Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1881 — BITS OF INFORMATION. [ARTICLE]

BITS OF INFORMATION.

Pbot>ent Garfield was a Mason. TmKan population is about 860,000. bin Itasca, the source of the Mississippi, is 1,575 feet abovfc the sea level. At St. Louis the fiver is 880 feet above the sea. Chas. Carroll, of Maryland, was the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. He died Nov. 14, 1832. It is a popular mistake to call a thin, flaky, semi-transparent mineral isinglass. Isinglass is fich glue, and has nothing to do with the mineral, which is mica. Tkk earth is distant from the sun 91,500,000 miles ; Venus, 56,000,000 miles; Jupiter, 475,000,000 miles; Saturn, 872,000,000 miles; Neptune, 2,750,000,000 miles. A Fibst Lieutenant in the infantry service receives $1,500 a year, and a Second Lieutenant $1,400, for the first five years, after which the pay is increased about $l5O a year. Ocean navigation by steam was first attempted in 1808 by Stevens. In 1819 the Savannah made a voyage from Savannah, Ga., to Russia, via England. The first trip by an English vessel was that of the Sirius, which sailed from Cork, April 4, 1838. The Dry Tortugas is the group of islands on the extreme western portion of the Florida reef, which is a vast bed of debris dumped above the waters of the gulf. The islands are called “Dry,” in contradistinction to the vast tract of wet reef which at low water nearly reaches the surface. Virginia was settled by the English in 1607; New York by the Dutch m 1614; Massachusetts by the Puritans in 1620; New Jersey by the Dutch in 1624; Delaware by the Swedes and Finns in 1627; Maryland by English Catholics in 1635; Connecticut by the Puritans in 1636; Rhode Island by Roger Williams in 1639 ; North Carolina by the English in 1650 ; South Carolina by Huguenots in 1670. The ages of the patriarchs before the flood have often been the subject of dispute, and are no nearer settlement as to the causes of their length than they were centuries ago. With the exception of Enoch, whom “God tooky” nearly or all of them are represented in the Bible aa having lived six, seven and eight centuries. Some writers suppose that the name of each patriarch denotes a tribe or family instead of an individual; or, on the other hand, that the sacred biographies are allegorical. The Bible itself sheds no additional light on the subject. A weather chronicler gives the following historical dry spells. “The dry spells that have become historic were in the summer of 1630, twenty-four days ; 1635, forty- one days; 1637, seventy-five days; 1662, eighty days; 1663, fortyfive days ; 1668, eighty-one days; 1694, ninety-two days ; 1704, forty days ; 1715, forty-six days; 1718, sixty-one days; 1730, ninety-two days; 1731, seventytwo days ; 1749, one hundred and twen-ty-three days ; 1772, eighty days; 1791, eighty-two days; 1812, twenty-eight days; 1856, twenty-six days; 1871, for-ty-two days ; 1876, twenty-six days.”

The word heaven occurs the following number of times in each of the books of the New Testament: Book. Timet.\Book. Timet. Matthew 70iPliilippians 2 Mark lTiColossians 5 Luke. 30|I. Tliessalonians 2 John 1811. Thessaioniang 1 Acta 2l|Hebrews 5 I. Corinthians 21. Peter 3 11. Corinthians 2]II. Peter. i Galatians I I. John 1 Ephesians 3|Revelations 66 The word “heaven” occurs several times with the meaning of sky, and in a similar sense ; but the above list gives the number of times “ heaven ” is used as meaning the abode of the blest or .the immediate presence of the Lord. The French Legislature comprises two houses—a Senate elected by a complex system of restricted suffrage, and a Chamber of Deputies chosen by universal suffrage. Each body elect their own presiding officer. When these houses meet in joint session to elect a President of the republic or to amend the constitution, they form what is called the National Assembly. In the Chamber of Deputies the Republican party forms four groups, namely : The left center comprises the moderate or conservative Liberals; the pure left, to which the Ministry belong; the advanced left, and the extreme left, or the Radicals.