Detroit evening times., October 14, 1945, FINAL, THE AMERICAN WEEKLY, Page 12, Image 70

About Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958

Image provided by: Central Michigan University, Clark Historical Library

                
Mingy, a t at With Bird-
Bike Instincts ami Equip
incut. Was boudoirs Con
tribution to a Bevy of
f reaks of Nature That
•seem to Be Springing I p
Hither and Yo.i.
Maw
°a s pifee
’■^tßß
WITH so many important
events happening all over
the world, a lot of people
verlooked the fact that nature was
oing on sort of a spree all her own.
London paid only moderate what-ho
o a winged cat; a flying jackrabbit
cttraeted only local attention in Tul
-a. Okla., and when a sea monster
urned up in Boston Harbor, a couple
f them in fact, they were virtually
snubbed, in spite of the fact that they
iad two mouths apiece, one inside
the other, and hands with which they
Vs fl,*'*-/-
A jfl
KB&
' i jt , wHSr
V, *- /
A Sea Monster With Flipper*
That Look bike Human hands
Mas Boston’s hilt to the Freak
Congress, and Tulsa, Oklahoma,
Turned I p a “Flaboit” (Right)—
a Flying lark rabbit (So
People Said).
12
Oelobcr 11. | ?»f 3
\.
... V
IL/ t
■ 1111 *'< ■' >; r>^
apparently crawled along the floor
of the ocean.
It might be added at this point
that the witnesses who observed these
various oddities were all sober, or
swore they were.
Take the report of the winged cat,
for example. It goes like this: A
householder captured a cat in Shef
field, England, and brought it into
the police station in a sack. It was
a large, grayish-brown feline with
staring green eyes, and at first it
seemed to be no different from any
- vfc,
aL I
m > mTM flk
f\ 4 Mi if - T*jdm
I
■ - n '4£SBaGMB WtL >7 JnK
Btf -c fflii
* “ ■'- M 1 ■
* % L
fc . l.
Ik 1 L.«a±
a|. —T jBL
■Kn| '%%
r
; y <'^
p' -
si v , 'ABBKuk - isj
*../t” A>v w - v ' - 7 - ’ ,f' ■■l*
- r «fP' : I' W I
'" • • •■•■;.. S W V ~d ' » ,••» -»<>*• -TBr., ?f- ?
other cat.
But when it jumped to
the top of a large cabinet
and spread a pair of furry
wings from behind its
shoulder blades, th e as
sembled Bobbies goggled.
And when, after spitting
with rage, it volplaned
down to the floor with the
ease of a bird, there was
a sera.able for the door
It was put in the sack
again after a struggle and
taken to a shelter of tne
British SRC.A., where it
was nicknamed “Wingy”
and aiou&ed plenty of at
tention. When it is stand
ing or resting, officials
say, the wings are folded
along its sides,
b u t when it
starts one of its
\\ ltd d a shea it
spreads its seven-
inch pinions and almost floats through
the air like a bird would do.
Although most people had forgot
ten, one newspaper recalled that a
similar beast had appeared in Atter
eliffe. England, in 11*39. The owner,
Mrs. M. Roebuck, said it was jmt
fectlv normal as a kitten but when
it was about a year old it began to
sprout wings which eventually be
came ten inches long.
A Mrs. Flanaghan of Brampton,
, Chesterfield, wrote the Sheffield Tele
gram that she had once owned a
winged cat she called Tim, a lovely
fluffy brown creature with sinewy
appendages extending, from each
of its shoulders.
The Curator of the Oxford Zoo
disclosed that in June, 1933, he had
captured in a near-by stable a fully
grown black and white cat “which
had what can only be described as
wings, one of which was black while
the other was white.” He didn’t ex
plain why the prisoner hadn’t been
exhibited to the public.
The Ixindon Daily Sketch gave
the whole affair a coup de grace* by
reprinting a picture of a winged cat
which had appeared in
the Strand Magazine in
November, 1899.
But in spite of all
these precedents, as well
as the supposed affinity
between eats and rabbits
which frequently in
spires amateur natural
ists to show up with an
animal which they claim
is a cross between the
two, residents of Tulsa,
Okla., seemed to he to
tally unprepared for the
appearance of a flying
jackrabbit.
The 1T29 bunny was
sighted first by J. K.
Wilson as h<* drove
ihrough an outlying resi
dential section. After he
had watched it, so he
said, take a flying leap
wr.? Wtv
liove it, but ho assigned a r.idio car
to the hunt a tow minutes later when
he got a call from a woman wh».
identified herself ,r Jane Markle
added hall hyster ic.illy
“A jackrabbit that’s what I vaid,
a jackrabbit just flew *>\er n.y head
at Harvard and Fifteenth St'*.’’
In the next few days a dozen or
more Tulsa citizens, including two
city detectives in the radio car, swore
they had seen the “Babbit," as it
came to be known, turf the city as a
whole continued to smft until Hugh
Davis, superintendent of th« Mohawk
Park Zoo, produced a photograph of
his young son struggling with a ro
dent like animal which had long car s
and something that resembled wings.
Right after the picture was taken.
Davis said, the "flabbit” broke away.
It left plenty of scoffers in its wake.
There was go<*l solid evidence of
the Boston sea monsters. The first
one was encountered by Edward Rowe
Snow, an explorer and historian, who
hooked the anchor of his cam** into
Hs mouth after it had snagged his
fishing line in the hartsir. Four lish
ermen in a dory killed the other one
and brought it back to shore after it
had towed their dory a mile.
Both were alike. They weighisJ
about 100 founds* eaeh. and looked
like huge fish which had hem flat
tened to distortion bv heavy pressure.
Their jaws, ringisl by 60 jagged
teeth, opened wide enough to allow a
football to be- inserted. Inside, down
near the stomach, could be seen an
other mouth, also supe r toothy and
surrounded by flippers which appar
ently pushed food into ir.
Instead of fins, each monster was
equipped with two projections from
its body, looking almost e xactly like
human hands, which apparently had
enabled the creature to crawl
on the bottom of the ocean. \
Harvard professors said such crea
tures existed 20,000,009 years ago,
and add<*d jocularly that this pair
must have heard about the* wonderful
new era about to dawn.
THK IMlllll n tU tkl Y
of more* than 30
fret, he (ailed po
lice headquarters.
(’apt. (Ilenn Elli
ott refused to be-