Saturday, September 14, 2013
Published in the Illinois State Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Tuesday, April 1, 1851
We are glad to learn that Mr. S. B. June, whom we formerly announced as having to come from America for a cargo of elephants, has succeeded in procuring the object of his search.
Mr. June, a perfect stranger to the country, went into the interior, and succeeded in picking up between 20 and 30 elephants, which are on their way to Galle, to be shipped on board the American Barque Regatta, there in waiting for him. We wish Mr. June and his “boys and girls,” as he calls them, a quick passage to Yankee land. Colombo [Ceylon] Obs. Jan. 3.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
, Illinois State Journal on Wednesday, January 28, 2026
A day or two since, as Mr. Solomon Reed, of Dorset, Vt. was cutting wood, at some distance from his house, a very large bear stole up behind and ordered him to stop. He let fly his axe at Bruin, but it missed, and Bruin, in turn, let fly at him. Solomon then seized a club, and laid the blows upon his shaggy adversary so heavily that it broke, and he began to think that he should have to knock under. Not having the wherewithal to knock him with, he made use of his fists, expecting every minute that he should be compelled to cave in. A dreadful hug followed, and the two rolled over the ground like a couple of wrestlers in a ring. Not liking to bear it in this fashion, Solomon by a desperate effort, got down Bruin holding his head down, and setting plump astride of the beast. The latter, however soon began to “bear” up, and all at once took to his heals like an infuriated bull. Solomon all the while astride, and compelling the bear to follow his own nose, with as slight a deviation of his jaws from a straight line as possible.
On they drove at a furious rate, the rider and the ridden, the former endeavoring to make a bridle out of the bear’s ears, and the bear striving as hard to make a bit out of the man’s arm. Solomon began to fear, at the rate he was going, that his steed was fast taken him into a whole nest of bears, and probably soliloquized:
‘Better to bear the ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of.”
While in this predicament, Mr. Reed’s son happened to overtake them on their journey, and settled all uncertainties, by immediately knocking the bear in the head with his axe. Mr. Solomon Reed got some scratches in the scuffle, and Bruin’s fat carcass to boot, which by the way, he immediately salted down for family use. [Lowell [Mass] Courier.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Published in the Illinois State Journal, Springfield, Illinois on Monday, March 17, 1851
It is said that one of the bands of the Medwakantodwad Dakotahs in Minnesota, have delivered to their trader, fifteen hundred deer skins, which they have taken this season. If this is correct, the band must have killed at least two thousand deer during the fall and winter, for five hundred skins or more are probably been used by them and retained for future use. From October to February the Indians who hunt deer, subsist almost entirely on the flesh of that animal.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Published in the The Evanston Daily, Evanston, Illinois on Wednesday, October 22, 1913
An African hunter once found a large crocodile hanging in the fork of a tree about ten feet from the ground. As the place was fully half a mile from any water, it was difficult to account for the crocodile’s strange position. When questioned upon the subject the natives explained that it was put there by an elephant. It seems that when the elephants wade into the lake to bathe the crocodiles are in the habit of worrying them and biting their legs. Sometimes when an elephant is annoyed beyond endurance it picks up its tormentor in its trunk, places it among the branches of a tree and leaves it there.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, August 21, 1903
Montana Girl Had a Narrow Escape from an Awful Fate.
Chased for more than a mile by a pack of wild dogs, Miss Gertie Sullivan, daughter of a sheep man living on Birch creek, near Havre, Mont., escaped only by spending the night in an old corral and picking off the animals now and then with a rifle.
Miss Sullivan was riding her pony across the prairie when she saw, some distance away, perhaps twenty animals, which at first glance she took to be coyotes, but wild dogs, of which there are several small packs in northern Montana and just over the Canadian line.
It became a ride for life with Miss Sullivan. She had with her a small rifle, but the animals seemed so savage she dared not stop and give them battle. As she began to despair of escaping she sighted the old sheep corral, and toward this she ran her horse, reaching it only when the pack was but a short distance away. To enter with the pony and quickly close the gate was the work of a moment.
Snapping and snarling, the dogs tore at the poles forming the stockade, but were unable to gain entrance. The girl began shooting at the animals, which retreated when she fired and returned to the attack when the rifle was silent. Miss Sullivan was found the next morning by her father and brother, who had been seeking her.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Wednesday, July 13, 1904
Wisconsin Woman Changes She Was Forced to Display Culinary Art on Feline Instead of Rabbit.
Racine, Wis., July 13.-Judge Belden, of the circuit court has granted a divorce to Mattie J. Spaulding from Dr. J. Spaulding one of the most prominent physicians of Kenosha. Mrs. Spaulding was married in 1903, and she alleges that within one year her husband began to ill treat her. One charge is that he forced her to cook a cat which he killed, claiming it was a rabbit. She claimed her husband earned a salary of $350 a month and had personal property amounting to $12,000.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, June 27, 1903
In Race of Several Miles West of Town.
Rigs Unable to Overtake Him.
Fellow was Apparently Demented-Ran Far and Fast with no Apparent Reason.
Strange and as apparently impossible as it may seem, a man apparently demented won a race against several horses over a distance of about eight miles, or from Odett’s corners, near Druce’s lake, to Jackson street, Waukegan.
Ordinarily such a statement would be laughed at, but when it is vouched for by at least a dozen or more persons it is different.
It was on Friday evening, about 7:30 o’clock, that Mr. Lock, janitor of the Episcopal church, his wife and Mr. and Mrs. Peterson, were returning from Druce’s lake. At the turn of the bridge in Gurnee they saw a man in the road ahead of them, running along at a good clip. They thought little of it until they saw him occasionally stoop as he ran to pickup stones or dust in the road and throw it into the wind as he rushed along.
On past the stores in Gurnee and toward Spauldings’ he kept his course, occasionally glancing back at the rig which was close to him.
Driver Unable to Catch Him.
Aroused by the man’s actions and the fact that he kept ahead of them, Mr. Lock whipped up the horse in an endeavor to catch up. Try as he might, Mr. Lock could not gain upon him.
Every little distance the man would drop down in order to seize dust and gravel and hurl it to the side of the road.
Thus the race continued all the way to town. At Jackson street the strange fellow turned south and hurried into the ravine district, where he was lost sight of by the occupants of the rig.
The occupants of this rig were later informed that a party of picknickers returning from the lake had run across the fellow at Odett’s corner and that he ran ahead of their rig, soon getting beyond their view.
Who the man is, whether he is demented, or what was his purpose, cannot be figured out. That the man was insane is evident, as a person in his right mind would unlikely be able to win a race against horses in the manner described.
While at no time did the rig get close enough for the occupants to get a good look at the fellow, the persons in question say that he was a short man and was either bareheaded or wore a small cap. He was poorly dressed.
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Wednesday, April 7, 1909
Six Steamers Held Fast in Ice Since Twenty-First of March.
St. Johns, N. F., April 7.-though the sealing season in the Gulf of St. Lawrence has not been an utter failure, St. Johns sealers have had a rough time. The catch totals about 136,500.
Since March 31 the steamers Bellaventure, Bonaventure, Boethic, Virginia Lake, Adventure and Newfoundland have been held fast in the heavy ice floes, and they are drifting slowly toward the shore at the mouth of Notre Dame bay.
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, November 12, 1898
The Unusual Exchange That Was Made by Two New Jersey Women.
Any mother knows the comparative value of a baby and a puppy dog. It is infinity to nothing. Yet in Newark, N. J., a deal has been consummated in which a real, live, plump, pretty chunk of humanity was swapped by its mother for a tiny fox terrier. The person who engineered the deal was Dr. Matthew T. Gaffney. Dr. Gaffney tells the following story of the barter, without giving the names of the parties.
While a young woman was boarding at the house of a young couple a child was born to her. She believed she would be unable to care for it properly, and asked the doctor to find a home for it. She would not let it go to an asylum. Mrs. F., the landlady, fell in love with the baby, and said she would give the world if it were hers. A few days ago, after the mother had left Mrs. F.’s house, the doctor saw there a beautiful fox terrier. He is a lover of dogs.
“What’ll you take for it?” he asked. “Wouldn’t take $100,” Mrs. F. replied. “It’s the finest bred dog in the city.”
“Look here,” said the doctor, “I love the dog, you love the little baby that was born here; we’ll swap.”
Mrs. F. thought he was jesting. When she learned he was not she clapped her hands in joy and called her husband, who congratulated her, and so the baby was traded for the pup. The mother is content with the bargain, as the doctor turned over to her as much money as the pup would cost if bought in the market.
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, November 12, 1898
How a Hindoo Can Tell When the Animal Intends to Destroy Him.
Few more impressive confidences can be imparted than one in which a Hindoo describes how he knows his elephant intends to destroy him. It is all so seemingly trivial, and yet in reality of such deadly significance. His story is full of details that prove the man’s profound understanding of what he is talking about that one remains equally amazed at the brute’s power to dissimulate and its intended victim’s insight into this would-be murderer’s character. And yet. from the psychological standpoint, an elephant never gives any other such indication of mental power as is exhibited in its revenge. That patient, watchful, implacable hatred, often provoked simply because a man is in attendance upon another animal [for it is the rule with tuskers to detest their next neighbors] speaks more conclusively of a high intellectual guide than all stories, true or false, that have been told of their ability. Such concentration and fixedness of purpose, such careful, unrelaxed vigilance, such perfect and consistent pretense, and, when the time comes, such desperate, unhesitating energy as homicidal animals exhibit are impossible without a very considerable, although in this instance very irregular, development, says Outing.
No one can deny that if this creature is great at all its greatness shows itself in its crimes. These have caused it to be worshiped in the east, where men venerate nothing but merciless, irresponsible force, and where an exhibition of those qualities and traits described fully accounts for the formula: “My lord, the elephant.”