People believed in this then. In November 1888, London authorities tried the same thing with the last known victim of Jack the Ripper, Mary Kelly, in an effort to learn what the killer looked like. If it worked, they kept the results to themselves, fueling even more conspiracy theories.
In Sealy, Texas, there was a low bridge that had caused hundreds of similar accidents. First, a warning sign was put up. When that proved to be ineffective, a set of dangling bells was strung across the road (Hwy. 36) at bridge level, with a sign reading 'If you hit bells, you'll hit bridge'. That worked better, but a few horrific accidents still occurred, several of them fatalities. In 2016, the road was closed, there old bridge demolished, and a much higher bridge erected in its place. That seems to have solved the problem.
These things happen. Here is a picture of Crystal Beach, just north of Galveston, Texas, after Hurricane Ike hit in 2008. This WAS a waterfront community, with many homes, only one of which survived, apparently unscathed. You can hardly tell where any others were.
I was living in Fort Worth during that time and the Lake Worth Monster was a Big Deal. Hordes of people went there hoping to catch a glimpse or a photo. It all died down pretty quickly though. I lived across town from Lake Worth and so we didn't go there but once and it was as crowded as Six Flags used to be.
Last I checked, the limit of the observable universe is about 54 billion light years. That's about 4.6E24 miles, an incomprehensible distance. Our own galaxy, by comparison, is "only" about 125,000 light-years in diameter, or about 1.5E14 miles. Sounds really big on its own, and, by our scale, it is, but in the whole of the universe, it is less than a fly-speck. Talk about feeling insignificant.
Many CEOs today are psychopaths. The great robber barons of the 19th century - the railroad owners, JP Morgan, etc. - all exhibited psychopathic traits. I know one man personally, who is definitely psychopathic and he has gone far in business. The tell is a complete lack of empathy and conscience.
What's old is new..... During filming of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in 1965, Eli Wallach, who played Tuco, drank what he thought was a soft drink from a soda pop bottle, but it turned out to be acid that some doofus had poured into it to store it. He had to go to hospital. The saga of these cans won't end well.
I was looking for that article of some years ago which identified the inspiration for that boulder scene, this being an issue of Disney's old Uncle Scrooge comics, which were childhood favorites of both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, but it cannot be found.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=secret+squirrel+full+episodes
But be warned - this book is not for the fainthearted, squeamish, or easily offended.
During filming of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in 1965, Eli Wallach, who played Tuco, drank what he thought was a soft drink from a soda pop bottle, but it turned out to be acid that some doofus had poured into it to store it. He had to go to hospital. The saga of these cans won't end well.