Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1881 — BITS OF INFORMATION. [ARTICLE]

BITS OF INFORMATION.

The Maid of Orleans was burned at the stake at Rouen, France, May 30, 1431. Thebe are 92 counties in Indiana, 88 in Ohio, 102 in Illinois, 99 in lowa, and 161 in Texas. The population of the world is 1,438,145,300, divided among the continents as follows : Europe, 312,398,480; Asia, 831,000,000; Africa, 205,219,500; Australia and Polynesia, 4,411,300 ; America, 86,116,000. The most talented, daring, independent and savage chief in this country was Red Eagle, of the Muscogee or Creek tribe, who planned the awful massacre of Fort Nimms, and fought *Gen. Jackson until his Indian warriors were reduced to a mere handful. This extraordinary man, known among the whites as Wetherford, was a half-breed of the Scotch race of Macgilveray. The mingling of the white and Indian blood made him superior to his race, and one of the most formidable men of his times. The reports for the past ten years show the following to have been the annual crops in bushels since 1870, so far as regards wheat, corn and oats: Year. Wheat. Corn. Oats. 1870 233,884,700 1,094,255,000 247,277,400 1871 230,722,400 991,8,18,000 255,743,000 1872 2 9,997,100 1,092,719,000 271,747,000 1873 281,254,700 932,274,000 270,840,000 1874 308,102,700 850,148,500 240,369,000 1875 292,126,000 1,321,069,000 354,317,500 1876 289,356,500 1,283,827,500 320,884,000 1877 365,994,800 1,342,558,000 406,394,000 1878 420,152,400 1,388,218,750 413,578,560 1879 448,756,630 1,547,901,790 363,761,320 1880 459,591,105 1,776,1)06,576

The first road in England lighted up by lamps is that which runs parallel with Hyde Park. William ILL lived at Kensington, then a pretty village far away in the fields, and large numbers of the aristocracy lived there, too. Many people were constantly going and coming across the park, which lay between the Kingly residence and the metropolis, and robberies became so frequent in the dark that the King ordered the road to be lighted with 300 lamps, and the effect was described in a paper of the day as very grand and inconceivably magnificent. Odd derivations : The word “pamphlet” is derived from the name of a Greek authoress, Pamphylia, who compiled a history of the world into thirty-five little books. “Punch and Judy” is a contraction from Pontius and Judas. It is a relic of an old “ miracle play,” in which the actors were Pontius Pilate and Judas Iscariot. “Bigot” is from Visigoth a, in which the fierce and intolerant Arianism of Visigoth, conquerer of Spain, has been handed down to infamy. “Humbug” is from Hamburg; “ a piece of Hamburg news” was in Germany a proverbial expression for false political rumors. “ Gauze” derives its name from Gaza, where it was first made. “Tabby cat” is all unconscious that her name is derived from Atab, a famous street in Bagdad, inhabited by the manufacturers of silken stuffs called atibi, or laffety, the wavy markings of the watered silks resembling pussy’s coat. “Old Scratch” is the demon Skratti, who still survives in superstitions of Northern Europe. “ Old Nick” is none other than Nikr, the dangerous water-demon of Scandinavian legend. The lemon takes its name from the city of Lima. The term “Dark Ages” has been and is somewhat vaguely applied to the period between the fall of the Roman empire and the revival of letters in the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. It is given a very wide sense, but most authorities agree in saying that probably the darkest period for Europe was about the seventh century. In various countries there was a difference in the time of the decline and revival of letters; as, for example, in the tenth century there was a deplorable state of affairs in Italy and England. There was a gleam of light in the eleventh and twelfth centuries on the continent, followed by a relapse which lasted the fourteenth century. • Thousands of women have been restored to perfect health by the use of Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound.