The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-08-28
STRANGE THINGS.
In Real Life That Make Truth
stranger Than Fiction.
QUEER HAPPENINGS.

UUGLN Thai LsssAsGSo
That Have Taken Place In All Parts
OF the United States and Other
Parts of the Civilized Globe-Wil
BE Read With Much Interest by the
Soung and Old Readers of This
Paper.
Wagers have sometimes taken a
grim form. 1t is credibly recorded
that in the eighteenth century a
wager was laid for one Of party Of
eav revelers to enter Westminster
Abbey at the hour of midnight. He
was 20 enter one Of the vaults be-
meath the abbey, and in proof Of ms
having been there he was to STICK
fork into coffin which had recent!s
been deposited there. He accom-
plished his object and was returning
in triumph when he felt himself Slo-
denly caught, and was so overcome
With terror that he fell in swoon.
He companions. not being able to
acconnt for his long absence, found
him in this condition. The fork whlch
he had fastened into the coffin had
caught his long cloak, and so occas-
ioned a fit of terror which nearly
proved fatal.
People are sometimes killed for
decidedly trivial causes.
Stanley Davis, Of Cincinnati, Ohio,
stabbed Herman Burns to death in a
saloon because the latter blew snuh
across the bar and made MS nostrlls
tingle.
Because his wife refused to feed
the chickens at his command Thom-
as Doehert, at Richmond, KY, kali
ed her with a monkey wrench which
he threw at her, burying 1t IN the
back Of her head.
Because mis- two children had been
playing with negro child John Ze-
niue, Wilmington, Del, became so
incensed he shot both as they lay IN
bed and then killed himself.
Bette Francis, an aged negress,
sail to be 100 years old, was walking
along in Wickliffe, Ballard county,
KY, when one of her legs snapped
off and flew up and struct her in the
hack. When she discovered what
had happened she picked up the limo
and crawfed home. The old lady for
several years had been gradually
drying up. What is known as senlle
gangrene set in and withered the
leg. Still she hobbled about on it.
and when she started on the street
she felt something give way. She
explained that it felt as if someone
had struck her in the back The blow
was wasaccompanied by a popping sound
and when she found that she coulc
not support herself as before she
stumbled and fell. She saw the por-
ton Of her leg, from few inches
below the knee lying near by anc
realized that her leg had broken off
The injured member does not pair
her. In fact, she declared that il
felt good" The case is possibly
without parallel.
Another casa decided puzzle tc
physicians and surgeons--is that OF
one Bert A. Sterner, eight years old,
who lived three years with broken
back. his death occurring only a few
weeks ago at Pettsville, Pa. He was
sitting on a fence when baseball
struck him and caused him to fall,
several Of the vertabrae being frac-
tured.
Again strange story is reported
from Tchliaminsk, Russia, which has
caused great deal Of comment in
medical circles. A trial was in pro
gress and man was summoned as
q witness who had been an invalid
for twenty years. Because of some
strange notion ne had placed himself
in q coffin twenty years ago and has
not been out of it since. He declared
that he could not leave the coffin
without bringing on violent attack
of vertigo, and his physician upheld
him. The court, however refused to
excuse him, and he was brought into
the courtroom in his coffin and gave
his testimony while lying in the grew
some box.
By a decision handed down by Su-
preme Court Justice Tompkins,
White Plains, n. Y, Willett Spring
steel, who is in Sing Sing prison for
life, is declared legally dead and
cannot share in the large estate left
by his brother, whom he murdered.
Springsteel, while temporarily in
sane from drink, shot through a
door and killed his brother in their
home in Pleasantville. The murder
ed man left considerable property,
and the life convict had third in
terest in it. The declaration Of s|le-
gally dead" was made so that his
sisters could inherit the entire es-
tate equally between them.
Two thieves stole two horses from
Sheriff F. S. Carter's barn in Ham
nond, Ind, recently. They drove
the team to Crown Point, the county
seat, and sold them to Liyeryman
Philenus Williams for $500, in front
Of the Crown Point Jail, where Sher-
if Carter lives with his family, and
under whose very eyes the span of
horses, valued at $500, was disposed
of. The thieves went to the Panhan-
die depot and got out Of town safe
ly.
Perhaps the queerest city in the
world is that Of Nang Harm, the
home of the royal family Of Siam.
The city's popularity lies in the fact
that it is composed of women and
children alone. 1t is the center of
Gangkok, has high walls around it,
on1 in IFS nop,1lation of q 600 there