St. Landry democrat., 1893-04-08
SOMEWHAT STRANGE.
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF
EVERY DAY LIFE.
Queer Facts and Thrilling Adven-
lures Which Show That Truth Is
Stranger Than Fiction.

THE German village of Grambke is
greatly excited over case of persistent
somnolency in the person of the daughter
of one of the town officials. The girl,
pretty, slender child of some thirteen
years of age, has been in continual
sleep since the second week in May, and
even now does not show the least trace
of arousing from her protracted slumber
During the first week of her enforced
sleep the family seemed grieved to the
verge of distraction and all was mourn
ing in the house where the child lay in
the embrace of "death's twin brother
After awhile, however, -. ~ it was
noticed that she would swallow liquid
nourishment, their fears for her safety
seemed to abate to certain degree, and
now, after lapse of more than half a
year, the family 60 about their daily
labors as if the little maid were really
dead and half forgotten. Highest medi-
cal authorities have been consulted, but
all efforts to keep her awake have re-
suited in total failures
A FACTORY for the manufacture of
petrified human corpses has, it is alleged,
been discovered in Fresno, Cal. At least
four petrified people are said to have
been manufactured and shipped to mu-
seums from this place. It may be re-
membered chat petritied man created
considerable talk in Utah last fall. and
that reports of the curiosity were printed
in Eastern papers. The thing was seen
by natural history experts and pronounced
a fraud, but it netted considerable money
for the ''miners" who discovered it.
The objects were very carefully made,
the bones of the arms and legs being
followed out, and in one case one arm
and foot was broken off to show the
internal structure. The fake facto-y, it
is said, stole agenuine mummitied man,
q dried body found on the plains, from
the Health Officer of Fresno, fixed it up
little, and shipped it to museum in
the East.
WITHIN mile or two of d ,wittevlle,
N. Y, live two old maiden la lies, Misses
Lucinda and Martha Skinner, respectively
seventy-four aad seventy-six years old,
who have lived together for the past
forty-seven years without speaking to
each ether. The two inherited the house
in which they reside from their father in
1912, and quarreling year or two after,
divided households, though remaining
under the same roof. Each has done her
own cooking and waits on herself even
in illness, never entering the rooms occu-
pied by the other--in fact, leading as
separate lives as if dwelling in different
counties. Neither ever speaks of the
other, and no explanation has ever been
made as to the quarrel that occasioned
this peculiar family arrangement, though
the neighbors declare that the cause was
a disagreement over stewpan, worth
perhaps fifty cents. Both sisters are
worth in their own right over $40, 900.
L. L. WAKEMAN, the American news
paper man, gives bit of his London cx-
perience as follows: 'In London and
other British cities the American will
notice little signs at street corners, in
crowded, narrow thoroughfares, in park
ways and at all sudden turnings traverscd
by vehicles, reading, Keep to the left.
Some years ago when first noticed this
it worried me. l wanted to understand
it, and, like o true American, perhaps
protest about it little | approached u
London policeman, with the earnest in
quiry: Beg pardon, officer, but might
ask why, in London, everything goes
To the left"' Like one of Mrs JAR
ley's figures, his head moved stately. He
me one awful official moment
with contemptuous pity. His head
moved back again. Then, with witheY-
ing scorn, he answered: AN wy
shouldn't it2' / had never thought of
that"
The inaccuracy of women with regard
to their age is the subject of some curl
ous testimony by French President of
Assize. The only instances in which he
finds correct dates given by women are
when they are under twenty-five or over
eighty -fve. At these periods of life, he
says, they are to be trusted. At all other
periods the sure controlling tendency is
10 understate. The magistrate has been
lble to give rule for guidance. He !
inds that female prisoners invariably |
state their ages as twenty nine, thirty
line, forty-nine or fifty -nine, and from
his remarkable circumstance he deduces
lis rule. If their ages are i'll the forties
hey boldly set them down i'll thirties,
,ut, conscience asserting itself, they |
Keep as near the truth as they can and
tx them at thirty nine.
Nor many months ago an account was
eceived from Russia of the bringing to
life by means of the application of cleo
richly of patient who had apparently
lied from the effects of lightning stroke.
resuscitation of different character.
Though by the same agency, has just
,een effected in Scotland. A man who
vas bathing was seized with cramps and
ank, being two minutes below water.
For some time after he was rescued life
vas thought to be extinct. An cleo
rical apparatus was procured, and the
urrent was passed between the nape of
he neck and the heart. Within very
hort time animation was restored and
he man soon recovered.
A COUPLE of weeks ago, says Glas-
.ow paper, man in that city was so
arried away by the "Yum- Yum" trio in
he performance of The Mikado that,
acking a bouquet with which to express
is admiration for the young singers, he
'ulled whiskey bottle out of his pocket
nd hurled it on the stage. He had pre-
iously emptied the flask. But this was
lot regarded as an cxtenuating circum-
lance by the magistrate, who sentenced
i'm to thirty days Imprisonment for the
fence. Pitt Sing. who was struck on
be knee by the admirers tribute, is at
resent in the Glasgow hospital.
THE ocean mariner breads derelict
nd is grateful when our government
cts fresh track of these dangerous old
Al. n |