That's Old News

A Flock of Goats

2009-06-19T19:48:42Z

A flock of goats were browsing and looking for stray oyster cans, sardine boxes and the like in North Dallas, when all at once there was a commotion among the foremost ones, which beat a hasty retreat. An old billy who had been fetching up the rear with the solemnity of a deacon walked to the front, paused and began to strike the ground right hard in an odd sort of way with his fore feet and at the same time to shake his head as if going through some sort of superstitions cantation. He then walked back in the direction he had come for a few yards, and taking a running start, made a long jump, alighting with his legs bunched, and immediately on hitting the ground, made a second long jump far out to one side. The gentlemen who witnessed this strange performance, prompted by curiosity, went up to see what the trouble was, and there lay a big rattlesnake cut in two and writhing in the throes of death.

source: Indiana Weekly Messenger
location: Indiana, Pennsylvania

Another Show For Liberty

2009-06-18T13:21:35Z

New trials granted two murderers under life and death sentences.

Ottawa, Ill., june 17- Opinions have been rendered in the Supreme court in two cases of special interest. The case of Bolzer, the Hungarian, who in 1877 killed a man named Haw at Streator, was reversed and remanded to the lower court. Bolzer had two trials. In first he was found guilty of murder in the first degree. In the second trial he was found guilty of manslaughter, and was sentenced to spend the remainder of his days in the penitentiary at Joilet. He began his imprisonment in March 1888. The decision gives him a new trial.

The other was the case of James H. Farris of Peoria, who was tried and convicted of murder and sentenced to be hanged. He was granted a new trial. One of the points on which the case was remanded by the court above was the introduction of improper evidence. Ferris was to have been hanged in March last.

source: Davenport Morning Tribune
location: Davenport, Iowa

Caught him in the act

2009-06-18T13:03:19Z

A fire fiend at Ionia, Michigan Comes very near being lynched.

Ionia, Mich., June 17.- Incendiary fires have been of frequent occurrence in this city of late. Early Sunday morning a fire-fiend was caught in the act of setting fire to a residence. The occupants were nearly suffocated before they were aroused and were rescued with difficulty. Public feeling ran very high when it was known that the fire-bug was in the hands of the officer. An attempt was made to lynch the man, last prompt action by the police saved him.

source: Davenport Morning Tribune
location: Davenport, Iowa

Death of a Valuable Animal.

2009-05-07T13:29:40Z

Chicago, May 2.—The noted Kentucky trotting mare Fugue, with a record of 2:19 ¼, died here of pneumonia. She was valued at $15,000.

source: Reno Evening Gazette
location: Reno, Nevada

How Skeletons are Made.

2009-05-07T13:28:23Z

La Monde de la Science describes a factory which is said to be flourishing at St. Denis, France. Within its walls skeletons are “made” in the following manner: The largest room in the building is filled with enormous kettles, in which the bones of the corpses are boiled till the flesh is separated from them. The skulls are prepared separately and in the most careful manner. One way of preparing children and young people is to fill the hollow where the brains were situated with peas and then let the latter swell in water, which causes the most delicately jointed bones to separate without being injured. After all the bones have been carefully washed they are bleached either by choral or by exposure to the sun, and are joined in another department of the factory and made flexible by means of brass wires. Most of the corpses whose bones are utilized are said to be brought from hospitals, prisons and dissecting-rooms.

source: Reno Evening Gazette
location: Reno, Nevada

Hints on Moving.

2009-05-07T13:11:07Z

Be sure to pay your first month’s rent in advance. It will put you on good terms with the landlord, and after that you need be in hurry to settle.

It is well to engage your truckman about ten weeks in advance, and if necessary guarantee the payment of your bill by giving a lien on you furniture.

If your landlord says that the house has all the modern improvements, you must not look for a phonograph in each room. The landlord didn’t mean that.

Examine your gas meter in moving in a new house. The previous occupant may have left his score unsettled, and the gas man will add it on your first month’s bill.

When leaving a house do not trouble yourself by taking out the nails in the walls. It may make them worse than before, and your old landlord may come down on you for damages.

Do not scold at the man moving your furniture if he should run a bed post through a $1,000 mirror. Drop a bureau on him as he goes down stairs and you will have your revenge.

Do not pack all you plates and knives at the bottom of the box. Remember that one of the first things you have to do in a new house is to eat.

If there is a lodge-meeting on the day you move be sure in going out at night to off the front-door latch so it will not make a noise when you come home.

source: Western Templar of Honor
location: Madison, Wisconsin

Married By Surprise.

2009-05-07T13:09:37Z

Two Young Spanish Lovers Succeed in Outwitting the Old Folks.

An extraordinary occurance has taken place in one of the principal churches of Madrid, in the parish of Santa Cruz, says the London Times. A priest had nearly finished his mass, and was in the act of pronouncing the sacramental words, “Ite, missa est,” when a young man aged twenty-one, and a beautiful girl of twenty suddenly approached the altar railing with three middle-aged men, and the young couple cried aloud, “We wish to be husband and wife. Here are our three witnesses.” Now, it seems that under the canonical laws still regulating marriages in Spain Roman Catholics can thus claim to be considered married by surprise if they are skillful enough to do so just after the priest has uttered the benediction at the close of mass. Formerly this stratagem was, as in this case, resorted to by young people whose parents opposed their union. When this occurred in the church of Santa Cruz a scene of confusion ensued. The priest retired to the sacristy and sent for police, who conducted the offenders and witnesses into the presence of the municipal judge. He declared the marriage valid, much to the delight of the young couple and to the intense disgust of the parents of both sides, who had resisted the union.

source: Western Templar of Honor
location: Madison, Wisconsin

Shot Dead by a Marshal.

2009-05-06T21:00:43Z

Dayton, Tenn., April 29.,—City Marshal Griffith shot Bud Bryson through the heart Sunday morning killing him instantly, Bryson had been fined in the mayor’s court and had gone out-without paying. Griffith went after him to collect the fine, and taking hold of him Bryson shoved him away, when Griffith drew his revolver and deliberately shot him down. Bryson lived at Spring City and leaves a wife and child.

source: The Semi-Weekly Age
location: Coshocton, Ohio

Terrible Infantile Tragedy

2009-05-06T20:59:35Z

Canton, O., april 29.—While a number of children were playing at Malverno Saturday, two of them, Charles Dickman, aged 5, and Johnny Hexawer, aged 8, cousins, got into a childish quarrel, when when Hexawer seized a shotgun that was standing near by and fired at the Dickman child, the entire charge taking effect in his head. The murder caused the wildest excitement, and the parents of both the youthful murderer and his infantile victim are well nigh crazed over the terrible tragedy.

source: The Semi-Weekly Age
location: Coshocton, Ohio

Dropped Dead in the Ring

2009-05-06T20:58:33Z

San Francisco, April 28.—Tom Avery a well-known local prize-fighter, fell late Friday night in the ring during a sparring exhibition with Ed Cuffe, a recent arrival from the East. It was a six-round contest and in the fourth round Avery fell unconscious to the floor, where he expired in a few minutes. A physician said death was due to heart failure, caused by over exertion. Cuffe was arrested.

source: The Daily Independent
location: Monroe, Wisconsin

St. Louis Brewers to Combine

2009-05-06T20:55:05Z

St. Louis, April 26.—It is announced that all the breweries of this city and East St. Louis, except those of the Anheuser Bush Company and W. J. Lemp, have consolidated their works, to be run under one management. There are eighteen breweries, representing a capital of $5,000,000, concerned in the movement. Fifteen million dollars in stock and bonds are to be issued, each company receiving the full value of its property in each.

source: The Daily Independent
location: Monroe, Wisconsin

Finished Off with the Butt

2009-05-06T20:51:59Z

Lebanon, Ind., April 27.—Dr. White was horsewhipped by John Conrad, a section boss on the Big Four railway, living at Zionsville. Conrad claimed that White insulted his wife. After whipping him severely Conrad knocked the doctor down with the butt end of the whip.

source: Mitchell Sunday Republican
location: Mitchell, South Dakota

Recognized Confederate Memorial Day.

2009-05-06T20:46:09Z

Washington, April 26.—Postmaster General Wanamaker has telegraphed the postmasters at Atlanta and Savannah permission to close the post offices at those points to-day, Confederate memorial day.

source: Mitchell Sunday Republican
location: Mitchell, South Dakota

Blackiston Seeks a Divorce.

2009-05-06T20:40:15Z

Charles H. Blackiston, by his solicitors, Messrs, Russum & Lewis, on Wednesday filed a bill for absolute divorce from his wife, Mrs. Laura E. Blackiston. The bill states that he was married on November 25, 1880, at Shepard’s Church, since which time he has fulfilled all the obligations of a husband. The paper charges that on April 3rd, Mrs. Blackiston left him and eloped with Emmett Downes, with whom she is now living in one of the Western States.

source: Denton Journal
location: Denton, Maryland

Delaware

2009-05-06T20:38:12Z

Delaware is a little state that has laws peculiarly its own. It proposes to have another statute, for a bill is now before the Legislature which will require persons contemplating marriage to make out and furnish a list of ancestors of the bride and groom before a license shall be granted. Barring the difficulty and doubt which might possibly arise in making out the list the Index would like to know just what a person’s ancestors have to do with keeping peace and quiet in the family.

source: Denton Journal
location: Denton, Maryland

Chinamen Masquerade as Squaws.

2009-05-06T20:34:29Z

The smuggling of Chinese men and women from British America into the United States territory is a very lucrative business at various points along the border from Vancouver to Winnipeg. If the venture fails at one place it is renewed at another, and sooner or later the pilgrims get in. A new trick, just discovered at Whatcom, Washington Territory, has almost taken away the breath of the Federal officials, for they know that it must have been successful for a time. The large number of squaws coming into the country form British Columbia finally attracted the attention of an official, and he took a party of them to jail. On close inspection it was found that the creatures were not squaws at all, but able-bodied Chinamen who had painted and otherwise disguised themselves as to resemble the typical Indian squaw of the frontier. In one instance two young and rather comely Chinese women came across in the garb of American women, but closely veiled. An ungallant official lifted their veils and found them out. These girls were billed through to San Francisco, and were worth to their owner about $2000 apiece.

source: The San Saba News
location: San Saba, Texas

Epitome of the Week.

2009-05-06T20:33:05Z

Interesting News Compilation.

Domestic

While Perry Wine, of Brockton County, W. VA., was felling a tree on the 17th broke across the stump and fell, demolishing his house and killing his wife and three children.

Felicity Wart, aged seventy-two years, a professional beggar, died in New Orleans on the 17th of debility and neglect in an old shanty where she had lived twenty years. She was supposed to be very poor, but the coroner in inspecting the circumstances of her death discovered hidden around her shanty $38,500.

Frederic Broderick and Charles Collins were arrested on the 18th at Rondout, N. Y., for making and circulating counterfeit coin. A bag containing about seventy-five dollars in bogus nickels, together with dimes, ect., was captured.

At Jacksonville, Fla. On the 18th Isaac Jones (colored) broke nearly every bone in the body of his four-year-old child with an iron bar then beat his wife to death. He claimed to be subject to fits, and that he had one at the time.

Five Mormon missionaries were whipped, tarred and feathered and driven out of Dale County, Ala., on the 19th.

Malachi Allen, a one-armed negro, and James Mills, a half Indian and half negro, were hanged for murder on the 19th at Fort Smith, Ark., for murder.

Charles Barker, of Boston, checker champion of the world, and James Reed, of Pittsburgh, Pa., agreed on the 19th to play a series of fifty games at Chicago, commencing June 3, for the championship and $250 a side.

A fight occurred on the 20th between a party of Oklahoma boomers and a number of United States deputy marshals, near Purcell, I. T., two men being fatally wounded and a number of others seriously hurt.

A fire on the 21st in the Denn’s Hotel at Detroit caused the death of three men form suffocation.

The two little sons of Michael Cunningham, aged nine and ten years, of Dunham, Pa., ate some wild parsips on the 20th and died in great agony.

The street-car strike in Minneapolis was the cause of a riot on the 21st, during which policemen and drivers were seriously injured by stones thrown by a mob.

source: The Oxford Mirror
location: Oxford Junction, Iowa

Cliff Dwellers Found.

2009-05-06T20:32:33Z

Pueblo, Colo., April 23.—A very interesting discovery of cliff dwellings has just been mad near the line between New Mexico and Colorado, at the lower end of San Luis valley. The place is on Santa Clara creek, ten miles from Espanola. All other cliff dwellers’ houses are situated forty miles or more from the railroad, and are difficult to access. The buildings, or village just discovered, were in a circle of six hundred yards in circumference. The bricks are as light as pumice stone, but very hard. A short distance away was an open mound fifty feet in diameter, containing many skeletons, which turned to dust on exposure. There was also some excellent pottery found still in good condition.

source: Las Vegas Daily Optic
location: Las Vegas, New Mexico

Starving From Hunger.

2009-05-06T20:31:28Z

Last night about 8 o’clock Private Watchman Stedeford found a young man lying on the street at Frazier and Sheffield streets, Allegheny, who was weak from starvation. He was sent to lockup in the patrol wagon where he was given a meal. He said he had eaten nothing since last Friday. He claimed Cleveland as his home and said his name was John O’Connors and his age eighteen years.

source: The Pittsburgh Post
location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Stole The Ballot Box

2009-05-06T20:30:46Z

Little Rock, Ark., April 23.—Warren Taylor, arrested for interfering with the congressional elections at Plummerville, has made a confession. He says that A. C. Weller, A. H. Darrell, J. S. Woods, Deputy Sheriff Bentley and himself carried off a ballot box and burned it.

source: Fitchburg Sentinel
location: Fitchburg, Massachusetts