The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1894-10-18

a train whistles he steps out on the
| platform, without either book or pen
! ell. and takes q mental note OF the
cars as they go by. If any one nap
pens to be standing near him at the
time he is thus engaged he does not
! hesitate to enter into conversation
with him, and when the train has
passed he steps back into the office
and makes a complete an! accurate
record of the train, beginning at the
first car and ending with the caboose.
Sometimes, just to test his ability,
| the men would get him to begin at
| the caboose and write the numbers
the other way, or else begin in the
middle of the train and work both
ways. In any case he has never
made a mistake that l know of. Car
numbers, the names of the roads to
which they belong, and other relative
positions in the train, would always
be recorded accurately"
LUKE WHITAKER lives with his
| wife eight miles back from Bushkill,
Penn, in the Pike county woods.
He has always kept several hives Of
bees in his yard, number of hunt
ing dogs, and several pigs. His dog
kennels were only few rods from the
bee hives. There had never been
any trouble between the bees and the
dogs and pigs, but the other day one
of the swarms took offence at one Of
the dogs for some reason, and sud
denly came out of their hive in a
body and attacked the dog. They
covered him completely, and soon
stung him to death. The yells of
the poor dog, which was chained to
the kennel, seemed to arouse the
bees in the other hives, and one
swarm after another came out and
attacked the other dogs. The great
commotion at the kennels drew Mrs.
Whittak er's attention to them, and,
discovering the trouble, she ran out
with the intention of untying the dogs,
so they could escape from the bees.
AS she approached the kennels one
of the swarms of bees attacked her
and drove her, almost blinded by their
stingers back into the house. The
struggles of one of the dogs broke its
chain, and it escaped to the woods,
and has not been seen since. The
rest of the dogs were stung to death.
After killing the dogs the bees
turned their attention to three little
pigs in pen and two old hogs in
another pen. The little pigs were
smart enough to bury themselves in
some straw, and thus saved their
lives. The big pigs were stung to
death. The bees then returned to
their hives, it being near night. That
night Whitaker turned the fumes
of sulphur into the hives and smoth-
cred all the bees. They had killed
5000 worth of dogs and $50 worth of
pork.
A CHICAGO paper tells about res
ident of that city, John Gustafson
by name, who eats paris green, as
other people take opium or drink
whisky. A friend of his was in his
room, and Gustafson lay on the bed
with box of paris green beside him,
which he was eating little at time,
with apparent relish. After watch
ing him consume some two table,
spoonfuls and vainly demonstrating
with him, the friend went out and in
formed a policeman that he was
attempting to commit suicide. Two
officers and the ambulance were soon
on hand to take the supposed would
be suicide to the hospital but he
surprised the officers by telling them
that he did not want to go with them.
He was in no danger, he said, as he
had been in the habit for ten years
Of eating paris green, whenever he
felt bad. He took it for stimulant.
Gustafson's friends told the officers
that he was in love with a young
lady, who had given him the cold
shoulder, and that he was trying to
kill himself He denied it, but he
was taken to the hospital, anyway,
and pumped out by the doctors.
They said that he had taken enough
paris green to kill an ordinary man,
! but that he seemed to be all right.
He had been using it so long that an
ordinary dose had no effect on him.
A REMARKABLE illustration Of the
working OF that strange condltlon or
humanity known variously as atavism
and heredity was presented to Judge
Howard Ferris in the probate court
/ at Cincinnati. The subject is Il
fourteen-year-old boy and the atavic
mark appears upon him as member
OF the third generation bearing it.
The peculiar mark is the absence of
the second and third phalanges of the
fingers on both hands. To the eye
it would seem that they were cut off
at the first joint Examination by
DR.. Davis failed to reveal any indi-
cation that nails had ever been pre-
sent on the unsightly stumps, The
thumbs did not share this peculiar
shortening. On the contrary, they
are abnormally long and thick and
from force of circumstances remark
able prehensile. The boy, Charles
Massard, in addition to this misfor-
| tune is an epileptic. and was brought