Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 April 1891 — Page 4

Jemocr atir Sentinel RENSSELAER, INDIANA. *, W. McEWEN, - - - PunusHn.

[ Tree living leads to free thinking, and free thinking to free living. > On Jan. 21, 1861, Kansas was admitted as a State into the Union. Truth and a soul that is ready for truth meet like the fuel and the flame. The number of exiles to Siberia this year, up to Oct. 1, amounts to 16,000 souls. Our prayers and God's mercy are like two buckets in a well—while one ascends the other descends. A new material called “lactite” has recently appeared in England as a substitute for bone or celluloid. Casein is the principal constituent. It is estimated that during the pßst | year damage aggregating $350,000 ha been done to buildings in Ashland, Pa., by the settling of the surface. High heels, it is said, owe their origin to Persia, where they were introduced to raise the feet from the burning sands of that country. The latest article to be manufactured from corn is soap. Experiments have shown that a bushel of corn, with the proper amount of alkali, will make 200 pounds of soap. It is foolish to try to live on past experience. It is very dangerous, if not a fatal habit, to judge ourselves to be safe because of something that we felt or did twenty years ago. Out at the Folsom prison, Oregon, there is a horse that has developed an earnest desire to eat all the red and green peppers he can get hold of. The animal behaves just like any other horse except in this particular. An Austrian count and a member of the Imperial Corps got so hard up the other day that he tapped a butcher’s till for SBO, but was suspected and has had to skip out like a common thief. It’s a wonder he didn’t sell his title to some idiotic American heiress. Queen Victoria having presented the mess of her Prussian regiment (First Dragoon Guards) with a portrait of herself, the officers have sent her a large and handsome colored photograph of the regiment in parade order. Colonel Victoria is understood to be proud of her command. While Brazil was in the throes of revolution her immigration agents were passing from point to point in the United States and telling people what a peaceful, law-abiding country it was, and how they wanted the Yankee to -come over there and show ’em how to farm and do business. A new form of chair has been brought out by the Medical Battery Company, of Oxford street, London. An electric current renders the patient insensible to pain when an operation is being performed on him. If this be true, the days of laughing-gas, ether, etc., for dentistry are numbered.

Henry Shiner lays claim to ten acres in the heart of Cincinnati, valued at millions, but as there is nothing mean about him he will quit-claim for sls in cash and a barrel of whisky. He says he met an old chap on the highway one day fifty years ago who gave him the land for a chew of tobacco. There is a story about almost every inland lake that it has no bottom. John Farmer, a New York man, has epent three months sounding the lakes of that State, and in no case has he found a spot in any lake deeper than ninety-one feet. That’s water enough, however, to drown all the surplus cats and dogs. The specific gravity of a new-laid egg varies from 1.080 to 1.090; an egg, therefore, is heavier than seawater, the specific gravity of which is 1.030. "When kept, eggs rapidly lose weight, and become specifically lighter than water: this is owing to the diminution of bulk in the contents of the egg, the consequence of which is that a portion of the inside of the egg comes to be filled with air. To make an impermeable glue, soak ordinary glue in water until it softens, and remove it before it has lost its primitive form. After this, dissolve it in linseed oil over a slow fire until it is brought to the consistence of a jelly. This glue may be used for joining any kinds of material. In addition to strength and hardness, it hai the advantage of resisting the action of water. For along time glass spinning and glass-flower manufacture have constituted a very extensive branch of Austrian glass industry. At present the methods have become so developed that a petroleum flame gives some 1,550 yards of glass thread every minute, this being woven not only into glass cloth, etc., but also employed lor watch chains, brushes, and other useful articles. A spark from a locomotive on the South Pacific Bail road in California caused the burning of a wheat crop. The company being sued for damage •bowed that the fire was caused by a locomotive of the Santa Fe Company, lessee of the road, and the United States Court sustained the position that the la aor was not liable for the

acts of the lessee—an important principle, of wide application. Eight years ago a Sacremento woman gave a tramp a dollar. The tramp subsequently went to work, accumulated a fortune of $15,000, and, dying the other day, left all his estate to his benefactress. Tramps should cut this out and show it to the lady of the house when they apply for assistance. It is not quite so certain as the ordinary lottery, but-the tramp might scoop in a dollar now and then. The Smithsonian Institution, along with the sages of the land, has concluded that many valuable animals are fast becoming extinct. Instances in the past occur to us—the buffaloes, for example, to mention a singular notable case—and touching the future, we all have been fearful lest the seal should follow him to the happy swim-ming-grounds. The forthcoming publication of the Smithsonian will substantiate these melancholy forecasts. A man died in Savannah the other 'lay who played no small part in the ■ea duel between the Alabama and Kearsarge. His name was Michael Maher, and he was a petty officer of the Alabama. When the Alabama had been sunk by the Kearsarge, and the latter’s boats had rescued her crew, Maher jumped from one of the Federal boats with the Alabama’s papers in his pockets, was picked up by some English or French craft, and escaped to England.

The respiration of insects has been the subject of study by M. Contejean, who has found that, contrary to what takes place in vertebrates, the movement of inspiration is passive and that of expiration active. The air is driven from the body by a contractile effort. Hence, when the insect is wounded, the flow of blood occurs at the expiration. The respiratory movement is notinterrupted by cutting off the head, nor by the absorption of curare, which produces an immediate cessation in man. It is easy enough to ship oil in tankships, but not so practicable to do the same with molasses. At least the thing has been tried in iron tanks, and chemical action has spoiled the business. But now come some Boston people who have contracted to carry molasses from Cuba, in wooden tanks, for a New York sugar house. The schooner to be employed has been fitted with twenty tanks, with an average capacity of 10,-. 000 gallons. To keep the ship seaworthy these tanks are to be divided into compartments of 3,000 gallons each.

Prince Nicholas of Montenegro has ordained in his official gazette that every one of his active warriors shall plant during 1891 two hundred grapevines; every brigadier must plant twenty; every commander and undercommander of a battalion, ten; every drummer or color-bearer, five. Every guide, moreover, must plant two olive trees, and every corporal one. The gazette calculates that in consequence of this order Montenegro will have four million grapevines and twenty thousand olive trees on next January 1. . Something new in the line of entertainments is upon the tapis at York Beach, Me.—a frost carnival. The hall is to be decorated to represent the arctic regions, with grottoes, snow caves and icicles. The audience is expected to appear in costume suited to the apparent condition of things, toboggan. Esquimo, or snow and frost covered suits. The children are in training for appearance as snow fairies, frost sprites, etc,, and a sleigh bell chorus and drill, with 164 sleigh bells, is on the programme. The supper is to match the rest of the performance. If the weather continues to behave as it has done for the last four weeks there is no doubt that the outdoor accessories will be in proper trim for the occasion. Disbelievers in vaccination for small-pox should consider the statements just made to the French Academy of Medicine by Dr. Brouardel. While Germany loses only 110 persons per annum from small-pox, France actually loses 14,000, to be accounted for by the rigid way in which vaccinatioa is enforced in Germany and by the carelessness of the Frenchmen. In 1865, when vaccination was not obligatory in Prussia, the mortality was 27 per 100,000 inhabitants. After vaccination was enforced, the mortality fell in 1874 to 3.60 per 100,000, and in 1886, to 0.019. At the present the mortality from this cause in France is 43 per 100,000. The natives on some of the Pacific islands, being provided with neither metals nor any stone harder than the coral rocks, of which the a* ells thev inhabit are composed, would seem badly off, indeed, for material of which to make tools or weapons, were it not that their very necessity has bred an invention no less ingenious than curious and effective. This is nothing less than the use of shark’s teeth to give a cutting edge to their wooden knives and swords. The mouth of the shark contains 300 teeth, arranged in five rows, all closely lying upon each other, except the outer row, ana so constructed that as one tooth is broken or lost another takes its place. The teeth are not only j ointed and keen-edged, but are finely and regularly serrated, so that the cutting port er is greatly increased. Indeed, so great a faculty have these teeth for wounding that the implements and weapons upon which they are used have to be handled with great care. The Kingmill islanders make many strange articles of shark’* teeth.

NEW-FANGLED CYCLES.

Models that Were Exhibited In the English Stanley Show. The results of the Stanley bicycl show in England indicate a number of complex and cumbersome changes rather than real, simple improvement; The show brought out five wheels, four of which will be new to American cyclists. The fifth, though a shade lighter (and perhaps frailer? than the safety seen most gen efally in this country, will be found to 'much resemble the “B” model of the Victor wheel. These five bicycles and the

THE ZIMER.

ingenious and somewhat fantastic changes suggested in them go to show the extent to which brain power has been used in the effort to invent some contrivance that will render wheeling a lighter and easier and more convenient exercise than it is at present. The improvement suggested in the “Zirner” consists of a movable handle bar provided with a lever. This lever is attached to rods running to a concealed mechanism in a box near the axle. The uses of this contrivance are to render hill-climbing easy, and to relieve the otherwise necessary upward pressure on the handles. "When the

AN ELECTRIC MOTOR.

handles, which are set in ball bearings, are drawn up, the axle is drawn round and the desired pressure secured. This improvement gives the wheelman some little relief in the matter of hill-climbing, but the facility with which the complex machinery will work in hard, actual service is a matter of speculation. In the way of new ideas in tricycles was shown a three-wheeler provided with an electric motor. It is said that the battery, which is placed amid wheels, will, unassisted, propel the

THE MAXIM TIRE.

machine along a smooth road at the rate of from eight to twelve miles an hour. The motor will be specially welcome to ladies when a rather steep hill is. encountered. The motor may be of practical value on English roads, which are, as a rule, superb highways for wheelmen. How it will operate on some of the streaks of stubble and rut that are called roads in this country is another matter. A new fangled tire, the “maxim,”

TWENTY-FOUR-POUND CUSHION-TIRED SAFETY.

was exhibited. The tire consists of a series of rubber studs. It is doubtful that it deserves the name its inventor has bestowed upon it. The lightest wheel displayed at the Stanley show was a 24-pound cushion tired safety. Nothing is new about this wheel except its weight. Perhaps the most complicated and

THE EUCLIDIAN

cumbersome wheel was exhibited in the “Euclidia.” It discloses a new idea in frames, but the practical wheelman must be the judge of its virtue. The frame of the machine—two bars bent into the shape of pears and brought back around the forward semicircumference of the' hind wheel—i ß

tensioned by means of a hub and an extra set of spokes which give to the entire bicycle the aspect of a spider’s web out of gear. It is not probable that any of the new-faugled bicycles will be used to any extent in America.

He Went Down to His Office.

“My dear,” said Mr. Blough, “I am not going out this morning. I have got a cold and it rains, so I think I will stay in the house and finish examining those papers that ” “Oh, I’m so glad,” said Mrs. Blough. “I have wanted to get a chance to run out for a morning’s shopping for some time, so I will go to-day, and you will see to things, won’c you? “I expect the grocer’s boy pretty soon. Tell him to bring some cheese and bread, and one-half pound of butter, the usual quantity of tea, three pounds of loaf sugar, and don’t forget to say that the last’coffee he brought was not the right kind. Then, when the dustman comes round be sure you watch for him, and tell him he mustn’t spill any more ashes on our walks. “And the dressmaker will be in before noon. Tell her I can’t be fitted till I get some new trimming for the bottom of my yellow skirt, and ask her to call on Thursday afternoon. Oh, and don’t forget to tell the milkman to leave two pints instead of one. Tell him I’m going to make a pudding tomorrow. And the butcher will have to be paid. Give him 8s 6d, and tell him the sirloin he left on Friday wasn’t tender, so I won’t pay him full price for it. “And the upholsterer is coming to see about doing over that chair in the back parlor, and say to him that I will come round and pick out the color I want in plush. And now I’ll run out. “You can have a nice, quiet day, with nothing to disturb you. and you won’t mind going out for a lunch, will you, if I don’t get back ? Good-bye—good-bye, dear.” And Mrs. Blough went out. Mr. Blough whistled softly. Then he said to himself: “Somehow, I don’t.think it will rain much.” Aud he went down to his office.

Trade.

The spirit of barter is one which very early animates certain American children. As soon as they have possessions enough to “swap” for others more desirable, they are happy indeed. The St. Paul Press gives a recent instance of such devotion to trade. “Please, sir,” said a boy to the foreman of a paving gang, “will you give me one of those round cedar blocks?” “Yes, I’ll give you one if you will tell me what you want it for.” “To cover it with carpet, and make a hassock.” “What do you want with a hassock?” “Oh, I can trade the hassock to Mrs. Brown for a bird-cage. Her bird is dead.” “But what can you do with a birdcage without a bird ?” Oh, I don’t want the cage, but I can trade the cage for an oxidized pictureframe.” “Well, of what use is a picture-frame without any picture ?” “But Mr. Oliver has a picture of General Sheridan, and he said he would trade me a hanging-lamp for a good oxidized frame. ” “So it’s the lamp you want!” “No, I’ve no particular use for a lamp, but I can trade a good hanging-lamp for a Persian rug, and the rug for a Mexican parrot, and Tom Higbie will give me his banjo for the parrot. It’s the banjo I want.”

A Terrible Mistake.

A young gentleman had an engagement with the daughter of a prosperous citizen to attend the theater, says the Louisville Post The young lady suggested that they use the family carriage, and the gallant was too polite to decline. On the morking of the engagement the young lady asked her father to please stop in Mr. Bowersox’s office and inquire where he wanted the carriage to call for him. The kindly old gentleman did so. He stepped in the office, and, calling to the young man, said: “I want to see you about that carriage.” “Wait a moment,” said the youth, evidently agitated. He laid down his pen, and, coming from behind the desk, led his visitor info a far corner, and continued I can’t settle that right now, as I am deucedly hard up. I’ll fix it by the middle of the month, dead sure.” “What do you mean?” said the old gentleman. “Why, ain’t you the collector for the Gouge’em Transfer Company?” “No, I’m not. I’m Miss Bondholder’s father, and want to know whero my carriage is to be sent for vou tonight.” He went to the theater in the carriage, but he did not enjoy it much.

Life is a garden, and you who dwell therein must cut dowu/with a stern will, the weeds would you have your flowers flourish: give those tender blossoms—love, hope, truth and friendship —no artificial warmth, no forcing process, no undue or nervous haste, but vault them over with the blue skies of eternal love, bind them about with strong hedges of faith, and give them sunshine aud fresh air and sweet rains, and give them care and every-day attention, for these tney will need more than, anything, else/ And. wheneyer you have a moment to spare pull a weed—but never a flower—out of your neighbor’s garden, that it may be as fair as your own.

One of the latest novelties in astronomical phenomena, as brought to light by studying the spectra of certain stars, is the showing that two of these, heretofore classed as single, are in fact double, and belong to that class known as binary stars, or pairs which revolve alrout a .common center. The binsr-ies thus discovered are the stars known as Zeta, Ursa Majoris and Beta Aurigae, the former being that star which, in popular phrase, would be described as the middle star in the handle of the “Dipper.”

HOW THE MILLENNIUM CAME.

A Ealky Horse Causes Deacon Tracey to Let Go a Few Pent-Up Oaths. Just out of Bennington, Vt., lived Deacon Tracey, and one day a brother of his died and willed him a horse. The animal came to him from a distance of seventy-five miles, and whether it was a change of scene or a-streak of natural cusseduess in him no one could say, but he “took fits.” He would balk on the slightest excuse and often with no excuse at all, and the Deacon would have to hold himself in and fool around until the beast got ready to go on. He would have got rid of him, but nobody wanted the horse, and in hopes that he might have a change of heart the deacon continued to drive him in and out of town. One day he got notice that a clergyman of his faith was coming to spend a short vacation with him, and drove in to meet the train. Instead of the clergyman, who was not very well known to him, he picked up a Boston drummer who was out on a vacation and who wanted to go to the next farm beyond the Deacon’s. Neither had time for any questions before the horse balked. “What’s up?” asked the stranger as the rig came to a stop. “He’s balked,” answered the Deacon. “Well?”

“WHAT'S UP” ASKED THE STRANGER.

“Wall, I can’t do nothin’ with him. We’ve got to wait for him to get ready.” “That’s a of a note!” growled the drummer.

“W-what?” gasped the Deacon. “ Why, him, the way is th get out and cut out of his hide,” said the drummer.

“Say! say!” called the Deacon, as he chewed on his tobacco with fifty times the usual rapidity of motion, “you are swearing!” “Well, such a cussed, infernal beast ought to bo sworn at. Get up and give him . I” “Lands! but there you go again! Say, has the millennium come ?” “I guess she has.” “And we can all swear?” “That’s what ails Hanner.” “Good! I’ve been holding in for two years on this beast, thinking it was wicked. If you, a minister of the gospel, can use profanity, it can’t be wicked in me, and now you hang on to the seat and I’ll wallop out of him so that he will remember it all his life!”

AN INTELLIGENT PUG DOG.

One of the Few That Are of Keally Any Use. A really intelligent pug dog is indeed a rarity, but a pug owned in Chicago by E. R. Walsh, of the Union News Company, is a remarkable canine. He answers to the name of Toby and he can do almost anything but talk. He sleeps at the foot of his master’s bed, and in the morning he jumps up, runs to the kitchen, whe r e he fetches

TOBY WALSH.

eufficient kindling to start the fire, and then arouses the servant girl by scratching at the door of her room. Later on he arouses the family and goes out after the morning paper, which he brings in and lays at his master’s plate. If a message i a to be sent to Mr. Walsh it is tied to Toby’s collar and he is told to go to the office. It is in the Union Depot on the West Sidd', and he never fails to get there with the note. He can tell time, and barks at the hours regularly. He can puff at a pipe or a cigar, but cannot be induced to touch a cigarette. Mr. "Walsh has been offered as high as $4,500 for Toby, but he would not part with him at anv price.

A Spectacled Horse.

The discoveries and triumphs of science are being passed along from man to animal with true nineteenth century humanity. Surgical operations for broken bones, drugs for indispositions, dental exploits—all are employed for the benefit of our domestic animals, and now a writer in an English publication, hoy, he assisted his horse’s near-sightedness: He had his eyes examined by an ocuVst, who certified that the horse had a No. 7 eye and required concave glasses. These were obtained and fitted on the horse’s head. At first the horse was a little surprised, but soon showed signs of the keenest pleasure, and he now stands all the morning looking over the half door of his stable, with his spectacles on, gazing around him with an air of sedate enjoyment. When driven his manner is altogether changed from his former timidity, but if pastured without his spectacles on, he hangs about the gate, whlnuying in a minor key; if the spectacles are replaced, he kicks up"-his heels and ream nets about with delight.

SOCKLESS STATESMAN SIMPSON.

A Graphic Picture of Kansas' New Conpressman. Jerry Simpson, the Congressional curiositv from Kansas, is now one of the leading attractions of Washington, says a Kansan who recently visited him. The sockless pride of the West is about five feet ten inches high. When he stands erect he looks as if he were leaning against a post. This m supposed to come of his habit es iesa* ing against posts around his town, where, through ward politics, he wastown marshal for some years before his elevation to Congress. The handshake of Jerry discloses that while he may be intended for a farmer representative, he is not of the class of farmers who report in person for labor in the fields. His hands are the softest thing

JERRY SIMPSON.

about him, except his new office. Sincetaking up his residence in the capital he has substituted gold-rim glasses for plain wire rims. His hair seems inclined to be independent, and standson end, each particular hair apparently fighting for more room. The distance between the hair line and the dark eyes is scarcely equal to the average measurement. The facial angle is suggestive of a town marshal or a rider of a bucking bronco. The mustache looks downward, and instead of arresting progress in itsdownward course by the timely interference of a barber, Jerry surrenders it to the mercy of a cigar “snipe” and the incisors in the immediate vicinity. He has an emphatic malaria, complexion. The points of his shoulders press forward and downward, even more so than the average farmer as he follows his cultivator on a brightspring morning. He does not move as if he was trying to stop a herd of cattle on the stampede; it is decidedly atown marshal walk with a record of “two drunks per month.” He wears a. number nine shoe without apologizing to any one. The stripes in his “pants” are very distinct, and run perpendicularly instead of longitudinally. His present stock of “pants” shows a broad, yellowish stripe alternating with a> chestnut sorrel section. His coat and vest came off the same shelf. Everything fits like paper on the wall when the floor above has been visited by the fire department. When a caller sends his card up toJerry he always comes down to see what the trouble is about. He has been somewhat embarrassed since the last campaign by the receipt of over 300 pairs of socks. His dynamite strength in the political quarry was due to his disregard of socks.

A CARRIAGE BOUQUET-HOLDER.

It Is a Great Convenience for Ladies on Their Way to Entertainmants. It has always been a great in«onvenience for ladies to have to carry their bouquets in their hands when sitting in a carriage on the way to ballsor evening parties. A patented arrangement of a carriage bouquet-holder entirely relieves them of this ordeal.

CARRIAGE BOUQUET-HOLDER.

The holder, as shown in the illustration, is constructed to fasten in aamall socket, which is screwed to one of the front panels of the carriage. The slant of the holder throws the flowers forward, thus protecting them; from being crushed, and their fading is prevented by freeing them from contact with a hot hand. The holders are made in silver and electro-plate, combining usefulness with decorative effect.

A wonderful discovery has been attracting the attention of scientists. A beam of sunlight is made to pass through a prism, so as to produce the solar spectrum or rainbow. A disk, having slits'or opehin'gs cut in it, is made to revolve and the colored light of the rainbow is made to break through it and fall on silk, wool, or other material contained iu a glass vessel. As the colored light falls upon it sounds will be given by the different parts of the spectrum, and there will be silence in other parts. If the vessel contains red worsted and the green light flashes upon it loud sounds will be given. Only feeble sounds will be heard when the red and blue parts of the rainbow fall upon the vessel, and other colors make no sound at all. At a recent sal», an inch-square chip from Washington's coffin brought $2, and Ben Frankliu’s silver watch sold for $2,100.