The Courier. (Genoa, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1900-08-03
Odd Occurrences.


Here are a number of odd occur
renoes, involving loss of life and mis-
haps of various kinds, which have oc-
Cured recently and they will go to
show that tales of fiction are not nearly
so strange as happenings in real life:
While Madison Burke, prominent
farmer living near Steubenville, o.,
was playing with his children, he
threw his head back and two false teeth
slipped dewn his throat. They were
removed in Pittsburg hospital, where
he was taken, but an abscess was
created, and he died. In Philadelphia,
the point of needle was accidentally
thrust into the third finger of the left
hand of Mrs. Annie M. Smith. With
scream she fell back dead. It is be-
lieved that the nerve connected the
finger and the heart. She had been
suffering from heart disease, and the
prick is supposed to have, through the
communicating nerve, caused shock
that stopped the heart action. At
Geneva, N. Y, Mrs. Edward Pendal
died from the puncture of a needle in
the back of her hand. Mrs. Matilda
Quitman, of Manhattan, literally cried
her eyes out through mourning the
death OF her husband and daughter
Her constant weeping is believed to
have caused an irritation which stop
ped blood vessel, thus producing
sudden blindness. In Marietta, o.,
Frederick Kestermeir cried for three
days over his aged father and sole re-
naming relative, who was fatally i'll.
Ten minutes after the old man died the
son threw himself on the bed and was
dead in few minutes. Physicians say
his heart was broken. Tilly Mahon,
aged II, of Manhattan, and Freda
Poingnee, of Belleville, Ill.,, died from
the effects of excessive rope-skipping.
The fatal exploit of the latter was 230
skips without rest. In Bridgeport,
Conn.,, factory girl waltzed to excess
and became insane. At Scranton, Pa,
man became crazy because of failure
to win over IL other members of jury
he was sitting ON to his view of liquor
violation case In Manhattan, William
Atkins, aged %, offered to help lady
clean house. She had nothing for him
to do except to see that fire in the
yard did not catch to any fences. AT
the same time, observing that he had
on new suit of clothes, she laughing
ly told him to put on one of her dress
skirts. Atkins took her at her word,
and in this incongruous rig assumed
his duties. Soon after his dress caught
fire and he was fatally burned. w. II.
Bean, of Chicago, licked 300 newspaper
wrappers and became violently i'll. A
doctor diagnosed the case as ptomaine
poisoning, caused by the mucilage.
At Browning, Ind, w. A. Ellis was
about to be operated on for appendi-
citis, when the family physician con-
cluded to try stomach pump. A
large amount of sand and gravel was
taken from him and he recovered At
st. Louis, Bud Ferguson, negro, bet.
that the home ball club would beat
Pittsburg. He won considerable money
and while on his way home in street
car he laughed so immoderately when
telling a friend of his luck that hem
orrhage followed and he dropped dead.
In Philadelphia, Mrs. Caroline M. Ran
heard that her father had died in an
other part of the city. On the way to
his house she was taken violently ill
and soon after died. The report of her
fathers death was false. 1t was the
boast of John Dorsey, aged q, at Hag-
erstown, that he could smoke more
cigarettes than any other man in that
section of the state. While smoking
one in the street he was stricken with
paralysis of the heart. He soon died,
but before lapsing into unconscious
ness he asked bystander to give him
the cigarette that had dropped from
his mouth when he fell to the pave
ment. Charles Boyd, aged 13, was
smothered to death in a corn bin at
West Middleton, Ind John Patrie,
Euclid, N. Y, farmer, was squeezed to
death against the side of stall by
horse. Two maiden sisters named
Pitts died at the same time in War
wick, N. j. A sleep of 1876 hours end
ed in the death of Rev. Irwin Bullock,
aged 80, of Newark, N. j. Little Katie
Knepper, of Manhattan, complained
of a toothache and fell asleep. Every
effort to awaken her was in vain, and
she died after slumbering week.