St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1893-06-03
SOMEWHAT STRANGE,
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF
EVERYDAY LIFE.

| OSAA Il W AA1A ~ IVA ~ ~ LIS
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF
EVERYDAY LIFE.
Queer Facts and Thrilling Adven-
lures Which Show That Truth Is
Stranger Than Fiction.
A CURIOUS test has been made at ,he
Erie basin breakwater, says the Brook iyn
Eagle, to discover the body of Second
Engineer John Tweedell, who is supposed
to have been drowned while crossing the
gangplank from the British ship Avon
to the string piece. The test savors
strongly of the days of witchcraft and
the middle ages, and although it pro-
duced queer results the body has not
been recovered so far. A portion of a
loaf of bread was cut out in plug form
and some quicksilver poured into the
cavity, the circular plug replaced and
the loaf thrown into the water. A fierce
wind was blowing, and the tide was
running out strongly at the time, but
neither seemed to affect the loaf, which
gyrated and finally settled over the place
where the missing man is said to have
fallen in. The loaf remained stationary
until the action of the water melted it
and the quicksilver fell out, when it
drifted away. Although some seafaring
men believe firmly in that test, it did
not work successfully in this case, but
the action of the loaf in remaining in one
place despite wind and tide was very re-
markable. The quicksilver test is said
to be good one and is supposed to be
| governed by electric or magnetic action,
and the men who saw the trial in this
case claim that the bread moved against
both wind and tide. When the carpen-
ter's son of the Red D steamship Valencia
was drowned in the basin last summer
this test was successfully used to find
out the location of the body. The
general impression now is that the body
| Of Engineer Tweedell has been carried
out by the tide, which runs strongly
along the breakwater.
THERE is a sandbank at Connemara,
on the west coast of Ireland, that is the
| Mecca of every curiosity seeker who is
fortunate enough to know of it's exist
| ence. As general thing sandbanks are
not great attraction, but in this par
ticular case the attractive power is not
in the sand itself, but in the millions of
extinct miniature shells which are almost
as numerous as the grains of sand with
which they are intermingled. The
largest of these little wonders are smaller
than the smallest pin head, and some of
them so minute that they can easily be
put through the eye of common sewing
needle; yet each is as perfect as the
pearly nautilus, the spider shell, the
sea urchin or any other marine oddity.
They are of all shapes and forms imagin-
able. One will have the perfect outlines
of miniature basket, another will look
like fairy's tobacco box, while third
needs no effort of the imagination to give
| it the form of bottle. The flash shells
| of Ceylon and Australia are the only
living representatives of these concho-
logical wonders. Naturalists who have
examined the Ceylonese flash shells say
| that each is filled with tiny bit of jelly
like substance, which, of course, is the
animal itself, but which is so infnitesi-
| NAL that no distinction can be observed
between head and heart, mouth and
| stomach.
DEN1ZENs of South Dallas street near
Cough were startled this morning, says
the Baltimore News, by an awful stamp
| ing and rumpus in the second story CT
small frame house in the vicinity. They
| proceeded to investigate and were as
tonished to see the head of full grown
horse thrust out of the second story
window of the structure with q window
| sash around his neck. Cal Sutherland.
| who owns the house, was notified and
came to the rescue. The horse was
blindfolded and after some difficulty was
backed down the stairway of the house
to the lower floor. Mr. Sutherland made
the statement that as his saloon business
was not paying very we'll he had bought
horse and wagon intending to go into
the fish business and had hired colored
man, Frisby Bently, to drive the wagon
Not having stable engaged, he stabbed
the horse in the old frame house and
stored lot Of feed in the upper room
The horse no doubt smelt the feed after
his master left and, breaking loose,
climbed the stairs and demolished the
provender.
A CONNECTICUT clock concern has lust
completed, after twelve years. work ex-
pended by skilled labor in original de-
sign and construction, a timepiece which
is said to rival that of the famous Stras-
burg Cathedral, and which is claimed to
have no equal in America. It is sixteen
feet high, with six-foot base, made of
black walnut highly polished and hand
sOme1v carved with scenes renresentinr
American history from the landing Of
Columbus to the present time. At the
lower part of the case are allegorical
scenes representing mechanical progress
during the past century, every figure of
each group being in motion. The dial
indicates the days of the week, month
and year, the hours, minutes and seconds
of the day, the moons phases and the
tides. The clock will be sent to the
Columbian Exhibition. It is valued at
100000.
A SIMPLE means is used to discover
where coal thieves are numerous along
the line of some of the Pennsylvania and
New Jersey railroads. The coal is mere
ly splashed with whitewash after it has
been loaded upon the cars. AS coal
trains are slow ones, and are often side
tracked for days together at obscure
little places, where there are few or no
employees to guard them, the enemies
of the coal trust take advantage of
these delays to replenish their bins. A
glance at load that had been sprinkled
with whitewash shows where coal has
been removed, and places where such
g. I