Some Quaint Wagers

Levin Daily Chronicle, 27 January 1917, Page 3

Some Quaint Wagers

("Indianopolis News.") s Timo was, in the city of Indianapolis, when the men about town in making wagers do not confine themselves to the somewhat restricted fields of -to-day, that is, for the most part, to bet on the athletic events, elections and hc'rse .races. On the contrary, those rare old sports would bet on anything and were always easy losers. Among those old-time betters was Eld,win A. May, who somewhat later wasr the architect of the present State house. iHe ,l>uilt quite a number of courthouses in Indiana, among which was .that of Shelby County. When /the stones for the courthouse had been delivered, .ready) for use, and were lying about the courthouse lot, the sports of Shelbyville, having learned of May's hobby, concluded to take him in. They induced him to bet as to the weights of a number of the stones lying around the courthouse yard, and he lost, when it ca.me to weighing these stones, every bet. May said nothing. A few days later ! the sports offered to give him a chance to .get even. In the meantime he had, with the assistance of a couple of confederates, changed the location of each of the largest stones and had weighed them. These changes in location proved to be the defeat of the local sports, who, having weighed the stones, were, as they thought, betting on a sure thing. May cleaned tip sevetrali oldster suppers and harried away a considerable "amount of the floating currency of the town. A wager is said to have been won •by Sir .Walter Raleigh from Queen Elizabeth on the question of how much smoke is contained in a. pound of Virginia tobacco. A bound of the weed was weighted, burned and then weigihed again, in ashes. The question was held to be satisfactorily settled by determining that the weight of the smoke was exactlly that of the the tobacco before being burnt, minus the .residuum of ashes. The fact that the ashes had received additional weight by combining with the oxygen toif the atmosphere and the further fact that certain gases were evolved in the process of combustion wore unthought of by the Queen and Sir Walter, the knowledge of such things not having then been revealed.

A gruesome story of a century ago is told of an Occurrence in one of the vaults beneath Westminster Abbey. A member of a partly of revellers engaged, on a wager, to enter the vaults at midnight, andl an proof of his having done so, to stick a fork in a coffin that had recently been deposited there. He accomplished his object and was 'returned triumphantly, when he felfc himself suddenly caught. He was so overcome with terror that he fell in a swoom and was so found shortly afterwards on the floor of the vault by hia companions, who, alarmed at his long absence had come to look for him. The fork which he had stuck into the coffin had caught hold of hie long cloak and given him a (fit of terror-that nearly proved fatal.