Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1880 — ITEMS OF INTEREST. [ARTICLE]

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

It would require au express traiD, moving at the rate of sixty miles an hour, 171 years to reach the sun, could it travel directly toward it. The pianoforte was invented by a German named Americus Backers, and was first used in public at Covent Garden Theater, iu the year 1767. The existence of animal life in the moon is said by astronomers to be impossible on account of the absence of any atmosphere and the extremes of heat and cold. The seven wise men of Greece were Solon, of Athens; Chilo, of Sparta; Thales, of Miletos; Bias, of Prisue; Cleobnlus, of Lindos;, Pitticus, of Mitylene; Periander, of Corinth. Leap year originated with the astronomers of Julius Caesar, 45 B. C. They fixed the solar year at 365 days six hours, comprising, as (hey thought, the period from one vernal equinox to another. The six hours were set aside, and, at tho end of four years, forming a day, the fourth year was made to con sist of 366 days. The day thus added was called intercalary, and was placed a day before the 24th of February, the sixth of the calends, which was reckoned twice. This added day with us is Feb. 29. After long coaxing, with no little use of the whip, we have seen a balky horse started by putting a lump of dirt iu its mouth. The mind of the animal seems to be set on not going, and the point to be gained is to divert it from the idea entertained, and this the earth does effectually. So soon as the horse gives his attention to getting rid of the earth out of its mouth, it forgets its balkiness and can be started.

Gov. Trumbule, of Connecticut;, was the original Brother Jonathan. In the Revolutionary war Washington, being in great want of supplies for the army, and having unbounded confidence in in his friend, Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of Connecticut, said: “We must consult Brother Jonathan." Brother Jonathan was consulted on all occasions by Washington, and was accepted as the national name of the Americans as a people. The original “ Mother Goose” was the mother-in-law of Thomas Fleet, the editor, in 1731, of the Boßtoa Weekly Rehearsal, The “ old woman ’of these world-famous melodies belonged to a wealthy family in Boston, where her daughter, Elizabeth Goose, was married by Cotton Mather, in 1715, to Fleet. Like mothers-in-law generally, the importance of Mrs. Goose increased with the appearance of her first grandchild; and poor Mr. Fleet, half distracted with her endless nursery ditties, finding other means to fail, tried ridicule, and printed a book with the title of “ Mother Goose’s Melodies for Children; or, Songs for the Nursery.” Prof. Stephenson, of the Hayden surveying party in New Mexico, says that the Aztecs are a myth, and that the tribes of Indians known as cliffdwellers are to be credited with all the romance attaching to the Aztec name.