The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-12-21
Deserter's Strange Career.

| DcScftcFS Strange career.
After an absence of 40 years John
: Peck. a native of Nottingham, returned
1 to England recently and discovered
that he was still liable to be arrested
for having deserted from his regiment
N 1869. His career however, has
been so remarkable that when the
facts were related the war office not
only granted him a free pardon, but
4 pension as well.
Peck ran away from home at the
age of II am went to sea. He sub
;sequently joined the army and served
| fl the Crirnea- After peace was de-
cared he got transferred to another
regiment, and was ordered out to
India. where he went through the
u, utiny. Later he quarreled with an
officer and deserted
He had hard time South
African diamond prospector, but when
/ sver chance of fighting occurred he
;.ways embraced it, and so he served
Beers. His relatives had not heard of
him for SO years, when he recently re-
appeared. He is now II years of age,
and is bent on going back to South
Africa to find work in the mines
London Daily Mail.
Her Pet Bank Suspends.
The Isle Thread bank suspended
payment in Brooklyn Friday. and
Mrs Annie Schroeder 35 years old
on deposit there, lost everything. Mrs.
Schroeder was riding in a Broadway
car between Myrtle and Rockaway
avenues when the bank broke. She
discovered the deficit by rubbing the
toe of her right foot against the
bank, which was at the left. She told
the conductor:
"a pickpocket?" he suggested,
vaguely.
l. She gave him a whitening look and
left the car.
Mrs. Schroeder went to the Ralph
avenue police station and asked the
lieutenant to look for her money. She
said there was no hole in the bank,
but a fastening of some kind had
broken and the roll of bills must have
dropped out She said she hadn't told
her husband about it. and didn't
think she would and if no one else
from him for a day or two he may
never hear about it.-New York
World.
An Inventive Genius.
Nikola Tesla. the man who har-
messed Niagara, was talking to an in
terviewer about inventions.
THE successful inventor said Mr..
Tesla, smiling, has an odd, quaint
mind, a mind full of surprises. Thus
inventor at heart, through circum-
stances had made a grocer of him.
"Smethurst, during his seaside holi-
day, was seen upon the broadwalk
, with a large bottle under his arm.
'Smethurst,' said an acquaintance.
what have you got in that bottle that
I see you carrying about with you day
and night?'
'Chloroform.' said smethurst.
What the deuce are you doing
! with chloroform here on the board
waikiki
THAT big dub of Jones' said
Smethurst, has threatened to give me
sound thrashing the first time he
coming I'm going to take a good
. dose. l don't propose to suffer if ]
can help it, "-Philadelphia Record
Worlds Largest Beast.
What is claimed as the largest animal
:. in the world is represented BY = colossal
skeleton in the museum of Christchurch
Of the Is bu 1ee was od
= on the coast of that country. This species
is probably the largest of all living ami:
feet and the head alone is q feet. The 1
y, weight of the bones is estimated at nine
' of blue whale from the dark blush gray
Z of its upper surface. The tinge of vel
low on its lower part has LED to ths
= known on the western side of the Allan
fs i kpSwn sbbald
t The chief food of this gigantic ANNA
a is a small marine crustacean (Trysano
: podra inermis) known to the whalers a:
: '.kril." Another species of the. same
I shrimplike group has been obtained IL
thousands from the stomachs of mack
v erel caught on the Cornish coast. Tit
Il nearly related opossum shrimps, found IL
O enormous numbers in the Greenland seas
= form the chief food of the common whale
e Some of the trysanopoda are phosphores
| cent and contribute to the luminosity O
: the sea.-Atchison Globe.
s Why He Didn't Stand Up.
i It was married mems night at the re
r, vival meeting.
s Let all you husbands who have trou
N bles on your mind stand upi'' Shoutet
: the emotional preacher, at the height o
his Spasm.
: instantly every man in the church ros
+ to his feet except one.
e Abr exclaimed the preacher, perrin,
l, out at this lone sitter, who occupied
q chair near the door and apart from tn
= others. You are one in million
z TT amt that" piped back this one
u I,alsllassis the rest of the cnugrega