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About Southwest Oregon recorder. (Denmark, Curry County, Or.) 188?-18?? | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 1884)
CLIPPINGS FOB THE CURIOUS. The census shows the odd fact that the majority of people's ages are at even numbers. It is said that in sonde parts of California and Nevada, where water is scarce, the machinery of large mills is driven by having sand instead of water propel the overshot wheels. The hair is the least destructible part of. our bodies. In Egypt it has been known to survive four thousand years, and bids fair to outlive the pyra mids. There are but three coloring pigments belonging to it : yellow, red, and black. The mixture of these pro duces all the known shades. The birthplace of George "Washing ton is at the inner side of a peninsula having for its water boundary Mattox creek, the Potomac river, and Pope's creek. The house in which Washing ton was born stood on a projection which is now called Burnt House point. A road leads down to Bridge Creek landing, a little less than two miles distant, where, it is probable, a steamboat wharf will be built, in order that tlie spot may be more easily accessible. People know a great deal more about bees than they 'did once, and they are still learning. Though the bee has long been a type of the industrious worker, there are few people who know how much labor the sweet hoard of the hive represents. Each head ol clover contains about sixty distinct flower tubes, each of which contains a portion of sugar not exceeding the five hundredth part of a grain. The proboscis of the bee must therefore be inserted into 500 clover tubes before one grain of sugar can be obtained. There are 7000 grains in a pound, and as honey contains three-fourths of its weight of dry sugar, each pound of honey represents 2,500,000 clover tubes sucked by bees. Habits of Smokers. ' Inveterate smokers do funny things. Carlyle smoked up the chimney with a degree of thoughtfulness for the feel ing of others not universal in his con duct, and the famous Bishop Burnet, who like many another author found composition faciliated by puffings of seductive weed, disliking the interrup tion of removing his pipe constantly while he was writing, in order to com bine the two operations with due com- fort to himself bored a hole through the broad brim of his large hat and' putting his large pipe through it puffed and wrote, and wrote and puffed with the most philosophical calm. The increase in the sale of pipes within the last ten years is astounding. They are now manufactured in immense quantities in New York city. The polishing of meerschaum pipes affords profitable occupation for girls who, after learning the business, can real ize 8 or 10 a week with ease. New York Mail-Express. The Philosophy of It. "I do hate to have a husband whc lowances me every time I want to buy anything." said Mrs. Slimms. "When I tell Slimms .that J want a little change to go shopping with he don't hem and haw as some men do. He just takes out his pocket-book and says, 'Certainly, my dear; how much do you want, a five or a ten ? " "And what do you say?" asked Mrs. Smith. "Oh, I never say anything. He gives me the money right off without wait ing for me to answer.' "Anu bow much does he give you?' "A dollar generally unless he has some change handy. But it isn't the amount that I care so much about. It is the readiness with which he re sponds to my request that makes me think o much of him." Hew to Select Flour. In selecting flour first look to the color. If it is white with a yellowish straw color tint, buy it. Ii it is white with a blueish cast or with black specks in it, refuse it Next examine its adhesiveness wet and knead a lit tle of it between your fingers; if it works, soft and sticky, it is poor. Then throw a little lump of dried flour against a smooth surface; if it falls like pewder, it is bad. Lastly, squeeze some of the flour tightly in your hand; if it retains the shape given by the pres sure, that, too, is a bad sign. It is safe to buy flour that will stand al these tests. These modes are given by all old flour dealers, and they pertain to a matter that concerns everybody. Animal Fascination. ' Is there not a good deal of nonsense about the wonderful fascination that poets and authors have from time im memorial attached to the snake tribe? They possess the peculiar charming power similar to that exhibited by tho cat which eats up the canary, we are told, and the animal falls at once by a sort of magnetism into the fangs of death. Any one who has seen the snakes fed ! at the Zoo, and. those who have not, certainly seen the doves placidly roosting on the boa con strictor's body as he lays coiled on the sandy floor of his cage, must have noticed how perfectly at home the birds seem to be. The snake kills the bird not by any fascination, but by activity. Animals, such as rabbits or rats, put into a cage with a snake run over their bodies, smell inquiringly at their noses and sometimes proceed to nibble theii bodies. Put a rabbit in a cage with a puff adder, and they both exhibit the most remarkable indifference. When the rabbit is dropped from above right on to the body of the snake every one would expect it to be eaten at once. Not so. He runs all around the cage, passing over the snake's body several times, seeking some outlet to escape. Then' he quietly smells the reptile's nose, and sitting down directly in front of him proceeds to wash his face and ears. Birds hop on the bodies of snakes with perfect freedom, and sparrows fre quently sit on the body . of a snake by the hour. A guinea-pig has been known to go to sleep in the coils of an Australian diamond snake. Ducks and pigeons sometimes eye the snake with suspicion, but so they do human beings who come to look at them. The truth is the fascination business has been overdone. It is a worthy ex ample of the persistency of superstition. Almost every literature in the world alludes by way of metaphor to the fas cinating powers of snakes. Woman's Work In a Mint. The San Francisco Chronicle says that fifty females employed in the mint in that city are called adjusters and their pay is $2.75 a day, counting week days and all holidays but Sundays. Their hours are from 8 o'clock in the morn ing until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, with the exception of Saturdays, when they cease at 2 o'clock. These ad justers occupy two large rooms on the second floor of the mint One is used for the adjusting of silver and the other for that of gold. The floors are carpeted,and each lady had a marble top table, a pair of scales, and a fine, delicate file. Before the gold is turned over to them to be adjusted it goes through the process of being rolled, annealed, cut, and washed. They then take it in a state called "bldiiks," that is, perfectly smooth, and the weighing is done. It is weighed to see if each piece be of standard weight, which must be 412 J grains for a silver dollar, a slight discrepancy being al lowed on either side. If a coin is found outside of the limit after being weighed by the adjuster it is returned ; if too light it is condemned and it must be remelted ; if too heavy it is filed to its proper weight This is the ladies work, and an interesting sight it is to watch the small white fingers deftly handling the shining pieces. A room near the adjusting-room has been set aside for the ladies, who use it as a lunch-room ; two long tables are pro vided and a janitress furnishes hot water for making tea, and also keeps the place neat and clean. Several of the ladies have been in the mint for a number of years. Fruits of Advertising. A prominent business firm in one of our leading cities, who have grown rich by liberally patronizing the print er, give to their fellow merchants the following concerning advertising : "We have for many years studied the art of advertising, and still it re mains a marvel to us that there is not a hundred times more of it We never yet knew a man to advertise his wares liberally and steadily that it did not pay. Yet there are thousands of manufacturers and tens of thousands of men, having articles which they declare ought to be 'in every household in the country,' who advertise as gingerly and closely as though they had at heart no faith at all. How can they expect to get their goods anywhere unless some knowledge of the article first gets in the family newspaper? If we waited till people learned from their neighbors, we might wait for years before the most wonderful and useful invention became known." PE1BLS OF THOUGHT. Dost thou .love life, then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. The claims of habit are generally too small to be felt till they are too strong to be broken " . The proper way to check slander is to despise it; attempt to overtake and refute it, and it will outrun jou. People who do not care do not say so. The soldier who is not afraid never boasts that he fears no ball. There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow-creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort. Duty is a power which rises with us in the morning and goe3 to bed with us at night It is co-extensive with the action of our intelligence. The primary use of knowledge is for such guidance of conduct in all circum stances as shall make living complete. a n ot.hr use of knowledge are secon dary. Like most garments, everything in life has a right and a wrong side. You can take any joy, and by turning it round, find troubles on the other side; or, you take the greatest trouble, and by turning it round, find joys on the other side. The gloomiest mountain never cast a shadow on both sides at once. Habits of Ostriches The editor of the Anaheim (Cal) QazetU has been viewing the, ostriches on a ranch near Costa Station. He says: "The female lays an egg on alter nate days to the number of fifteen. when, if permitted to set, she considers her work done. If, however, her eggs are taken from her, she will lay thirty before she discovers the deception. And such eggs! The one showed us weighs three and a half pounds, and contains food sufficient to furnish a plentiful breakfast for four men. One would suppose that the flavor of such eggs would be unpleasantly pronounced. Such is not the case, however, the flavor not being so decided as that of duck eggs. What school-boy has not read of the ostrich egg, and of its be ing hatched in the hot sun of Africa's sunny shore? But this pretty little legend, like many other cherished stories of the past, is all gammon. The chicks are broughtforth in the good old way. The female sits on the eggs in the day time, and the male assumes that duty at night, allowing the female to seek rest and recreation while he at tends to the household duties. It must be noted here that the .male is much more solicitous for his household than is the female. It not pnf requently' happens that the latter prefers to gad about rather than take her turn at set ting, and on such occasions her lord and master administers to her a deserv ed chastisement by kicking her heartily around the paddock, until she manifests proper contrition, and signifies' her willingness to settle down on the eggs. There is a moral somewhere about this incident which, when found, make a note of." Tigged Women. A New York correspondent, writing about fashionable women who wear wigs, says: There are still more curL ous wigged women in Xew York, how ever, though they are not fashionable. They constitute an overwhelming ma jority in several,, east side streets. One's first view of them is an astonish ing revelation. Here is the world's greatest market for hair restorer, for fully nine in ten of all the women who stood in the doors of the tenement houses, or helped to fill the sidewalk, wore the most obvious of imaginable wigs flat, lusterless, wholly undecep tive wigs. Nevertheless, it is true that these women were bald only be cause they had shaved their heads. They ranged in age from less than two score to more than three score and ten! but the younger ones were made by their disfiguring wigs to lgok. double their real age. All this was a religious sacrifice of attractiveness. They were Polish Jewesses, and therefore adher ents in the minutest details of ortho dox Jewish law. They all cut off their hair and don wigs on their marriage day, and will keep themselves close clipped as long as they live. The cus tom is ancient Judaism, but it i3 ob served in this country only by the Poles, who regard the fashionable and. frizzled Bach els and Rebeccas as sin ners in the highest decree. Trained to Hnnt Game. In Florida the writer had an ac quaintance an ancient fisherman, noi too sprightly withal who possessed two tame pelicans that he had brought up from the nest, As catching bail was somewhat of a laborious task, thi old man frequently attached a leathei strap about the birds necks, and thej invariably came back with pouches dis tended with fish that they were unable to swallow and would not give up, anc that were wrested from them by theii owner, who, be it said to his credit al ways gave the birds a fair share of the snappers and barracondas caught with the bait of their collecting. In former years, to a considerable extent the otter was used to fish, th animals being trained when cubs, and trained at first with leather fishes, sc that they would fetch like a dog Though not used exactly in hunting live game, a large lizzard found in the Nile country has been put to a curious use. The animal is extremely power ful, using its claws to great advantage and a band of robbers being aware ol this and having no ladder wherewith to reach the lattice of a second storj window, secured a large one. Tht great lizzard was placed against th' rough wall, head toward the desired epot and instantly it began crawling up, eventually hauling the robbers safely up, who were clinging to his tail. A very good story, if not true, and perhaps possible, as these large liz izards have been known to drown large janimals in crossing the Nile. In England and too often in thu country the ferret is often used i hunting the rabbit, while the expert rat-catchers of this country value them as important adjuncts in their mysteri ous business. In the Carribean sea some of the fishermen use a fish, the remora, in the capture of turtles. Tha fish is the well known attendant upon the shark, having a disc-like sucker upon its head, with which it clings to large fishes. The extent to which this labor-saving arrangement is used is shown in the fact that the upper side of the fish, that in others is gener ally dark, is light, and the under side, dark. So powerful is the sucker that fifteen or twenty pounds can be lifted by taking the fish by the tail, and by playing in the water a large turtle can be caught The fishermen take the re moras out in a tub of water in their boats, and have a leather strap attach ed to a long line that is fitted about the fish's tail. At the approach of a turtle the fish is tossed over, and re- iembering its old friend, or. instinct ively, it attaches itself, and so the rep tile, often towing the boat, is gradually brought alongside aud subdued, and the remora placed in the tub to await a second appearance. The remoras attain a length of a foot and a half, and attend sharks and turtles, and have also been seen about a large por- gie. N. Y. Evening Post. The Ileal Home. The real home is in the country and it is something more than a dwell ing; the field and trees around it are part of it, and the views from it of the landscape, and of distant "moun tains, perhaps, make it unlike any other place in the world. The country home with its fixity of surroundings, has usually some measure of perman ence, and the social life formed there is under the favorable conditions of old family associations. Some have the happy condition of living in the home of their fathers, and are sur rounded with objects of precious mem ory, daily mementoes of parental af fection and instruction. The home which it makes is the best thing of farm life. There 'is a necessity of permanence, and as there is no sudden or great accumulation o wealth, or large increase, the family is free from that discontent which us ually comes with sudden or great ac quisition. It i3 one of the compensa tions of their condition that the farm er's family is in that "fixity of sur roundings" which favors their highesJ culture. Country Gentleman. Assuming that the . migration ol 1883 will equal that of 1882 and 1881, these three years, it is estimated will give the United States not less than two hundred and fifty thousand Ger man farmers and mechanics, and over fifty million dollars of German money. ' .Little men are beneath boasting; great men are above it ' . SCIENTIFIC SCRIPS. Incandescent electric lamps are used in the carriage lamps of Baron Roths child, of Vienna. Storage batteries placed under the coachman's seat are said to be capable of carrying a charge of electricity sufficient to feed the lamps for one hundred hours. M. Charles Monti ray, of Brussels. has noticed that not only does the aurora borealis increase the scintit lation of stars as other observers have noted but that magnetic dis turbances produce the same effect evert when accompanied by no visible auro ra. The influence is strongest for stars? In the north. Recently one man was taken very ill and another died from the effects of handling poisoned hides. There is no reason why hides should not convey senous and fatal diseases, like clothing. " Some years ago, says the Scientific American, "an importer of hides in New York died from the effects of a bite or sting of a fly which inhabited the loft where hi3 hides were stored.' There are reports from several parts of Sweden of a hitherto unknown and very destructive kind of caterpillar? which is giving a great deal of trouble; to the farmers and anxiety to tho whole population. It is gray-brown with deep gray stripes; its appearance is most common after rain. Its work on the crops has been so serious as to demand the assistance of the gov eminent The opinion is said to be gaining ground among metallurgists, that whatever mechanical strength is de sirable, an alloy is preferable to pure metal One of the greatest obstruc tions to the mechanical value of iron is its tendency to crystallizethe result being the same whether the article be a monster gun or a ship's cable. But this tendency of iron to crystallize may be prevented by the admixture of other metals. ' Prof. Proctor asserts that the moon has grown, old six times as fast as the earth, a comparison of the masses and radiating surfaces of the two bodies making if evident that the earth's internal heat was originally sufficient to last six times as long as the moon's supply. On the very moderate as sumption, therefore, that only twelve millions of years have passed since the earth' and the moon were at the same stage of planetary life, this astrono-' mer shows us that sixty millions of years must elapse before the earth will have reached the stage of life through which the moon is now pass ing. Japanese Object Teaching. The teachers at the school for the sons of Japanese nobles in Tokio ap pears to 1 have hit upon a notable method of teaching physical geogra-. phy. In the court behind the school building is a physical map of the country, between 300 and 400 feet' long. It is made of turf and rock and is bordered with pebbles, which look at a little distance much like water. Every inlet, river and mountain is re produced in this model with a fidelity, to detail which is wonderf uL Latitude and longitude are indicated by tele-; graph wires, and tablets show the po sition of the cities. Ingenious devices; are employed in' illustrating botanic? studies also. For4 example the pine is' illustrated by a picture showing the cone, leaf and dissected flower, set in a frame which shows the bark and lon gitudinal and transverse sections of the wood. Nature. Half Worm and Hair Snake. The mountains furnish many strange forms of life which the dry, hofrvalleys never develop. Old rotten pine logs seem to be the favorite nest of a loath some creature which is half-way be-' tween a worm and a snake. It is usually a foot long and nearly an inch in diameter, with a head like a snake, and a clumsy, blunt tail. It is of a1 dead color, between a dirty green and; a brown, without spots or stripes; It is slow of movement cold and clam-, my to the touch, and seems to be more of a jelly than bone and muscle. It is. regarded as harmless, and the woods men pick it up and handle it careless ly. Virginia City (Nev.) Enterprise, Cardiff, Wales, is to have another dock which will cover thirty-five acres and cost the marquis of Bute $2,500,000. The Bute family have in vested over $12,000,000 in docks.