BBC News Magazine recently published an article on misfortunes, which happened to people who lived during the time of King Edward. we 10 most absurd and absurd were selected
A photo from open sources
The rejected mistress took the mannequin as an opponent: illustration from “the Illustrated Police News”, November 9th 1872
Life in the Victorian era was much more dangerous than it is now (according to newspaper articles of those years). Recently, BBC News Magazine published an article about the misfortunes that happened to people, who lived during the time of King Edward.
Killed by mouse
Women + mice = noise. This formula is battered a television series cliche that won’t surprise anyone. However our the story really happened. It was in England in 1875. One harmless mouse suddenly jumped to the desktop on one from London factories.
In the general turmoil that followed this minor seemingly by accident, a gallant young man stepped forward and caught a rodent. For women who ran away to where, he became a hero and a savior. However the joy of defeating the mouse did not last long. The rodent slipped out of the guy’s hands, climbed under him sleeve and popped out from under the shirt collar. From surprise young a man opened his mouth, and the mouse, without thinking for a long time, jumped there. The young man was surprised and did not notice how he swallowed animal.
As the Manchester Evening News wrote: “What the mouse can live without air for a long time was considered a common belief, which unfortunately It turned out to be a reliable fact. Inside the mouse began to bite into the throat and the unfortunate chest, and the guy died in terrible agony. ”
Crushed by his own invention
Sam Wordell could not afford to oversleep. He served as a lantern in the New York town of Flatbush in the mid-1880s. The work is its was to light streetlights in the evening and extinguish them at dawn. This was not a job for the lazy.
Sam’s ingenuity developed in direct proportion the temptation to spit on everything and sleep longer. Once he took an ordinary alarm clock, and improved it. By the clock Sam held out wire, the other end of which is tied to a four-kilogram the stone that is placed on the shelf. When the alarm rang, the shelf fell, and the stone rolled with a roar to the floor.
Everything worked just fine until Wordell started rearrangement. Once, on Christmas Eve, he invited his friends to the party and removed all the furniture from the room to free space for guests. When the friends left Sam pulled the bed back, but from fatigue did not pay much attention to the place where set it up. At exactly five in the morning, as usual, the alarm clock rang and the stone fell right on the head of sleeping Sam Wordell.
Killed by the coffin
A photo from open sources
Henry Taylor died a ridiculous death. He carried the coffin during the mourning ceremony held at the London cemetery Kensal Green, but suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground. Those who carried the coffin with him, released him from his hands, and he, in turn, capsized on the lying poor Henry.
The 1872 Illustrated Police News newspaper reported a creepy the confusion among those present at the funeral after unexpected incident, as a result of which the dead became two. And the widow of the deceased (whom they were going to bury) fell into a tantrum.
Died by eating her own hair
Doctors were baffled. It was obvious that the patient seriously ill, but no one could understand the cause of the disease. When a 30-year-old girl died in her village in the county Lincolnshire, doctors asked grieving relatives for permission at her autopsy. But pathologists could not suggest that will find a solid lump of human hair that weighed 900 gram.
Such a solid fused mass caused a thickening of the stomach and the formation of an ulcer, which subsequently caused death miserable.
The Liverpool Daily Post wrote in 1869: “To the question doctors about what the deceased was eating, her sister said that in over the past 12 years, the girl had the habit of eating her own hair”.
Died like a zombie
The funeral in one Russian village was in full swing when the coffin lid suddenly rose, and the “corpse” began to climb out of it. Agree – an unexpected turn of events. Pale with fear the priest and relatives accompanying the deceased began to run out of churches, hiding in their homes, boarding all the doors. Then the ill-fated “vampire” with a shaky gait came to the house of one old woman, which was not as prudent and not locked the door as follows.
When the priest came to, he realized that the “dead man” on in fact, all this time he was in a coma, and at the funeral he came to consciousness. It is a pity that the priest never once thought of this. The parishioners of the parish entrusted to him have already gathered courage and armed with rifles and stakes to expel from their village evil spirits. By the time the priest arrived, the “zombie” had already been put to death, and his body was thrown into the swamp.
Torn to pieces by cats
A photo from open sources
You know how it happens: you get a cat to enjoy his company and have fun with him, and all that get in return – these are rare manifestations of his selfish love. Then you start one more, and then another … Pretty soon they stop coming to you peeping friends, and you yourself already resemble a wild disheveled catnip.
In 1870, in Iran, one rich eccentric lady and acted – she bred and bought cats for her pleasure, and whiled away the days in the company of fetid, but so sweet heart purring pets.
And then misfortune happened – a fire started and spread throughout the whole house, the cats were trapped in a fire trap outside the door. Then two maids were ordered to rescue them from captivity, however the flame drove the animals crazy. When the door was opened, the cats suddenly attacked poor girls, mercilessly glaring at them with claws. Their wounds were so deep that both maids soon died.
Drowned out of decency
We are all prone to stereotypes. For example, some believe that people during the Victorian era were a bunch of conservative, punctual moralists obsessed with observance of etiquette and at any opportunity using their snuff. This, of course, is a crude generalization. But in some cases our stereotypes turn out to be true.
Here is the proof for you. It was in 1892 on Bermuda islands when having been dismissed on the shore by several sailors returning to their ship on the ship. Among the sailors an argument that got into a fight, and one of them fell overboard. Then another sailor hastened to his aid and began to throw himself off clothes. However, the officer ordered him to stop immediately, as on the there were ladies on board.
As the Western Daily Press wrote: “Girls do their best showed sympathy for the sinking overboard, but opposed so that the sailor jumps into the sea until properly dressed. So fashion prevailed over common sense.
In the end, they decided to send the sailor to help volunteers while he was still holding on with his titanic efforts afloat. Five people dived overboard, but it was too late – a sailor drowned.
Killed by a drunk bear
A little test. You are offered to start as a home favorite bear. You:
A) refuse, because it’s too cruel to a bear;
B) agree, because you may be able to accustom him to booze.
In Vilnius in 1891 there lived a man who would choose the second option. He had a big but tame bear that he loved vodka. Once a bear decided to visit one village zucchini and grab a keg of vodka with you. Owner Isaac Rabanovich tried to return the loot.
It would be an understatement to say that this was a huge mistake. The scenes of killing and destruction that followed were terrifying. The bear in a rage crushed the owner to death, and then did the same with his two sons and daughter.
Died of laughter
80 years ago before Monty Python created his “Most funny joke in the world, “in 1893 a farmer Wesley Parsons had fun with his friends in the town of Laurel, state Indiana, when he was seized by an attack of uncontrollable laughter, from which Wesley couldn’t get away. He laughed, not ceasing, for about an hour, and then began to hiccup. Two hours later, he died of exhaustion.
Died on an argument
In the Spanish province of Navarra in 1879, two French made a bet – which of them is more enduring. The conditions were as follows: after a one-day hunger strike, everyone had to drink 17 glasses wine and then walk a distance of 9 km from Pamplona to villages. It was the height of summer, so the denouement of the dispute promised to be interesting.
Since the first Frenchman was 20 years younger than his rival, then so that everything was fair, we decided to add to the burden of the young a man a pound of land for each year of his age advantages. So both hit the road, one of which dragged in addition to a 7 kg burden.
There is probably no need to say that they have not gone far. Them The bet ended sadly. The older Frenchman weakened and died. Young same Frenchman, as reported by the Manchester Evening News, “miraculously escaped death. ”
Time Stones Cats Bears
