A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press (15 page)

Celebrating His Death-Feast

Johann Kruger, well-known poacher and wood-stealer, of Neuendorf, near Potsdam, has met his death under circumstances of a very unusual and surprising character.

It appears that the Royal keepers and gendarmerie were on the look out for him by reason of some sylvan dereliction he had recently committed, and that he had therefore taken to the woods, in the so-called Kiefernhaide.

Being hard up for food and liquor, he contrived to steal a large dog and a quart bottle of corn brandy, which stores he conveyed to his hiding place, and there proceeded to make preparation for an
al-fresco
feast and carouse which would have been more appropriate to an Indian scout than to a Prussian poacher.

After he had built up and lighted a huge wood fire he slaughtered the dog, skinned it, and roasted one of its legs, upon which he made a copious meal, washing down the ‘friend of man’ with deep draughts of fiery spirit.

Having finished this strange repast – the relics of which, clean-picked canine leg-bones and an empty bottle, were subsequently found near the ashes of the extinguished fire – he must have stumbled, all but senseless from intoxication, over the pile of burning wood, and fallen into the flames; for his charred remains were discovered by the Royal foresters next morning literally burnt to cinders with the sole exception of the head, by which he was recognised.

In surfeiting himself with roast dog and raw brandy, Kruger had unconsciously celebrated his own death-feast.

The Shields Daily Gazette and Shipping Telegraph
, May 3, 1880

Shocking Death from Eating Putrid Fish

Yesterday afternoon Dr Challice, the deputy coroner, held an inquest at the Woodman Tavern, White Street, Bethnal Green, on the body of Sarah Golding, aged seventy-four years, lately residing at No. 11, Winchester Street, Waterloo Town.

The deceased was a silk winder, and on Wednesday night last she purchased two pieces of fried fish at a shop in Hare Street, Brick Lane, and ate them for supper.

Shortly afterwards she was seized with violent vomiting, when she called a lodger, to whom she admitted that the fish was stinking, but she was so very hungry that she was compelled to eat it.

Mr Thomas Jarvis said the deceased died from congestion of the brain, brought on by violent vomiting and exhaustion through eating unsound fish, which was extensively vended in the neighbourhood among the poor. Verdict, ‘Died from eating putrid fish.’

The Era
, June 12, 1859

An Extraordinary Glutton

The city of Los Angeles, California, is just now honoured with the presence of an extraordinary glutton.

He is a native of the Grand Duchy of Monaco, and seems to have had an eventful life. At the age of three years he could masticate coarse dried beef, and at nineteen had such a voracious appetite that the Grand Duke, fearing a famine in the small Principality, sent him as one of a purchased quota to Romania, whence he afterwards escaped to the United States.

Immediately on his arrival at Los Angeles he ate 34lb weight of pork, pork fat, train oil, and tallow candles, and subsequently consumed all the cold joints of a good-humoured
restaurateur
, to whom he offered a 25c. stamp to cover the damage.

The citizens of Los Angeles, like all Californians, have a fondness for ‘big things,’ and the result is that, instead of riding this ‘big eater’ out of the town on a rail, they have taken hold of him with their accustomed enthusiasm, and now offer to back him for a ‘square meal’ against the world.

The Manchester Evening News
, August 12, 1871

A Curious Incident

A curious accident is reported from Hirson, on the Northern Railway of France. A drunken man named Lefebvre contrived, unobserved, says the London
Daily News
, to mount upon a locomotive, left at the moment unattended at the station in that town, and, turning on the steam, started it down the line at an accelerated pace in the direction of Buire.

Being ignorant of the practical working of the engine the man was powerless to arrest the mischief, and the locomotive, coming into collision with an empty carriage, dashed it to pieces. Finally, it was somehow turned into a siding, where, colliding with violence with the buffers, it was brought to a stand.

Only five minutes later an express train passed down the line. The strangest part of the incident is that the drunken engine-driver is reported to have sustained no serious injury.

The Shields Daily Gazette and Shipping Telegraph
, September 24, 1890

Topics of the Day

A dealer in Connecticut lately sold a bottle of ‘the best brandy,’ which was handed to Professor Silliman, of Vale College, for analysis. He found it to be concocted on a basis of whisky, with additions of alum, sulphuric acid, an essential oil of some kind, tannic acid, cayenne pepper, burnt sugar, lead, and copper, all of which appear to have been found necessary to produce the peculiar cognac flavour so much admired.

The Western Daily Press
, Bristol, January 6, 1872

A Wonderful Stomach

An extraordinary gastronomical feat has been performed at Derby. A man, out of sheer bravado, while in a public house, cut up his fur cap and swallowed the pieces, then he ate up a newspaper, and, as a reward, asked the company for a few coppers.

Five pennies were accordingly thrown to him, and on the suggestion of one of the company, these were sent after the newspaper and the fur cap.

The silly fellow suddenly became ill, and was taken to the infirmary, where he is now paying the penalty for his rash act.

The Shields Daily Gazette and Shipping Telegraph
, May 26, 1882

HEALTH and MEDICINE

Preface