Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-01
Comedy Sometimes Goes Arm
in Arm With Tragedy.
UNUSUAL MISHAPS
ELECTRIC LIGHT CUT OFF FROM
SEVERAL TOWNS BY WILDCATS.
Unusual Accidents That Have Result
ed in Death-Quaint Requests
Recorded in Wills.
BY WILLIAM L. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
Herald.
People who travel about the world with
their eyes and ears open see and hear many
strange and interesting things. The world
Is full of phenomena and odd accidents and
quaint concets Comedy goes arm-in-arm
with tragedy, and more extraordinary ac-
cidents happen in real life than are told in
fiction. For example, last spring, down In
San Bernardino valley, California, two
playful wildcats cut off the electric lights
of several towns for nearly forty-elght
hours. and every home and store. hotel
and factory in the entire valley was in total
darkness. The young catamounts evidently
while rompng. chased each other up pole
carrying the main wires OF the racine
Lighting Company between the power
house and the distributing point. In their
play the cable parted. the circuit was bro
ken and every light went out Both ami
mails were killed by the shock and their
bodies lay the ground at the foot of the
pole when the linemen came to repair the
break.
One of the queerest law suits ever heard
of is pending in the courts of that county
San BernarGino, California. Paul Schlur-
dun bought revolver from a hardware
firm to commit suicide For some reason
the weapon defective and would not
go off. Schlardum has sued the company
for damages.
H. j. Grim of Los Angeles has old
hen which several months ago adopted a
filter of fox terriers and is bringing them
up by hand. She not only keeps them under
her wing but brings them food in her bill.
: When the real mother of the puppies somes
around the hen drives her off by hostile
demonstrations.
Tom Powers was known the most IN
lucky teamster in southern California and
seldom made trip without being kicked
I.la,,. btrr of HI rnI1la
One day he took contract to haul load
of supplies eighty miles. from the railroad
to a mining camp. The road runs along
the ledge of deep canyon and for miles
is only foot wider than a wagon.
On one side is perpendicular cliff several
hundred feet high, and on the other
gorge several hundred feet deep Tom got
half way over the heaviest part of the
grade when one of his wheelers, odd SAM.
the meanest mule in the team, stopped dead
short and began to kick, without any APP
parent reason. Tom expostulated accord
ing to the habit of unregenerate teamsters
and used his blacksnake whip with great
freedom. But he could not persuade the
beast to move. Finally he climbed off the
wagon, gathered a bunch of dry grass,
tucked it under the animals hind quarters
and set II on fire. The flames had scarcely
singed the hair of the mule when something
happened. Tom doesn't know exactly what
1t was, but in less time than 1t takes to tell
1t he found himself at the bottom of the
canyon covered with bruises and nursing a
broken shoulder blade. But alrs well that
ends well. in Death valley elsewhere,
for when he was scrambling up the ledge he
uncovered a streak of gold from which he
has already realized more than $4,000. The
first thing he did after the mine began to
pay was to purchase 'Old Sam" from his
former employer and make the mule his
mascot
Down at Holbrook. Ariz.. opposite the
Santa Fe station. Is a line of saloons more
or less pretentious in appearance. Hang
ing on the wall beside the bar of one of
them. in fancy gilt frame, is the following
memento of an event that caused a great
sensation In those parts:
"HoLBROOK, Ariz., January l. 1900
with feelings of profound sorrow and
regret 1 hereby invite you to attend and
witness the private, decent and humane ex-
ecution of q human being; name George
Smiley; crime, murder
1.-THE said George Smiley will be executed
on January 8. 1900. at clock pm.
You are expected to deport yourself In
respectful manner. and any 'fippant' or
'unseemly language or conduct Will not be
allowed Conduct on any ones part Dor
dering ribaldry and tending to mar the
solemnity of the occasion will not be toler-
ated. F. J. WATTRON,
Sheriff of Navajo County,
Men die from queer causes sometimes.
Down on the Rio Pecos in New Mexico,
not long ago. Francis j. Birdwell. a scien-
tific gentleman from Boston, attempted to
climb a tree to get a birds nest. He used
rope TO assist him, and slipping fell in
such way that Ii caught him around the
neck and he hung there until he was dead.
John Korugebel, employed by lumber
and coal company Waterbury, Conn,
sneeZed so hard that he dislocated his lum-
bar vertebrae, and has never been able to
stand upright since. His body is bent at
a right angle and he suffers intense pain.
Harry II. Baughman, superintendent of
the gas and water company at Roanoke,
Va. who had been i'll for several days with
n cold in his head. in sneezing burst a
blood vessel. and "A LAT
David Dorso of Harrison, n j. was shaw
Ing, when mosquito lit on his chin. In
making a motion with the razor to drive
the insect away, he cut deep cash in his
throat and hled to death within few min
utes
Col j. B. Anderson OF Colfax. Wash,
laughed so hard at funny story told by
neighbor that he had an attack of apoplexy
and died within half hour.
Elmer Kerchoff. while carrying a keg of
beer at a picnic in Reading, Pa. last sum
mer. stumbled over a croquet hook. The
keg went down with him and crushed his
head so that he died shortly after.
William Steele of Princeton, Md. was
killed in the cemetery at that place by the
fall of tombstone he was putting up IN
memory of his wife
Fred johnson, yardmaster at car fac
tory in Chicago died last summer from
what the doctors call mental suggestion.
He became possessed of a mania that his
pet dog had hydrophobia and brooded over
the fear that he might be bitten until he
developed all the symptoms of rabies and
died in terrible agony. The dog was per
fectly we'll and lay quietly outside his mas
ters bed room during the latters rawlings,
but by the advice of the physician the fam
fly got IA policeman te shoot the poor pet.
Miss Priscilla Leyter of Coalville. Utah,
dislocated her jaw while engaged in a de-
hate at the Utah Federation of Womens
Clubs over the propriety of eXpelfng Reed
Smoot the Mormon from the United States
Senate She was talking at the rate OF
about $50 words minute when something
snapped She turned very pale. covered her
face with her hands and dropped into
chair with hysterical sob The other
women thought she had been stricken with
paralvsis but when the doctor made an
Examination he discovered that the jaw
bone had jumped out OF place and declared
that II was an awful warning.
The tongue of woman. however. is some
times useful. 4 German medical Journal
describes girl born in 1850, at Wertheim,
who when six years old suffered stroke of
paralysis by which she lost the of her
hands and feet. BY long practice she has