Democratic Press, Volume 2, Number 62, Decatur, Adams County, 19 December 1895 — Page 3

the travels of sound. A sun** Vulva lleartl at a lllatanra at KlghteM Mil**. An inquiry wm recently made In London n» to the greateat distance at which K num'* re* l * could bo heard, leaving of coiirae the telephone out of conalderatioit. The reply, aay« Harper’* Round Table* "a* nM * t interesting, and mux aa follow*: Eighteen mile* la the diatanoe on record at which u man’* voice baa been heard. Thiaoccurred In the Grand canyon of the Colorado, when one shouting the name "Bob” at one end hie voice wna plainly hoard at the other end, which la eighteen milea away. Lieut. Footer, on Parry a third arctic expedition, found that hr could converae with a man acroaa the harbor of I’ort Bowen, a dlutnnce of alx thouaand R lx hundred and ninety-six feet, or ul>out one mile and a quarter, and Sir John Franklin said that hr concerned with caw at a diataneeof more than a ni ||e. Dr. Young record* that at Gibraltar the human voice haa been heard at a distance of ten milea. Sound haa remarkable force in water. Colladon. by experiment* made in the luvkc of Geneva, estimated that a bell submerged in the sen might be heard a distance of more than sixty milea. Franklin say* that he heard the striking together of two stones in the water half a mile away. Over water or a surface of ice sound is propagated with great clearness and strength. Ur. Hutton relates that on a quiet j>art of the Thames, near Chelsea, he could hear a person read distinctly at the distance of one hundred and forty feet, while on the land the same could only I* heard seventy-six feet. Prof. Tyndall, when on Mont Blanc, found the re|>ort of a pistol shot no louder than the pop of a champagne bottle. Persons lu a balloon can hear voices from the earth a long time after they themselves are inaudible to people below. POSY RINGS. Font of 1 Posies Are Very ynslnt and Curious. When jiosiea inside of wedding rings were first introduced does not seem to be known, says Chambers’ Journal. Time has covered that, us he does so many things, with the mosses of oblivion, but we know that from the sixteenth century until the middle of the eighteenth it was customary to have them engraved on rings. These posies or mottoes are seldom to be found with more than two lines of verse, and often with only one, but there are few instances known where three lines are used. Some of these jiosies are very quaint and curious, and a fewreach a 1 igh standard of poetic beauty. In 1642 a small collection of rhymes was pub shed with the title of "Love’s Garland; or Posies for Rings, Handkerchiefs and Gloves,and Such Pretty-To-kens That Lovers Send Their loves." It contains some posies that are not to be met with elsewhere, and is a very interest ing work, though but few people seem to have heard of it. The South Kensington museum has a good collection of posy rings, and among them we find the following: “United hearts death only parts,” “Let us share in joy and care,” “Love and live happily.” There is a story to the effect that Dr. John Thomas, who was bishop of Lincoln in 1753, caused to be inscribed inside his fourth wife's wedding ring: •■ls I survive I'll mske them five " If this be true, ami not the fable it appears, we can only judge that the lady w ho wore the ring meant to outlive her spouse. How the story arose is not known, but roost likely it is all imagination, for we find the same thing said about Lady Cathcart and her fourth husband in 1713. SHE USED THE PASS. The Ingenious Scheme of a Woman on a Train. A genial Chicagoan, who for obvious reasons does not cure to have his name printed on this occasion, secured a parlor car scat on an express train for Indianapolis a few days ago and as he was shout to |>ass through the gates was surprised to hear himself accosted in feminine tones with the somewhat startling question: “Please, mister, could I borrow you for awhile?” Looking around he found two buxom women, who hesitatingly explained that they were riding on a pass made out in the name of a gentleman and his wife, and as the gentleman was not present, they wanted the genial-looking citizen to place his bought ticket at the dis[>osal of one lady, nnd take the other one under his wing while he personated the absent owner of the pass. “Which is my wife?” he inquired, with an inward qualm lest his own absent better half should ever hear the Story. “You can take your choice, sir,” said the lady in search of an escort, and he promptly did so by taking the arm of the younger fair one under his own and leading iier into the car. The couple proved to be right jolly traveling companions and the citizen's only re gret in the transaction was due to a fear that the story might leak out and get home ehead of him. A Faulty Deduction. “There’s a great deal in this sdense of deduction,” said an ardent admirer of Sherlock Holmes to a chance acquaintance on the rear platform of a trolly C ar. “For instance, I see from your bronzed cheeks that you h ive just returned from a long vacation, you have just dined, for you appear to enjoy that cigar hugely, and a cigar always has finer flavor after dinner.” “Deduction, is it?" said he whose family history the original Sherlock would have known at a single glance. "Well, I ain’t Imd no vacation, and I ain’t had ho dinner. Pm a bricklayer—been ork-ing for three weeks on the top of j ''e-story building, and I’m friends ‘ h this cigar becauaaJ’m uster smok- . B J* P®' Bn( l It’ B the first rope I’ve ought for eight years. Boe?”

RULES OF THE ROAD. xom.thlus nt lnl*r*al to AU VbMllHet ompllanc. In.ur*. R*f*ty. The rules of the road should be rigidly obM-rved, alike by cyclists and riders nnd drivers of nil kind*. Outside of the matter of safety, the most vital one connected with these rule* of the rood, there I* the element of courtesy, of course, but for the consideration of safety of life nnd limb, now with the advent of the bicycle and the horseless carriage, the rule* of the road ought to teccive strict attention at the hand* of, nu<l !>e rigidly observed by all riders und drivers, says Cycling. The law In many slates clearly defines that carriages, wagons, carta, sleighs, sled*, bicycles, tricycle* and all other vehicles must, when in motion, keep to the right A person driving is very properly required to have the left wheel* of hi* vehicle on the right of the center of the street in other word*, this law is an authoritative adoption of the old motto: "Fair play and half the road.” While bicycle* are included a* enjoying this privilege, and horaenien are required to extend to them the same courtesy they would another vehicle drawn by horses, a similar restriction is put U|>ou wheelmen and wheelwomen. They, too, must turn to the right. If they fail to do so, and a collision occurs, they have no one but themselves to hold legally accountable. THE NAME OF "MURPHY." A* Irish Clergyman Krpu.llat** It la Favor of th.- O'Morchoe.” England ho* done many wrongs to Ireland, but one of the worst of them ha* only just come to light. It seems, says London Truth, thst we have ntolen from the Irish the ancient name of O’Morcboe. and substituted for it a base English counterfeit in the shape of “Murphy.” At last one of the family. Rev. Thoma* Arthur MacMurrough Murphy, rector of Kilternan, ha* determined to have back the ancient family property. He now advertises through the pres* he ha* for and on behalf of himself, his children and descendants renounced, relinquished and abandoned “my said newer or Anglicized, but hitherto always by me used, name of Murphy, and that instead thereof he revives his ancient and true name of O'Morchce. Long may he live to rejoice in the recovery of his lost property! ProKbly when once they realize that they are only Anglicized O'Morchoes we shall have the whole of the great Murphy family throughout the United Kingdom, to say nothing of the colonies and the United States, following the lead of Rev. Thomas Arthur MacMurrough. There is an humble article of diet (also Anglicized) which 1 have heard spoken of a* a ‘murphy.’’ Ought we to call that an O’Morchoe, too? HOW TO LIVE LONG. Marrtag. I. th. Fmrrlpttoii of a Dlstlnguiahrd Berlin Physician. Some curious figures have lately been made public by a celebrated Berlin physician, which seem to point to the fact that if a man wants to live long and preserve his health and strength he ought to marry. Among unmarried men between the ages of 30 and 45, says Spare. Moments, the death rate Is 27 per cent. Among married men between the same ages it is only 18 per cent. For 41 bachelors who live to be 40 years of age, 78 married men triumphantly arrive at the same period. The difference gets all the more marked as time goes on. At 60 years of age there arc only 22 bachelors to 48 married men; at 70 there are 11 bachelors to 27 who were married, and by the time they reach 90 the married men are three to one, for there are nine of them to every three bachelors! And yet. In the face of facts like these, we still find men daring to remain single! It really is as much as their lives are worth, if they only come to think of it. Men may talk of their lives being shortened by domestic worries and anxieties and cares. That is all rubbish. Statistics must tell the truth, and these statistics of the Berlin doctor say that the man who is a bachelor stands in far greater risk of a shortened span. DOES WEALTH DISPEL LOVE? ▲ Woman Who Her ma to Think That It Don—ller Comment. “Did nobody ever tell you that in some far prehistoric time I was in love with my husband?” said Mrs. Romaine, carelessly, in a story in the Century, “Well, I was. I used to go to afternoon services in Lent and pray for that love to last, because the sensation was so much to my taste. 1 used to have ecstatic feelings when his foot was on the stair and I sat sewing little baby clothes. We lived in a plainish way then; three dollars spent in two theater tickets was a tremendous outlay, and we walked to our dinners, I tucking up the train of my best gown under a long cloak, and laughing if the wind snatched it away from me at the corners nnd whipped it around my feet. Then he grew richer, and we broadened the borders of our phylactery, and then —how —wheu—dear knows if I can remember, we grew further and further away from each other. Now, when he is at home I am aware of IL because he is there behind a newspaper, but that is all I When our lips meet it is like two pieces of dry pith coming together. I know nothing of his affairs, nor he of mine. I have money in abundance. Money —money —who cares for money when a man's heart and soul and brain have gene into it?” O* * I.*r(. Real.. The largest of fruit plantation* in Jamaica ore owned and operated by an American company. It cultivates 44.000 acres, 28,000 of which it owns and 16,000 of which it leases. The principal crops are bananas and cocoanuts. Last year it shipped 3,000,000 bunches of banana* and 5,000,000 cocoanuts, besides other fruit, to America and elsewhere, employing 11 steamers, which the company owns.

NOT ACCORDING TO HOYLE. I* Till. I*»k»r llama >» Ac Full H**i Four*. There km n game of draw |*>ker played tin the bunk of the buy. near the I’lttHburgh docks quite recently, *ny* the Erie Dispatch, which an eyewitness would like to have referred to some authority an the game for decision u* to the value of a “hand.* Two white men were playing und a colored man cuine along und wanted to set in with them, w hich wu* promptly agreed to, a* "soft snaps" are not picked up every day, mid u jack pol»M soon opened by one of the white men on a puirof Jack*. No. 2 dropped out. The negro stayed, for a glance at hi* hand showed three ace*. In the "draw" he was given a pair of ten*. The otter man drew three cards, and In the three wa» one more pair of Jack*. Then the betting grew lively until the jmt held sl2, and aa the white man had no more cash to bet he was forced to "call." “I’se gut a full hand; three ace* and a pair o’ ten*." "No good," *aid the other; “1 have four jacks," showing them as he did so. "No good, eh?" said the negro, nnd with the word* out came, a razor, the blade flying o;>en a* he produced It, and he made a sweep that caused both white men to back up, grabbed all the money und staited up the hill, from which he shouted back: "Say, a full on ace* an' a razor beat* four*, don't they?" TOOK HIM AT HIS WORD. Inatrart*** Sometimes Find Their Fnplls Apt In Taking Adrie*. A good joke is told on one of the staff of the Ohio medical college, says the Cincinnati Times-Star. In a lecture to the student* he advised them when they came to practice to always carry in their buggies a standard text-book, which they could consult when in doubt a* to the proper course of treatment. He said they could excuse themselves from a patient on the pretext that they wished to see if their horse wa* standing or that they had left some particular medicine in th* buggy. The students were very attentive. A few day* later one of them could not answer some pretty tough questions, and when the doctor expressed surprise he grubbed a textl>ook and said in a measured tone: "Excuse me, doctor, I fear my horse is not standing. 1 hitched him in a hurry 1 o get by your side." He then ret rested to the hallway, found the answers to the hardest questions, and, returning, answered them all correctly. The doctor appreciated the situation and was relieved when the student’s ruse did not become contagious. THEY DRINK RED INK. Fiet Perce Indiana Fee Red Ink aa * Substitute for Liquor. The Nez Perce Indian is not averse to a little fun In his stolid way, says the Spokane Outburst. The prevailing idea as to just what fun means held by a great many of these Indians Is getting filled up with white man's whisky. Os course the government does not allow the sale of liquor to the Indians, but all the same the Indians find ways of getting liquor, and when they can't get it they resort to lemon extract and red ink. The Indian who discovered the lemon extract was good to drink and intoxicating is now looked upon by his fellows as a hero w hose only rival is the Siwash who found out that red ink contained 90 per cent, alcohol and ten per cent, medicine to “make Injun sick.” The Indian agent has seen fit to warn storekeepers against selling more than one bottle of lemon extract or four bottles of red ink to any one Indian, and the Indian who tried an admixture of alkali water and squirrel poison is now hunting buffalo with his forefathers. ARTISTIC IN ALL THINGS. Showed Taste Even When Painting III* Wife with lodine. A famous landscape painter had to call in a doctor to see his wife, who w as suffering from bronchitis. After he had examined the patient, says TitBits, the doctor recommended the husband to take a small brush, dip it in tincture of iodine and slightly paint the lady's back with it. The artist took up the brush and, after dipping it in the tincture, proceeded to carry out the doctor’s prescription. But his artistic temperament soon got the better of hl* sick nursing qualities. Mistaking his wife’s back for a canvas, Instead of simply applying the lotion he sketched outM landscape, and gradually peopled it with figures and put in all the details complete. The patienL finding the operation a rather lengthy one, asked her husband if he had finished. And the latter, receding a few steps to examine his work, replied: "Another dip or two and then 1 can put it in the frame.” Oneida Lake's Many Mantee. Some one with a taste for historic research has been compiling a list of appellations by which Oneida lake, as It is now known, has in the past been distinguished. The Onondaga tribe of Indians called it Seughka, signifying that it was striped with blue and white lines —an interpretation that can best be appreciated from a commanding position on one of the surrounding hills. Jesuit* knew it as Luc Techtroguen des ()n---neiouts, while Charlesoix culled it Konoaloko, und Maclieu terr cd it On idaliogo. In 1667 Greenhalghciirlstened ItTsisoqui, and on an old map in the secretary of state's office it is designated us Culiungbage. A Natural Bridge Fler. One of the oddest bridge "bents," or piers, in this country is to be found iu Sonoma county. Cal. Two large redwood trees growing side by side, support the. timbers und rails of a bridge which crosses u small ravine or creek at a place where the roadbed is 75 feet above the water. Californians refer to It as “the only natural wooden bridge In the world.”

Staple and Fancy Groceries. X-MAS CANDIES. X-MAS CANDIES. /j/ |i | TEAS : : COFFEES : : CANNED : : GOODS ' 1/ IP /I, \ AND : : TABLE : : LUXURIES :: : : FRESH K I HGGS : AND ; BUTTER : A : SPECIALTY : : WE SELL ONLY THE BEST BRANDS OF EATABLES. GOODS PROMPTLY DELIVERED. THE J. THOS. W. LUCKEY CO. TELEPHONE 26. Decatur, - - - Indiana. I n i Before Yea IUIMI B MAS PRESENT IT WILL FAY YOU TO CALL and SEE OUR ELEGANT LINE of Oolobler, Saddler, Cane and Wood Seat . . . kh BIRCH, OAK AND MAHOGONY, From the Best to the Cheapest. Also, EEERYTHING I Al TTA\ 7 I IA I Till A I'IIRNII I RE Can be found at the old place. Will bo sold cheaper than ever. OPPOSITE THE COURT HOUSE. UTNUERTA-KIlNCir A. SPECIA-LTY. We are the only Practical Embalmers in the city, which WE DO FREE. L. V