The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1890-08-16
SOMEWHAT STRANGE.
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS Or
EVERYDAY LIFE.
Queer Episodes and Thrilling Adven-
lures Which Show that Truth Is
Stranger than Fiction.

| IuiCS 4" AlSn 0uO" IAGit 41uSA ~
Stranger than Fiction.
A wELL-To-Do and eccentric bachelor
! named Micalowski died in Warsaw in the
| spring of 1883. lie left his will in a
sealed envelope bearing the direction in
| his handwriting that it should not be
opened until one year from the date of
his death. The Micalowski family. after
considerable consultation with lawyers
and friends, resolved to obey the instruc-
tons. On the first anniversary of the
bachelors death they gathered at his
house, and watched lawyer open tine
envelope 1t contained another envelope
exactly like the first. even to the last
word of the dead Micalowski's singular
, injunction on the outside. Another year
passed and the relations again assembled,
and the second envelope was opened with
the same result. In 1856, 1887, 1888 and
1889 the relations and the lawyer repeated
the anniversary scene without a single
variation. Recently they assembled for
the seventh time. The envelope was
opened, and the long -desircd will was re-
vealcd. Ii gave but SO. 600 to the anx-
iouS relations: $1,000 was left to the
children of the dead Micalowski's old
nurse, $50, geo to the executor of the will,
and SEQ, 600 it stipulated must lie in a
Warsaw bank accommodating compound
interest till 1910. when it must be given
ia the Micalowski who should have had
the largest number Of children. As the
VII is a perfectly executed legal instru-
mcnt, and the tcstatOr had all his wits
about him up to his last moments. his dis
contented relations have decided TO let it
so uncOntestcd.
AT the last meeting Of the Scottish
Antiquarian Society in Edinburgh Rev.
DIR. Stewart of Neither Lochabcr read a
paper on fire superstitions, in which he
mentioned that correspondent, while in
aremote glen in Wigtownshire last March.
saw slight smoke rising from u hollow.
On proceeding to bank above he saw
five women passing sick child through
a fire. Two of the women standing OPP
positc each other held blazing hoop YER
tically between them, and two others
standing on either side of the hoop were
engaged in passing the child backward
and forward through the opening of the
hoop. The fifth woman, who was the
mother of the child, stood at a little dis
lance earnestly looking on. After the
child had been eighteen times passed and
rcpasscd through the fiery circle it was
returned 10 its mother and the burning
hoop was thrown into pool of water
close by. The child. which was about
IS months old, was wcakling. and was
supposed to have come under the balcful
influence of an evil eye. The hoop had
been twisted round with a straw rope, in
which ;.'fcw drops of oil were scattered
to make it burn all round at the same
time. The child was passed through the
hoop once for each month of its are.
When the child was taken home bunch
of bog myrtle was suspended over its
bed.
Az act of hcroism, performed while
the hero was in imminent peril of his life,
occasioned general talk at Pittston.
Penn. The little fOur-yea child of
Walter G.. Custer, of Dorrancetown, wan
dcred from home while wheeling Il wheel
barrow loaded with toys and got beyond
the Bennett Station and upon the Della
ware. Lackawanna and Western Railroad
tracks. The little fellow was innoccntiv
amusing himself there when the 6: 10
passenger train, one of the speediest
trains on the Bloomsbury branch, hove
in sight around a curve. The engineer
sighted the child. reversed the engine,
bu; soon saw that the train was going too
fast to save the child unless heroic meas
ures were adopted. Leaving the thrott,~
he rushed out TO the pilot. stopped far
out in front of the flying engine, and
waited with outstrctchcd arms until the
child was reached, when the engineer
caught him and threw him off the track.
As he did so the wheelbarrow was splin-
tered into thousand pieces by the
drivers and the toys scattered on all sides
by the pilot .bars. Before the parents
could learn of their chiid's escape the
train had sped or.
THERE is an old cat in Cobbham. sub
urb of Athens, Ga, that lately called
forth much interest from its owners by its
mysterious behavior. Since the late de.
structivc cyclone at Louisville and other
Western cities, carrying in its mouth
death and destruction. this Cobbham cat
has grown quite curiosity in the feline
tribe. Every time it thundcrs and dark
clouds roll over the canopy of heaven in
a manner that threatens a storm, the cat
begins to tremble piteously. and screams
in the most weird and frightful accents
of its tale of woe. When the lightnings
flash from cloud to cloud the cats agony
seems to know no limit, and it rolls over
and over, yelling in the widest way pos
siblc. Even at the dead hour of night
this mysterious cat will rush frantically
into the room Of its mistress when clouds
appear, and will scream in such terror
that the lady oftcntimes has to- arise and
nurse it in its fright The cat is IA large