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A man becomes his brother's father.

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A jury renders an impossible verdict.

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A letter travels 50 miles per hour in 1755.

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And with those three impossible but provable statements, we welcome you to another session

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of paradoxes and odd facts to make you say, can you imagine that?

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Until we return in just one and a half minutes, this is Lindsay McHarrie asking you to wait

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around, won't you?

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Lindsay, can youeeeeee go home, we've chosen you according to law.

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And here's the first can you imagine that item.

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A lot of people stir up a huge fuss about their family tree.

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They go back hundreds of years to discover that Gunther the Dane, who sailed from Greenland,

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was an ancestor, or that Valter, the Lithuanian lark, is distantly related by the southern

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branch of the family.

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But a family in Ventura, California has to have a genealogist to unravel a mix-up in

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their present generation.

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Why?

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Well, it sounds like one of those puzzles in which Ed likes cake and he's pool champion,

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so what's the name of the conductor of the Limited?

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Mr. T.M.

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McCants, 48, married Alberta Abbott, 27.

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Nothing wrong about that.

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No, but when T.M.'s brother, Luther, married Alberta's mother, Mrs. Amy Logan, he fixed

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up something quite puzzling.

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See if you can close your eyes and get the first base with it.

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Listen.

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T.M.

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McCants is the brother-in-law of his own mother-in-law.

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Therefore, his wife, Alberta, is her brother-in-law, Luther's step-daughter.

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Mr. Luther McCants automatically becomes his own brother's step-father-in-law, and the mother,

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by virtue of this round robin, now becomes the sister-in-law of her own daughter.

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So in four people there is now a full quota of in-laws which ordinarily would require

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two or three families to supply.

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The brother can call the other brother father, and the daughter can call the mother her sister.

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Can you imagine that?

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There have been many, many unusual verdicts rendered by juries all over the civilized

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world at one time or another, but I think I've found one which may have escaped the

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notice of legal historians.

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It was told in a news story appearing in the columns of a paper in 1879.

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It seems that a farmer named Vance, living near the town of Carrollton, Georgia, said

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to a neighbor one day...

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Say, I've got to do something about that corn crib of mine.

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Why, what's the trouble, Vance?

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Falling to pieces?

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No, but for a couple of weeks back now, I've been missing corn every night in that there

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crib.

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Well, why don't you set yourself out in your barn tonight with a gun and catch a critter

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with stealing it?

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No, I don't somehow reckon to lose that much sleep over it.

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But neighbor, you'll give me an idea.

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Yeah?

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What's your idea, Vance?

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Well, I reckon I'll keep it to myself for now, but you'd wrap around a morrow and see

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if I catch the thief.

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That evening after supper and chores, farmer Vance went out to his barn and set his trap

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to catch the corn-stealing thief.

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He placed a gun behind the corn crib, tied a string to the trigger, the other end of

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which was tied to the latch of the barn door.

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Then he calmly returned to his house, went to bed, and we may presume to sleep.

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Late that same night, farmer Vance was awakened.

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Well, I reckon that's how I caught the critter.

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And then he turned over, went back to sleep, and waited till morning.

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Hey, Vance, did you catch the thief?

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I sure did.

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Just look here.

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Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle.

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Lying prone across the threshold of the barn door of the Vance farm was the lifeless body

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of a huge strapping negro.

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Undoubtedly, the thief who had been filching the corn from Vance's corn crib.

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A trial was held to determine the legal cause of death, and after the jury had inspected

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the corn, the crib, the gun, the string, the door, and the dead negro, the verdict was

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returned.

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This here jury finds that the dead man met his death by involuntary suicide.

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Involuntary suicide, whatever that is.

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Can you imagine that?

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Well, you've all heard of Nick the Greek and John the barber whose betting exploits

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in the gambling world have made history.

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Well, here's a story about a famous Englishman whose bets have given him a special niche

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in the Hall of Fame.

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He was the fourth Duke of Queensbury, affectionately and sometimes sarcastically referred to as

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Old Q. At first by a mixture of shrewdness and luck, he amassed a fortune of 300,000

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pounds or about one and a half million dollars.

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This by betting on the races and sometimes acting as his own jockey.

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But his first wager, which catapulted him into the limelight, was made when he came

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to London from his native Scotland as a young man.

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It was in a sporting club that the young Duke was talking with some newly found friends.

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I say it's impossible for anyone to go that fast with a horse.

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Oh, I don't know.

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Oh, my dear fellow, it's impossible for anyone to average that speed with a horse.

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Why, I wager that a Chasin four couldn't cover the course at 19 miles per hour.

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Oh, 19 miles an hour.

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Have you a thousand guineas to put on the outcome?

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What?

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Did you say a thousand guineas?

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I said one thousand guineas.

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I'll wager one thousand guineas at my Chasin four will cover the course at an average speed

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of 19 miles per hour.

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Oh, done.

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Perhaps a foolish wager, which you lose, will teach you to be less sure of yourself.

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The wager was made.

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Now, the speed of 19 miles per hour in a Chasin four, that is a carriage and four horses,

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was unheard of.

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But that didn't bother old Q. He had a specially constructed carriage and chose his horses

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carefully.

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And one, the wager hands down while the sporting world looked on amazed at the young upstart

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who could upset the dope bucket with such a resounding ring.

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Then in the year 1755, he wagered...

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Ah, but listen.

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My dear, dear old Q, you're absolutely fantastic.

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Some of your statements are ridiculous.

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You may have won a few bets by some freak of chance.

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Would you...

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Would you care to place a wager?

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Place a wager on what?

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Upon what we're talking about.

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I'll bet you any amount that you care to mention that I can cause a letter to be carried

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over a distance of 50 miles in one hour.

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50 miles?

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In an hour?

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Why you're mad.

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That's very nearly a mile per minute.

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No one could go that fast.

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Nevertheless, I shall wager any amount you care to put up that I shall have a letter

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carried 50 miles in one hour.

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This time you're caught, my fine fellow.

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I take that bet.

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We'll go to Mabinca now and draw up the terms.

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Remember that this bet was made in the year 1755, more than 50 years before railroads were

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even dreamed of and when the automobile was something absolutely beyond the range of imagination.

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So how was old Q to get a letter carried 50 miles in one hour?

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No one could run that fast.

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Not even relays of sprinters could keep up that grueling pace.

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It looked as though old Q was biting off too much.

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But the laughing sporting world didn't count on the Duke's ingenuity.

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For one day he approached the manager of a cricket club.

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My good man, you're the manager here?

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I am, sir.

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What can I do for you?

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I should like to engage 20 of the best bowlers in cricket that I could possibly find.

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Oh, thinking of starting a team, sir?

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Starting a...

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Well, something like that.

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Well, now, if you'll just come with me, I'll show you the lists and you can choose your

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man.

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What had cricket to do with conveying a letter 50 miles an hour?

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Well, old Q got a cricket ball and...

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And now, I want you to cut that ball open and enclose this letter in it.

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And you two, 20 men, are to be stationed at intervals along the road.

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You're to toss this ball from man to man just as fast as you can.

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You'll be well paid for your trouble, provided the ball with the letter in it travels for

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50 miles in an hour.

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And did old Q win his bet?

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You know he did.

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In fact, so fast was the ball tossed from expert cricketeer to expert cricketeer that

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the rate of speed was actually exceeded and old Q again won a freak bet.

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Then came the time when the Duke's friends noticed that he was aging.

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Among themselves, they began to lay wages upon his probable death day.

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Old Q heard about it and instead of being put out or annoyed, merely said...

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Gentlemen, it has come to my attention that you are laying wages upon my probable death

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day.

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Now, really, gentlemen, I'm not in the least put out about it, but I at least should have

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thought that you would include me in the bets.

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Since you did not do so, I shall.

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One thousand pounds that I outlived the most optimistic of the wagers.

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Oh, come, come, gentlemen.

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Two thousand pounds that I shall live longer than any one of you think.

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I'm 82 years old.

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Any takers?

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There were takers and the Duke gleefully outlived the date set by the wager.

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In fact, not until he was 86 did he pay his last wager and that to no man who could collect.

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Can you imagine that?

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And well, yes, I guess it's about time to give you another chance to do a little melody

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sleuthing.

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Not long ago, a popular song came out written by the same writers as There's a Gold Mine

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in the Sky, Charles and Nick Kenny.

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The melodic pattern of the chorus is quite similar to an old hymn which I'm sure you

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all remember and in as much as the theme of the popular number is in a rather reverently

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religious mood, this similarity seems to us to be quite appropriate.

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Well, now I'm going to ask the male quartet to sing the first couple of measures of the

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old hymn.

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You listen and see whether or not you can ferret out the melody and from it the title

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of the popular song.

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All right, boys?

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On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross.

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Would you like another try?

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All right, once more, boys.

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On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross.

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And were you able to recall the popular song which those bars of the old rugged cross should

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bring to mind?

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Well, we won't hold you in suspense any longer.

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Here it is and I'm sure you all remember it and love it.

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The Cathedral in the Pines.

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Daddy wore a happy smile when his bride came down the aisle in that little old cathedral

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in the pine.

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When a baby filled their nest he was taken to be blessed in that little old cathedral

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in the pine.

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He grew up and joined the choir where the organ played each day and he found his heart's

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desire in a girl who came to pray.

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Once again the wedding bells will softly peal and while you and I before the organ

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is played I will hold your hand in mine as they did in old Langsine in that little old

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cathedral in the pine.

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He grew up and joined the choir where the organ played each day and he found his heart's

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desire in a girl who came to pray.

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And now once more friends it's time to turn you over to your own announcer and until we

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meet again on the next session of Can You Imagine That this is Lindsay McCarrie saying

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goodbye now.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.