4
V
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Crocfi
cab bap)
Sher
try,
that eagU
The m
Europe &v
e as
UjLoiarned parliailMit,"
Cambild
TeJtkmedparliamlit," held at
Coventry in 1404, wa3 so called be
cause lawyers were excluded from it.
A stranjre fact about the Snake
river in Idaho is that a body drowned
in its waters is never seen or heard of
again.
The loss of life at sea has been in
creasing for the last six years. Of the
otal number of seamen employed one
in sixty lost their lives "by drowning
last year.
The spinning-wheel and hand-loom of
less than a century ago would require
16,000,000 persons to make the cloth
used by our people, which is now manu
factured by 160,000 operatives.
At, a recent execution in Japan it
took thirteen strokes of the sword to
decapitate the criminal. The edge of
the instrument had been purposely
dulled, in order to make the death agony
a3 great as possible.
It was formerly the custom to hold
"feasts of fools" in Paris on the first
day of January, and all manner of
absurdities Avere committed at these
times. The feasts ceased in 1438, hav
ing lasted three centuries and a half.
The origin of the term "catch-penny"
is said to be that after the execution in
London of one Weare for murder, a
publisher named Catchpin printed a
penny ballad entitled, ""We are Alive
Again." When cried on the streets it
sold to the extent of 2,500,000 copies,
the persons buying supposing from the
sound that the ballad had reference to
Weare. It came, therefore, to be spoken
of as a "catch-penny affair."
A new building now in process of
construction in New York has a cellar
which will alone cost, below the floor
beams, about $430,000. Before com
mencing the building the rock upon
the lot was in places twenty-five feet
higher than the grade of the neighbor
ing streets, and all this mass had to be
cleared away before the excavation
proper could begin. The average
depth of the cellar below the curb
stone grade is eleven feet, so that in
many places thirty-six feet of rock
was removed. The building itself
covers 81,000 square feet of land, and
the excavation was carried out under
the sidewalks all around to the curb, a
distance of about fifteen feet. The
cost of the excavation alone is esti
mated at $113,000, and the foundation
walls, concrete, drainage-works and so
on, will be about three times as much'
more. v
Meat fnr th Poor.
It will, perhaps, surprise some peo
pie to hear that there are still agricul
tural villages where the laborers do
not taste a " bite of butcher's meat"
from pne year's end to another. One
such village i3 High Boding, in Essex
if one may judge from an interesting
letter in last week's Guardian. It is
commonly supposed that by the time
beef-tea has been made out of a piece
of meat all the "goodness" has gone,
and the residue is generally sold by thu
London hospitals at a ridiculously low
price to feed pigs. In fact, however,
the extraction of the beef-tea only re
moves such of the " goodness " as is
soluable in water, and the residue, al
though "insipid and not remarkably
digestible," is still "really nutritious."
Most people, by the way, have proba
bly eaten something of the kind to
their cost in the shape of the bouilli,
which Is a standing dish at small
French inns. However, this residue
of beef is highly appreciated down in
Essex, and the first of the laborers who
tasted it exclaimed : "Ah, if I had
some of this every day it would make
a new man of me." The vicar has
now obtained large consignments of
it from some of the hospitals, and it L
eagerly bought by villages at a prico
sufficient to repay the prime charge
and thecost of carriage. What pro
portion of our agricultural population,
one wonders, would be equally glad to
get this husk of meat which has
hitherto been feeding the pigs? Pall
Mall Gazette.
Ella Wheeler says in one of her
poems: " Oh, let me hurry on." You
had better take it easy, Ella. Some of
1 the boys say you are over thirty al
ready. Rochester Express.
J use.
.siL Stephens nad
jhe ridiculous, and
idotes from his own
e hi3 friends. One
ifond of telling oc
service in Congress
nen Senator Edward
L de Sartiges, the French
er, resided in adjacent houses on
treet. One evening, as the guests
invited by M. de Sartiges to a dinner
party arrived, Mr. Stephens came with
them in evening dress. The polite
Frenchman, not having invited the
well-known representative from Geor
gia, asked him if he wished to con
verse with him on any subject.
"No, thank you," replied Mr.
Stephens, who went on chatting with
the other guests.
M. de Sartiges went to his dining
room, told his butler not to announce
dinner until that little gentleman in
the parlor had gone, and returned
there. After waiting a quarter of an
hour, with the full knowledge that hi3
good cheer wa3 being spoiled, he again
approached Mr. Stephens, saying :
"Meestear Steven, would you like to
see me about something?"
" No, sir! No, sirT was the prompt
reply, and, as the disconsolate host
walked away with a gesture of despair,
Mr. Stephens said to a gentleman with
whom he was conversing:
" What does that impertinent little
Frenchman mean by thinking that I
want to talk with him ?"
" That," was the reply, "is our host;
you know, and perhaps he invited you
to have a little chat before dinner."
" Our host!" exclaimed Mr. Stephens,
" why I came here to dine with Sena
tor Everett, of Massachusetts!"
The joke was too good to be kept
quiet, and after Mr. Stephens had left
the guests at the French legation
joined in the roar; he created another
hearty laugh in Mr. Everett's drawing
room next door, where the guests for
another dinner, had been waiting for
his arrival. 'He had gotten into the
wrong house.
Rheumatism.
Acute rheumatism, or rheumatic
fever, i3 mainly a disease cf early life.
There are two varieties of rheumatism
the progressive and the partial.
In progressive rheumatism, it i3 the
smaller joints of the upper extremi
ties generally of the fingers that are
first attacked. In time the disease
extends to other and larger joints
sometimes even to those of the spine
In the first stage there are pain, red
ness, heat and swelling of the affected
joints, and often a spasmodic contrac
tion of the neighboring muscles, caus
ing a permanent distortion. In the
second stage, changes take place
within the joint, resulting in the form
ation of chalk-like excrescences, the
loss of the cartilage which lines the
inner surface, and rendering the end of
the bone hard, like ivory.
In old people the disease is not
confined to them, though much more
common among them the changes
are much slower than in others, and
the movements are less interfered with.
Fortunately, the right hand suffers
less than the left. In time, from pro
longed immobility, there i3 a wasting
of the muscles and the bones. Spas
modic muscular contractions also often
cause the limbs to be drawn perman
ently into various unnatural postures.
Partial chronic rheumatism attacks
only a few joints often a single one
but generally the larger. The pains
are at first slight and vague, and pas3
off when the person is walking, but at
length are severe. The joint becomes
much deformed; motion, however, is
more or less preserved, and the patient
manages to get about. The muscles
are seldom contracted. The disease
does not threaten life. Progressive
rheumatism is much more frequent
in females; partial, in males.
The most common causes are hiving
in damp rooms, insufficient or improper
food, various other diseases, especially
scrofula. Youth's Companion.
" Will you have your eggs scrambled
or poached?" asked a second-grade
hotel waiter of a grangerly-looking
hungry man who sat down to the
table in his overcoat. " Nuther one,'
was the quick reply. "I've been
scrambling around and poaching
through the mud all day myself, and
have got enough of it. I don't want
any of your lively city eggs, anyway
Bring me a sasserful that have never
been sot on, and bile 'em hull." Toledo
Avfvrican.
COUNTING THE CASH.
(law the money In the United States Treas
ury is Counted.
A Washington correspondent de
scribes the interesting process " of
counting the money in the treasury
vaults when a new treasurer takes
possession. A committee appointed
for the purpose superintends the work.
The total volume of money falls into
three main divisions. There is what
is called the cash in the treasury. This
was in round numbers, on the first of
the month, $306,000,000. There is
next the surplus reserve fund,
that is, the supply of treasury
notes received from the bu
reau ot printing and engraving, and
held to furnish banks and sub
treasuries on demand. This money
lay ready for delivery in the custody
of the treasury, but was not included
in the assets of the office. It is esti
mated that there were between $200,
000,000 and $300,000,000 of this money
locked in the treasury vaults. Finally,
there were the bonds held by the
treasury to secure the circulation of
the national banks to an amount of
$400,000,000. Altogether, therefore,
there was a plump billion of money to
be handled. After referring to the
counting of the "loose change," the
correspondent says :
The method of working is simple.
The paper money lies in neatly wrapped
piles in the vaults, with the. amount
of each pile , stated. The band is
removed and the money given
to a counter, who, with deft
fingers, finds the sum and reports
the result. A strict watch i3 kept to
prevent bills slipping up sleeves or
under aprons. If the report of the
counter agrees with the record the
band is put back and an entry made,
and it would have greatly astonished
the committee, no doubt, if a differ
ence had been found and proven
on a second and more careful count.
Probably not one such instance
disturbed the monotony of the
examination, a3 the system of
checks in use renders a false
count in a package delivered to the
treasury almost an impossibility, and
no one hinted that the vaults had been
tampered with. It was compara
tively easy and pleasant to count the
smooth, clean packages of bills, but
when it came to the broken piles of
mutilated returned currency, the com
mittee had a disagreeable time of it.
The custom of the treasury is not to
destroy returned notes of a nationa
bank until they amount to $500 or
multiples thereof, and multilated bills
are sorted and preserved until this unit
of destruction is reached. Hence, as
there are about 2,000 national banks,
each having its little pile of greasy
and torn bills, this feature of the count
was a tedious and disagreeable job.
Another job which the committee
dreaded was the counting of the specie.
The clerks are not accustomed to hand
ling coin and worked slowly and awk
wardly. A few Chinese shroffs might
well have been engaged to attend to
this part of the business. They would
have clinked the dollars off in . short
meter, but the clerks made slow and
clumsy work of it. In many cases,
however, the process was expedited by
a recourse to the scales. A $5,000 bag
of double eagles was counted, for in
stance, then tied up and put in one arm
of the scales and the contents of an
other $5,000 bag of double eagles
turned into the plate on the other arm,
and the sack and cord thrown on the
yellow heap. If the two weights bal
anced it was presumed that the loss
from friction was the same in both and
the figures of value accepted as proven.
The chief bother came from the enor
mous horde of silver dollars and subsi
diary coin.
The birth of an eccentric child in
Turkish Kurdistan is announced by
the Diarbekir newspaper. The infant,
who is an object of interest not un
mingled with alarm to all the neigh
borhood, was born with a beard and
mustache, a perfect set of thirty-two
teeth, and with no fewer than forty
distinctly formed fingers. Its be
havior frpm the moment of its birth
has been far from satisfactory. It is
excessively noisy and violent, and,
owing to the cruel bites it inflicts on
all who come within reach of its
mouth, it has been found necessary to
extract all its front teeth.
Artificial cork has teen invented, and
we shall soon hear of adulterated life pre
servers. Lowell Courier.
Black Men as Lightning Conductors.
The electrical apparatus of Professor
Balrd's expediti6n is very complete.
The search-light is one of the most
novel of the wonderful inventions of
the nineteenth century. , It consists
of three Edison electric lights of six-teen-candle
power each, inclosed in a
hermetically sealed glass case, which
is surrounded by a glass globe, and
capable of resisting the pressure of the
water at a great depth. It is proposed
to sink the lamp and illuminate the
sea by turning on the light. This, it
is expected, will attract the fish, and a
net ten feet in diameter at its mouth
placed below the light will be drawn
at the proper time, and the unknown
fish pf the lower wafers will be caught
"It is an improvement," said one of
the officers of the ship, "on the method
of the Indian who searched the rivers
at night time, with a burning pine-knot
in the bow of his canoe and a spear in
his hand, but the idea is really stolen
from him."
Paymaster Head has the most perfect
arrangements for his work. He will be
able to photograph fish and shells as
soon as they are taken out of the water
by a vertical camera. This is neces
sary, as in some cases the air changes
the form of some of the curiosities of
the sea. The sea water will also be
brought to the surface from any depth
desired for analyzation. During the
trip of the Albatross, an arc light has
been first successfully operated on an
Edison circuit, and an invention has
been completed for lighting the surface
of the sea, which will be useful for
signaling and for the prosecution of
all kinds of work at night. Philadel
piiia Press.
Our First Great Writer.
To chis period, between the years
1789 and 1815, Washington Irving
our first eminent name in terature,
belongs. This is not the place to enter
into an analysis of Irving's genius,
but it may be fairly said that while
in feeling he was a thorough Ameri
can, in literature he was a cosmopoli
tan. His easy style, the tinge of ro
mance, and the mingling of the story
teller and the antiquarian remind us
of his great contemporary, Walter
Scott. In his quiet humor and gentle
satire, we taste the flavor of Addison
In the charming legions with which he
has consecrated the beauties of the
Hudson river valley, and thrown over
that beautiful region the warm bight
of his imagination, we find the gen
uine love of country and of home. In
like manner we perceive his. historical
taste and his patriotism in the last
work of his life, the biography of his
great namesake. But he wrought as,
well with the romance of Spain and
England. He was too great to be
colonial ; he did not find enough food
for his imagination in the America of
that day to be thoroughly American.
He stands apart, a great gift from
America to English literature, but not
a type of American literature itself
He had imitators and friends, whom
it had beeni the fashion to call a school,
but he founded no school, and died as
he had lived, alone. He broke through,
the narrow trammels of colonialism
himself but the colonial spirit hung
just as heavily upon the feeble litera
ture about him. Atlantic Monthly.
There is a curious, clock in the
cathedral at Lubeck, Germany. On
the end of the hour hand there is a
little clock which keeps exact time
with the big clock. This little time
piece of course goes round and round
the larger dial, and reminds one of a
"wheel within a wheel." . In a Swiss
museum there is a watch that is only
three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter.
It is inserted in the top of an old-fashioned
pencil case, such as our grand
mothers used to possess. Its little
dial not only indicate hours, minutes
and seconds, but also days of the
month. 9
The Gigantic association is the name
of an organization of heavy weights at
New Haven, Conn. Requirements for
membership are a weight of 220 pounds
and a circumference about the chest of
forty-five inches. The members must
also be at least five feet and eleven
inches in height One of the movers in
the enterprise weigns 225 pounds.stands
five feet eleven in his stockings, and
measures forty-five inches at the chest.
Another member is six and a half feet
tall and weighs 252 pounds, while a
third member weighs nearly : 850
pounds. ,
FUN.
The patient tack will stand on Its'
head a week waiting for the coming
bare foot. c
An Elmira man claims to have
buried twenty wives. He is a grave
digger, and they were not his own.
A boy says in bis composition that
"Onions are the vegetable that make
you sick when you don't eat them
youself."
The great question of the day at
present is how to wear a high all
round collar and still be able to sneeze
hard without cutting your throat
Puck.
A boy who will yell like a Tartar if
a drop of water gets on his shirt band
when his neck is being washed can
crawl through a sewer after a ball and
think nothing of it.
The Emperor William says he feels
no older now than he did forty years
ago. However, when he is called on
to put up a clothes-line, or to chop an
armful of wood, he feels the fleeting;
years.
An Eastern merchant who never ad
vertised was found lying dead on the
counter in his store recently. It is
thought the body had lain there for
several days before being discovered.
Duluth Tribune.
"Yes," said she, with tears in her
ejfes, "in his qualities of head and
heart dear George is always the same."
Then, after a moment's lapse into
dreamland, she added: " He is so soft
hearted, dear fellow. News-Letter.
An Elmira man has contracted to
supply an Eastern firm with 1,000,000
broom handles. And yet it is necessary
to introduce the whipping post in
several States for the punishment of
wife-beaters t Norristown Herald.
Tattooing.
A St Louis reporter asked a tattoo '
artist in that city: " What would you.
charge to tattoo me from head to
foot?"
"Between $300 and $400 say $300.
I would charge more for tattooing a
woman, because it would take longer;
You look as if you could stand punish
ment, and I believe I could put you
through in four or five months; but
everybody cannot take it in heavy
doses- If a man's health were not to
be taken into consideration, the job
could be done in three ,or four weeks.
The best, however, that could bet at all t
expected under the circumstances
would be three months; the average
time required is nine months. This
period is necessary on account of the
rest3 that must be given. Say I tattoo "
your arm put eight or nine pictures
on it to-day well, it will be sore for a
week and during that time I could do
no work- But I would undertake to
decorate you in less than nine months
for $300. It would take fully a year
to tattoo a woman properly. I don't
suppose any of these women on exhi
bition are tattooed except on their arms
shoulders and legs."
While the artist talked he went on.
with his work. . He took the reporter's
arm and with pen and India ink. first .
drew the picture of a ballet girl
making the figure about four inches
high ; every detail of the drawing was
carefully filled out, and the picture
looked quite perfect when he put the
pen aside. But the work was only
begun. Mixing some Chinese vermilion
with water, he now had two colors to
select from. Producing what seemed
to be a lead pencil, he dipped the point
in the India ink and the first jab he
gave the arm informed the reporter of
the character of the instrument in the
artist's hand. When examined it
proved to be five fine needles bound in
a line on the round bit of pencil-shaped
wood. About an eighth of, an inch oi
the needles was exposed. Dipping the
arrayed points in the ink, the artist
pricked the skin along the lines made
in the pen-drawing, and by constant
dipping and pricking, using now the
India ink and again the Chinese red,
as the picture called for either color,
in three-quarters of an hour the ballet
girl was finished and the reporter paid
a dollar for the job. The work was
cleverly done, and the needles gave
only the slightest pain, and but once
was there a sight of blood' above the
5S3R9 f tie ink. The needles are
t&4 &t&i stnight into the flesh ; tt
Instrument is held lightly in the opera
tor's hand, at an angle with th$ skin
surface. Instead of prodding, the
points are gently inserted and the
skin fibers opened out so as to. receive,
the ink.