Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1891 — THE SCIENTIFIC SHAVE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE SCIENTIFIC SHAVE.

Ohio’s grape crop per acre is worth three times that of California. It is reported that $40,000,009 of British capital is invested in Paraguay. French statesmen have offered sl,000 reward for the best athletic game. The London Religious Tract Society last year issued 77,000,000 publications. « The once mighty Indian population of the United States has dwindled to 244,075. Lead in the United States amounted in 1890 to 187,000 tons of 2,000 pounds, or a little less than in 1880. Among a f ock of blackbirds that vis- , ited Gardner, Miss., a few days ago was /ne that was pure white. A patent has been taken out in France for an electric furnace for the rapid incineration of human beings.” Last year 4,559 books were published in this country; and nearly one-quarter of them (1,118) were works of fiction.

A manuscript of one of Aristotle’s treatises lias been found in a collection of papyrus recently discovered in Egypt. Check infant development in tyranny by strict obedience; then ■will the love of truth, honesty, and justice prevail. Ask the average man what time it is, and he will look at his watch, and say, “There is the time by which the sun is regulated. ” “This,” said the poor victim of •strongyirink, as he looked about him at the Inebriates’ Home, “is the house that jag built.” The average sinner is so occupied hiding his big vices that he does not realize that the world is laughing at his little ones. Just above Vienna, on the Danube, is the convent and school of Melk, which has just celebrated its one thousandth anniversary. Seaweed is now made into a tough paper, which takes the place of window glass. When colored the effect is similar to stained or painted glass Dakota has a 1.500-foot well, six inches in diameter, and throwing 4,000 gallons of water a minute. There are in that region wells 3,000 feet deep. “Dear wife,” said Sam Jones, in a dispatch to his wife the other day, “I licked the Mayor of Palestine, Tex., this morning; will preach in Tavlor to-night.” The atmosphere of London is said to be gradually becoming more and more harmful to plant life, and it is attributed in a large measure to the thick fogs. Westville, Ind., has a cow which quenches her thirst at the village pump, tossing the handle of the pump with her horns until sufficient water flows for her needs. By the late Duke of Bedford’s will not only his body was cremated, but several boxes of personal clothing, besides boots, slippers, and several walking sticks and umbrellas. Nineteen children have blessed the matrimonial life of Mr. and Mrs. Beeler, of Brooklyn, Ky., and they are all alive but one. The parents are under fifty-five years of age. ¥ - _ In the new discovery for photography in natuaal colors, when the prints are viewed by transmitted instead of reflected light, each color is replaced by its complementary one. John Jacob Astor and his bride rode in a freight caboose from West Point, Va., into Richmond, in order to escape the unpleasant attention of the gapping crowd and the reporters. Senator Peffer wants 500,000,000 new Treasury notes of the denomination of $1 issued. The Senator has doubtless been doing business with the sleeping-car porter since his election. Nearly 2,500 persons commit suicide in Russia every year; the violent deaths of all kinds annually reach 45,000; while 16,00Jdie of typhus fever, the most destructive disease in the country. • The chimney of a stove in Paris, refuses to draw; smoke fills the stove; workmen called in to investigate; finds object-in chimney; object turns out to be dead body of infant six months old. On November 24, 1887, a bottle was thrown from the steamer Cephaloaia, when about 400 miles out from Boston. It was recently washed ashore on a little island in the Caribbean Sea, 6,300 miles away. General Diaz, President of Mexico, is going to try a peculiar experiment in leaving his country to go to Europe. His strength in Mexico is mighty, but it is thought that it depends on his presence there. Mbs. Parsons uses the very same speech that her husband did, but no attention is paid to her utterances. This, perhaps, is a disappointment to her, but if she continues to travel around the country and endeavors to

kick up disturbances, it may be that she will get off at the wrong station some day. Poor old Philadelphia has just awakened to the fact that the Congressional appropriation for her new mint was lost in the final shuffle. She should engage some one to keep running a pin into her. More land w owned by railroad companies (211,009,000 acres) than would make six States as large as lowa. Since 1861 no less than 181,009,000 acres of land have been given to railroad companies. Detroit was for several years noted as having the most rigid milk inspectors of any city in the land, and, conof having the purest and best milk. It was such good milk that successful efforts were made to get rid of the inspectors. On only one occasion, and that probably as an experiment, Northern Minnesota showed 44 degrees below zero. Horses froze to death under two blankets, and deer were found frozen stiff in the forest. Three days of it would have paralyzed whole counties.

“Give us,” loudly and emphatically exclaims the New York Mail and Express, “more water and less beer!” The Colonel knows what he wants and is not afraid to say so. Some persons would have kept on ordering been rather than have any fuss about it. Two chemists are experimenting at Freeport, Pa., with a view of producing carbon points for electric lighting from natural gas. It is said that by burning the gas in a specially prepared furnace pure carbon is obtained, but as yet at a cost too great for practical purposes. A coroner’s jury in Vermont was given three days in which to reach a verdict on a boiler explosion, and they finally decided: “Bill Stevens was a pretty careful man, but we find that he let the water in his boiler get too low while playing a game of cards.” Young men in Mexico, when paving attentions to the young ladies, can do so at very little expense. They are quite eager to invite them to theaters, parties, etc. And no wonder; for it is the custom in that country for the lady’s father to pay for the tickets, fnrnish the carriage, etc. The London Electric Supply Corporation has finally succeeded in transmitting a 10,000-volt current. According to the statement of the directors, this current of unprecedented strength was sent from the company’s generating station at Depford to the Grosvenor substation. Hitherto the highest tension attained was 2,500 volts. A calculating genius has arrived at the fact that every time a cow moves her tail to switch a fly she exerts a force of three pounds, and that in the course of the summer a single cow wastes 5,000,009 pounds of energv. Hence the conclusion that the cows of America throw away power enough to move every piece of machinery in the world. The effort to employ good-lookißg young women as bill-collectors has not turned out very profitable for the New York merchants who paid them. After a fortnight’s experience, three of the women became engaged to men whom they tried to dun, two of them married, and a few of the others sympathized so deeply with the debtors that they receive none of them as desirable acquaintance's.’ Ireland has again been visited by a most alarming failure of the potato crop, and it is feared that there will be a famine of almost as great proportions as that terrible one of 1847, during which many died of actual starvation. Science has found a reasonably successful preventive for potato rot (Peronospora infestans), just as she has for grape rot (Peronos poraviticola). This potato failure in Ireland might have been almost entirely averted had the farmers sprayed “the leaves and stems of the young plants several times, at intervals of a few days—oftener in showery weather—with the following solution : Six pounds copper sulphate (blue vitriol) dissolved in ten gallons of water, to which six pounds of slaked lime is added. The forces of nature were utilized in a remarkable manner at the West , Hartford, Conn., reservoirs, and a good l deal of money was saved to the city [ thereby. The new reservoir, No. 5, : was drawn down last summer in order ;to be cleaned out. The job had not I been finished when cold weather came ■ on, about one-third of the bottom still i being untouched. The water was shut ■ out, but a small quantity of rain and ; melted ’snow soon covered the bottom with several inches of water. This : froze solid over the muck which covered the uncleaned portion of the reserj voir bed. Later on the gate was i opened and the reservoir allowed to 1 fill with water. Ao the water rose the layer of ice on the bottom rose also, bringing with it the mass of muck on which it lay and to which it was firmly attached. This operation was performed gradually, and the ice kept growing thicker. At length the water rose to its fall height, and then the ice with its burden of muck was hauled ashore, where it now lies. The bottom of the r< servoir was perfectly cleaned, and the work thus easily done would have kept a large gang of men at work for a considerable period.

Most Approved Manner of Robbing th* Winds ot Their Alleged Promenade*. There is a popular impression among those who patronize a barber from two to seven times a week that not a great many people shave thomselves. That this impression is decidedly erroneous may be easily learned by any one who cares to make even a cursury investigation. The fact is theie are thousands of people who shave themselves, and the custom is daily growing. Che idea that “time is money” is all right, but the other idea that time spent in waiting for a “turn” in a barber shop is money saved is being exploded. For men of leisure and means the luxury of a fine upholstered barber chair, the manipulation of a cleanly, expert barber, who uses only the best materials

and the keenest tools, is not to be called into question, says the New York Press. That there is skill and industry required to get into the practice of shaving one’s self goes without saying. There are many men who would prefer to shave themselves if they only knew how to do it. With the view of getting some intelligent instruction upon this matter for the benefit of such, as well as for his own accommodation, the writer, who never shaves himself, called upon one of the most intelligent barbers in the city and requested him to give in a brief but clear way the necessary directions for shaving. He willingly complied, and here is in substance what he said: “When you are going to shave yourself prepare your lather from some pure soap with either warm or cold water (warm water preferred) until it comes to the consistency of cream, and apply it to the face with a pliable brush. You will then, if you desire the beard to cut without much resistance, rub the lathered surface vigorously with the thumb and the third and fourth fingers, lathering anew when you have rubbed sufficiently. Open the razor wide, grasp it firmly by the shank and handle and pass it rapidly up and down a canvas strap, reversing the blade with each' stroke. Next apply the blade to a Russia-leather strap made for the purpose. A good and well-made razor strop, with two or four sides, will answer the same purpose. Placing yourself before a mirror, with a bit of clean paper, free from grit, conveniently near, open the razor a little more than half-way, and you have reached the first position, which' is this: “Grasping the foreshank of the razor gently but firmly with the thumb and three fingers, and looping the little finger in the crescent of the shank, begin opposite the ear and work downward over the cheek toward the chin with a sort of saw motion, for the razor, you know, is a delicate saw. Lay the razor as flat upon the face as you can and make it cut smoothly.. This is

the downward cut. In shaving under the chin, you work the second position; “You will'notice that this plan of holding the, razor is not changed, but that the arm or wrist and forearm are almost reversed from the preceding position. In this way you proceed over the entire face, changing the arm to meet the demands of locality, but not necessarily altering the position of the razor. Experts use both hands, but the majority of men who shave themselves can use onlv one

hand, and naturally adjust the position of the razor as practice and use require. It is not a difficult task, and a little perseverance overcomes all obstacles. . There is a third position which single-handed shavers use. It is this: “To find the little places you may have missed, run the fingers of the unoccupied hand over the face, and if you want to shave close you mav clean off all the beard, even to the extent of going a day or two under the skin.

After ehaving, cleanse vour razor, wipe it dry and strop it before putting it away in a place free from any sort of

moisture. Wash the face with warm water first, then apply any good, pure toilet water preferred.”

HOW TO HOLD A RAZOR.

FIRST POSITION.

SECOND POSITION.

THIRD POSITION.