The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1894-08-25
SOMEWHAT STRANGE.
INTERESTING NoTEsANo MAT
TIERS OF MOMENT.
Queer Facts and Thrilling Adventures
Which Show that Truth 10 Stranger
Than Fiction.

TWENTY years ago w. A.Van Sickle,
Of New Brunswick. n. j., lost a watch
in field in that place. Recently u
colored man unearthed it. After be-
ing soaked in oil the timepiece was
found to be in fairly good condition.
A FARMER at Middlebury, Ind,
while digging ditch in a swamp, un-
earthen the petrified body Of a man.
1t was found three feet below the sur
face, and weighed 400 pounds. Doc
tors say it was the body of q white
man who in life weighed $50 or l6O
pounds.
WARwEL, in the Province OF Que
bee, is greatly excited over the recent
performance of speckled hen, the
property Of the Widow Hoolihan.
This remarkable bird laid a cubical
egg and large Brahma rooster in the
barnyard cackled until his watfies
burst and he bled to death.
THERE is a year-old baby in Elmira,
n. ", who has already begun to talk
French, though It's parents are both
native born Americans and neither OF
them know any tongue save English.
The child's strange linguistic endow-
ment was discovered by IA French
Canadian woman who went to the
house to do sewing.
A RECORD kept at Yale for eight
wears shows that non-smokers are
twenty per cent. taller, twenty-five
per cent. heavier and have sixty per
cent more lung capacity than smok-
ers. An Amherst graduating class
recently showed still greater differ
ence. the non-smokers having gained
twenty-four per cent. in weight ana
thirty-seven per cent. in height over
the smokers, and also exceeding
them in lung capacity.
THE only Victoria Cross that was
awarded to participant in the dead
" charge at Balaclava was put up at
auction in London the other day and
sold. with some other decorations,
for $775. The officer who won the
cross was Lieutenant Alexander Rob-
erts Dunn. and it was bestowed on
him for his signal bravery in cutting
down three Russian lancers who were
attacking him, and in saving fellow
soldier from the sword Of Russian
hussar.
GoLpsMITHs save" their floors and
gilders their rags with surprising re-
sultant economies. One important
firm of jewellers in New York requires
its factory employees to leave their
working clothes at the factory. The
work benches and floors are carefully
swept nightly, but once in every few
years floors, benches and clothes are
burned. After one Of these burnings
the crucibles contain a. residuum
thousands of dollars worth of pre-
cious metal.
THERE is family of Lees in West
ern Michigan which for three gener-
ations back has seemed fated to vio-
lent deaths. The grandfather was
killed in a brawl, after having been
acquitted of the charge of numbering
his wife. OF his two sons one was
killed in the war, the other was
drowned. Three sons of the latter
were killed by knife or bullet, a
fourth fell from horse and died
from his injuries; daughter com
mitted suicide, and her son is serv-
ing time in prison for assault with
intent to kill.
LAWYERS are ever ready with new
methods of procedure and novel
grounds for action, but there is an
Englishman who has just made him
self prominent in his profession as q
deviser Of unique basis for a suit
for damages. He has entered suit
against newspaper, asking dam.
ages and an injunction, on the ground
that his practice has been injured by
the newspaper Withholding his name
in cases where he has been success
full and publishing it only in cases
which he has lost. Eminent counsel
have been retained on both sides, and
the action will be bitterly contested.
MRS. MARY f. HARRIS, of Roxbury
Mass, has had for thirty years the
hobby Of collecting buttons, until
now her collection numbers 1000
different kinds. Thirty years ago she
made a wager that there were more
than 900 different kinds OF buttons
she reached the thousand mark in
side Of year, but once started in
the destinations of collecting" her
pursuit was kept up. Mrs. Harris
has some interesting buttons in her
collection. One was worn by a soldier
in Napolean's army; another by a
soldier in Washington there are
buttons from the uniforms Of half a
dozen European armies. as well as
from those Of the South American
republics, the Confederate army and
the uniforms furnished by different
States during the Civil War.
GINGER cookies fell prey to Uncle
Sans secret service sleuth hounds
in Philadelphia. Certain enterpris-
ing bakers casting about for new
ideas, have sold cookies stamped with
Q giant image OF the American