Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-09-05
soMEWHAT STRANGE.
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF
EVERYDAY LIFE.
Queer Facts and Thrilling Ad-
ventures Which Show That Truth
is Stranger Than Fiction.

HE city of Omaha has
in its service force oil
- thousands of scavcn-
gers who draw no pay,
.~> report to no Official,
but are protected by
law from molcstation.
They are the crows who
flock into town rs regularly as cold
weather comes, stay during the winter
and vanish in the spring. Each even
ing, as the shadows fall, legions OF
crows wing their way in seemingly
endless fight to the willow copses and
small clumps of cottonwood trees on the
banks of the Missouri, where they
roost for the night. A fayorite haunt is
at the bend of the river between Cut-Oh
and Florence Lakes, where the banks
shelter them from the northwest winds.
The air is thick with sable wings and
resonant with hoarse caws there alter
sunset each night, as the Scvcngers set
tie down among the branches to dream
of back area lunches and carrlon
spreads.
81 SAW enough OF slavery myself to
set me against il, said Captain .. q.
Terry few days ago. in speaking oil
his period Of his career. 'sln several
Instances l saw slave children sold
whose veins contained so much Of their
masters blood that their skins wero
without tinge of the African color ex-
sept in the inyariable stripe down the
spinal column. What do | mean by the
stripe down the spinal column Why,
[ supposed you knew the presence of
African blood in any person, no matter
how slight the proportion, can be IN
stantly detected by dark line along
the spine. Even an octoroon. with com
plexion and features purely Caucasian,
invariably has this line of dark. II is "A
never-fnling proof of mixed blood.
The mark is not always black. but is
always considerably darker than the
rest Of the surface Of the body. Since
you don't know that, perhaps you don't
know that negro child at its birth is
as light colorcd rs n white one. You
wouldn't notice any difference in the
color at all. In three or four hours
after birth the skin begins to turn dark
and in n short time becomes as black as
the child is destined to DO during is
life"
FoR some time past an old negro
named Tobias Jackson, living near
Birmingham, Ala. has been proclaimIng
himself as Daniel the Prophet, and do
ing all kinds of wild and queer things.
The other day he persuaded three young
negro men that they were representa-
tives Of Shadrach, Meshack, and Abed-
nego, the three children of faith who
entered the fiery furnace. He claimed
that q furnace, where iron is melted and
cast into all kinds of forms, was tile fur
mace Of Nebuchadnezzar, and that they
could pass through without the smell Of
fire. Calling themselves the three chill.
dren of Israel, under the influence Of
their new prophet, the three young men
deliberately entered the gate Of the Gu
pula Of the furnace, and rushed head
long, before they could be stopped. into
the white heat of the melting iron.
When they failed to come out Jackson,
the prophet, proclaimed that he saw
them rising in the mir with the smoke Of
the furnace, attended by angels, aud
said that they would revisit the earth
again on the next Sunday.
WiTHIS a halfmile radius Of City
Hall, New York, no less than q dozen
big Office aud business buildings are
now in process of demolition to give
way to still bigger and handsomerstrnc
lures. II seems rs if there never was so
much rebuilding in New York. And
right here is manufactured one Of the
peculiarities of New York. There is so
much Of il going on that within the last
dozen years n new industry has come
into being. There are, perhaps, a score
OF firms who make business of tearing
down old buildings and selling the
building materials thus obtained. One
of these firms will contract 10 tear down
the old building and leave the ground
clear in q certain number of days, pay
ing so much for the privilege Of getting
the old brick, timber and iron. As tue
work is done by contract, tits performed
with marvellous CELEBRITY, and every yes
tige of the average six or seven story
building is removed in a week or SO AZ
ter operations are begun.
Now comes a Missouri catfish weigh
ing eighty pounds. respectable
colored woman of that State, whose rep
utation for veracity is unimpeached, but
who has cultivated the habit of telling
fish stories, has something to say about
the fish. The other day, while engaged
in washing some linen on the banks OF
a stream that runs through Louisiana,
Mo-, it occurred to her that, without
pausing in her work, she might have
little fun fishing. Accordingly she
baited hook and threw it into the wa
ter, tying the shore end of the line to
one of her ankles. She caught the big
catfish, but, accordingly to the story,
"two men S united strength was neces.
sary to save the woman from a watery
grave, for the fish was rapidly pulling
her into the river.
THERE is talk of a scheme to form
company for the purpose of breeding
aud raising guinea pigs on an extensive
scale. The idea is to organize a stock
company, buy piece of land and breed
- fraLl - Al