Thursday, August 3, 1899
On the Fourth of July, a party of little people had a picnic to themselves near Dunmore and while they were making freedom ring and having a most enjoyable time, one of their number, Miss Maggie Moore, was attacked by a kissing bug and her lip so badly stung that in a few minutes her mouth was virtually closed. Remedies were applied and medical advice phoned for. It was several days before the swelling was reduced.
THE HIDDEN DANGER
He thought he saw a kissing bug
Descending from a tree,
He looked again and saw it was
A common bumblebee.
“Ah, you can do your worst,” he said,
“You hold no fears for me.”
He thought he saw a kissing bug
Come sailing through the room;
He got into a corner
And armed him with a broom.
He killed it dead and found it was
A honey-suckle bloom.
He thought he heard a kissing bug
A-beating on the pane,
He left his bed at twelve o’clock,
And slept out in the rain,
When morning came the thing
was gone
But his escape was plain.
He thought he saw a kissing bug
One hot oppressive night,
Come flying through the window,
And flutter round the light;
He slew it with a palm leaf fan –
A Dobson (hellgrammite).
He thought he saw a kissing bug
A sitting on his trunk;
He took a heavy bit of wood
And killed it with the chunk,
And as it fell he knew it was
An ordinary skunk.
He saw a nice young dandy give
His daughter Jane a hug,
He rushed out in the twilight
And hit him in the mug,
And turning to his child exclaimed,
“It is a kissing bug!”
SUICIDE OF JOHN ADKINS
Last Sunday, John Akins shot himself in the forehead at a basket meeting on Little Back Creek, a short distance above Mt. Grove.
A basket meeting, which is an all day open air meeting held in some grove where the church people bring baskets filled with materials for lunch, was in progress that day. Adkins was there, very drunk, riding up and down in the forenoon and seemed rather boisterous. At the noon hour, he was lying stupid with drink under a tree near the grounds.
Clifford Friel, of Hunters-ville, approached him and laying his hand on his shoulder asked him if he did not want some dinner. This seemed to enrage him, and muttering some words which could not be understood, drew a pistol. Friel retreated a few steps very rapidly and Adkins raised the revolver and shot himself in the forehead. He lived an hour and a half.
He was so drunk that it is not known whether it was his intention to discharge the revolver or not. An inquest was deemed unnecessary. The body was buried Monday.
Adkins was a man of about 45, and had been a mail carrier for many years. A deformed arm made him unfitted for most kinds of labor. In the winter of 1897-98, he carried the mail from Marlinton to Elk.
He was more or less addicted to the use of liquor. When drunk, he has often been heard to wish himself dead, and when in that condition, his mind seemed to run on that subject.
