The suburban citizen., 1902-02-01
ODD REC0RDSMADE in '0l
ALL SORTS OF UNPRECEDENTED
FEATS ACHIEVED.

Financial Transactions and Varied
Forms of Prosperity.
The first year OF the twsntieth CEN
tury, A. D., 1901, saw many new rec
ords established in odd lines Of human
activity, while it left Il pathway strewn
with old records broken.
! 10 begin at the beginning, on New
/ Years Day there were thirty deaths
from violent causes in various parts of
Kentucky This record set a new
high slaughter mark. The matrimo-
NAL mart usually has big things to
show in year. All nuptial speed rec
ords were smashed on Sunday, August
10, at st. Joseph, Mich, Chicago's
Gretna Green, when twenty-seven
couples from Chicago were deftly
splieed in one hour and three-quarters,
each couple thus having less than five
minutes to go through the mill.
The minister who in 1901 claimed the
record with reference to the grand to-
| tai of marriages and funerals, con-
nected with long minister's life, is
the Rev. j. NJ. Haughey, of Mason City,
the namesake of Senator Billy, but not
his home-a little town thirty miles
south of Pekin, III. During his career
as preacher, period Of some forty
years, he has married 1857 couples and
conducted 1900 funerals.
Turning to the divorce side of matri-
mony-a side peculiarly rich in speed
records-one naturally would look to
Chicago Oklahoma or the Oak otas for
winners The Chicago speedy-divorce
calendar for the year found its stellar
performance in the case of Mrs. G..
Kruger. 1t took this lady a trihe less
than ten minutes to convince Judge
Dunno that she ought to be cut loose
from her husband, Henry William
Kruger, saloonkeepsr of the Windy
City.
At $50 a. m., August %, she filed
her bill in the Circuit Court charging
that Henry, whom she had welded in
the preceding April, was a cruel
spouse. At $40 a. N. the decree had
been signed by the Judge, awarding
freedom to the bride and taxing the re-
creant Henry $500 alimony. The
highest speed achievement in former
cases in any part Of the United States
was twenty minutes for the legal sep
sration of San Francisco couple, in
1900.
Referring to feats in travel, it GER
tainly was a great year for the auto
mobile. Even in these days Of chronic
record-breaking such performance as
that of Henri Fournier, the French
chauffeur, who drove a heavy French
racing machine a mile in 81 As Sec
onds on the Coney Island Boulevard
in November, was most noteworthy
The long-distance records for horse
less vehicles was broken by Arthur j.
Eddy, Of Chicago q former President
OF the Automobile Club OF that city
In sixty days, from August 1 to Sep
tember 30, he covered 2900 miles, trav-
cling through Michigan, Indiana Ohio,
Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey,
Massachusetts, and part Of Canada. He
averaged about 100 miles a day and
at times maintained a speed Of forty
miles an hour.
Wonders incident to travel were pro-
claimed in other classes; for example,
the unchallenged record of Charles
Bellamy, a Burlington Railroad fire.
man, who in eleven years of faithful
service Travelled 606, $40 miles and shov-
eled 32,501 tons Of coal on the way.
He never lost a trip or received a
scratch through accident. Railroad
men say that it Is u case of physical
endurance never equaled.
An engine OF the Great Northern
Railway in England, which was built
in 1870, completed in August an aggre-
gate Of 100000 miles, breaking the
English record in this respect
1ne speediest longdistance delivery
OF mail ever accomplished in the world
was that OF the consignment which
left Sydney, Australia, october TO- for
London, England, by the American
route. A distance Of 1926 miles was
covered in thirty-one days, a saving
Of four days over the Suez Canal route.
Around the world in sixty days thir-
teen hours and thirty minutes is the
new globe-girdling record, which was
completed last July by Charles G.
gitzmorris, a Chicago high school boy.
This beat the best previous fast cir
cult of the world by several days.
The champion gOrmand of the year
was Elmer Pfeifer, an Arcola Qll.)
youth with an elastic stomach-a chap
that Carlyle probably would have
called patent digester-who one hun
CRY day in February devoured TWEEN
ty-four fat ham sandwiches in exactly
forty-eight minutes, thereby winning
a wager, with side bets Of $75 and es.
tablishing a record which undoubtedly
was a world beater.
Harry S. Black, of Chicago and New
York, recently made the largest con-
science contribution to Uncle Sam
known in the history OF the Govern
ment, He sent to the proper officials
S1S,669.60, representing the duty on
jewels imported by his wife, which
had escaped the vigilance Of the in
SDectOrS