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KNOXVILLE JOURNAL.
KNOXVILLE, GEORGIA.
Since August 'V,' 18877" “P to recent
.date, the Government has purchased
(bonds to the amount of $201,720,650, at
a total cost of $234,497,744.
Captain Chapei, of the French Artil¬
lery, has devised a projectile which is lit¬
erally “to shoot round a comer.” It is
to be sent over the heads of men behind
breastworks, turn a somersault, return
and take them in rear. “Projectile ret¬
rograde,” he calls it.
The Bostonians are pluming themselves
upon the fact that Sir Edwin Arnold said
that they remind him of Englishmen.
But, when he added that they “talk the
English language in its native purity, ”
the Commercial Advertiser says, they be¬
gan to be doubtful of the value of the
compliment.
Every one in Paris was surprised at the
youthfulness of Mr. Gladstone during bis
recent visit. Being asked by some one
how many lines of the “Iliad” he still
remembered, he replied, after a moment’s
hesitation: “If some one would give me
the first line of any page I think I could
repeat what follows to the bottom of that
page.”
_______________
C-ne of the most interesting localities
to vis^in London during the recent dock
strike was the “Booth Arms,” a hostlery
conducted by members of the Salvation
Army. The food was plain, but plentiful
and good, and sold at an almost nominal
rate. One hundred thousand dockers
were estimated to have been fed there
during the strike. Soup, bread, sand¬
wiches, coffee, tea and cocoa were the
principal items on the menu.
Some convicts in the penitentiary at
Salem, Oregon, display energy in proving
that they hate work. Several of them
within a year have maimed themselves
so as to be unfit physically for the tasks
allotted them. Recently a colored man,
John Snell, took a hatchet anc cut off
the fingers of his left hand. He is now
resting in the infirmary.* He has four
more years of his sentenefc of five to serve
out. Some one-handed work will be
found for him as soon as possible.
According to the'New York Sun Long
Island can boast 'if a farm which is oper¬
eadheiy by the labor of insane peo¬
It is known asithc Islip ferm, and
250 lunatics are employed ui it. Ii
was a wilderness a few year^ ;o, but has
been brought to a high state of cultiva¬
tion. Grain, fruits and flowers are grown
upon it, and the men engaged in their
production are said to take a deep interest
in their work. They are sent there from
city institutions J>y the commissioners of
charities and correction, and the ex¬
periment is declared to have proved a
pronounced success.
A question upon which opinion was
much divided at the international botanic
congress, in Paris, was whether the grains
of corn found in the Egyptian sarcophagi
had any seminal virtue left. It appears
that most of the so-called mummy corn,
remarkable for streaks of tar on the sur¬
face and sold to travellers in Egypt at the
rate of about $1 per twenty-five grains, is
a gross imposture. A gentleman who re¬
ceived a few grains from M. Maspero
himself planted them in various soils and
positions. A good many sprouted, some
even grew about two feet, when they looked
like ordinary spring wheat, and then
rotted away, but none ever came to
maturity.
A story full of pathos of the death of a
brave man was made known to the Lon¬
don public the other week. He was a
fireman, and in searching for possible
sufferers in a burning factory his retreat
was cut off. His companions escaped
through a small window, but he being
too bulky was prevented from following
them, and though at the outset he called
to his companions to let them know of
his plight he said never a word when he
saw that all hope of escape was lost, but
stood and burned to death with the for¬
titude of a hero. When his body was
found his legs were entirely consumed,
but in his charred hand he still held the
nozzle of a fire hose. He had done his
duty to the last.
The experiments which have recently
brought to a conclusion abroad with
a smokeless powder, the latest of the
kind invented, have disclosed one defect
militates strongly against its intro¬
duction. Immediately upon the dis¬
charge of the shot, there is such an in
smell produced by the combus¬
of this new explosive that several of
officers and men at the firing-point
fainted. The powder creates hard¬
any perceptible smoke, and imparts to
shot a higher velocity than any form¬
compooncL The statement that it is
is, however, erroneous. On the
the discharges are louder than
with the old black powder.
new smol has no t S
UWlllfl™.
CALLED
I am coming, I hare heard 'j[ m,
I am coming, O my dear!
I have heard you calling, calling',
When the night was darkly falling.
Calling through the midnight
When the dark was deep and clear,
Spftly in the midnight I have heard you
calling, dear.
[ have heard you in the morning,
Heard your whisper at my ear; ,
!
take a sleeping bird that singeth
Or a low sweet wind that bringeth
The summer blossoms here.
I have listened for you, darling, —Lai.v
I have waited for you, dear,
Till my soul was faint with rapture and
with fear.
Come once again and call me;
Call me very clear- and loud,
As the thunder calls from heaven
Through the listening summer even,
In its solemn silver cloud.
Call me upward to your dwelling,
Tho’ the river waves be swelling,
And the valley dark with shadow I shall
answer you aloud.
t have waited long and lonely,
So lonely, O my dear! ;
My sad thoughts cling about you, !
I cannot live without you,
X am coming to your calling
I cannot linger here;
When dawn is on the mountains I am com¬
ing to you, dear.
I have done with time and sorrow,
I am ready for you, dear;
In your dumb and pallid sleeping,
5Tou could not hear my weeping,
But I wept my soul away staying here.
O, seraphs! hush your singing,
O, bells of heaven, cease ringing!
O, waters of the river, moan no more;
For my peace has come forever,;
I shall weep and wander never,
I shall be alone and lonely nevermore.
—Rose Terry Cooke , in Indpendeirt.
THE ROOM-MATES.
‘ ‘How do you like it, Ginnie ?”
Miss Virginia Vane turned the white,
fleecy pile over and over, examined every
flounce, and critically viewed the color of
the muslin.
“Well, it will do,” said she. “It’s
rather yellow, isn’t it? And I wish you
hadn’t put quite so much starch in it.”
Flora Spencer looked disappointed.
“I had to dry it in Mrs. Perkins’s back
room,” said she. “The week has been
rainy, so of course it couldn’t look so
white. And you told me yourself that
you wanted it stiff. ”
“I dare say it will do,” said Ginnie,
indifferently.
Flora hesitated a moment.
“If you could give me the twenty-five
cents now—” she began.
“But I cant!” sharply interrupted
Ginnie Vane. “Do you think I am made
of money? You’ll have to wait until I
next week’s pay. ”
Flora Spencer and Virginia Vane were
fellow-workers in a great suit factory
down town, and, for greater economy,
the same room in a little by-street
and boarded themselves, which means
Flora did most of the work and Vir¬
did ali the promises.
There are more partnerships than one
on the same principles in
days.
Virginia Vane was a beauty, with large,
eyes of the softest brown, hair lit
auburn-gold gleams, and a com
which she was already beginning
“improve.”
Flora was pretty, in a dimpled, insig¬
way; but, as Ginnie triumphantly
“No one would look twice at
Ginnie’s failing was extravagant dress,
set off her charms; and if Flora had a
it was charity toward those
poorer than herself.
She had, herself, washed and ironed
white Swiss dress, to be worn on
projected pienic, to earn a little money
to help buy a straw hat for Widow Mul
rooney’s little girl to go to Sunday-school,
and now Ginnie was falling back on the
credit system.
Flora frowned and'shook her head.
“I have earned the* money,” said she,
“and you ought to pay me.”
“How can I pay what I haven’t got?”
allied Ginnie. “Look here, Flora, I've
a mind to retrim my Gainsboro’ hat with
i wreath of those lovely roses in Migg’s
window. Wouldn’t it be pretty?”
‘ ‘Those lovely roses, ” ironically retorted
Flora, “cost a dollar a wreath!”
“But I must have something to wear.
Only think, Flo, how beautiful it will be
to spend a whole long day on the river,
with music and dancing, and unlimited
peaches and cream! No thought of sew
rag-machines and bias folds and yards of
hideous material; no counting of pennies;
no ringing of the discordant time-bell.
Oh, how I do hate work!”
“It will be only for a day, Ginnie.”
“But one can live on the memory of it
for a week, a month, an y length of time!”
cried Ginnie, dancing merrily about the
room. “And Will Ormand will be my
almost sure of that—and Di
Morris will be ready to burst with envy!”
Flora was silent.
Ginnie glanced sidelong at her, think¬
ing mischievously to herself:
“And some one else will be just a lit¬
tle jealous, I think, too. As if Will Or¬
mond would ever look twice at such a
plain little dowdy as Flora Spencer!”
“Come, Flo,” she uttered aloud—“do
hurry up with those dishes and come out
with me!”
“If you are in such a hurry, Ginnie,
you might help me, ” said Florence re¬
proachfully.
Ginnie glanced down at her pretty,
tapering nails. fingers, with their pink, pointed
“I would ruin my hands,” said she.
“I like to have aristocratic hands, if I
am only a working girl!”
“Other people’s hands don’t signify, I
su ppose,” drily remarked Flora.
Ginnie laughed.
“You do say such funny things, Flo,”
said she.
Flora, too, was thinking of the picnic
on the river which the girls were to have
—the long, cool sail on the blue, spark
water—the, grove,-the dancing, the
impromptu lunch furnished by the head
of the firm.
But she, poor child, would have to
wear a simple blue gingham, freshened
up by a few yards of new ribbon, and
last year’s hat, pressed over. She had no
money to spare for gauds and frillings.
The blessings of the poor, the incense
of good works secretly done, were not
things that could be worn at a picnic.
“I shouldn’t wonder,” thoughtfully
observed Ginnie, as she walked down
the street, side by side with Flora, “if
Mr. Ormond proposed on Tuesday.
There’s be plenty of opportunities, I’m
sure.”
“Do you think he loves you, Ginnie?”
“Oh, I’ve an idea or two on the sub¬
ject!” said the beauty, with a conscious
toss of the head. “To-be-sure, a fore¬
man in a suit factory isn’t much; but in
time he’ll aspire to something better, I
don't doubt. And I’m tired of this
drudging, penny-counting life! Beside,”
and she suddenly brightened up, “Alma
Grover says he’s got a rich, eccentric old
uncle, who can leave him a pot of money
one of these days. There’s that to be
considered!”
“ ‘Dead men’s shoes,’ ” quoted Flora.
“You remember the proverb? ‘It’s ill
waiting for them!’”
“Proverbs are nonsense!” said Ginnie.
“What are you going into this dismal
little hole for, Flora?”
“I’m having a parasol repaired here,”
said Flora. “It won’t detain us a mo¬
ment.”
Like a young Princess entering the
dungeon of a subject,"Virginia Yane de¬
scended two or three steps into a base¬
ment -store, where a little old man in
spectacles and a brown wig sat working
at a faded cotton umbrella, and a small
regiment of eanes. parasols and umbrellas
were set up in the window.
Flora noded pleasantly to him; he re¬
turned the greeting courteously.
“Its done, all but the button and elas¬
tic,” said he in the nasal tone of a con
firmed snufE-taker. “I’ll have it here in
a minute.”
“How is the poor woman on the floor
above?” asked Flora.
“Better, a- deal,” said the umbrella
mender. “That week in the country air
just set her up.”
“And the sick baby?”
The old man shook his head.
“Dead,” said he. “I gave the mother
the dollar you left. It helped to buy
decent grave-clothes.”
“Flora” cried Virginia, “you don’t
that you’er throwing away your
hard-earned money on every nest of beg¬
in Elm street?”
Flora colored.
“I don’t call it throwing it away,” she
said.
‘ ‘And you’re actually going to the pic¬
nic with that shabby old thing!” said
Ginnie, disdainfully eying the repaired
which the old man had now pro¬
duced. “Well, I only beg you’ll be
obliging enough to keep at a respectful
distance from me? I shall carry one of
maroon watered silk, trimed with white
lace that cost eight dollars.”
Flora answered her nothing, but took
her little chamois-leather purse to pay
seventy-five cents for repairs, and Vir¬
ginia, determined to tease her, went laugh¬
ingly on.
“It’s all nonsense, Flo, you’re running
after the poor,” declared she. “Let the
poor take care of themselves, say I. ”
‘ ‘And while you .are letting them take
care of themselves, young lady,” said
the old umbrella-mender, impressively,
“they are starving to death.”
Virginia tossed her head.
“Let them starve,” said she. “I don’t
think it would make much difference to
anybody whether they lived or died.”
The umbrella-mender looked hard at
her.
“Young lady,” said he, in his quaint
way, “you have a face like one of God’s
angels, but you talk like those that herd
with Lucifer.”
“Come along, Flo,” said Virginia,
with a freezing glance at the old man.
‘ ‘It may do very well for you to patron¬
ize this sort of thing, but I mean to
spend all the money I want w^en. I am
married to Will Ormond.
The umbrella-mender looked quickly
up.
“Ormond,” said he—“Will Ormond!
It is not a common name. Is this young
woman engaged to William Ormond, of
the Orient Suit Factory, in Penrogel
street?”
Virginia colored to the roots of her
hair. In her silly exultation she had al¬
lowed herself to speak most indiscreetly.
“What business is it of yours?” she
retorted, losing her presence of mind
still further.
“Nothing,” said the umbrella-mender.
“Only he happens to be my nephew.”
Virginia escaped from the little store,
dragging amazed Flora after her.
“I knew there was ill luck in that hide¬
ous hole, Flo,” she gasped. “Do you
think he spoke the truth? Or was it only
to frighten me? Oh, Flo! what had I
better do?”
The old umbrella mender smiled, and
looked after the retreating forms, and
took snuff, and then smiled again.
"When Wiliam Ormond came in as
usual to sit half an hour in the back
shop with his eccentric relative, Alexan¬
der Dowd (commonly called “Sandy”),
the old man gave him a vivid word pic¬
ture of the late occurrence.
“Two of ’em,” said he—“oneaspretty
as any picture, the other just a health¬
some, soncy lass, but with a heart of
gold. Will, lad, you’re all the same as a
son to me, but if you married that j»irl
with the pink cheeks and the dark,
sparkling eyes, I should feel as if you
were dead and buried to me. But Flora
Spencer, she’s a girl in ten thousand—a
ministering angel to the poor, one of
God’s own almoners!”
William Ormond listened silently.
“Uncle,” said he, “I thinkl recognize
your description. These two girls live
together in Apple Court, near here. They
are hands in our factory. Virginia Vane
is, as you say, her. a peerless beauty; but I
never cared for But I do love Flora
Spencer; and at the picnic next Tuesday
I had planned umbrella-mender to ask her to be my wife.”
The clapped his
nephew; on the shoulder. :
“Cajfy out ..... your plan, my boy,”
he. “Why have you never spoken of it
to me before? And if she says ‘yes’ to
you, you’ll have an angel to walk side by
side with you all the days of your life.
It’s a lot that God sends to some men—•
not to all.”
Flora Spencer became Will Ormond’s
wife after all, and nothing could persuade
Virginia Yane that it was not all a deep
plot on her room-mate’s part—that visit
to the umbrella-mender’s store.
“She says she never dreamed that
Sandy Dowd was any relation to Will
Ormond, or that Will could possible care
for her!” said the excited beauty, “but
of course I know better. She meant to
draw me out and make mo say what I
did; and here she’s living in her own
house, with a perfect wardrobe given her
by that very old umbrella man for a wed¬
ding present, and me toiling on in that
hateful suit factory just the same as
ever. It’s too bad!”
And the tears sparkled on the beauty’s
cheeks like diamonds on a newly blos¬
somed rose .—Saturday Night.
His Grandpa Got Even.
“It is hard to fix the exact date when
a man forgets that he ever was a boy,
but it is usually about the time his oldest
son’s two boys get big enough to cut up
and be sassy to their gran’ther. That
was the time my grandfather forgot.”
said a man on the row the other even
ing to a Washington Post reporter. “My
brother Lew and myself used to go to nil
uncle up in Bucks County where the old
gentleman lived. He was nearly eighty,
weighed over two hundred, walked
heavily with a cane and was the crossest
man I ever saw. His particular delight
was in whacking us boys with his cane
when we got within reach, and running
us down to the neighbors.
“ ‘Them boys o’ Lewis’s air a leetle
the wust, most wuthless cubs I ever seen,’
he would say. f
“We had a pet coon. It was funnier
than a cageful of monkeys. One day it
got into the old gentleman’s early vege¬
table garden and dug up some cucumber
vines. He caught it by the chain and
broke its back with his cane. We had
to have revenge. It was a plain case of
That coon was in our eyes more
a human being and a good deal more
of a Christian than he was. Gran’ther
a habit of going down to the
and sitting on the top rail of
fence to watch the men make hay.
sawed his pet rail half through and
the rider stakes, When, he
down the whole business gave away
he went over into a big briar patch.
aunt put in a half day picking
out of him. We were hustled
out of sight for a week while he spread
the town his version of our attempt
his life.
“Every evening the old fellow would
in the chimney nook, and sip a pint
hot rum and water. At 9 o’clock my
and uncle would each take a side
help him off to bed. He snored like
thunder. If he were touched he
stop snoring for a half hour. Our
was on the same floor. One night
couldn’t stand his terrible roof¬
racket. So I got up, found a
of twine, unrolled a' hundred feet,
a slipnoose in one end and fastened
to the old gentleman’s big toe, carrying
free end to my own room. Then
into bed, when gran’ther snored
gave the string a tug and he would
It was very funny.
“I felt quite pleased at my invention.
was an early riser. He woke
next morning about 5 o’clock and
the string tied to his toe. He got
cane and went on the trail. It led
my room, and the other end was
to my wrist.
“ ‘Whack, whack, whack, whack!’
“I got at least a dozen good blows all
my eyes and body before I could
and escape from the bedclothes and
hardwood cane. I was covered with
and blue welts for a week, and the
gentleman was happy for at least
days.”
Americans and Mustard.
“HawJ you over noticed,” inquired an
;t young man with whom I was
the other day, “how few Ameri¬
eat mustard?”
I confessed a lack of study in that di¬
and he continued:
“In England mustard is the great
national condiment. An Englishman
will never eat beef, bacon, ham or
without it, and many of them
season mutton with it. An English
tramp to whom you gave an unseasoned
beef sandwich would stop and ask you
for mustard before he commenced to de¬
vour it. With Americans it is different.
They never take mustard with beef, and
rarely with anything else, unless it is
very fat ham. Americans deluge their
meat with hot Indian and other sauces,
but they let mustard alone. My proof,
say you. My proof is right here. Ex¬
amine every mustard cruet in this res¬
taurant and you will find that its con¬
tents might have been mixed ten years
ago, for they look as old as Methuselah
smell twice as musty. I don’t be¬
that there’s a restaurant in this city
that uses a pound of mustard a week.”—
Chicago Journal.
The Bug That Saved the Orange Trees
The Australian ladybug has apparently
about accomplished its mission in Sierra
Madre, and is becoming very scarce here.
It is less than three months ago that this
wonderful little insect was first intro¬
duced by placing colonics in a few ol
our orange orchards, and without furthei
care or attention they have multiplied
and spread, and have at absolutely no
cost done what, without them, could not
have been accomplished With unlimited
money aud a vast amount of labor. And
the trees are all healthy and flourishing,
presenting a very different appearance to
that formerly seen after the process ol
spraying with medicated washes. The
large groves on the Baldwin and Chap¬
man ranches are not entirely redeemed as
yet, but the parasites are making satis¬
factory progress, and the total extenni*»
of lion of the thousands pest which of dollars has caijsecka tb tie loss
many own¬
ers is bnt a question of time__ Sierra
Madre (pal.) VUta.
NEWS AND NOTES FOR WOMEN.
“Sunshine yellow” is the latest.
Enameled jewelry, which is now made
perfection, is as populsr as ever.
Irish poplins in light evening colors
will be worn for dressy occasions.
Mrs. J. Redding, editor of the Art
Journal , is an expert bicycle rider.
Miss Olive Schreiner, the novelist, pro¬
poses to come to America next year.
Mme. marchesi, the famous teacher of
singing in Paris, has written her memoirs.
There are 62,000 women in the United
States interested in the cultivation of
fruit.
The free public library at Concord, N.
H., is to have a statue of the late Louis
M. Alcott.
An English lady has left $50,000 to be
devoted to photographing the stars,
planets, and nebula;.
A handkerchief in the possession of the
Czarina is said to have cost $2500. It
took seven years to make it.
Queen Louise, of Denmark, the mother
of the Princess of Wales, has just passed
her seventy-second birthday.
Alias Toki Mardira, the daughter of one
of the highest families in Japan, has de¬
cided to take the veil in Munich.
There is an impression that the social
and matrimonial success of the American
girl in England has been curtailed.
Cornell University has opened the new
year with 1400 students in all, the num¬
ber of women showing a relative increase.
Passementerie and silk cord ornaments,
although not new, are of greater impor¬
tance at the present time than ever be¬
fore.
For bonnets and bonnet trimmings,
for wraps, and parts of dresses, shot vel
velts, both figured and plain, will be in
order.
The fashion of women wearing the
single eyeglass has been started in Lon¬
don. It is chiefly affected by theatrical
people.
Miss Wheeler, of Philadelphia, who is
engaged to Count Poppenhein, of Ba¬
varia, is only eighteen years cf age and
very rich.
Panels for dress skirts are in what are
known as Tower Eiffel designs, very
broad at the foot and tapering to nearly a
at the top.
Newly imported costumes of very
silky gray India cashmere are
decorated with silk cord Escu
passementeries.
Miss Joanna Baker has been appointed
to the chair of Greek at Simpson College,
Indianola, Iowa. Her father occupied
the position seventeen years ago.
Shot velvets, figured and plain, and
shot moire ribbons, are likely to be much
used for parts of dresses and of wraps, and
for bonnets and their trimmings.
The velvet brocades introduced this
season for dresses are very beautiful. In
many instances these will be used for the
front breadth only, in others for the
trains.
Long cloaks that drape the figure
loosely and are finished with nearly round
shoulder capes are called Ursuline cloaks,
and come in dark-colored camel’s hair
cloth.
It is predicted that black dresses will
be worn more this winter than they have
of late, and some handsome models are
shown, suitable for both young and elderly
ladies.
Green still remains a favorite color for
dressy street costumes, and there are
many combinations of green with other
colors, notably apricot, peach, Suede and
copper red.
Miss Ying, the daughter of the new
Chinese Minister' to this country, is a
pretty girl of sixteen. She has the
blackest of hair and eyes and a creamy
complexion.
It is predicted that Miss Wanamaker,
daughter of the Postmaster-General, will
be a prominent belle in Washington this
winter. Her good sense and winning
manners are her charms.
Lace hats and bonnets once reserved
for mid-summer are now just the thing
for half-season wear. Flowers or silver
filigree or fine cut steel are the most
stylish ornaments for them.
The insatiate demand for small
presents in silver has met with a wonder
ous variety of patterns in the form of
book marks and envelope openers, which
sell from $1 to $5 a piece.
The “reefer,” in blue, mahogony or
Roman red cloth, will be a popular jacket
for youthful wearers during the entire
autumn, and like models in heavy cloak¬
ing goods are also made ready for winter
uses.
Among the prettiest and neatest ol
traveling garments are long wraps which
completely envelope the person, in striped
silk—usually gray and black. They are
much on the Connemara or peasant cloak
style.
A directory fiend is a woman who fre¬
quents drug stores and other public
places where she can glance over a direc¬
tory and at the same time pose gracefully
for the admiration of strangers. Denver
is this woman’s more particular home.
The desire manifested by the fair sex
for miniature paintings set as brooches
amounts to almost a craze. These paint¬
ings are imported, and leading manufac¬
tures claim that they have difficulty in
mounting demand. them fast enough to supply the
A Contented People.
“The most contented people I saw in
Europe,” says an American traveler,
“were the Austrians, and they are the
most lic libraries intelligent. They have more pub¬
world than any people in the
and they have a good Government
—almost the same an a Republican Gov¬
and ernment. They have a beautiful country
happy a delightful climate, and they look
and contented. ”
The Diplomatic Maiden.
“ Dos’t love me for my wealth or brains?”
He asked the maid with words intense.
To which she made this wise reply:
I love you, dearest, for yw j
—New York Bun.
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.
The amount of water passing over Niag.
ara Falls varies with the height of the
river. Professor Gunning estimates the
average minute. amount of 18,000,000 cubic feet
per
A French manufacturing firm has
brought out a new fabric made of the
fibre of ramie, and called ramie linen,
that is said to combine the qualities of
linen and silk, with double the strength
of linen.'
Hypnotism seems likely to be the com¬
ing fad in London, though certainly it
will be one of a more scientific and
justly interesting character than most of
the subjects of recent popular interest.
A congress of European hypnotists was
recently held in Paris, and was eminent¬
ly successful.
Dr. Edson sums up the etiology of ty¬
phoid fever in the following words:
First, typhoid fever never infects the at¬
mosphere ; second, it never arises de novo;
and third, the causes of the disease, in
order of their frequency, are as follows :
First, infected water; second, infected
milk; third, infected ic£; fourth, digital
infections; fifth, infected meat.
The Babylonian expedition sent out
last year by the University of Pennsylva¬
nia in charge of Dr. John P. Peters dis
.covered the only authentic document
known of Naram-Sin, a King of Niffer,
who reigned 3750 B. C. It is a stamp
made of burned clay, which was used to
stamp on the bricks for his buildings the
name and titles of this ancient monarch.
An antiseptic whiting has been recent¬
ly introduced and is recommended by the
makers for hospitals, ships, stables, ken¬
nels, etc., in order to keep them free
from insects. The compound, which ap¬
peal’s to contain some camphor, is also
useful for cleaning silver plate and arti¬
cles of domestic use. The aroma is said
to be not unpleasant, while the com
pound is non-poisonous and will not in¬
jure colors.
The lightness of snowflakes is the re¬
sult of their surface being so great when
compared with their volume, and is ac¬
counted for in some degree by the large
quantity of air amid their frozen parti¬
cles. Snowflakes contain about nine
times as many volumes of air, entangled,
90 to speak, among their crystals, as they
contain water. Very fine and lightly
deposited snow occupies about twenty
times as much space as water, and is
ten to twelve times lighter than an
equal bulk of that fluid.
It is now claimed that in the construc¬
of boiler furnaces an advantage is
gained by forming the grate out of a
plate, instead of the series of
The perforations aTe placed in
and in vertical section are broader
their lower end than at the upper sur¬
of the plate; the latter may be made
cast or wrought iron, steel, etc., alt
one piece, or of a number of sections;
side by side, and the tapered
may either be circular, square, or
other convenient form.
The slow flapping of a butterfly’s wing
produces no sound, but when the inove
ments are rapid a noise is produced,
which increases in shrillness with the
number of vibrations. Thus the housefly,
which produces the sound F, vibrates its.
wings 20,100 times a minute, or 385
times a second; and the bees, which
makes a sound of A, as many as 26,400)
times, or 400 times in a second. On the
contrary, a tired bee hums on E, and
therefore, according to theory, vibrates,
its wings only 350 times in a second.
A writer in a Buenos Ayres journal re¬
ports having examined the fibre made
from the reeds and rushes of the lowlands:
of the Parana, and finds the textiles
manufactured therefrom to be undistin
guishable from those made of wool or
silk. Blankets, heavy goods for men’s,
wear, feltings and “black silk” dress;
goods are among the articles produced
from the fibre, and are pronounced un¬
rivaled for texture, finish, color and dura¬
bility. Paper pulp is also made by means
of a newly invented process from these
reeds and rushes.
During the Stone age bodies were al¬
ways buried unburned, in a recumbent or
sitting position. By the side of the dead
body was usually laid a weapon, a tool or
some ornaments. We often find in graves
of this period aarthenware vessels, now
filled only with earth. The care be¬
stowed upon the last resting place of the
departed certainly betokens a belief in
the future life; but the things placed by
the side of the dead seem to show that
that life was believed to be merely a con¬
tinuation of the life on earth, with the
same needs and the same pleasures.
(
Animals Recognize Pictures.
Thirty years ago, says a correspondent
at Oxford, England, I was staying at
Langley, near Chippenham, with a lady
who was working a large screen, on which
she depicted in “raised” work (as it vfaa
then called) a life-sized cat on a cushion.
The host, a sportsman now dead, was
much struck with the similarity to life of
the cat, so he fetched his dog (alas! like
too many of the species), a cat-hater.
The animal made a dead set at the
(wool) cat, and, but for the cushion master clutch¬
ing him by the collar, the would
have been tom into atoms. I related this
tale lately in Oxford, and my hearer told
me that a friend in the Bevington road
had just painted a bird on a fire-screen
and her cat flew at it. My own dog,
Scaramouch (apet of the Dukeof Albany’s
in his under-graduate days), disliked
being washed, and when I showed him a
large picture of a child scrubbing a fox-'
terrier in a tub, he turned his head away
ruefully adversity. and would notlook at his brother
in
The Smallest Corn Field.
The smallest corn field in the State of
New York, if not in the whole country,
is in a tenement house window on South
Fifth avenue. It is in a soap box, and
three or four good thrifty stalks are
growing in it. People passing on the •
ing Elevated its growth are greatly and wondering interested in watch¬
when the
crop will be harvested, and whether the
folks will have a bee— -Neio
York Bun. MW”
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