A Burglar Caught by a Skeleton & Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press Read Online Free PDF

meekly as though it had been a tame dog tied to a string. On subsequent examination it was found to have increased in size and weight during its spell of liberty, and to be, for a crocodile, in excellent health and spirits.
    What it was fed upon while roaming about the country, and how it had kept out of the cold during the chilly nights of May and June, are still mysteries to its owner, who has joyfully recovered possession of her truant.
    The Illustrated Police News , July 24, 1880

    A Monkey’s Suicide
    At Goldsboro, N.C. the other day, occurred one of the most novel suicides of the century, the victim being a monkey owned by Mr Rockwell Syrock.
    The animal was quite a favourite with all the children for miles around and knew most of them. For several years, Jocko’s owner had been in the habit of visiting all the hangings in this portion of the state, taking the mischievous animal with him. The monkey always seemed to take an especial interest in such horrible proceedings.
    On the 25th June, Alexander Howard was to have been executed for the murder of an old man, but the Governor respited him. The gibbet made for carrying out the sentence had been erected before the executive interposed his power and postponed it. Syrock visited the gaol with the monkey and examined these preparations.
    The animal seemed to be unusually curious and watched the scaffold and trap with earnest eyes. Since that time he has been playing hanging in his master’s barn. One morning he was found dead, suspended by a clothes line to one of the rafters of the building.

    The Illustrated Police News , August 7, 1880

    Elephant in Possession.
    A Joyous Interloper
    On Thursday considerable commotion was created in the neighbourhood of Lake Road, Landport, by an extraordinary escapade of the elephant ‘Picaninny,’ belonging to Mr Dan Sullivan, the ‘strong man’ now performing at the People’s Hall of Varieties in that thoroughfare.
    The animal, which was stabled in a store behind some premises in Clarendon Street, belonging to Mr F. Pearce, the proprietor of the hall, escaped from the building by breaking open the door and having found its way into an adjoining alley, abutting Timpson Street, entered the house of a man named Charles Tubbs, where it remained unobserved for a considerable time.
    Both Mr and Mrs Tubbs happened to be away from home when the animal gained admission by forcing open the front door. Finding no one to interfere with its diversions, it proceeded to demolish the contents of the two rooms on the ground floor.
    Meanwhile its escape from the stable was discovered by the keeper, who, on going to the place for the purpose of feeding his ‘little pet,’ was dismayed to find the store unoccupied. A thorough search of the premises was followed by an inspection of the open ground adjoining, but no trace of the missing animal could be discovered, and the owner ultimately offered a reward of £1 to anyone who could give him information as to its whereabouts.
    Presently Mr Tubbs returned home, and noticed that some turf in front of his cottage had been torn up. This he attributed to mischievous boys, but on reaching the door he observed that the window blind downstairs had disappeared, and at the same moment heard a peculiar noise, apparently proceeding from the back of the premises.
    Peering through a back window, he was astonished to find the apartment tenanted by Picaninny, of whose escape he had heard. The animal was playfully throwing some pictures about the room with its trunk.
    The keeper was soon brought upon the scene, and with some trouble the elephant was coaxed through the narrow passage, and led out of the house to safe quarters. Mr Tubbs has been satisfactorily compensated from the damage.
    The Evening News , Portsmouth, October 14, 1892

    John Lubbock’s Pet Wasp
    Perhaps the strangest pet ever kept by man was a wasp which Sir John Lubbock caught in the Pyrenees and resolved to tame.
    He began by teaching it to