News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-07-11
SOMEWHAT STRANGE.
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF
EVERYDAY LIFE.
Queer Facts and Thrilling Ad-
ventures Which Show That Truth
is Stranger Than Fiction.

Queer Facts and Thrilling Ad-
ventures Which Show That Truth
is Stranger Than Fiction.
THREE stories were told us the other
day, showing the power of mans will.
One was of young officer in the Eng
llsh Army, who was peculiarly stubborn
and irascible. He had been confined to
his bed after a severe attack of the heart,
and was unable to move. His physician
asked one of his fellow officers to warn
him that he would never get out of bed
again, that he might arrange his affairs
before death When the sick man was
told what the doctor had said, he arose
in bed excitedly and said: 81 will never
get up again, ell! | will walk to the
doctor myself and show him. " He
jumped to the floor, walked across the
room and fell dead The other was
about sheriff out West, who, when ar
resting q man. was stabbed through the
heart. He seized the man by the
shoulders, after the blade had struck
him, pressed him to the ground, drew
his revolver, and deliberately thrusting
it down the struggling prisoners throat,
pulled the trigger at the instant he him
self died. The third story was regard
ing another officer who was hunting
down a thief The man thought he had
given his pursuer the slip, but, just as
he entered one door of railroad car,
the officer appeared in the other. The
thief instantly fired, the bullet penetra-
ting his pursuer's brain. The officer,
however, returned the shot, bringing
his man to the ground. He then dragged
himself along the side of the car, firing
as he crawled, until his revolver was
empty. He was dead when he was
picked up, a secolSs l..eftershe ceased to
shoot. ar# ~sssfS
LONGEVITY extraordinary can certain
ly be claimed for the inhabitants Of
Chill, if the CHILEAN census of 1886 is to
be believed. From the statistics there
presented it would appear that nearly
500 persons, out of total of 1900, 900,
are upward of hundred years old.
This proportion is perhaps not too great,
but the astonishing ages recorded q
strain on the strongest credulity. One
man cody returned his age as $50, and
this would make it very probable that
he is, as the editor of the census re-
marks, the oldest man in the world.
Next after him comes a women aged
1873; two women and one man report
themselves as 1876; 1872. $50 and 127
each have q representative, while there
are seven 125 years old. Below that
age the numbers mount rapidly, show
ing twenty eight persons of the age of
100, twenty seven aged 115, and no less
than ninety-one aged ITO. Of course,
this is all deliciously absurd. The re-
turns carry their own discrediting on
their face, with their marked preference
for the decades and half decades TWEEN
ty-eight, for example, set down at 100,
while but two arc given as 119, and only
one to III; ninety-one put at ITO, while
but eleven reach 109.
A MARRIAGE has just occurred at Port
Jervis, n. Y, under romantic circum-
stances of parties long past the scriptur-
ally allotted 70-year limit of human life.
Joseph Conkling, the groom, is in his
Saith year, while the bride, Mrs. Maria
Edwards, is in her 74th year. The
groom, fine-lool1ing and active senior,
with profusion of iron gray hair, has
long resided in Binghamton, and is
possessed of an ample fortune. The
bride, who is also well preserved and
sprightly for her years, has for some
time resided at Port Jervis. Joseph
Conkling and Maria Tuttle were neigh
bOrs and lovers, living with their par
ents near Batavia, n. Y. The course of
true love did not run smooth with them.
1t was the old story of the penniless sui
tor cruelty frowned upon and turned
away by the maiden's we'll TODD and in
exorable parents. The disappointed
lovers went their respective ways and
found other consOrts, from whom i'll the
course of time they were parted by
death. Thus bereaved, and after many
years of separation, the old time lovers
met nesnin 10y CHANCE. and the happy Sc
qtief Is told IN the announcementof their
nuptials and departure on Il wedding
journey.
A NATIVE paper at Sie-fu, village
about thirty Ii from Nan -ch 'ang, tho
capital of Kiangsi, China, publishes the
following: ga white dragon was seen
on April IL. Dragons like water, and
it has rained since about the m ddle of
March straight on, ending on that day
in most tremendous hail-storm, which
smashed i'll the roofs of good many of
The country peoples huts about their
ears. Suddenly n powerful fishy smell
became perceptible. and people coming
in from the fields reported the presence
of huge creature, extending about two
NOW (about third of an acre., dsport-
ing itself by wriggling and squirming in
pool of water. The next day few
people ventured ont to see it. 1t was
quite white, with scales two feet in size,
with horned head, claws and long tail,
just as represented in pictures. On the
18th of March fine weather returned and
the dragon was conc. Foreigners do
not talk about dragons, but we Chinese
do. Few, indeed, have seen them, but
this instance seems too we'll authenti-
Gated to allow us to doubt of the power
of this supernatural being to make him
self occasionally visible to man"
AFTER lying moro than n month prac-
tically dead from his head downward,
James B. Hill, San Francisco CON
tractor, has finally passed away. Hills
case has puzzled all the doctors, and
was the most remarkable on record. A
bale of hay fell ON him and drove his
head down into his shoulders, crushing
the second and third vertcbrn. Por-
tions of the latter were splintered, and
driven into the spinal cord. Two of the
fractured vertebrse were removed twenty
four hours after the accident, and, CON
trary to the predictions of physicians,
the man recovered consciousness, but
was paralyzcd from inst below the arm
pits. His mind was clear, and he man.
aged his business, giving his men in
structions every day before they went to
work. He brcathed solely by the dia-
phlagm, rs he couldn't move his chest.
lie declared he felt rs though he were
lying inside n corpse. He lived just
thirty -four days with broken neck.
IRWIN MACKEY, young farmer of
Wooster Township, Ohio, was out hunt
ing squirrels with, a youth named Lee
Turner. In passing through some tim
Der, Mackey noticed young Turner
standing on q hill above him. He called
to the boy, but received no answer. At