News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-12-13
SOMEWHAT STRANGE.
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF
EVERYDAY LIFE.

ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF
EVERYDAY LIFE.
Newsy Stories, NoveIFacts, and Queer
Happenings Here and There
THOUGH it is not generally known,
Harry Dixey, the comedian, is one OF
the best straightforward performers In
the country, and did he wish to do 50 he
could travel with success as q magician.
He is especially clever in tricks with
cards. He performs n feat-lt can
hardly be called trick, since 1t requires
as much strength of wrists and fingers
as skill-which is only partially r1yaled
in this country by Prof. Herman. 1t
consists of tearing a solid pack of cards
into halves, quarters, and elghths. He
last performed this feat in New York in
the cafe of the Hoffman House just be-
fore leaving for the West. Taking a
pack of cards, which cost seventy-five
cents, he squared them, and then with
O rapid movement of his hands tore the
entire fifty two in twain almost as
smoothly as though they had been cut
| Will ull1l SllSdIS. On6 VI Uu0 Knives vi
the deck was torn into quarters and then
one of the quarters was divided in the
same manner into eigths. The last divi-
sion was made with considerable diff
Guilty, and the edges of the last tear
Herman created a good deal of stir
merely by tearing in the same manner a
pack of car s into halves.
A HUMAN hair market is told of in a
London paper. 1t is located at Morains,
in the Department of the Lower Pyren-
mes, and on alternate Fridays hundreds
of hair dressers repair to the little place
to buy the hair of the young peasant
girls. "The dealers wander up and
down the long, narrow street of the
town, each with a huge pair of bright
shears hanging from q black leather
strap around his waist, while the young
girls who wish to part with their hair
stand about in the doorways. The tran
saction is carried on in the best room of
the house. The hair is left down, the
tresses combed out, and the dealer names
the price. This varies from three to
twenty francs. If a bar ain is struck
the dealer lays the money in the open
palm of the seller, applies his shears,
and in q minute the long tresses fall on
the floor. The purchaser rolls up the
t~resses, places them in paper and
thrusts them into his pocket. OF course
a maiden can rarely see her fallen tresses
disappear into the dealers pocket with
out crying. But she soon consoles her.
self with the thought that the hair will
grow again and by looking at the money
in her hand.
A LIVING bat, imbedded in solid rock
has been found o the premises of w. '.
Herriott, near Romney, W. Va, by Mr..
Herriott and Charles Corbin, who were
quarrying the rock. There were several
other witnesses to this remarkable dis
covery. The whole in the stone, which
was in the centre, was quite small, and
the bats body just filled it. The bat
subsequently died by being kept too
near a warm stove. Something similar
to this happened in the mine of the
Swanton Company at Barton, Md, sew
eral years ago. Anthony Rehs, a miner,
while driving his pick into the solid
breast of coal dislodged from a little
pocket a live bat. He took it home
with him and it died in Il few days. 1t
was afterward stuffed, and is now in Mr..
Reh's possession. Archibald Mcdonald,
at that time Superintendent of the
mine had a plaster cast taken of the
cavity in tie coal, and it correspondent
exactly to the shape of the bat. The
place where the bat was found was
about a mile from the mouth of the
mine, and was vertically about 200 feet
from the surface of the ground.
THERE appears to be a great diversity
of tastes among the crowned female
heads of Europe with respect to orna-
ments of dress. The Dowager Empress
Augusta had a great weakness for dia-
monds, and on state occasions appeared
in q flood of light. Pearls seem TO
have=Aeldt the first place-in-the -estimaL
ton of Empress Frederick. while sap
phireS are the favOrite gems of her royal
mother, who IS also credited with n pas
sion for India shawls. The Empress of
Russia delights in n combination Of
turquoises and pearls, while emeralds
Elizabeth of Austria. Ex-Queen lisa
bella of Spain has made q collection of
exquisite laces. The Grand Duchess of
Baden, the daughter of the Emperor
William L., is said to prize flowers above
all jewels.
Long JOHN WENTWORTH, who recent
" died in Chicago, used to tell this story
of how he got the name by which he was
so we'll known: When l was going to
school down in Connecticut l was the
longest and skinniest boy you ever saw.
I was IA years old. l used to have q
habit in those days of getting my heels
up on the seat, SO that my knees lowered
above my head. l was sitting that way
one day in school, when one of the ex-
aminers came around. He said to the
teacher: "What's that boy doing stand
ing up on the benchl Why, don't you
make him sit down 2" The teacher said
I was sittin' down. "Who is he2 ?" asked
the examiner. "John Wentworth" said
the teacher. CHESS pretty l~ong-John,"
said the examiner, and ever since that
day the name has stuck TO me.
The we'll of W. r. Tuten, near Jasper,
Fla, was dry all summer, but the other
day he heard peculiar rumbling noises
at the bottom of the we'll, which is over
forty feet deep in solid clay, and then a
stream of water about the size OF q mans
arm shot across the bottom and disap-
peared. Soon after his streams of air
began to pour out of at least a dozen
different holes near the bottom, each
column of air making a different sound
as it rushed forth. There was music in
the we'll until about three feet of water
accumulated, and now the water is in a
continual boil.
DIR. VARIoT, of Paris, is reported to
have discovered a method by which to
remove tattoo marks from the human
skin. 1t has been extensively tested
and with the most encouraging results.
His modus operandi is to prick the
marks or spots with needles until the
blood flows and then to inject tannin,
and finally to cauterize with nitrate of
silver. The wounds caused by the
pricking become black for q time, and
turn red, and after q month or so the
parts which have been treated are al
most indistinguishable from the adjoin-
ing flesh.
S. F. BEMs, of Fiskdale, N. H., had
trouble with an intoxicated man and
then thought no more about it. The
same day, when he fed his horses, he
found the supply of meal was short, and
he got q feed from the meal barrel in
the house. The horse that ate this meal
died that afternoon. Examination
showed arsenic in the family meal bar
rel. Soon afterward he received this
unsigned despatch "Don't use the
bread meal in your barrel" The de-
came from New Haven.
A YOUNG dry-goods salesman named
~