Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1893 — OLLA PODRIDA. [ARTICLE]

OLLA PODRIDA.

The hill near Jerusalem where tiu A i crucifixion of Jesus occurred is fovmeu i of limestone. The shores of the lAmd Sea are lined with pumice-stone, showered : out of some volcano that destroyed Sodoin , aud Gomorrah, which cities finnlly sank, beneath the. waters of tho-Doad Ueai. Italy stand aat the head of< the win (reproducing countries of Europe. She i manufacture* half us much again as France. Next on the list is Spain; them follow Ans tro-Hungary, Germany and! Switzerland in the order mentioned. It is not generally known that the country/ outside Europe which produces most wine is Algeria. A Pkiipetuali Sacked ■‘Finn,—ln. the peninsula of Aboherontformorly bfld®ng>ing to Persia, hut now a- part at- Russia,, there is a perpetual, or; rather, what the: natives call an etorunl sacred-tire, which ■ is known to have been burning, continually for more than 2,000 years.- It rises from an irregular orifice of about 12: feet in depth aud 120 feet square. The ■ flames, which are constant, rise to ai height of from six to eight feet, unuc--companied with smoke or disagreeable smell, waving hack and forth with tire wind like a field of golden grain. Will Our Books Fali, to Pieces? —Experts ure predicting that the books of to-day will fall to pieces before the middle of the next century. The paper, in the books that have survived, two tux three centuries woe- made by> hand of. honest rags and without' the use of strong themicnls, while the ink w»b made of nut gnlls. To-day much of the paper for books is made, at' least in part, of wood pulp treated with powerful acids, while tue ink is a compound of various substances naturally at. war with the flimsy paper upon whioh it is laid. The printing of two- centuries-ago has improved with age; that of to-day, it is feared, will, within 50 years; have enten its way through the pages upon whichit is impressed.

Learjuinoto White.— The question is being asked, both in Europe and America, why it is that the handwriting of the average individual continues so.poor,, despite the time and effort spent by theschools In teaching the art of writing.. The physicians, too, aroused by their own peisonal observations, have raised a protest against existing methods of teaching writing. They hold that both myopia and scoliosis, which develop so lurgely during school life, are distinctly traceable and taught in writing lessons; that these harmful postures are due to the “slope" or “slant" of the writing; that the spine will certainly be- twisted unless an upright style of writing is adopted; that vertical writing, if substituted for the prevailing “sloping" style, would obviate all of these troubles. It has also been shown bv experiment that the vertical style of writing can be taught u_ore quickly than the “sloping," and, when learned, is more legible. We seem to lie reaching a point where the type-writer will do the whole business.