The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-18
A HORRIBLE Mystery.
It Gathered Large Crowd and Blocked
"A Street in IsosSrm.

| Street in Bosom.
About 10 o'clock che morning, after the
/ marketmen with their fruits and vegetables
| had gone along tho street., and the busy
stream Of pesSers had become turbulent and
| crowding, two gentlemen paused for e mo
ment on the corner to wait for a street car.
'What is that black, rounNi thing in the
mud there's" asked one, and he pointed at the
! object with his cane
Funny looking object" reioinN>d his COM
panion as ne intently fixed his Hes On the
black ball. Another gentleman 1vas also
! waiting for car and the second or our
friends called his attention TO the objee't, and
asked him if he could tell what it was
"a cannon ball, should say" anSvR cred
| number three.
Queer place for cannon ball." remarked
number one.
Perhaps it's a pEmpkin," said a fourth
man, who had overheard the conversation
a fifth man heard the last remark and
smiled, but stopped to see if he could not
make better conjecture. Then district
messenger boy, who had been sent on double
quick time TO deliver a telegram, thought 1t
must be something worth looking at, so he
stopped. A newspaper reporter saw five men
standing on corner together, and he felt
sure there must be some news agog. De
stepped up and took look at the queer object
in the mud. 4 company Of women stopped
next, and then policeman asked the crowd
to move along. They shifted their position
from the left side Of the curbstone 10 the
right, and dozen others stopped, too. The
policeman became frantic, and asked the
newspaper man what the matter was He
didn't know, and the women didn't know,
half a dozen men who were obstinetely block
ing the streets didn't know. Suddenly one Of
the five original men who had been looking
at the muddy ball exclaimed In a loud voice:
why doesn't some one see what 1t lsF'
The reporter pushed MS way with difficulty
to the gentlemans side and asked, "W hereP
'There," was the answer.
But the questioner saw nothing.
At this time several men in wagons had
stopped in the street, and the horse cars were
blOckaded, and the passengers all got out to
see what the matter was. The policeman had
given up trying to disperse the crowd, and
now went TO investigate the cause of the halt
The black ball in the mud was pointed out to
him. Several of the crowd turned their at
tention in that direction at the same tine.
They called the policeman to see what it was,
but he was suddenly bashful and asked the
reporter to 20 and examine it. So the re-
porter borrowed a cane from one of the by
ISLANDERS Cautiously he made his way
through the mud, and cautiously he reached
out his cane and barely moved the muddy
object.
''Sawtelle's head!" he exclaimed in start
ling headlines, and the crowd took up the
CRY, and rolled back with a shudder.
AT this point manager of g dime museum
IL 1.
Selling the head for exhibition. The police
man objected on the ground Of the need Of
the object for government evidence in the
great trial. While the reporter was taking
notes, and the policeman and Snowman were
wrangling, an Irishman had made his way to
the 'head" and rolled it over. He at once
started back in terror, and exclaimed In
horrible whisper:
"Bombl bomb." All the crowd rolled back
in terrible haste and with blanched faces.
Just then hickman, who had bsen prom
ised SO if he would get his passenger to his
train in time, took advantage Of the opening
In the crowd and made a grand dive across
the street. He was driving exactly over the
awful object. A hundred voices cried out to
him to stop. He was as deaf as an adder The
thought Of that $40 drove every idea from
his head. He rushed franticallY on to his
doom. The crowd waited in GREATNESS silence
to hear the terrible explosion and see the
horse and carriage and hickman mount to
the heavens. Women stopped their ears;
men were breathless; children peered out in
silent curiosity. The right front wheel went
directly over the fatal ball The driver was
tipped to the left, and as he looked down he
exclaimed: "Confounded cabbage"
ed that they were looking at cabbage lying
in the mud.
The policeman failed to report the occur
renee at the station house; the reporter did !
not have even a paragraph on his own stupid |
ty. Everybody laughed and wondered how |
his neighbor had made the mistake. Boston |
ElObe