The evening times., 1899-02-23
QUEER THINGS THAT HAPPEN.
Examples Of Unexpected Events in
Life and Death.
CFrom the Chicago Chronicle }


Queer things happen in death as vel as
in life. An old saw tells US it is always
the unexpected which happens and cd
saws often are well filed. Not long ago a
coroner's jury in Chicago had to do with
the case of a man who had been accident
ally shot and had died. The verdict was
that he had died of kidney disease.
In a holocaust at a third class downtown
hotel some years backward the one victim
was an unidentified man who was rsmem-
bered because the night before the fire he
had sat in the ofice late joking over the
facts that he had just paid in advance s13
for his room for month, that the room
was No. 13 and that he had registered on
the 18th day OF the month.
Old files of newspapers yield TO the close
reader many most surprising illustrations
of uneXpectedness.
A passenger on an incoming train thrust
his head out of a window 10 learn the
cause of an apparently uncalled-for stop
and was struck by piece OF railway iron
projecting from a freight train running in
an opposite direction. He was Instantly
killed. Afterward it was discovered his
father had met death in the same way at
the same place ten years preceding TO a
day.
One winter night two Chicago babies,
the parents of one living on the West Side,
of the other on the North Side, were suf-
focated while in bed. The inquests de-
veloped that the parents OF each had re-
tired at the same hour, that both chill
dren were smothered by the bedclothes
in the night, and that both mothers dis
covered the narrowing truth at the same
time in the morning.
A man fell dead from heart disease while
leaving the door of his lodging in Dear
born street. A passerby who saw him fail
ran excitedly To the nearest drug store. il
being night. to summon aid. and as he
pulled the night bell himself fell dead from
heart disease.
Many years ago a lake captain named
John r. Hunter owned and sailed a lum-
Der schooner between Chicago and north
ern ports The vessel was named after her
master. Hunter was taken i'll after a voy-
/ age to Chicago and the schooner went
north without him, leaving the captain
here. He died at dawn the next day. That
same hour the vessel was wrecked on the
west shore and became total loss.
Old-time theatrical people cannot have
forgotten the singular circumstances fol-
lowing the suicide here of a once popular
actor who had been a member of local
stock company One of his pallbearers was
a fellow Thespian who had been his life
! long friend. Exactly year later this same
! friend was pallbearer at the funeral of the
suicides daughter, herself an actress. who
! had committed suicide at little town in
! Missouri upon his anniversary of her ia
| ther's death. One year later still this
| same old friend was called upon to bear TO
the grave the coffin of the wife and mother
| of this other two she also having killed
| herself Each of the three suicides took
| laudanum, each of them was playing an
! engagement at the time, each of them was
! a member of the company in which also
was engaged their mutual friend. The
| year after the third event he, too, sought
/ death by laudanum and found it.
Upon the body of a man found drowned
| in the lake last summer was found a note
| indicating his intention to commit suicide
! together with the day and hour. re-
| quest was made that his brother, his only
relative, living in St. Louis, be notified
Enquiry disclosed that the ST Louis broth
| er had jumped into the Mississippi from
the Eads bridge at the hour the Chicago
suicide had drowned himself in Lake
| Michigan.