The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1893-12-30
SOM w HAT STRANGE.
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF
EVERYDAY LIFE.
Queer Facts and Thriilin. Adven.
lures which show That Truth Is
Stranger Than Fiction.

LIEUTENANT BOYLE T. S~oMERvILIE,
OF the English Navy. recently returned
from the Hebrides Islands. tells the fol
lowing interesting tale regarding the
work Of a Professional native rninmaker:
Towards the end of the year, just after
yam planting, there came an unusual
period of drought, SO that an inland
tribe in the island of Ambrym went 10
its rainmaker and demanded his imme-
date attention thereto. He al once set
to work 10 weave q sort of hurdle of the
branches and leaves OF a tree famed for
its ucing qualities, which. being
finished, was placed, with proper mean
~tations, al the bottom of what should
have been Il waite hole in the now
parched bed OF the mountain torrent.
There il was then held in place with
stones. Down came the rain. nor did ii
cease for forty-eight hours, By which
time il had become too much OF a good
thing. Soon the rain producing hurdle
was quite ten feet under water in the
seething torrent, and the people; much
TO their dismay, saw that their vans and
the surrounding earth were beginning 10
wash away down the hillsides. The
Lieutenant continues: Now mark what
comes of fooling with the elements. No
man IF the hill country wa" able 10 dive
to the bottom Of the water hole 10 pull
UP the hurdl lie with its weight of stones,
80 the mcrciless rain still held on. AT
last the shore natives, accustomed to
swimming and diving, heard what the
matter was. and some of them coming
70 the assistance, the compeller OF the
afan,aptc uag raonunraH from ifs Watpry
bed and-the rain stopped" 1t is such
a coincidence as this, happening per-
haps once in Il decade, which causes this
people, now thoroughly Christianized,
to refuse 10 give up their rain doctors,
although all other outward forms of rank
superstition appear to be freely aban-
doned.
THERE lately called upon Prof. Caesar
Lombroso, Of the University of Turin, a
well-dressed, pleasant. mannered young
man, who represented that his wife was
the victim of an extreme case of klepto-
mania, public shops, private houses--her
own house even--being open fields to
her in which to lay hands on the belong
ings of others. Previous medical treat
ment had failed the aid of the great
doctor was solicited. BY appointment:
the patient, a beautiful and engagingly
frank young woman, was brought TO
Lnmbroso's office the next day But
while consultation was in progress be
tween the distressed husband and the
Doctor they detected the fair patient ap-
propriating q gold statuette and a photo
graph framed in brilliants; and finally,
in the act Of bidding the Doctor good
day. she adroitly relieved HIM of a valu-
able scarf pin. In an aside the dis
tressed husband said: "Iou see for
yourself how possessed she is with the
thieving instinct. will bring you back
all the missing articles to morrow at any
hour you may appoint, when you will
kindly give me your opinion of the case
and advise me what to do" The failure
of the heartbroken man to appear with
the valuables on the morrow, and the fact
that a fair proportion of the physicians
of the South Of France and most of Italy
are also patiently waiting to advise him
how to treat his afflicted wife, who
''borrowed' valuables of them also, leads
DR.. Lombroso 10 the con viction that this
was rather the most unique case of KEEP
tomania yet brought to his notice.
LABoRERs were excavating in the cellar
OF the Forty-seventh Regiment Armory,
in Brooklyn, n. Y. when they came
upon an extraordinary sight. A work
man removed some debris with his pick,
and saw before him IA cat with its tail in
the air. its ears bent back, and its spine
arched. He said "Shew, there!' But
the cat remained motionlesS. The laborers
ran up to see the cat. They found that
i had turned to stone. 1t looked as
natural as life. The head and legs. the
arched spine and the tail were perfect. 1t
was a petrifed cat. How il came there
and how il got petrified is a mystery. In
quiry was made. 1t was learned that
William Godfrey, Who was the armorer
of the regiment ten years ago, had a pet
cat. In the year 1888 the cat disap-
peared. The armOrer thought so much of
the cat that he offered a reward for its
return. No trace of the lost cat was
found. 1t is supposed that the cat ran
under the cellar floor Of the armory in
pursuit Of q rat. In its eagerness it
entered some small aperture, from which
il found retreat impossible, and persisted
inside. There were small springs in the
ground and the earth was impregna;ed
with lime. As the cat withered away,
particle by particle, the lime in solution
was deposited in place of the tissue, and
In a few years the cat was stone. The
petrifed cat is now on exhibition in the
armory.
f. c. GUNNISG. an engineer who has
just come back from Mexico. says that
the Chinese problem is rapidly forging to
thclront in that country. He says The
Mexican is ordinarily an easy-going,
luxury-loving. cigarette-smoking indi-
vidual, who, when he comes into contact
with the abstemious. industrious, and
frugal Chinaman, is simply lost. The
Chinese are fact becoming controllers of
the small shop trade OF Mexico. \
Chinaman will set up his little store next
door to i Mexican and will run him out
OF business iD a year. I've seen it done
a hundred times. But what is setting
the Mexican 10 thinking is the fact that