Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-06-03
Strange Stories.
HAPPENINGS IN REAL LIFE FAR MORE RE
MARKABLE THAN THOSE RELATED N FIc-
TION.

HAPPENINGS IN REAL. LIFE FAR MORE hE-
MARKABLE THAN THOSE RELATED N FIc-
TIoS.
from tn Chicago Inter ocean,
People often talk about the unreason-
able and impossible incidents related in
novels, but there are as strange happen
ings in real life rs were ever narrated by
writers of fiction. We remember how the
great flood described by Charles Reade in
his novel, "Put Yourself in His Place."
was characterized as worse than the an
nual yarns about the sea serpent but di
rectly has come an actual flood in New
England that more than equalled in ter
ror and destructiveness tho incident des-
cribed by Reade. Indeed, We are all the
time reading of something in real life that
discounts the novelist A Louisville
paper tells how Mrs. Isaacs of that city
ran needle i'll her foot nine wears ago.
Last week the self same needle worked
out of the thigh of her third child. nj baby
Of one year. The Elmira On. " Et-
press. in speaking of this instance, recalls
another even more remarkable. Thirteen
years ago Mrs. Henry Josephs of Pine
Bluff, Ark, swallowed Il needle, and two
weeks ago last Thursday it was picked
out of saw-log in Bay City, Mich. The
same paper mentions the case of Mrs.
Charles Flanagan of Duluth, who swal-
lowed pin when she was Il girl of 10.
She had the erysipelas, and it was feared
that the pin, working in connection with
that dreadful disease, would permanently
disable her, but finally she recovered.
About six weeks ago Mr.. Flannagan's S
adopted sister experienced prickly SEN
catinn in tho nnI ,,f bar hio foo opl ga,,-
days after pulled the long lost pin from
her foot A still more remarkable case is
that of Mrs Hannah Wedgewood of
Green Bay, Wis. Shorty after Mrs. W.
was married her mother-in-law missed q
diamond pin Of small size, and for some
time there was much feeling and very I'M
pleasant suspicious regarding its loss.
Fifteen years after the occurrence Mrs.
Wedgewood picked the pin ont of the
whiskers of the hired man who worked
for the Wedgcwood family when the gem
was swallowed.
There is no explaining these occur
ences. Science stands puzzled in their
presence, and can only look on and won
der, like the rest of mankind. Take the
case of Horatio Gurncy of Council Bluffs.
In 1868 he was soldier in the fourteenth
Ohio, and was on the Yazoo river expedi-
ton. One day the company cook bor-
rowed small gold watch belonging to
Mr. Gurney, which had a string attached
to it made out of raw deer hide Sudden
ly the cook gave Il cry and began pound
ing big dog that belonged to the COM
mand and had become eravenously hungry.
Running to the cook they found that the
dog had grabbed the raw deer hide at
tached to the watch, pulled it off the stool
| whero the watch was lying, and, when it
was set upon, had swallowed watch and
all. Persons laid their ears to the dogs
side and could distinctly hear the watch
tick The boys of the company would
not hear of the dog being killed, and
made up purse for Mr.. Gurney, who
consented to lose the watch. Four years
after the war Mr.. Gurney discovered that
watch III Chicago pawnshop, where it
had been left by IL brother of the cook
who saw the dog swallow it. Mr.. Gurney
keeps the watch as a queer relic of the
war, and as evidence that material objects
rs we'll MS personal traits can be transmit
ted by one animal to another. These
incidents might be multiplied, for they are
occurring all around us.
1hus l. SocS. 'NHiPh'hN " ucoP
anxiety about the property of another,
frequently results i'll the passage Of GER
tain portable articles through the hands
of whole family, sometimes never reach
ing the original owner at all. In the
midst of such simple and undeniable
facts rs these it is lille to claim that any
thing is absolutely safe, or that persons
when hypnotized or otherwise affected
may not abstract and convey through
involved and unexplained processes port
able property from generation to genera