Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1887 — Tommy on Winter. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Tommy on Winter.

The expense of living has greatly increased in Washington, and the high rents are troubling many Congressmen ■who have only their salaries to depend upon. Houses in the fashionable section rent for from SSOO to $13,000 a .year, and the S6OO houses are, as a rule, little ones of six or eight rooms. Provisions are plenty, but prices are high.

Mb. D. M. Spinney, of Anniston, Ala., has a homed snake which he killed while out hunting. There were two of them, not over a foot apart, and when Mr. Spinney first discovered them they were in the act of springing at him. They were about one foot long with a hard horn on the end of their tails, which is their weapon of defense. They have been known to kill small trees by goring their horns through the bark. This species is also known as the hoop-snake.

Eighteen years ago when the airbrake was tried it required eighteen seconds to apply it to a train 2,000 feet long. Four years later the time was reduced four seconds. Recent experiments with the air-brakes on freight trains show that it can be applied to 'every car in a train of that length running at the rate of forty miles an hour, and that this train can be stopped within 500 feet or one-fourth of its own length, and all this without any serious Jolting.

It is known that enormous hairy ■elephants or mastodons once lived in Siberia and Alaska. Not only are their remains abundant, but the carcasses of the animals preserved in prehistoric icebergs have been recovered, and it is from these models that naturalists have reproduced the interesting fabrications such as that exhibited at the late exposition in New Orleans. Tn the period when those animals lived there the climate was doubtless much warmer than at present, as then the Mississippi Valley was in all probability a vast ■estuary extending to the Arctic Ocean, and through it the Gulf stream, which now flows out through the Straits of Florida, then found its heated waters mitigating the polar climate as it now •does that of England. When the continent was lifted above the waters the •sources of heat were withdrawn, and the northern regions were locked in ice, a catastrophe which the hairy elephants could not survive.

An extraordinay appeal case has lately been heard in Madras which puts in evidence the active character of existing superstitions. It seems that •one of the accused in the original case gave birth in December last to a male child having four eyes, the face of a monkey, and crooked arms and legs, while it grunted like a pig immediately •on its birth. The midwife placed the ■child under a trough, and sat upon it, both she and the mother raising cries •of alarm. The male prisoners then •came and took the child into a field and killed it by striking it on the head with a club. Their explanation was that the child was an evil spirit, which they were justified by the custom of the country in killing in order to prewent it from doing evil. The Judge acquitted them on the ground of a mistake of fact. This decision was necessarily upset on appeal. The accused believed that unless the child had been killed it would have grown to an immense size and devastated the country, -and that they were therefore committing a meritorious action in obviating •so grave a public calamity.

A Washington letter says: The reptile division of the Smithsonian Institution has begun a series of experiments for the purpose of discovering, if possible, a chemical antidote for rattlesnake poison. In this connection, it is understood, the use of whisky will be avoided, and the experiments will be made with a view to finding an anti■dote more effective and more acceptable to all classes of victims than the ■common remedy for snake-bite. Four monster rattlesnakes of a warlike nature have been secured from the mountain regions of Virginia, and a number of p geons and rabbits are to be the martyrs for the cause of science. The poison will be secured by a method which is simple, though, doubtless, somewhat annoying to the snakes and not a little dangerous for the scientist. The snake is seized just behind the head, and when he has been excited to about the proper degree of frenzv a small piece of cotton is thrust into his

mouth, and into this he is at liberty to strike his fangs as long as he feels like it. The poisonous venom—an odorless, amber-cclored fluid, is absorbed by the cotton, which is finally removed from his snakeship’s mouth and soaked in glycerine. In this way a solution of rattlesnake poison, 5 per cent strong, is obtained. The pigeons and rabbits, as the subjects, are inoculated with this poisonous solution by means of a hypodermic syringe, and while under the influence of the venom they will be experimented upon. It is proposed, if possible, to discover some chemical which, when applied to the wound, will neutralize the poison and prevent fatal effects.

Gen. Benjamin F. Butleb has for years been a close student of Shakspeare, and has a large acquaintance among Shakspearean scholars. To a New Yerk correspondent Gen. Butler said the other day, in relation to Mr. Donnelly’s Shakspearean theories: “I am very greatly interested in the matter of the authorship of the so-called Shakspeare plays, and am well acquainted with Mr. Donnelly. I knew him twenty years ago in Congress, and I have read his books. Long before I ever saw him, however, I became thoroughly convinced that Bacon was the author of the plays. lam a firm believer in the Baconian theory. The author of the plays had access to an enormous library, and his research into all languages was amazing. Shakspeare was a low fellow. Bacon says somewhere that it will all come out some day. As Donnelly says, it is highly probable that Baopn ran a cipher through his works. He delighted in ciphers and everybody used them in his day. All messages between courts were in cipher. It is very reasonable to believe that Bacon inserted a cipher in his play. Everything else points logically to such a conclusion, and it remains only to discover the key to this to establish beyond question Bacon’s claims. You suggest that either one of the three things must be true: (1) That Donnelly is right, (2) that he has made a mistake and is deceived, or (3) that he is a fraud. Now, I know personally that the latter is not the case. Mr. Donnelly is perfectly honest. I also know that he is too thorough and careful to make a mistake. That leaves the first suggestion, which is right. I feel full confidence that Mr, Donnelly has discovered the true cipher, and will prove all that he claims, and that he will establish Bacon’s undisputed authorship to the Shakspearean plays. ”

INTER cums after oughtum. the Ponds frieze up In winter Tyme And us boys Go skaiting. sumtimes A feller brakes thr u e thea eyce And gits soked. mi Bruther joshoway Got soked A skaiting and

It maid Him down Sick. Thee doctor cum and giv him sum Aufull stuff tu Taike. dockters Aint no good in sickness. Thea V oar of thare stuft voo taike, the Wurse yu git. in winter fokes Is invited tu Soshabels and partis. aftur tha Git thare tha pla Copenhagen And konsequences And Needels iye aul Nite. Aftur Fokes gits marrid, thay doante kair so Mutch übout kising Gaimes. mi ma Ses so. wintur Is the tyme to Hav bukwheet Pankaiks fur breckfest. Wimmin sturs up thee Batter thee Nite befourhand. If its sower Neckst morning, tha olwais blaime thea Hyerd Gurl. When cold Wether eums mi Ma starts in tu maik mince pyes. Its A sinn too put brandi intu mince Meet, ma ses so. it Lems tbea Menfokes too Be drunkerds. pa ses Ma Is rite, And thems his Princapels too. Butt wone da, when us Boys was playing hyde and seak, I Found a jugg of whiski Slid intu thee Otes binn. i karrid it too Mi ma, And shea kept Pa In hot Water about it fur a weak, mi Pa tride tu blaime it ontu thee Hyerd man, but it Dun him No good. Thea hyred Man left him rite in thee middel of Haying, in Haying tyme thee wimmin sturs up juggs of Gingur and merlases and vineger And watur And sends It intu thea medder fur the menfokes tu Drink, peepel Go tu Debaiting sosityes in Winter, mi Pa is thea presedent of ourn. its naimed thea hanesvill Litterari Clubb fur thee Elevashun of Intelecktooel promoshun, And the mentel cultcher of Advancment. Evvry boddi ses mi Pa maikes A furst rate presedent, cans hee has Got lots of mussel, when thee Audeance cuts up too ruff mi Pa kicks 4 duzzen of them out dores, sumtymes hee yanks off his kote And lets them kno boo is boss thaire. thee Last ewestshun fur debait Was: ReesolvdthatPotaterbuggs is A wurse noosance • then Congres Men. wintur Has 3 munths naimli, deesembur, janyari and febrooary, and It cums rite abed of spring, tommi. —Chicago Ledger.