The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-22
A Strange Case.

A Strange Case.
An awkward case for Judge Frfcker
to settle was the disposition OF W. II:
Hurd who was taken before him last
week Mr.. Hurd is an intelligent and
educated man. and a perfectly harm
less individual in the community but on
account of his advanced age and his
habits of living, the officers thought best
to take charge of him. as humane
For several years Mr.. Hurd has had
rooms rented over Perkins meat mar
kent on the north SIDE. He occupies
ALL He pays his rent regularly to Mr..
Athey, the owner of the building. He
has always had a strange mania for
collecting cast off articles from the al
leys and streets and has accumulated
enough of the trash in his apartments
to completely fill three rooms. His as
sortment of trash includes newspapers.
cans, bottles, sticks, boxes, rags, and
every sort of rubbish that is thrown in
to the streets for which no one claims
ownership. This is packed in his rooms
left between the piles. The trash is not
tossed in at random, but is placed In
neatly and methodically. Last week
the fire marshal Frank Knopf, inspect
ed the place and declared it a consider
able risk to north side property. The
officers attempted to move some OF II
and their efforts were met by violent
protests from Mr.. Hurd. He declared
he had use for each and every article
in his rooms. He strongly resists any
attempt to ransack his place. and de-
clares no one has a right to invade his
premises. He doesn't appear to use
any of his Accommodations, but he values
the articles as priceless. He has an In
come from land equity sufficient to
meet his necessary expenses.
A jury in the probate court last
week passed on the case and recon-
mended that a guardian be appointed
to take charge of the eccentric Mr.
I'd Trio
anyone desiring such a charge and at
present the case is going by default.
There is an extremely pathetic side
to Mr.. Hurd's case. He made strong
plea before the court that he was sane
and capable of caring for himself, and
he challenged the right of the officers
to invade the sanctity of his home. He
shows little signs of an unbalanced
mind except his eccentricity and queer
mania for collecting rubbish.
Mr.. Hurd is a graduate OF Campbell
this county and was for 80 years
school teacher in the east.-Holton Re-
corder.
Defeated Death Itself.
The remarkable case of child,
Ruth Godfrey, who was virtually
raised from the dead at the Farnham
Isolation hospital, has aroused intense
interest.
and who has twice had pneumonia.
was brought in in what looked like
hopeless condition. suffering from
diphtheria. She was really at her last
gasp. She was removed to the operat-
ing room where two doctors and three
nurses were in attendance. No sooner
had the ch1oroform been given than
the child's breathing ceased. Her
heart certainly did not beat. The
child's color was waxen.
One of the nurses left the room, say
ing: "It is all over" But the doctors
determined to proceed with the opera
ton. Tracheotomy was performed for |
treatment being employed in the ear
lier stages of diphtheria. The child |
was apparently dead. The operation |
took exactly twenty minutes. Then, as
a last hope, artificial respiration, aided |
by strychnine. brandy and hot bottles |
was employed.
To every ones amazement the child |
began to breathe again. The staff was
delighted as well as astonished.
How long the child ceased to breathe |
it Is, Of course, difficult to tell. IN |
less her heart becomes affected, there |
is an excellent chance for her complete |
recovery. The tube has bee nremoved |
from her throat and she can now
speak quite clearly.-London Cable to |
New York Herald.
Science Notes.
A new application of the motor cy-
Gle to military service has been invent
ed in Austria. 1t concerns the quick
laying of telephone and telegraph |
wires. In front of the cycle is in
stalled a cylindrical roll or reel upon
which the wire Is wound. and a man
sitting in the moving car lays the wire,
by means of a long pole. either in the
tops of the trees. or, If there are none,
In bitches or cutters. With the new
apparatus three miles of wire may be
laid in twelve minutes.
During the twelve months ending
june 80, 1905, fourteen persons we're
killed and forty injured from British
steam plant accidents; in the United
States 3S3 persons were killed and 5s6
The number of steam boil
ers in the United States does not ex-
eeed by more than so per cent those in
Great Britain, so that. in comparison
the actual percentage is ten times as
great in the United States as in Eng
and.
Disappearing paper Is a novelty for
use by those whose correspondents for
get to burn the letters after their util-