Newspaper Page Text
SlMitlf (Imiqp
W. F. SMITH, Publisher.
VOLUME IX.
TOPICS OP THE DAT.
Cincinnati has an Ingersoll Literary
Dramatic Club.
Ax.via Louise Cart will sing only in
concerts this winter.
Indianapolis i* just sixty years old,
and not overgrown for its age.
Two hundred and nine patents have
been to Edison up to date.
Queen Victoria lias been in Ireland
twelve days, the first time she has been
there since 1861.
Hrxc* his visit to Stratford-on-Avon,
Tennyson is more determined than ever
to write for the stage.
New York is threatened with a water
famine— a case of water everywhere and
not a drop to drink.
—>•
President Arthur knows how to keep
a secret. He has entrusted no one with
the key to his new Cabinet.
David Davis, President pro tern, of
the Senate, weighs nearly 400 pounds.
He is a big man, indeed.
A Wisconsin farmer robbed the grave
of his own son and sold the body to a
medical college in Chicago.
According to reports, all was not har
mony at Y'orktowu. Thero seems to be
envy fov honors in all things.
Louise Michel, tho Parisian Com
munist, in her newspaper approves of
the assassination of President Garfield.
Anna Dickinson is going to play
Hamlet in New York on the 2d of Janu
ary. Anna is determined to overcome
her modesty.
We are glad to state there has been
no oyster famine. We shall have some
thing to eat anyhow, and church festivals
will boom as ever.
The oldest brother of the late Presi
dent., Thomas Gfarfield, is an humble
farmer in Ottawa County, Michigan. He
is aged fifty-nine years.
Dr. J. G. Holland, the poet and
writer, who recently died in New York,
loaves a wife, two grown daughters, and
a son, who is in Yale College.
Dr. Parker, of the London Temple,
is to deliver a series of five discourses in
answer to Colonel Ingersoll’s question,
“ What Must I Do to Be Saved ?”
Colored women at Anderson, S. C.,
have formed a union and will not work
for less than $6 a month. Whoever vio
lates the agreement will be flogged by
the others.
Over 100,000 Frenchmen have com
mitted suicide since the opening of the
present oentury. Taking in all the cen
turies, and all races, these figures would
reach np in the millions.
The Crown Prince and Princess of
Denmark have come into about £3,000,-
000 by the death of Prince Frederick, of
the Netherlands. Is there anything
“ rotting in Denmark ?”
The rapid advance in wheat suddenly
came to a standstill, a thing the grain
gamblers was not prepared for, and
gambliug in that direction just now can
not be said to be flourishing.
A contemporary propounds the eon
undrum “ Why is not Ireland as happy
part of the British Empire as Scot
land?” In the language of a six-year
old, we would say, “ Because it ain’t.’
It is a lamentable fact that Michigan
gave $35,000 more to Chicago at the
time of the great fire in that city, thau
Chicago has contributed to the burnt
out sufferers of Michigan. Chicago
should remember a kindness.
Thb situation in Ireland is a pro
foundly serious one. Rioting and blood
shed are of daily occurrence, and unleea
there is a change soon, it can but be a
question of time when the situation shall
merge itself into a civil war.
From the autumnal exhibition of paint
ings at Liverpool the nude has been
rigorously excluded. This is a case
morality for once, triumphed
over the false notion that vulgarity and
art go hand in hand.
The Afghan war cost the lives of 99
officers and 1,524 men, besides 111 offi
cers and 1,252 men wounded. The
various South African wars cost the lives
of 172 officers and 3,028 men; 182 offi
oers and 1,016 men were wounded.
Hr. Wood, at Philadelphia, holds to
the theory that diphtheria is not a spe
D| tM to Industrial Inttrut, the Piffo ion f Trqth, the Establishment of Justice, and the Preservation of a People’s Government.
olttc poison, but a fungus that may be
present in the air during health, but in
certain diseased conditions take on a
distinctly poisonous action.
The Cincinnati Qazette suggests that
if the money sent to Ireland to help the
Iri sh to fight England were used to en
able the dissatisfied people to emigrate
to the United States, it would do much
good. There is plenty of room in this
country. There is not room in that
country.
The Frencli consumption of wheat
demands 352,009,000 bushels per annum.
The crop this year is 294,000,000 bush*
els. Deficit, to be supplied from the
United States and Russia, 58,000,000
bushels, costing at present prices SBO,-
000,000. Phis explains the drain upon
the bullion in the Bank of Frauoe.
As usual, Florida, this year, reports
50,000,000 oranges for market. Those
have been the figures lor several years
—or is it possible this statement, like
some of the humorous paragraphs,
springs into existence periodically and
goes the rounds of the press.
Half a dozen “ associations for the
encouragement of matrimony” have
taken out articles of incorporation in
Indiana. Their object is also for the
protection of domes tio felicity. It does
look a little as if there was a scarcity of
occupation when institutions of this
ridiculous character come into existence
in such numbers.
Queen Victoria doesn’t wear a crim
son robe and a gold crown upon her
head, not by any means. She takes her
daily drives with a black straw bonnet
upon her head and a large shawl of
small check shepherd’s plaid upon her
shoulders. She think’s enough of money
to boa poor man’s wife.
This is what Talmage has to say con
cerning Guiteau: “On the principle
that all men, however bad, ought to be
prayed for, I have tried for eight Sun
days to get myself up to pray for that
wretch, but I can’t do it. Perhaps be
foro £ho day of his hanging I may
grow in grace enough to pray for him,
but until then I must leave it to the old
ministers who have got so good that they
can do anything. ”
The Committee of Twenty-eight ap
pointed in Boston to consider the feasi
bility of holding the World’s Fair at
the Hub in 1885, reported favorably
upon the mattor, but to make the exhi
bition a success, the committee are of
opinion that the city of Boston will be
required to subscribe $5,000,000. If it
wasn’t for the money part of it, Boston
would no doubt pun through all right
with the arrangements, but we are a lit
tle afraid that $5,000,000 business will
hill it.
There is a paper published in uoio
rado called Solid Muldoon. In a re
cent issue the editor makes the following
somnariflon : lt Brick ” Pomeroy came
to Colorado two years ago with one wife
and three hundred dollars—to-day he is
worth quarter of a million. Three years
ago the editor of this paper struck Colo
rado with one pointer dog and the dys
pepsia—to-day—well, to this day, we
never did or could find out what in
become of that dog.
The recent eruption of the great
volcano of Mauna Loa, on the Islaud of
Hawaii, has been watched with peculiar
interest by the inhabitants of the town
of Hilo. The lava flood has for nine
months past been approaching the village
and threatened its destruction, and the
tilling up of the beautiful bay upou tbe
borders of which it is built. But half a
mile away the stream of fire ceased its
flow, and the lava cooled and hardened,
the volcano was at rest, and the village
was saved.
The hatred entertained by the Bohe
mians for the Germans is shovn strik
iugly by the recent experience of a
Viennese merchant who was traveling
through a part of the Bohemian terri
tory, and put up with some friends at a
tavern kept by a village official. Upon
their asking in German for dinner the
innkeeper’s wife replied: “In this inn
no German is served with food. Not
even a drink of water would be granted
to one of that nation.” And the hungry
travelers were compelled to seek enter
tainment elsewhere.
Fifteen years ago James B. Orman,
of Pueblo, went to Colorado a poor boy.
To-day he employs 3,000 men, and owns
and works 2,000 head of mules and
horses. While this is true of Mr. Or
man, there are hundreds of men who
*have gone to Colorado and other portions
of the West with a few hundred dollars
in their pocket and subsequently beat
their way back on frieght trains. There
are any number of oases iu almost any
State, of men, rioh to-day, who, niteen
years ago, were poor. Mon who go West
INDIAN SPRINGS, GEORGIA.
expecting to find money lying around
loose, are generally disappointed.
Coroner Rendio, of Cincinnati, is
charged by the Cincinnati Commercial
and Oanette with hastening the death of
Mrs. Andrew Van Bibber, who was acci
dentally shot by tier husband recently
under the impression she was a burglar.
Rendig held an ante-mortem examina
tion, during which time the patient’s
pulse ran up from 110 to 160 beats per
minute and her death ensued upon the
same day. Her physician is of opinion
that her death was inevitable, but that
had it not been for the excitement con
sequent upon an ante-mortem examina
tion she might have possibly lingered
many days.
A case was recently tried in Paris
which seems to correspond very closely
with that for which Guiteau has been
arraigned. Lucien Morrisset, a young
man aged twenty-three, of considerable
education and refinement, was charged
with the murder of M. Larmier, a rail
way official. Morrisset had no grievanoe
whatever against Darmeir, but he had
long cherished a deep-rooted hatred
against society. Convinced that society
was rotten and unjust, and smarting un
der disappointment and failure in litera
ture, Morrisset determined to give free
vent to his perverted instincts. He be
gan by robbing hi3 employer, and when
he tvas detected he resolved to distin
guish himself as a murderer. He had
previously attempted suicide. One day
last .June he procured a revolver, loaded
it, and, walking out in the street he
cooly shot down M. Darmier. The medi
cal experts, after a careful examination,
pronounced him sane, but * * morally
nelf-nerverterl.” and he was sentenced to
death. “ Morally self-perverted” seems
to apply well to Guiteau.
Her Gratitude.
Coming down Michigan avenue a lady
in a well-filled car saw a woman dashing
across a vacant lot at the corner of
Twelfth street, and whirling her parasol
in a vain endeavor to catch the eye of
the car driver. The lady immediately
arose and pulled the strap. The moment
this was done the woman checked down
her speed and walked slower thau a boy
going home after playing truant. As
she reached the oar she deliberately
lowered her parasol, looked back down
Twelfth street, and slowly entered.
The lady, meantime, had been squeez
ing along to make room for the new
comer. That individual looked up and
down both sides of the car with a git-up
and-give-me-a-seat expression, looked at
the space provided for her with a sneer,
took a step toward it, then stopped, as if
she would say: “Sit along further.
There isn’t room enough for me !” and
then flopped herself into the space,
thrusting her parasol, which she carried
in the hollow of her left arm, into her
benefactor’s face, turned and slowly, de
liberately and superciliously looked at
the lady’s hat, her ear ornaments, her
dress, and then turned from her with
“ You’re a nobody ” expression of coun
tenance, and commenced taking a mental
inventory of all the hats and dresses in
the car. Not one word of thanks to the
la !y who liad stopped the car, aud
crowded along to give her a seat; only an
insulting stare, that, in a man, would
put them in danger of being caught by
the nape of the neck and thrown into
the street. —Detroit Free Press.
The Incisors of the Horse.
The incisors of the horse, once worn
down or lost, are gone forever, but in
many species a provision exists by which
the wear and tear of mastication is com
pensated by the perpetual growth of
certain members of the dental series.
This very convenient arrangement ex
ists in all the rodents, or gnawers, an
order of which the beaver, the rat and
the rabbit are familiar examples, and
also in the elephant, the walrus, wild
boar, etc. The incisors of the rodents
are the seat of this perpetual growth,
and any one who will take the trouble to
examine the skull of a rabbit will at
once see how admirably theyare adapt
ed to the animal wants. They are of
curved shape, and occupy sockets ex
tending to the back part of both jaws,
the upper pair describing a larger part
of a smaller circle, and the lower ones a
smaller part of a larger circle. Each
tooth consists of a solid column of den
tine, with a plate of enamel in its outer
surface, ana, consequently, diminshes
in hardness from front to back. The
constant wear produced by the continual
collision of the opposing surfaces forms
an oblique chisel-like surface, sloping
from the hard enamel of the front to the
softer dentine of the back part of the
tooth. As these teeth are perpetually
growing, they require constant exer
cise to keep their growth within due
bounds, and the rat and others of this
most mischievous family might assign,
as an excuse for their ravages, the ne
cessity of finding constant employment
for their front teeth. —All the Year
Round.
The spot where Stonewall Jackson
fell is marked by a rough block of white
flint quarried in the Wilderness. It
stands 3 feet 8 inches high and is 2 feet
10 inches in breadth. Its surface showß
dents and scars, where the pilgrims have
scaled bits of it as relics ; and all around
are smaller pieces of hard rock that
have been used as hammers with which
to crack it.
Tree* with History.
In one grove in California are 1,380
trees none measuring less than six feet
in diameter.
A magnificent white oak stands in the
Quaker burying ground in Salem, N. J.
It is more than 200 years old, and is re
markable for its amplitude of shape. In
one direction its branches have a spread
of 112 feet.
The tallest trees in the world are in
Australia. A fallen tree in Gippsland
measured 435 feet from the root to the
highest point of the branches. Another
standing in the Dunenong district in
Victoria is estimated to be 400 feet from
the ground to the top.
The largest chestnut tree in the conn
in’ is growing on the farm of
Merkie, at Berks, Pa., and is nearly forty
feet in circumference at the base. The
top of the tree is reached without danger
by steps that are fastened between the
liinbs. it is estimated that this tree
contains about seventeen cords of wood.
It still yields about three bushels of
chestnuts annually.
A russet apple tree m SkowbeganMe.,
was planted m 1762. Til its branches a
playhouse for children has been built
for a half a century or more. The tree
is seven feet from the ground to the
branches, five in number, all of which
are very large and average thirty-five
feet in length, covering a space of
ground sixty-three feet in diameter. It
is more than four and one-half feet in
diameter, and has yielded an average of
thirty bushels of apples each year. 4
sprout from this apple tree stands thirty
two feet from the parent stem, but iB
forty-eight years younger.
Give the Boy* a Chance.
Don’t keep the boys in bondage be
cause they are not twent?~one years old.
Give them a trial. Let them have a
chance to struggle with the affairs of the
world, if nothing more than to send
them to town with a small load of wood
or wheat. Let them buy and sell in
various ways, then when they are
twenty-one it will come natural to them
to do business.
I have known professing Christians to
raise children and not one of the children
would care a fig for Christianity. Why?
Because we are not all of Israel that are
in Israel. Sometimes children grow up
without knowing the ten commandments,
neither can they repeat the Lord’s
prayer.
I have never yet seen the gambler
who had confidence enough in his pro
fession to teach it to his children, and so
it is 'with some people, tfiey have not
faith enough in their religion to teach it
to their children.
Teach them to love good associates.
Love commences at home. I never saw
a man who would abuse his mother, but
would abuse his wife also, if he were
lucky to get one; and so it is with a young
woman. I like to see those who respect
and obey their parents. I believe this is
one of the highest commandments, and
one of the first to be obeyed.—Corres
pondence Household.
Mexican Coinage.
We are indebted to an invaluable
publication upon the history of the coin
age of the mints of Mexico, in the
columns of El Minero Mexicana, for the
facts which we have tabulated below to
show the amount of gold and silver thus
coined during the five years ended 30th
June, 1879:
80 June. Gold. Silver. Total.
1875 *862,619 00 *l9 386,958 50 *20,249,677 50
1876 809,401 50 19,454,054 00 20,263,455 50
1877 695,750 00 21,415,128 50 22,110,878 50
1878 ... 691,998 00 22,084,203 50 22,776,201 50
1979 658,206 00 22,162,987 65 22,821 193 65
T0ta15...53,717,974 60 1104,603,332 15 *107,221,306 65
During the same period the money
value of the total copper coinage was
$11,906,604, or more than tnree times
greater than the value of the gold coined
during the same half decade—the total
coinage for the period being $119,127,-
910. Of this amount it is to be noted
87$ per cent, were of silver, ten per
cent, in copper, and but two and a half
per cent, in gold. It is this last fact which
we commend to the consideration of
capitalists upon the eve of embarking in
Mexican gold mining ventures with the
expectation of finding there the greatest
gold mines in the world, upon the speci
ous statements of unscrupulous specula
tors and their venal scribblers of tbe
press. —Mining Record.
Alexander’s Night Thoughts,
“ Saltokoff Skupschirofsky, ” said the
Czar to the Captain of the guard, “have
the guards been doubled at the palace
gate?” “They have, my liege,” re
sponded S. S., “and the man with the
telescope sweeps the horizon, so that not
even a solitary horseman can approach
thy imperial dwelling.” “And the light
ning-rod man?” “He sleeps beneath
the Neva, so please your majesty.”
“ The man for subscriptions to the Life
of Sergeant Bates?” “He speeds to
Siberia on a special train.” “ And the
ladder and tree protector men ?” “Ask
of the vipers in the palace dungeons.”
“ The man who continues at this late
day to sav, ‘what, never?’” “Thy
imperial headsman wears his watch
chain.” “Tis well. Telegraph to
Europe that another conspiracy has been
baffled, keep the gum-drop and corn-ball
bovs. who spread sedition on the rail
road trains, under thy vigilant eye, and
may St. Isaac of Knownow bless thee. ”
And the Czar, putting on his cast-iron
night-shirt, retired to his princely couch.
—Boston Transcript
The passion for feasting increased so
much in England in the fourteenth cen
tury that when Lionel, son of Edward
111., was married, there were thirty
courses, and the fragments of the table
fed 1,000 people.
The Boston Transcript remarks that
a man with an impediment in his speech
never speaks well of anybody.
Letters of Introduction.
Among the innumerable bores which
afflict the monde ou l' on a'iennuie, one
of the most wearisome is the letter of
introduction. It is a species of black
mail levied on good nature, which only
persons of exceptional resolution, or
equally fortunate rudeness, can ever
successfully resist; a social letter of
credit based upon a bank account of
mutual kindliness, which may have been
long since overdrawn, or which, per
haps, never existed save in the imrnagi
nation of the writer. Americans are
said to be especially given to this de
plorable and exasperating weakness, and
the steamers which are daily bearing the
flower of our fashion to European oh or os
are no doubt loaded with those importu
nate missives. A man, indeed, can
scarcely take a flying trip to a neighbor
ing town without deeming it necessary
to fortify himself with half a dozen or
more of these passports ; or, even if his
good sense rejects the notion, he is sure
to have them thrust upon him by officious
lriends. And in the latter case it is vain
for him to attempt to suppress the hate
ful documents. He is in the situation of
the man who holds the wolf by the ears,
neither daring to keep him nor to let him
go. The donors will be sure to make
inquiry as to their presentation, aud woe
to the recipient if he lias failed to do so.
Even those to whom letters of introduc
tion are the greatest of bores w ould be
the first to feel slighted by their non
delivery ; so he is forced into the embar
rassing position of thrusting himself
upon the good will of a stranger who
cares nothiug about him and w ho, under
liis awkward smile of affected welcome,
is secretly wishing him at Jericho. Of
all the painful shams that make up the
tragical comedy of social life, this is one
of the most irksome and humiliating.
It would he difficult to decide which
is the greatest sufferer by the letter of
introduction—the writer, the recipient,
or the person to whom it is addressed.
The first is put in the absurd position of
having to praise a man to his face, for,
as the letter is delivered unsealed, its
perfunctory eulogies are of course tanta
mount to that; worse still, if, having to
praise him, the qualities which both of
them know he does not possess, are
dilated upon. And the recipient, by
presenting the letter, virtually adopts
and indorses its sentiments and thus
appears to his new acquaintance in the
position of a man vociferously blowing
his own trumpet and calling attention to
his good parts with the simple candor of
•the noble red man who thumps his
breast at the council fire and says,
“ Wah ! me big brave!” The man who
has a stranger thus forced suddenly
upon his hospitality has perhaps the
most substantial grievance. For, unless
he be endowed with unusual firmness of
character which will permit him to shake
hands cordially with his unbidden visitor
and then politely show him the door, he
feels it incumbent to put himself out in
some way to do him honor. He must
get up a dinner or a breakfast for him,
or if she be of the more troublesome
sex, a ball; he must neglect his business
to constitute himself a guide for her
sight-seeing; he must in one way or
another make himself thoroughly un
comfortable for the sake of this unde
sired and perhaps undesirable guest.
Under the most favorable circumstances
he cannot stifle a certain sense of being
put upon; our friend’s friends, we all
know, are seldom ours, and in nine cases
out of ten he will not have even the
ordinary reward of gratitude, for on the
one side as on the other the attentions
thus paid are felt to lack spontaneity
and are, in reality, a forced levy. —The
Hour.
Packing a Trunk.
Most people dislike to pack a trunk,
and to do it well is something of an art.
It should never be done in a hurry. You
should first get everything together
which is to be packed, and then go quiet
ly and systematically to work. Very
large trunks are an abomination over
which expressmen groan and swear, not
altogether without reason. Still, small
ones are inconvenient, except for short
journeys, and multiply expense, as the
expressage is for each piece, be it Sara
toga trunk or a small valise, without re
gard to size. But, whatever the size of
the trunk, it should be filled, or at least
packed full enough to prevent the con
tents from tossing about. If you are
compelled to take a trunk which is too
large for what you need to pack in it,
fill it with crumpled paper, rather than
leave it half empty. Owing to the rough
usage which baggage always receives,
unless the trunk is closely packed the
contents will be literally churned up and
down, and the clothes which you have
carefully folded will be tumbled to a de
gree, even if nothing worse comes to
them. For a long journey it is well to
cord trunks. Rope is better than strap,
because it goes both ways. Nothing
heavy, like boots, etc., should ever be
Eut in the top of a trunk, since the more
eavily it is weighted the more likely
the hinges are to break. Dresses should
be carefully folded, with the flounces
laid smooth and drawing-strings let out,
the waist folded but once, the wrong
side out, with the sleeves laid over the
back and the fronts over all. Then, if
absolutely necessary, the basque may
be folded again down the middle seam
of the back, but never across.
Polish women are very beautiful.
Perhaps, as a race, they are the most
beautiful women in the world. Bayard
Taylor declares that he saw more hand
some faces in Warsaw in an hour at the
races than he saw in all the rest of
Europe in two years.
There are 16,000 oysteimen in Vir
ginia.
SUBSCRIPTION-'tl.BS.
NUMBER 11
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.
The roes of various kinds of fish con
tain from about 30,000 to over 8,686,00®
pggs.
The lion’s teeth seem formed rather
lor destruction than for the chewing of
his food.
A four-fingered monkey, in its na
tive state, has been seen to go down
to the edge of a stream, rinse its mouth
and then clean its teeth with ons of its
fingers.
In Bavaria medical men are shorter
lived than any other class. Out of eve
ry 100 individuals, 53 Protestant clergy
men, 41 professors, 39 lawyers or mag
istrates. 34 Catholic priests, but only 26
doctors reach tUe age of 00.
The octopus has a gland whioh se
cretes an inky fluid, and this he squirts
out, making * a thick, dark cloud behind
him which bailies his pursuer at the
same time that it helps himself to dart
away. Mr. Darwin asserts that the oo
topus often takes deliberate aim at an
enemy when it squirts out this unpleas
ant fountain.
Ostriches, when the full number of
eggs has been laid, invariably place one
of them outside the nest —the nest con
sisting naturally of a hollow scooped out
of the land by the action of the wings
and legs of the birds. It has been found
that -these eggs are reserved as food for
the chicks, which are often reared in a
natural stall, miles away from a blade of
grass or other food.
The periwinkle has 600 rows of teeth,
three in a row, growing on a long strap,
like pins in a cushion. This strap, often
two inches long, closes the edges
togefndr at the back of the mouth so as
to wrap over the rough points, and is
then rolled up into a coil and stowed
uwav in a fold of the neck. As the front
teeth wear away, this strap comes grad
ually forward on the floor of the mouth,
the "new teeth grow up and are sharp
ened ready for use.
Paper rots under the influence of
moisture until it is reduced to a white
decay which crumbles into powder when
handled. Damp attacks both the inside
and outside of books. The mold spots
which are so often seen upon the edges
of leaves and upon the sides of the bind
ing under a microscope are seen to be
miniature forests of lovely trees, covered
with a beautiful white foliage. “They
are upas trees,” says a bibliophile,
“whose roots are imbedded in the leath
er anti destroy its texture.”
The thirty-three navigable rivers of
the Mississippi system comprise 14,000
miles of navigable waters, intersecting
or bordering on eighteen States and two
Territories. The extent of territory
subject to overflow was, in 1874, esti
mated to be 41,193 square miles, an area
as great as the combined areas of New
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island and New Jersey, and much
more productive under proper condi
tions. Up to the year 1878 Congress
had made for the improvement of the
Mississippi river and its various tribu
taries about 200 appropriations, amount
ing in all to the sum of $18,500,000.
A thousand wonders in nature are
lost to the human eye, and only revealed
to us through the micro 3Cope. Think
of dividing a single spider’s web into a
thousand strands, or counting the arter
ies and nerves in the wing of a gossamer
moth. Yet, by the aid of the powerful
lens of a microscope, it is found there
are more than 4,000 muscles in a cater
pillar. The eye of a drone contains 14,-
000 mirrors, and the body of every spi
der is furnished with four little lumps,
pierced with tiny holes, from each of
which issues a single thread; and when
a thousand of these from each lump are
joined together, they make the silk line
of which the spider spins its web, and
which we call a spider’s thread. Spi
ders have been seen as small as a grain
of sand, and these spin a thread so fine
that it takes 4,000 of them, put together,
to equal in size a single hair.
Lessons in Words.
An explanation of the derivation of
words will give a pupil an insight into
their history, and he will comprehend
tlieir use and power.
“ Sierra ” means a “ sawhence the
use of the terms Sierra Nevada, Sierra
Morena, for the mountains look like
great saws turned np to the heavens.
“ Frank ” comes from a nation that
possessed Gaul. They were distin
guished from the Gauls by their love of
freedom, their scorn of a lie. So
marked was this national trait that it
was applied to denote moral distinc
tions.
“Slave" was once a noble word,
meaning “ glory.” It was significant
of freedom. But the slaves (or
Schlaves, as once spelled) became cap
tives to the Teutonic race, and so a
“Slave ” was synonymous with one
who was subject to another.
“ Turkey” is applied to a fowl that
originated in this country, but it was
supposed by the common people to have
come from Turkey.
“Daisy,” Chaucer tells us, means
“ day’s eye”—eye of day. The sun
had this title first, but those who
saw the daisy saw a likeness to the sun
—the white flowerets resembling the
rays—hence the name.
“ Knave ” meant originally only
“ lad ” and it now means that in Ger
many, but so many lads were bad that
it got to have a bad significance.
“ Villain ” meant a man who worked
on a villa or farm; but so many of them
had rough, hard natures that it took a
low signification.
“Silly” in the old English means
“blessed.” Our early poets use the
word to show haimlessness. The
“ silly sheep ”is very common. But
how the word has changed I— School
Journal,