The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-17
MYSTERY OF LOST
 FOOT |S BATTLING Grewsome Discovery Is Made
 on Second Avenue WRAPPED IN NEWSPAPER Has Been Taken to Police Head quarters and Coroner Has Been
 Notified-Jaeeed Protrudlna
 Bone indicates Break.
WRAPPED IN NEWSPAPER

The mystery of a lost foot Is mat ter which Is giving the coroner and the police authorities of the city cause for considerable worry, and a case has been presented locally which would afford Sherlock Holmes the opportunity of his life. Deductions are in order but no tangible clues havc been secured and both Coroner Brasher and the city detectives are at a loss to account for the object which Policeman O'Bryant found yester- day.
 While patroling his beat on lower Sec ond avenue yesterday afternoon Officer Bryant found the human foot. The pedal extremity was loosely wrapped in a news- paper of a back date and is well dried out, although there are absolutely no signs Of decay. He turned it over to the desk sergeant at police headquarters, where it is the object of scrutiny and where it has been added to the vast quantity of unidentified objects at the po- lice station.
 While no special importance Is att tached to the discovery the case is a very puzzling one. The police can't imagine why person should be carrying around his own dead foot, much less somebody else's, and 1t is evident that the object of dried skin and bone was lost and not thrown away. It was neither buried nor otherwise concealed and being wrapped in newspaper it would seem that the repul- sive piece of dead anatomy was acci dentaliy dropped by some one. The foot evidently belonged to a man formerly, as 1t is 1o1f inches long. and il evidently lost originally in some accident If the bone adjoining the foot was clean cut there would be room for belief that 1t had been amputated and had in some manner gotten away from the operating surgeon, but the thing shows very Jagged break just at the ankle and this is what queers the police.
 Another puzzling fact Is tho lack of reason why 8 man should carry dead human foot around. or preserve 1t until 1t became only an ugly mass of dried bone and sinew. That it was preserved for the sake of saving the skeleton is out Of the question because it was not well kept. although there is perceptible odor of some kind of disinfectant about it.
 The foot Is a narrowing and extremely ugly object. While all joints arc intact, they have been held together for some time by a plain white piece of cord, which was wrapped in a very crude manner. The string shows that 1t has been on the foot for some time. No bones arc broken, or if they are they are held together by the dried sinew. The toenails are all well-preserved and give evidence of hay ing been we'll cared for before the foot became dispoined from the remainder of the limb.
 The police are in doubt as to whether the foot was that of & white man or a negro, in fact, the member is too old to tell. It was held at police headquarters last night for the coroner's examination. The sergeant was not especially anxious to have it around him so he laid it out on the roof to remain until Coroner Brasher goes after it.
 Officer O'Bryant says he has no idea who dropped the mysterious package and there Is no way to tell. The foot was picked up near the corner of Second ave- nue and Sixteenth street. There Is a street fair being held in that vicinity and thousands of people pass along the street daily.