Hog Without Food or Water.
That a hog can live fifty-five days without food or water has been proven. Burch Dowell, of Cookville, Tenn., one of Putnam County’s prosperous farmers, states that he has a Duroc hog that lived for fifty-five days without either food or water, in a deep gully into which it had fallen and became entangled in the dense undergrowth, rendering its escape impossible.
The hog was accidentally discovered a few days ago by Dowell, who extricated it from its helpless predicament. It had lost 175 pounds in weight, but was still alive, and bids fair to rapidly recover its former vigor.
Oldest Writing is of War on Locusts.
A number of ancient Sumerian tablets recording the deeds of the Babylonians thousands of years ago have just been deciphered by George A. Barton, at the University of Pennsylvania museum. One of these tablets, which tells how a farmer rid his field of locusts and caterpillars, is dated 4,000 B. C., and is the oldest piece of writing extant, according to an announcement to-night by officials of the museum. The farmer, Doctor Barton’s translation says, called in a necromancer, who “broke a jar, cut open a sacrifice, a word of cursing he repeated, and the locusts and caterpillars fled.” For this service he received a tall palm tree.
Death in Electric Wringer.
Miss Margaret McConnell, aged thirty, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David L. McConnell, of Washington, Pa., a society girl and active in church and charitable work, met a horrible death while investigating the mechanism of an electric clothes wringer that had been installed in the home that morning.
A long scarf the girl had thrown about her head caught in the wringer and she was strangled before her mother, who was standing close by, could shut off the current or go to her assistance.
Mrs. McConnell, too late, made frantic efforts to save the life of her daughter. Unsuccessful, she summoned aid and then collapsed.