Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, January 19, 1856
    A dead horse is worth $17.50 in New York. His hide is sold to the tanners, his bones are burned and sold to the sugar refiners for refining purposes, and to the farmers for manure; his meat is pressed and the grease is used by the soap and candle makers; while the remnants and entrails are fed to hogs, to make food for home consumption. The average death of horses in that city is twenty-two daily.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, July 21, 1855
    A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer who was very much annoyed by rats, tried shooting, poisoning, and everything he could think of; but they defied the whole category. He then heard that they would not remain where guinea fowls were kept, and procured several, and now says that for over two years he has neither seen or heard a rat about the premises.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, March 28, 1857
    As the flies will be upon us before long, it may be interesting to know that although the butcher shops at Geneva are all open, and immense numbers of flies may be seen on the outside walls, not one comes in. This is caused by the inner walls being rubbed over with laurel oil, which is effective prevention against the intrusion of these troublesome insects. The Courier du Havre, in alluding to this fact, states that no fly will enter a room in which a wreath of walnut leaves has been hung.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, June 6, 1857
    Probably the greatest leap on record was made one day last week, at the Helena Shot-tower, Wisconsin. A horse, some twelve years old, jumped from the bank over a precipice of one hundred and eighty feet into the river below, and came out safe and sound, after swimming nearly half a mile to a suitable landing place. The water at the point where the leap was made was from 20 to 25 feet deep.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, June 6, 1857
    This is a very dirty world in spots. Some of the hogs dead of cholera at the West have been sent as pork to the East, and dead horses in Philadelphia are used to fatten hogs for market. Pah! feed a man this pork, washed down with strichnined whisky, and he must soon become food for worms.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, February 16, 1856
    The Charleston Evening News says that the elephant which was lost overboard from a vessel bound to that port, made its way safely into Mt. Pleasant harbor! The vessel was thirty miles out to sea, and a heavy gale was blowing when the animal went overboard. This is a remarkable instance of animal strength.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, January 19, 1856
    Four men caught in a net on the 7th inst in Tamarah Swamp, Bloomfield township, Ohio, eighteen hundred pigeons at one haul. Besides this, they shot during the same night, 816 more, making a total of 2,616.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, August 11, 1855
    A French Paper has the following; “At Balaklava, every day, the bands of the garrison give concerts in the square. The birds, who know very well the hour when the musical soiree in the open air commences, assemble in innumerable multitudes upon the trees and roofs of houses. The first piece is heard in profound silence; but the moment the second piece begins, the winded songsters join in, and make such a hubbub, that a flute or oboe can scarcely be heard twenty feet off.”
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Tuesday, September 19, 1922
A traveler in Africa gives an idea of the strength and size of some of the crocodiles which inhabit the rivers and pools of the Dark continent. He describes a huge rhinoceros enjoying a mud bath, gradually disappearing from view in spite of its most frantic struggles and being carried to the depths by a huge crocodile. The rhinoceros, and this was one of the largest of its species, though low set, ranks as one of the largest mammals, so that the size and strength of the crocodile which captured him can be imagined. What would the reptile do with the thick-skinned carcass when he got it? Surely there would be meat enough in it for a dozen crocodiles!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, January 11, 1907
   The crew of the Perle, a French fishing boat, was about to pull a big net in when they encountered a sudden resistance and found that the net was simply crammed, not with good mackerel, but with dozens of octopuses, each provided with tentacles more than six feet in length. The poor men had an awful time, as the slimy wretches were swarming up the side of the craft. They had at last to cut the rope of the net, sacrificing it altogether, and then they had to free the side of the boat from the octopuses which stuck to it. They speak with horror of their remarkable experience, and the loss of the net is very serious for them as well.