Asked to present some oddities to members of the Believe-It-or-Not Club, Robert L. Ripley mentions that German was proposed as the official language of the United States, but was voted down by the Continental Congress by one vote. The largest chair in the world is at Thomasville, North Carolina, and is 13' high and has a 5½' square seat. The tallest building in the world is the recently completed Empire State Building in New York, but a miniature skyscraper in Flint, Michigan stands 6 stories high and is 6 feet wide. There is a skyscraper in Chicago which has a cow stall. Various odd trees are described. Baby Katharine Marilyn Carney had a full set of teeth at age 6 months. Ulysses S. Grant's birth name was Hiram and he was not a general during the Civil War, but was made a general by act of Congress a few months before his death. A man once saved bits of string that measured 139 miles long, but an Indian fakir collected chains instead of string, finally accumulating 670 pounds of chains he wore around is body by adding one link each day. Ripley uses his skill as an artist to draw a picture of the man. Finally, he introduces Henry Scott, who plays a song on the piano while wearing mittens.
—Arthur Hausner <genart@volcano.net>