The sun., 1905-12-31
HUMAN ODDITIES IN 1905.
SOME RECORD MAKING FREAKS
or THE PAST YEAR
An Iowa Home Broken Up by Pancakes
High Water Mark in Family Quar-.
reIs-Cha mplon Ice Cream Eater-Re.
markabie Old PeOple-A Real Patriot.

Those who may think that life Is becom-
| ing unduly monotonous and that society
! is petrifying into a cold and dreary formal
| ism should consider few of the odd events
| and the freak record smashers of 1905, as
! observed and set down by the chronicers
| of the period The incidents cited are but
samples and might be multiplied indef-
nitey. Who can be melancholy when such
/ things are going on?
| For instance, on one OF those rare June
days that the poets tell about a Phila-
delpha woman willed her sister $3.50 on
condition that she would always allow their
; father to have "all the cigars he wants
and also all the vests he likes to wear"
Pittsburg furnished several episodes that
livened things up a bit brave woman
in that city wore hoopskrts through the
streets causing crowd to assemble which
impeded traffic and had to be dispersed
by the police Another Pittsburg woman,
finding that n telephone company was pre-
pairing to string wires about her house
and had already dug six holes for poles.
became exceedingly wroth, Having six
children, she deposited child in each hole
and then defled the workmen to proceed,
Pancakes broke up an Iowa home in the
/ SDADDy Gays Oh TtDludll NIth ''lI'N"'
are supposed to hit the right spot. Az
| Sanborn, Mrs. Carrie Fields got divorce
| from DR.. L. s. Fields because the husband
did not like her make of pancakes and
ridiculed them She testified that the
expression on the doctors face while eating
the cakes was such that it might work per-
manent injury to her health,
/ The high water mark in family quarrel'
was reached in Kansas City. One raw
January morning found Mrs. Theresa
| Schujul and her husband John in the poll,e
court, where judicial aid was invoked to
shake John loose from his domestic moor
ings. Theresa had given him 500 to leave
her and never return, but he kept his prom
se only till the money was spent Then the
wife confided to the Court that she and
John were married in Germany fourteen
years ago and had quarrelled every day
since, which means a total Of more than
5000 quarrels
The champion ice cream eater Of 1905
was not, as many might suppose, senti-
mental young woman, but husky street car
conductor of West Philadelphia. wager
! of 81 and Gargantuan appetite inspired
Ray Vincent to the gastronomic feat OF
hiding away fifteen plates of ice cream, a
| pork sandwich and glass of milk to top
off with, all within two hours and without
subsequent funeral notice.
With record OF having served more than
: 800 600 drinks at the Bellevue-Stratford
Hotel. Philadelphia, Tomasso Ruggo, in
| March celebrated the twenty-third ami
versary of his employment there, his drink
| checks figuring up SOIL ,9l5.
1t Is we'll known that good deal OF beer
| is drunk in Munich at all times, but during
an unusual hot wave in September the
thirsty inhabitants of that city made rec
| ord The heat lasted a week, during which
time $50 600 gallons of beer was consumed.
or two and one-half gallons for every man,
woman and child in the city.
| THE avera ge length of married life
seems to be two months, remarked Judge
Dunno, in March, when job lot OF divorce
cases was being disposed OF in his court.
This was before he was elected Mayor Of
Chicago
On this same day eleven divorces were
granted by three Cook county judges, in
grist in the legal hopper The, average
time consumed by the hearings which pre-
ceded the issuance of the DEGREES was eight
minutes. One hearing took only three
minutes. Three took only four minutes
each. No more than fifteen minutes wa, was
devoted to any of the eleven cases. This
is a divorce clearing house record that it
would be hard to beat.
Divorce being so often the sequence OF
marriage, this seems an opPortIne point
record in wedlock, Figures indicate that
the wholesa lie marriage record of st. joseph
for 1905 would eclipse that of any previous
year More than IL, 600 licenses had then been
issued and the rush will still as great as
during the summer.
On November IL the Rev. j. z. Torgensen,
widely known as the marrying preacher,
died at his home in Chicago. He had Eer-
formed 1900 marriage ceremonies dur
ing the thirty-six years he was a minister.
1t is believed he held the worlds record for
tying nuptial knots.
The years best record for maternity was
furnished by Indiana. On October 2S Mrs.
Clara Krauss of Coal City gave birth to
no twins. This noble mother, who is doing
what she can to prevent race suicide, has
been married only twenty-five years and is
now only Al.
came proudly to the front in the rast year.
Grandma Eliza Fountain Of Wayne county,
Ia, seems to have won the blue ribbon.
When she celebrated her lO2d birthday, in
October, admiring friends presented 10 her
l02 large packages of smoking tobacco
and an equal number Of pipes. She has
been an inveterate smoker since the age OF
8, and she attributes her longevity TO the
use of the weed.
Akron, Ohio, placed itself on record as
having the Oldest police Officer in the United
States. In July, Thomas Dillon, aged lo2.
was sworn in as special officer at the free
swimming pool
On divers occasions during the last
summer, at Herkimer, N, Y. Miss Mary
Putnam fell in a faint whenever the village
band began to play. The physicians who
we're called in to restore her were unable
to decide whether the young woman's
swooning was the result of some peculiar
physiological condition or merely traceable
to the village bands quality Of music,
For disinterested patriotism the banner
OF the year goes to William S. Elliot,
farmer and veteran of the civil war living
near Kokomo, Ind He has repeatedly re-
fused to accept a pension that has ac-
cumulated until it now amounts to more than
$18,5OO, though notified time and again that
the money is ready for him. He explains
that neither he nor his family needs the
money and that he is entitled to no reward
for doing his plain duty.
On Dec. 3, after sixty days, a delay
without parallel in the history Of criminal
proceedings in Cook county, ILL.,, and the
mourning of an expense Of SIS 900 the jury
was obtained in the Glhooley conspiracy
case at Chicago. This is a record in juris-
prudence that will not soon be eclipsed
Two new typewriting records were -et'
November 3, at New York, Paul Munter
won contest by writing 2099 words ~
thirty minutes. December g. at Pueblo,