IRISH TIMES ODDITIES
POLICEMAN ARRESTS AN ALLIGATOR
A Toronto policeman yesterday had the experience of being called on to arrest a 150 years old alligator which had escaped from the pool in the local aquarium.
Having succeeded in opening the gate of the pool in which it lives, the alligator slithered off towards the edge of the lake.
An urgent summons brought Constable McNaughton to the scene, armed with a long rope.
He lassoed the alligator and, amid the enthusiastic cheers of a large crowd of excited spectators, returned it to its pool.
August 23rd, 1932
PLUCKY FERMANAGH MAN
Mr George Crawford, son of Mr Crawford, Gortaloughan, Enniskillen, has been promoted in the police force of Toronto and awarded a special increase in his salary of £100 per annum for his clever detection of bank robberies in Toronto.
He suspected three men in a motor car, ‘Commandeered’ another car, and captured the three men, who were subsequently tried and convicted.
August 11th, 1928
DEATH IN HAUNTED LIGHTHOUSE
Strange and sinister is the history of the lighthouse of Tevennec, off the stormy coast of Finisterre.
The first keeper went mad, states Reuter, and his successor said that he heard mysterious voices telling him to leave his post – so he obeyed. Then a priest exorcised the little island on which the lighthouse stands. But without success, for a third keeper, named Meliper, was found dead in his bed; a fourth, named Roparts, who kept the light with his father, discovered one night that the old man had cut his throat with a razor.
Nor was that the end of the troubles of the Roparts family. During a tempest a wall of the living room collapsed just as Mm. Roparts was bringing a child into the world. That decided the authorities to install an automatic light on Tevennec.
October 12th, 1934
FERRET AND DUCKLINGS
Sir, – The following remarkable case which came under my personal notice will, no doubt, be of interest to many of your readers. I have lost this morning a ferret which exhibited an unusual degree of eccentric affection last year by incubating and rearing two ducklings, which unfortunately, died three days after they had been incubated. The ferret, which was muzzled, disappeared early one morning, and was found the following day comfortably seated in a box in which the eggs were. The incubation was probably accidental, but the care taken of the young birds was very real.
– Yours, etc.,
Henry Dempsey
23 George’s Place, Dublin
January 9th, 1909
BOY’S REMARKABLE DEATH
Cyril Evan Davies, the nine-year-old son of a farmer at Abergwili, Carmarthenshire, has died in unusual circumstances. Accompanied by two brothers and a man-servant, he was watering cattle in a field, when one of his brothers had a seizure. On observing his brother’s condition Cyril collapsed, and was found to be dead.
December 6th, 1927
BODY LIGHTS LAMP
The current from the human body can light an electric lamp, writes Reuter from Budapest. Arpad Szepessy, a radio engineer, has invented an electric lamp, which can be lit in this way.
It will only work in the presence of a healthy person ie, if a person is suffering from rheumatism, or some other illness, this acts as a short circuit and no light is produced.
The inventor explains this as a lack of self-radiation of the body resulting from illness.
He goes farther and maintains that he can locate the seat of the illness by passing the lamp over the body.
October 12th, 1934