Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Published in the Waukegan Daily Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Wednesday, August 25, 1897
Believed to Be the One Hit by a Locomotive a Year Ago.
One day last fall the locomotive of a passenger train on the Western New York & Pennsylvania railroad, running 40 miles an hour, near Watsonville, Pa., struck a bear that came out of the woods and attempted to cross the track in front of the engine. The bear was tossed more than 40 feet and it fell in the brush beside the track. The train went on, and at Watsonville the engineer told the agent that if wanted some bear meat he might get it by sending someone back a mile or so to get the bear the engine had collided with and killed. Two men went back to get the bear. They found where it had landed in the brush, but the bear wasn’t there. A trail of blood led from the spot. It was followed nearly a mile, and then it was lost in a big laurel patch. Everyone supposed the bear had gone in there to die, and the engineer bragged a good deal about the bear he had killed.
Last week some one came to Watsonville and said there were unmistakable signs of a big bear around Laurel swamp, three miles away. A party of hunters went out. They found the bear and, although it had only three available legs, the right hind leg trailing loosely and helplessly, the bear got away from the hunters and hid in the swamp. That night Ben Samson baited a trap with a big piece of pork in the hope of catching the big cripple. He succeeded. The bear was caught in the trap the next morning by one fore paw, which the bear was deliberately chewing off to liberate itself when Samson appeared and shot the brute in the head. The bear’s right hind leg was out of joint at the hip, and was broken in two other places, although the wounds had long been healed. The bear the locomotive hit nearly a year ago was struck about where the bear’s injuries were, and it is the general belief that this is the same one. The bear was very old and weighed 350 pounds.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, July 6, 1912
In One Instance the Foundations of a Modern House on the North Side Have Been Seriously Undermined by the Rodents-Up to Now Worst on North Side.
It develops that Waukegan has been invaded by an army of large rats which promises to develop a most serious condition, especially on the North Side where the pests seem to have taken up headquarters.
At first the mere statement that rats are infesting a neighborhood would be taken as a sort of joke and people would smile as they neglected to look at the seriousness of the matter. However, this rat invasion is no joke as those who have had to deal with them will vouch.
Undermine Foundations.
So serious has the pest become that in one case the walls of a modern house were undermined by the rodents to such an extent that the plumbers had to be called to adjust the pipes in the basement which were threatened by the weakened wall. The wall had to be strengthened and the excavations caused by the rats had to be filled up.
Destroys Clothes.
In another -place the rats were so pestiferous that they destroyed new clothing in a clothes basket; in the same place they carried off half a cake one night.
In the latter place all efforts to catch the rodents have proved vain and finally the head of the house has borrowed a ferret to see if he cannot catch the destructive creatures. The ferret is turned loose nights and its success has not yet been reported.
Run Over Traps.
The particular lot of rats which has taken possession of the houses on the North Side seem unusually clever. They are so elusive that few have as yet been captured. It is said of them that they run right over the traps in many cases and seem to defy the best of rat catching cats.
Much destruction has been wrought by the army so far and neighbors in the particular locality are wondering what to do to get ride of the pest. Waukegan has no professional rat killer but in Chicago there are men who make a business of cleaning out rats from homes, hotels, etc. Unless things change here pretty soon, it may be necessary to seek the services of somebody of this profession.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Thursday, April 25, 1912
Manzanillo reports that a plague of mice has visited the fields in that section of Colima and almost destroyed the corn and rice crops. The rodents have gnawed away at a rate that alarmed the farmers and they have appealed to the authorities for some means to exterminate them. Whole fields of corn have been mowed down and the farmers are at a loss how to check the advance of the mice to prevent further loss.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, July 25, 1902
Near Tulsa, I. T., a Creek Indian boy, Charles Mingo, was found dead, securely fixed on the horns of a wild Texas steer. When found the steer was trying to dislodge the boy by rubbing against the banks of a small ravine.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, August 1, 1902
Twenty-eight Animals of a Large Herd Fall in Electrical Storm.
During an electrical storm which passed through Plainfield twenty-eight head of cattle were killed by lightning. They were in a wooded pasture one and one-half miles south of town, and were owned by the George brothers, farmers in the vicinity, who had seventy cattle in the herd at the time. They were near a wire fence. No mark could be seen on any of the animals or on the fence, but a large walnut tree about fifteen feet distant gave evidence of a heavy shock of lightning.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, October 31, 1902
Carries Three-Year-Old Florence Rogers Through Flames.
The hero of the fire brigade along the border between Yuba and Butte counties, Cal., is a great Dane, that fought his way through the flames bearing in his jaws the living body of 3-year-old Florence Rogers.
The parents of the child, when the alarm of fire was given, hastened to assist the neighbors, leaving little Florence playing on the kitchen floor with Bruno. When the wind shifted Rogers and his wife rushed home, but when they reached the clearing it was to see the house in a blaze. Rogers tried to get into the house, but was restrained by his companions. Just then there was a crash above the crackle of the flames. Bruno had burst through the kitchen window with the child, her garments knotted in his teeth. The baby’s clothes gave way as the dog landed, but in an instant he had her again in his grip and reached safety.
The child’s hands and face were painfully cut and burned, but she will recover.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, November 28, 1902
Missouri is to Have the Largest Goat Farm in the world.
The Frisco Livestock Company was organized in St. Louis for the purpose of maintaining an Angora ranch near Cuba, Mo., on the Frisco Railroad.
The ranch will embrace 30,000 acres of timbered land. It will be stocked with 35,000 goats brought from New Mexico, and will be the largest goat farm in the world. The plans also include a packing house in Kansas City for slaughtering the goats for market.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, ILinois on Friday, December 26, 1902
The leading animal dealer of this city has for some time past been in the habit of feeding his boa constrictors, ball snakes, and black snakes on white rats, rabbits and guinea pigs, animals that multiply so rapidly that this is the only means he has of disposing of those he can not sell. As a rule these animals are very cowardly and no match for the reptiles, but occasionally a rat will prove a match for his tormenters and will make things so interesting that for a time it will appear doubtful whether the snakes will make a meal of the rat or whether the rat will make a meal out of the reptile.
It is only on very rare occasions that such a thing occurs, the general run of albino rats being cowardly and weak in the extreme. One day last week the dealer when feeding one of his ophidians, gave the black snakes a guinea pig and a white rat and they lost no time in falling on them with a relish. The guinea pig was disposed of in short order, but the rat would not go down so easy. The rat fell on the snake with such a fury that the dealer was obliged to remove the rat from the cage before he killed the snake, and he was evidently trying to do so.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, December 26, 1902
Angered by Brilliant Sweaters, Animal Pursues College Boys.
The Dickinson College football team of Carlisle, Pa., had an encounter with a mad bull which gave the boys the chase of their lives. The team started on a cross country run and a few miles above Carlisle jumped over a fence into a pasture that contained a herd of cattle. The broad and brilliant red and white stripes of the hurdling athletes startled the cattle and they broke from shelter and tore across the pasture in advance of the flying wedge. The college boys were enjoying the disturbance when an old bull, lowered his head for a charge. In an instant the strong phalanx was turned into a scattered line, running for the nearby highway. The bull followed, crashing through the fence, and chased the fleeing youths a mile and a half down the pike, where shelter was secured in a barnyard.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Thursday, January 2, 1908
Tuck is an Ordinary Looking Fox Terrier, but His Owner Declares He is the Smartest Canine in the United States.
R. M. Smart, proprietor of a grain elevator at Xenia, O., claims to have in Tuck, an ordinary looking fox terrier, the smartest dog in the United States. The dog has never been taught a single trick, but his powers of observation are so remarkable that his owner says he is in a class by himself.
The dog is left alone at night in the grain warehouse. One night fire broke out in a remote corner of the building. Tuck knew it was up to him to summon help, but his barks were in vain. Then he happened to think that he had seen his master go to a queer looking instrument on his desk and take off the receiver when he wanted to talk to someone at a distance. Tuck raced into the office, jumped upon the flat top desk where the telephone rested and in his excitement knocked off the receiver. He barked and barked.
The girl operator in the exchange saw the light come on for that number, but could get no answer. All she could hear was the barking dog. But that was enough to tell her that something was amiss at the Smart elevator. She notified the police, and a man was sent to investigate. He found the warehouse in flames. The fire department was called and arrived in time to prevent the place being destroyed.
Then Tuck has seen his keen perception in other ways. His master’s business takes him frequently to Cincinnati and Columbus, which are in opposite directions from Xenia. The trains while pulling out from different ends of the station leave at about the same hour, but the train returning from Columbus arrives considerably later in the evening than the one from Cincinnati. But when the dog sees his master start to either city he always knows which train to meet in the evening.