed it to them. There was loud talk of rewarding the brave man with a better position, until the police began to investigate the matter. They found that the bomb had been made in r hall itself, it was tied peculiar tape used by and sealed with the se exclusively for official They showed also that the bomb has not been on fire when it was pic up, but that the fuse had been par- tially burnt, and afterward extin- guished and inserted into the bomb. A threatening letter, which ace panied the bom, was found the same employee's handwriting. They drove the man into so close a corner that he confessed making the bomb, that he might find it and get a raise in his place for his supposed bravery in extinguishing the danger ous thing. Tue following circumstance oc- curred at the Cape of Good Hope In one of the violent storms that often occur there a vessel was forced on the rocks and beaten to pieces, The greater part of the crew perished miserably, as no boat could venture to their assistance. Meanwhile a planter came from his farm to see the wreck, and knowing the spirit of his horse and his excellence as a swim mer, he determined to make a des- perate effort for their deliverance and pushed into the thundering breakers. At first both disappeared, but were soon seen on the surface. Nearing the wreck, he caused two of the poor seamen to cling to his boots, and so brought them safe to the shore. Seven times did he repeat this peril. ous feat and saved fourteen lives: but alas! the eighth time, the horse being much fatigued and meeting with a formidable wave, the gallant fellow lost his balance and was over. whelmed in 8 moment. He was seen no more, but the noble horse reached the land in safety. ir in If, as 12 wax used DUTDOSES, i i M~- to be in AT the aquarium in Berlin there is | a big gorilla whose habits are a great | deal more correct than those of most of his distant relatives. He gets up | at 8 o'clock in the morning, takes a | : and uses soap without hesita- lon. When his toilet is completed he takes a cup of milk, after which he eats two loaves of bread, with Frankfort sausages and smoked Ham- burg beef, all of which he moistens with a glass of lager beer. At lp. m. he takes a bowl of soup, with rice and potatoes, and a wing of a chicken. He uses his knife and fork and his napkin like a born aristocrat ; but when he thinks that his keepers are not observing him he discards the implements of civilization and plunges his muzzle into the bowl, as if to give evidence of the melancholy fact that even a gorilla can be a hog. A rroMiNext Portland (Me.) man tells of a queer experience he had but without avail. He gave it up as The next morning at his store explanation of this somewhat mys- The ring the finger, and fitted loosely upon again until Monday morning. The ring muat have remained in the finger when that article was next put on. Tue house at Morristown, N. J., | occupied by Frank Stockton (the story writer), once had the report of being haunted. The owner was about lawyer when a word was dropped as to the uncanny legend touching the place, and the would-be purchaser immediately declined to proceed fur-! ther with the négotiations. Mr. Stockton, however, cheerfully took the house, ghost and all, and per- haps he was a little disappointed when the trimming of some trees about the eaves put to flight the legend of the place. It was discov- covered that the squirrels were ac- customed to leap from the trees to the roof and use the water trough as a rurway. The sound of their scam- pering had been mistaken for that of ghostly feet, A REMARKABLE story of a ride upon an avalanche comes from Atlanta, in the Sawtooth mountains, Idaho. Gen- erally when & man is caught in a snowslide he is buried and either crushed or smothered to death, but in this case the imperiled man actu- ally rode the avalanche half a mile and came out alive, Charles Goetz was hunting in the mountains near Atlanta when the snow started under I He was unable to extricate himself from the moving mass, and in a few moments he was ried along upon the breas a roar- ing avalanche. I'he rushed down into a rocky, precipitous can- yon, but Goetz went through He was found eleven hours afterward by a rescuing party, and though ter- rily bruised, he is in a fair way to re- covery. 1is feat, Doeing of CAr- 4 slide 3 f/IIVE, Georce Diervexnack of Louisville, has a game hen from County Galway Ireland, that is better than a rat ter- rier. The other morning a large tried to get at } stantly the hen feathers When the rat tried to run under she pecked at rat jumped at her and ts her by the neck. Everytime came at the wings and met him than h way. Once the rat pulled out a lit hunch of feathers jump was shart, and he failed to eateh neck. This made the hen more angry. She went at the rat in earnest. The rat would snap its jaws na great rage, The wif an hour, and The rat weighed 1 i i the hen's nest wns all ner, viecion nim i . 3 hen she dropped more but his the hen's i 3 i rat LER A Pour Gus Carlson, AND (OR.) paper was who identally against a sted four mon face thre wn pn Some iths ago and across his breastbone and ril CX POs. 1 other internal recov ered fr d The loe- tors were much interested in his or rather in viewing what the case, as it is very get a chance to watch the and contraction of a The most remarkable thing about was to see how gradually the lungs were filled and how suddenly they collapsed when the breath expired The doctors would have liked to leave a deep hole open in Carlson’s thorax, but were afraid he might contract pneumonia through it. ing his lungs and has nearly mechanism will soon be able to go out. case, was inside they seldom expansion ot of 44 lungs, it A MILLIONAIRE who was noted for his eccentricity has died at Antwerp. M. van Goulaken was of the celebrities of the City of Rubens; and his house one of the sights that was more amusing to the visitor than to the neighborhood. Van Goulaken had a special antipathy to tram lines, and when they were laid down in front of his house many years ago, he took an oath, and registered it in a letter to the authorities, that he would never have his house cleaned or painted again. The house was long a disgrace to the fashionable quarter in which he lived; but he regarded its dirtiness with grim satisfaction. | In his will he has forbidden hig heirs to use the word ‘‘regret’’ in any an- | nouncement of his death. one LigurNixe struck a pine tree at] Brookville, Fla., recently, tearing it to pieces and scattering it in every] direction. One piece of timber about ordinary rail, was thrown seventy | feet and the end driven into the ground | Other and smaller pieces | Ix the heart of London is a public | newsroom without a librarian or any- one to look after the papers. They are chained and padlocked so they cannot be carried off. Little damage is done and the room is usually quiet and orderly. Nonrrn Groroia has a young man only twenty-two years of age who has been married three times, and is now looking for a fourth wife. A BUGGESTION. Mamma — Remember, Frankie, what the dentist said about candy ruin our teeth, , Frankle—Yes: but why don't you let me prove it like we do in 'rithme- tie ?~~{ Chicago Inter Ocean. THE CAR SEARCHER. Borrowed Cars, Like Umbrellas, Often Go Astray. If you want to get an idea of the immensity of American railroading, talk to a car searcher. The United States cover a pretty large area, as some one has ohserved, but the rail- searchers, know their way about it as a policoman knows his beat. A car searcher, be it said for the benefit of by one of the companies to look for cars which have been borrowed by other lines and treated like borrowed umbrellas. Of course these officials is reposed in them and they have a great weight of responsibility to carry on their shoulders, One of these men whom I met a few evenings ago talked of one car somewhere around by Eagle Pass, or a chance of finding another at Portland, Oregon, as if these places were only a few squares the other side of Broadway. He had been sent the territory between New York and Seattle to find certain freight cars that had been running up long bills for ‘demurrage’ against their bor- rowers. ‘‘ Demurrage '’ is a charge made by the owners of a car, at much per day, for the time the car is kept away from its own line [key'll take a car,” he said down South, and, in- stead of sending it back when they're with it, will use it for some work. That goes on and on until, first thing you know, the car gets in a smashup.”’ Then you have no more chance of finding it I interrupted where | displayed my ignorance “Haven't I, though? I go to where the car wassent and make them show Let me tell you about to our line that got and nobody could it at that depot was all beard. Wher try on his books somewhere dons Ol her This was 3 1 me the books, e ager y } little bit of 8 man, { i 1 3 I showed him the en and asked him where that car was | he didn’t know anything al One he says, ‘1 left g, and when 1 Some said it. night.’ came here on the sidin " 7 mi 12 it Was gone, ’ ) freight next those riley rnin conductors must come in here in the night 4 ing around they ju a Ar fl — whimpering he'd lo got into trouble At in they were short of « HOw st | that it and loaded up our ear w , for Atl: wrecked ar If vou I said, ‘you have had to pay $300 or $400 pay ROrve 5 i Of r fa I ve If 1 go back and Cf t find that ca And a) il ab i owned up ars thoye ¢ ¥ OOK agricultural machinery {¥n. © the tras Car was N for demurrage f i'll have to and mily WS eit = pay irier<Jours Table Oils. ountry has turned to a ile extent, either kr lv or by the prevalence of adultera- {5% ¥ Fe Wing tion. to the use of cotton-seed oil for the purposes for which olive oil was formerly thought the only article suitable, they have to be Germany to in find a substitute for the olive ing pure, and they think they found it an oil from the seeds of the linden tree, and at lower prices than the olive oil. Dr. Muller reports to the German Botanical Society that these sceds have fifty-eight per cent. oil. The oil has the appearance of olive oil, and is said to have a very fine flavor, free from any bitter or aromatic taste. It does not evaporate, it never becomes rancid, and has no tendency tooxygenate. It has been exposed to a temperature three degrees below zero without showing any change’ in the way of hardening or chilling. They have used the oil of the beech- nut with good satisfaction for several years, and the nut has nearly twenty- three per cent. of oil which could be obtained without any expense, but a simple pressing process, but there is in eral use, which is the well-known un- certainty of the tree in bearing, often not yielding freely for years at atime. The linden, on the contrary, is a regular bearer, and a large amount of the seed can be gathered each fall.—{ Boston Cultivator, ————— How ''Sizes '’ Vary. When you gpeak of a man’s hat be- ing '‘ about two sizes too large for him’ you do not mean that the proper fit would be a hat two inches smaller in either circumference or dinmeter; with his coat, however, when you say ‘‘ size’’ you mean inch. The following may be of interest to those likely to get mixed on the ques- tion of ‘‘sizes’’ and inches. A ‘size’ in a coat Ia exactly an inch, in underwear it ig two inches, in a sock an inch, in a collar one-half inch, a shirt the ¢, in shoes one- sixth of an inch, i ts one inch, in gloves one-fourth of an inch and in hats on hth of an inch. —{St. Louis Republic. England spends $90,000,000 a yest on her navy. SEA FOOD SUPPLY. IS STOCKED. Voyages of the Fishing Smacks~- Methods of Catching Various Kinds of Fish. -Bait Used. Every year, following each other like vast armies, the different tribes of sea fish with which the New York market is stocked, swarm along the coast from Florida to the banks of Newfoundland, and whither they go is still an un- unsolved problem, All we know is that these migrations occur annual- ly, in regular order, and that the i gil the prawns that are sold here, to year. The fleet of fishing smacks that leaves New York, about the middle of March, to meet the northward mov- ing swarms, numbers from 40 to 60 sails. Each takes out a crew of four to six men, and is provisioned for a two weeks’ voyage. These crews are easmposed chiefly of Bwedes, Norwe- glans and Portuguese. The captains or men in command are, a rule ‘down-Easters."”’ The smacks are divided into two classes, called respectively ‘wet’ and “dry.” The wet smack equipped with wells for keeping the fish In waterand bringing them into port alive. There are fifteen of this class. The dry smack has no wells. Many of them are ab- sent from New York for months which case their catch deliy and their provisions renewed at nearest large port on the coast. bouts that go south with their fish from May, and the east, from points east land, their the city Smacks leavis as is one some dozen or in ered the The do return points south of boats that of Block shipped is not Cane catches by rail. are as di- Msrch make for Cape Hatte i rect. They reach there generally jus of t is ig about the middle of i as the advance column he great of blue roundir It is from half a three-quarters o a miie procession fish ig t« : | the miie and or three CADe 4 wide of two miles from shore, [hem moves at a distance ve inien Siow that the DoOats + fish until f need 0% out I than the coast of Massachu fi to 3 inex if it g 5 aine going : sett have had 5 00 A smack is considere average blue fish are Or Hix) pou not od for this fis! ice-houses Pig he weather g the trail of the bit port, change their tackle The Jd 3g ger ie 53 eR gear ttt sf » iI go out atier ci and mackerel stream pursed the fash 4 Hatteras to New Foundland, al- h it not a later. But the method of them ix different from that the « { or Of Rere; in big schools much in SRN 3 1intsl does I gin un ase cod blue journey are 10d of showing fight PNCe seines lsswively - } “ig § sxciusively for their cap- wifish on the other hand As po 1 would tear a seine all of them ds, the to pieces gh In 60 to ' resistance they are on- SKOIme wel pout pable of making is very great MT a singular fact, however that the ¢ ne is Hen water until | He can be taken with an ordinary fishis i drawn through the reaches the surface » Lins = ine de disable provi : you are quick enough him with your knife just s to the top of the water. Al cod require to be captured in this way. The smaller have weight or stre break a line * ng £0 ss 18 [16 COmes | the large (ies fit ngth enough to The migration of the cod is such that fishing for them east of Sandy Hook continues good until the mid- They are the most prolific and the most persistently hunted of all deep sea food tribes. The bait used for them is skimmers a specie of sea clam of which they are voraciously fond. When the smacks that go to Hatteras in the beginning of the year to meet the streams of fish moving north from equatorial waters finally quit pursuit, they can generally find prof- itable occupation by turning their attention to the cod. It is a saying among the fishermen that cod are like the poor--you always have them with you. In catching haddock, that peculiar device known as a trawl is used. It consists of a strong line some 60 feet in length. 400 hooks, 18 inches apart. When From time to time it is hauled rebaited and thrown out again. haddock is a sedate sort The of fellow. prepared to suffer the consequences with resignation, All the fish above referred to be- stitute the staple fish of this and all ison with them the supply obtained from our bays, inl ¥, estuaries and other inshore fisheries, is small, The yield of lobsters has for sever- al years past been steadily declining. They are scarcer now than they have ever been befure. They are not mi- tory in their habits, simply mov- ng in shore during warm weather winter. Over-fishing and the destruc- tion of the ER Ian and immature lobsters have Jrobably caused the de- crease. The best that come to this market are taken at Noank, Connec- ticut. In Massachusetts they are trying with considerable success the plan of hatching the eggs artificially. also depend upon the South chiefly for shrimp, although they ars caught in our bays and rivers at cers tain seasons of the year. From the sume source come red snappers and weak fish. The latter are called sea trout by the BSoutherncrs.—|{New York News. A FIELD FOR EXPLORERS. Ruins of Great Cities in Central and Eastern Asia. In Central and Eastern Asia there lies an unexplored region full of in- terest, and to the archwologivt in especial, A great traveler and clever writer, the Russian General Prjevals- ky, speaking of the oesis of Tchert- chen, situated in the great table lands hemmed in by the there un- broken wall of the Himalayas, says that close to it are the ruins of two wns and cording to local tradition, stroyed 8.000 years other by century “The cities is covered shifting sands and with strange and with broken and utensils and human bones often find 1 ingots ago, of our era. emplacement now of owing to the desert winds, heterogeneous kitchen china 10% tives nnd copper coins, diamonds and tur- qt and ble, broken undecaying 101868 what is most f ing 3 f Zines, of wood or material re i MONKEY MANNERS. of the Anthropoids. of intelligence of says a naturalist in the Wash. yn Star, anthropoids are capable Bpeaking the pes nate surprising se- their limita- Chimpanzees wait on the FOOLS. A published acquiring some very romplishments, though tions are distinet taught to $3884 | nave been and to {istinguished 2 book 8 while pressed the of would, sooner « of domestic He owhed one of these animals, which he trained to fight the fire and to wake his master when the Buffon, in 1740. had a chi which ate at the table and em- ployed it a fork and and elinked poured ut tea and put sugar table Ween Frenel ge Hmpanzees ke the place oven was hot mpanzee opened a rightly p wired out wine napxin useq SIN and tried to im- pea, Jerlin linary bed inthes He Py rer windows fir with a the aquarium sie fn Al Or wvering L.-self with the bedel nd ate at tab per frank walter from a glass, Curr the latter nosth with- I out spil ric] getting i A f Wf cone Thiz mel- preserved embalmed bodies are found. The male are all powerfully built men A vault sitting mummies “norime- ously tall with long. wavy hair. with twelve dead Another time in a young girl was found by us. eyes were | len a golden LE] men “Her dosed with gol disl.s id the jaws held i ot ar cir geross the running from u f the ¢ top of i narrow woollen on was covered with are waiting the wer for the the ertainly ce tO rec wor d forgotten page history of ples globe Case Of } Lrav- The King's Pleasure. Farming in France. just It than 14.000.000 ‘of France, i. ¢ nhabitants hrea-quarts are oc rs of the up ad » 4 N02 697 hich Oor thie land tor ier. » at res eggs, fruit impatiently in the hearing of Duke d royal buildings, that he time a forest which ways disliked, because one of his favorite views, t down. Unknown to Duke d’Antin had hoped that ROI it +h cul Lie forest sawed through near the ground in such a way that they still stood, though a slight pull would bring them down. He removed every evi- dence of the work, and fastened ropes to the tops of the trees, and cenled more than twelve hundred men in the forest to manage the ropes at a signal from him. The duke knew on what day the king would CON. work accordingly. The king took his accustomed promenade, and, as usual, he expressed his sentiments about the hated forest. “Your majesty, the forest shall be removed whenever you like,” said D’Antin. “Indeed.” said the king, ‘then I wish it might be done at once.’ At that moment D’Antin blew a shrill blast from a whistle, and, to the utter amazement of the king and the royal party, the forest fell as if by enchantment.-- { Argonaut. Death by Strangulation. “‘Death by strangulation,’ said Dr. E. L. Henry, of Baltimore, to a St, Louis Globe-Democrat reporter, ‘‘is way to die. Hanging, drowning, opi- gas, to the person in a normal condi- a most beautiful panorama of land. scape views floats through the brain, through space in luxurious ease. But should the person recover, the pain is the most. intense of any that could be suffered, and there are people who are so constituted that this pain is all that is realized, even during the pro- cess of strangulation. To these peo- ple the sensation is that of being pierced by thousands of sharp needles, and their head seems to be bursting with blows upon the inside of the skull. With such persons it is the most horrible form of death.” In the public and. in the United States there are 269. other. clearly for the dairy. are for production on 4 suited such be at but enumer- for small small farms. Grain may also ian economic ivantage, n disau i {everything olee ated holders in En Producers of Ex : 13 and heavy transit 1ere ¥ 4 1 pe xuitabie would gland France be 4 . giana irom suffer, as do middlemen for articles are only worth s each in Fin- the following difference is : ip by the railways, the | brokers and the retail merchants, The transport system from Finistere to London via St. Malo, un- satisfactory, both as regards cost and speed, and attention is being directed towards establishing a direct trade with Manchester, Normandy, however, producers are better treated, as they realize three-fourths of the price paid by consumers. In some parts of Brittany they do well, but in others they only. get one-fourth. The system of association for the mutual protection of agricultural in- terests is making great strides. | those IRrLes, whicl i from «izht to ten cent istere are sold in day fa 50 swallowed of commenres Paris the cents ix also ” 4 Chinese Minstreisy. When I had finished eating my evening meal, the beggar’s son told me that his father was a noted mine strel, and wished to regale me with one of his songs. Having received leave, he tuned a dilapidated banjo, and broke out in a wild screech, ac- companied by many grunts, much sniffling. and the most horrible grim- aces, rolling his sightless eyes about. In a nearly unintelligible jargon he told of the life and exploits of a s good, and honest official—a mythical personage of whom one often hears in China, It was long, very long, and very painful to listen to. When he had finally brought his song to an end, and the good official had received from the emperor a coral button of office, a yellow riding-jacket, and a patent of nobility with retroactive effect, en nobling his parents and his parents to the third and Lh gen- erations, he asked leave to sing an- other ditty; but I bribed him to de- sist, and he went to another hovel, and charmed the inmates with his songs far into the night.—{Century,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers