A SINGULAR INCIDENT.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1525, 2 April 1886, Page 3

A SINGULAR INCIDENT.

An incident attended the death of a little boy recently in Newark N.J., which may or may not be accounted for on natural grounds. The child was of remarkable beauty, well-known, and a great pet in the neighbourhood. He was seriously ill for some days before his demise, and great solicitude and anxiety were felt by his parents and friends, and many prayers were offered in bis behalf. Previous to his illness he had been presented by a lady with whom he was a great favourite, with two little glasses, resembling champagne glasses, but smaller. The glasses are exceedingly thin, which makes the circumstances more remarkable. The little fellow was very proud of these glasses, and preferred them to any toy he had. His delight in them was so great that it attracted the attention of those around him, and was frequently remarked upon. During his sickness the glasses were placed in his sight on a wooden-top table that was covered with a cloth. They had been constantly in the room, and were entirely removed from the chance changes of heat and cold. Two days before the child died the doctor called about 9 o'clock in the evening, and upon leaving said there would be a decided change in his condilion between 4 and 5 o'clock in the morning; he would " cither be a good deal better or a good deal worse." At 4 o'clock or a little after the anxious ones at the bedside became aware that a change was taking place: whether it was for the better or the worse they were not skilled enough to determine, but just at the moment when the mysterious change began to steal over the face of the little one a sharp "ting" from one of the little glasses on the table startled the watchers. Upon examination one of them WPS found to be cracked directly across the bottom, the fracture extending about half an inch up the tide. The circumstance did not occision much comment at the moment, although it was considered remarkable in view of the fact that the tempera* ture of the room had not changed a degree in a week. The child lived until the next day, when at 2.50 he died. As the final moment approached, and when the shadow of dissolution was palpable upon his face, the same sharp ' ting' which had before startled the occupants of the room was heard, and on being examined, the other little glass was found to be broken, and, strange to say, precisely in the same manner as the firßt one. The two cracks are identical, and the glasses cannot be distinguished one from the other.

The glasses were shown to an eminent divine of this city, who, in his younger days had had a great deal of experience with different kinds of glass, having .worked in a laboratory. He said he was utterly unable to account for the cracking of the glass from natural causes, as that character of glass very rarely, if ever, broke from changes in the temperature. A thick, heavy glass was liable to crack, bnt chin glass seidom did. It may be that the solntion of this incident, as well as that of the shivering of a glass in the hand of Martin Luther a few days before he died, maj be found in Shakespeare's assertion that" there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy."—Newark, N. J., Advertiser.