Henry Cresswell of Hudsonville, Mich., while fishing at the Ottawa Beach resorts pulled up on his hook a solid silver purse containing a diamond ring, a pair of diamond eardrops, and some Spanish gold doubloons. The purse had evidently been in the water a long time. No clew to the owner was found about it. Of course Cresswell is looking for an owner.

A dramatic illustration of hypnotism accompanied by many grewsome features has been given in London by Prof. Morritt, who seems to possess extraordinary powers of a mysterious nature, says the New York World. He put a man to sleep in a coffin-shaped glass case and kept him there nearly a week and a the end of that time awakened him in the presence of a large number of witnesses. The victim of this achievement, one Alfred Wootton, is a stained glass-worker, 35 years of age. During the whole of the time he was asleep or in a trance he was exhibited in a public hall. When the experiment was ready to begin on Monday he had readily climbed into the coffin-shaped case, and many people watched the hypnotizer as he proceeded to exercise his mysterious power. Holding Wootton by the forehead and chin, the hypnotizer gazed steadily into his eyes. He then made a few downward passes from above the eyes along the side of the face, from time to time examining the pupils of the eyes. The man, it was found, had by this time become rigid. One minute after the experiment began the hypnotizer asked Dr. Forbes to examine the man. He was found to be thoroughly unconscious. His puls was 96, the exact number of beats it registered before he became unconscious. His respiration was about 116, the breathing chiefly abdominal. Temperature was 98.2, or normal. The pupils of the eyes were contracted almost to disappearance. During the following days the respiration, temperature and pulse changed slightly, but the man remained in a trance condition. His beard continued to grow. When he was awakened by Prof. Morritt the following Saturday evening, he could not be convinced that he had been in a hypnotic trance for nearly a week until he felt the thick growth of beard on his face. He said it seemed to him that he had only been asleep for a few minutes. It did not take longer than a minute to wake him up. The professor made a few passes of his hand across the man’s face and lifted his head and shoulders from the coffin-shaped case. Wootton then opened his eyes and instantly recognized friends in the crowd about him, with whom he began to converse. The only notable sensation he experienced up waking, he said, was that of hunger. A short time after being awakened he put on his coat an walked out of the building with his friends. He had been constantly watched during the whole time in the trance and evinced much interest in the records of the doctors. Prof. Morritt had previously tried a similar experiment with one Henry Nolan, but the doctors who were watching his case expressed the opinion that Nolan was not physically strong enough to undergo the ordeal.

There is an excited but happy father and mother in Pittsgrove, N. J., and a wondering child and a number of astonished neighbors, says the New York Advertiser. The parents are happy because their baby was given back to them apparently from the dead. Nobody is wondering its mother clasps it to her breast and cries over it half a dozen times a day, and the neighbors are astonished to think that a doctor and experienced nurse should lay the child out for burial when it was alive. The case is a remarkable one of suspended animation. To all appearances the child died, and then, after being unconscious nearly twelve hours, it came back to life. The child belongs to Louis Erdner. Early Tuesday morning it was taken sick and a physician was summoned. The doctor treated the little one, but after a time pronounced it dead. The body was laid on a cot and covered with a sheet. The mother then sent word to her husband, who was at work a couple of miles from home. On his way to the house in the evening Erdner stopped at the office of Undertaker Evans and engaged him to care for the body. The father selected the coffin and made all the arrangements for the funeral. About two hours later the undertaker with and ice box, arrived at the house. Instead of finding a grief-stricken family the undertaker found and excited by joyful one. Shortly after the return of the father the child, which had previously been cold, showed signs of life and again became warm. The doctor was summoned in haste, and he with but little effort restored the child. It was weak and pale all night, but yesterday it seemed to recover all of its health and was crawling about the rooms as though nothing unusual had happened.

The real inventor of the locomotive never realized a cent from his invention, says the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. His name was Oliver Evans. He was born in Delaware in 1756 and spent all his life perfecting inventions which were destined to bring him nothing but more poverty. He was the original inventor of the high-pressure engine used in locomotives, the only kind that could be employed to advantage in this form of transportation, but realized nothing for his idea. His application of the notion to both land and water power was somewhat novel. In 1804 the municipality of Philadelphia called for bids for the dredging of the river and the cleaning of the docks. Evans put in a bid lower than any of his competitors, and, when it was accepted, determined to build a steamboat to do the work. He fitted out a scow with a steam engine, building both the engine and the scow in his own workshop. When the boat was ready to be launched Evans determined to give the people of Philadelphia an object lesson in mechanics, so he put the boat on wheels, fitted up a push wheel behind, set his engine to work, and propelled the boat through the streets to the river in the midst of an open-mouthed throng, not a few of whom had a dim idea that he ought to be arrested for witchcraft. When the boat reached the bank of the river the wheels and axles were taken off, the craft was launched, fitted out with other wheels, and made to do the work of dredging the harbor. So far as the invention of mechanical devices went Evans had a splendid genius, but when dollars and cents came up for consideration he was a mere child and even allowed himself to be cheated out of the money that was due him for cleaning the Philadelphia harbor with his newfangled steamboat.

Dick Walker lives at No. 15 Vandam street, and is manager of an uptown glassware emporium, says New York World. Animals of all sorts he is fond of, especially dogs and monkeys. The mate of a Brazilian ship recently brought him a monkey which he named Adam. The simian was very tame, and was allowed the liberty of Mr. Walker’s residence and back yard. The fence there was a favorite roosting-place for Adam until Friday.

Mr. Walker was looking out of the window, and in the next yard saw a mother cat with three or four kittens. She carried them one by one in her mouth and deposited them on the grass plot. Adam was gravely watching the proceeding, and, suddenly descending into the neighbor’s yard, he seized a kitten as he had seen the cat do, and with it dangling from his jaws, he scrambled up the fence. He was not slow either, for right behind him was Mrs. Cat, with her back up and her tail as big as a muff. Along the fence to the window Adam ran, and jumped into the room. Mr. Walker took the kitten from him just in time, and shut the window. Mrs. Cat knew no stopping, however, and through the glass she dashed, and after Mr. Adam. Walker managed to separate them, but not until he was scratched and bitten, too. Adam was punished severely by the enraged cat, and whenever he sees one now he runs under a sofa and hides. He still owes Mr. Walker the price of a pane of glass.

“There’s one thing about the bicycle craze,” said a tailor. “I believe it is going to revolutionize men’s attire, which has been so somber for so many years. Dress reformers have done much for women, but men’s clothing is practically the same year in and year out. The leaders of fashion are not as a rule robust, and the chaps who lead cotillions have small legs. If the wheel develops their calves, as it will, I believe the age of short clothes will return, and knee-breeches for evening dress may be seen again in drawing-rooms. Bloomers are popular, for a shapely woman likes folks to know it. Thin-legged men have a chance to build up their calves in summer for the winter’s gaiety.”

What the Greek Reader tells of Sybaris is in three or four anecdotes, woven into that strange, incoherent patchwork of “Geography.” In that place are patched together a statement of Strabo and one of Athenæus about two things in Sybaris which may have belonged some eight hundred years apart. But what of that to a school-boy! Will your descendants, dear reader, in the year 3579 A.D., be much troubled, if, in the English Reader of their day, Queen Victoria shall be made to drink Spartan black broth with William the Conqueror out of a conch-shell in New Zealand?

The Unpopular Review, Vol II, No 3, July-September 1914. Probably edited by Henry Holt (the publisher) but I have been unable so far to find an authoritative bibliographic reference stating this.

The Unpopular Review is a periodical from around the time of the first World War — a quarterly journal dedicated to exploring “unpopular” topics like tobacco reform, the higher education of women, and psychic research.

I have seen it described as “conservative.” And in some cases it is, especially with regards to the idea of governmental interference in one’s personal life. Well, conservative in 1914, at least. But it also has its progressive moments, like decrying the calls to teach only domestic science to college women, at the expense of traditional liberal arts courses.

And then there is the psychic research stuff, which given this first example I’m reasonably certain Holt is a believer. But not on faith — it appears he also wants to there to be scientific evidence.

While this is the first issue I’ve read (and frankly, I haven’t read it all the way through), I’m looking forward to seeing more issues — if only to follow the discussion on Simplified Spelling.