Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1894 — Page 5

SOMEWHAT STRANGE.

ACCIDENTSAND INCIDENTS OF EVERYDAY LIFE. Queer Facts and Thrilling Adventure* which Show that Truth la Stranger Than Fiction. What has been known for half a century as the old Freeland residence, six miles from Jackson, Miss., was recently torn down after having been a ruin for many years, says a correspondent of the Philadelphia Times. Beneath it was discovered what had been an old curbed well, andon clearing this out there was brought up a small steel casket containing several articles of old-fashioned jewelry. These numbered aipongtlwm a watch of the style worn duriffg the last part of the last century and a comb such as was affected by ladies of continental times. These were set with large pearls, which must have been valuable, but which are ruined by the action of the water. A tiara of small diamonds bore the device of “D” in small German characters, but beyond this there is no clew as to the owner of the jewels. The family to whom the house belonged has long been extinct and the place for some years until recently has been -inhabited by negroes. Some of the older citizens remember that this mansion replaced another far handsomer, which was destroyed by fire and which was one of the oldest places in the State. At the time of the war the house was rented to a poor family named Lucey, who would hardly have possessed such jewels, so their presence in the well can scarcely be accounted for on the theory that they were hidden there then for safety. The present value of the articles is not more than SIOO, but when new they must have been worth something over SI,OOO, according to the valuation of a jeweler. They are now in the possession of the gentleman who owns the land on which the old place stood. The watch is curious for its antique workmanship, though most of the works have been eaten away by rust,

In many places in the tules lands in the vicinity of Suisan, Cal., wild liogs, ferocious and as tenacious of life as the boar of the Gferman forests, may be encountered by the sportsman who likes a spice of danger in his hunting. One of these beasts, shot recently, measured from the tip of the tail more than six feet, and had tusks fourteen Inches in length. Its weight, although it had no superflous flesh, was 820 pounds. The skin at the shoulders was three inches thick and as tough as leather. It was reported that hogs had been running wild in the marshes for a long time, and that they were savage enough to furnish better sport than other animals that are supposed to be dangerous. A party was formed to kill a particular boar that had been roaming the tules land for several years, in spite of the efforts of local hunters to bring him to bay. The tracks of the boar were found and he was traced to a patch of dense reed grass. The hunters invaded it from different points, and one of them suddenly came upon the animal. His companions heard the report of his gun, and the next instant saw the man’s body thrown into the air fully ten feet. Going to his rescue, a second hunter was charged by the boar. One shot brought him to his knees, b/it even then he rose and rushed on his assailant again. A second ball penetrated the brain and he rolled over dead. The man who was thrown into the air was not seriously injured, but received bruises which laid him up for a considerable time. The recent report that a citizen of the United States has discovered among the mountains of the Mexican State of Sinola a long forgotten city tallies with a curious local tradition of that region. Adjoining the State of Sinola on the south is the State of Jallisco, and of this State Guadalajara is the capital. Living in the mountains of Jallisco, part of the same great Sierra Madre or “Mother Range” that exteds through Sinola and thence northward, are the unconquered Yaquis, a brown-haired people with light eyes and almost fair complexions. Guadalajara is the only civilized town that these Yaquis visit, and it has long been believed there that the Yaqui fastnesses of the Sierra Madre range conceal not only rich mines of silver, but as well the lost city of the Aztec race. No one has hitherto pierced the mountain wilderness, because the naked Yaquis have ■ an effective system of passive resistance that has hitherto successfully closed the sole line of approach. only human beings other than the. Yaquis themselves admitted to the mountains of Jallisco are a few renegade Apaches, murderous wretches, vastly more dangerous to would-be explorers than the peaceful but persistent Yaquis.

The immense herd of cattle branded “J. B. S.” ranging in Lyman County, South Dakota, has been levied on by the Treasurer of that county for taxes. The owner of the herd was John B. Smith, who is reported to have died suddenly in Minneapolis while on a business trip to that city some weeks ago. The Lyman county authorities, however, have no proof of his death, and there is no record in the Probate Court of that county showing that his estate has ever been probated. Parties claiming to have held a mortgage on the stock, but who are known to be rustlers have been running the cattle out of the country without any process of foreclosure, and the County Treasurer finally came to the conclusion that it was time for him to act, and accordingly levied on the balance of the cattle for the taxes due. Nearly 10,000 cattle were run out of the country. Smith left from SB,OOO to SIO,OOO in life insurance, beside the large herd of cattle in question. It is regarded as very peculiar that his heirs have never attempted to settle the accounts of the deceased cattleman. A specimen of huge vegetable growth resembling a mammpth rutabaga was on exhibition in Tacoma, Wash. The curiosity is of undoubtedly vegetable nature and is shaped like a turnip, r<x ‘i and all. It was found on the b; n near the water on McNeil’s Isby Robert Longmire, one of the T> entiaryguwd*. An express wagon

had to be secured to bring it to town from the wharf. The curious find is two feet ten inches long from the top to the end of the roots, which appear to be broken off close to the body of the object. The circumference around the *' turnip ” is four feet three inches, while the major circumference is six feet six inches. The diameter is eighteen inches and the weight is fully 100 pounds. The flesh of the “turnip” cuts easily with a knife and resembles exactly a rutabaga. The taste is slightly bitter, probly caused by salt water. Wynn Molesforth has invented and constructed a very ingenious “celestial clock,” which was exhibited at the first Winter meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, says J/mdpn Truth; The entire face of the clock rotates under a wire bar representing the equatorial horizon and is regulated to perform one revolution iiF2B hours 56 minutes 4 seconds, this being the time in which the earth turns once upon its axis. The apparent annual motion of sun, moon and planets in the opposite direction is effected by movable pins, while the north and south polar stars, that do not rise or set for us, revolve simultaneously with the rest by a separate movement. Thus may be seen the entire heavens, with sun, moon, planets and constellations in their actual places, ever rising and setting as they rise and set in the heavens.

William A. Ashley, of Long Plain, near New Bedford, Mass., had a thrilling experience with an eagle recently. He had just returned from meeting when he started out to look at some of his trees. He had scarcely gone twenty yards when his dog, which was with him, started in pursuit of something on the other side of a wire fence inclosing a pear orchard. Mr. Ashley jumped over the fence and to his surprise saw a large eagle. The dog barked fiercely and as Mr. Ashley approached the eagle spread its wings and attempted to fly. But Mr. Ashley was too quick for the bird and caught it by the neck and wings. He used no weapon, for he had none, and received no injury save a slight scratch. The eagle is a large one, the wings measuring eight feet seven and a half inches from tip to tip. The London Telegraph tells a marvelous story from Vienna about a lady forty-two years old and suffering from a peculiar form of asthma, which ten months’ treatment has been powerless to cure. Her story is that she constantly hears music from her heart, and is so maddened by the ceaseless tones that she has to keep her ears filled with wadding, like Ulysses during the siren’s song. The medical experts who have had the case under consideration confirm the statement of the lady—a continuous noise composed of musical tones in a high pitch was to be heard during the medical diagnosis, which runs: “Diastolic musical heart.” The lady, has as strong a dislike to internal music as to asthma, and unless speedily cured, she avers, it will drive her mad. Sable 1 Island, whence a carrier pigeon recently brought news of the wreck of the schooner Robert J. Edward, is famous throughout the Canadian maritime provinces for its race of wild ponies. The little creatures were originally placed upon the island in order that they might furnish food for shipwrecked mariners frequently cast away there. The coarse salt grass of the island is cured and stacked in summer time, and upon this the ponies feed all winter. It is said that they eat their way dfeep into the stacks and thus find their only shelter from storms. There is a tradition current that they even eat fish cast upon the shore. Considerable droves of the ponies are taken to the mainland in early autumn, and they are sold in the Halifax market. Thirty-seven years ago Clarence Morton sold out his farm in Berlin, Vt., and went to California to dig for gold. Failing there he went to Arizona, and for thirty years nothing was heard from him by his wife, who had remained behind in the Vermont town until he should save enough to send for her. Twelve years ago, believing him dead, she remarried. A month ago her second husband died. Three days later she was astonished beyond measure by receiving a letter from the long lost Clarence. He wrote that he had “struck luck” within the last few years, and that he had at the time of writing $40,000 in gold secreted in his Arizona hut. He enclosed two money orders for her fare and other expenses. The most unusual profession for a gentle-woman has been taken up because of necessity by Mrs. Coleman, an English woman, as a means of supporting her invalid husband. The name of the profession is pavement artist, which is one of the commonest street sights of London, though but little known here. There are 800 or more persons in the English metropolis earning a living at this trade of drawing pictures on the pavement and collecting pennies from the crowds that gather. Colored chalks are used and realistic scenes are sketched of the exciting events Of the day. On fair days Mrs. Coleman earns on an average $1.25 a day, and when it rains she stays at home and prepares her chalks.

The mania of giving a large number of Christian names to one and the same person is particularly prevalent in Italy. An Italian gentleman named Campagna, who has just been naturalized a Frenchman, has given some little trouble to the French Foreign Office clerks in registering his full designation. Here it is: Vincendo Salvatore Maria Gennaro Fran-cesco-Sales Francesco d’Assisi Francesco de Paolo Rocca Michele Crocifisso Emiddio Pasquale Giovan Giuseppe Geltrude Cario Gaetana Alfonso Giro Andrea Luigi Gioran Geraldo Antonio-di-Para AntonioAbatte Campagna. Oklahoma continues to comport herself as if she had been open to Settlement a hundred years instead of only four. Her latest statistics show nearly 2,400,000 acres of farm land in use, with a cash value of more than $18,000,000. Her farm implements are worth $840,000, and dy has growing 688,000 apple trees, 648,000 peach trees, 69,000 cherry trees,

51,000 pear trees, and a great variety of other fruit trees and of vines. The ■ whole Territory is adapted to fruit * raising, and Oklahoma fruit will ; doubtless soon appear in the New i York market. Somebody is poorer and the State of North Carolina is richer $2,100 a year by the accidental loss of $86,000 of an old 6 per cent, bond issue. The State Treasurer has never been able to hear from the missing bonds and it is supposed that they were destroyed during the civil war. They are pretty safe bonds, too, as the whole issue is guaranteed by a pledge of the State stock in the North Carolina Railroad Company. The dividends from this stock are nearly $17,000 in excess of the interest on the bonds. An old man who for many years has been a beggar on the streets of Auxerre, France, existing on scraps of food which he begged from door to door, died a few days ago of cold and hunger. In an old trunk in his miserable lodgings were found bonds to the value of more than a million francs, and in the cellar, covered by heaps of rubbish, more than 400 bottles of wine of the vintage of 1790. The old miser had inherited the wine from his family, and lived to the age of 85 years without opening a single bottle.

The Stamford university at Palo Alto, Cal., has been presented with a colt whose left front foot and right hind foot are cloven like the foot of a calf. The colt was born at the stock farm of Mr. Boots at Santa Glara, and was cloroformed a few days after its birth. The specimen is being prepared for the zoological laboratory, and the hide, after being stuffed, together with the skeleton, will be placed in the museum. The deformed feet will be separately mounted for exhibition. Among the many vessels which have been driven ashore and wrecked on the English coast since the winter’s storms began was the schooner Draper, which was lost with all on board. The Draper was more than 114 years old, having been built in 1779, and was one of the oldest vessels regularly engaged as a freight carrier. Colonel Enoch Noyes of Cecil County, Maryland, has just felled on his farm near Port Deposit, a walnut tree eighteen feet in circumference, eighty-six feet high, and believed to be 800 years old. He expects to get S4OO for the lumber, not an unreasonable expectation, as walnut wood is scarce and again in considerable demand.

The Clever Cracksman.

I was leaving the prison inclosure one day, writes Arthur Griffiths in “Secrets of the Prison House,” when in charge of the new works at Wormwood Scrubs, and on handing over my keys to the gatekeeper for consignment to the prison safe, he, through some mischance, hampered the safe lock, and could not open the safe. I waited some time impatiently, as I was expected elsewhere, but to no purpose. The safe could not be opened, and until it was not only must I remain on the spot, but so must every other official. It is a strict rule that no one can leave the prison until the keys are collected and safely put away. At last, in despair, I turned to the Chief Warder and asked: “ Have you any especially good cracksman in custody?” “There is K., sir,” he replied, promptly, “one of the most noted housebreakers in London; doing fifteen years. He is employed at this moment in the carpenter’s shop.” “Send for him,” I said, and presently K. appeared, under escort, carrying his bag of tools like any workman arrived to execute repairs. He was a tall, very dark-haired, rather good-looking man, clean, industrious, and an excellant prisoner. “Can you open that safe.K. ?” I asked, quietly, when he was marching into the lodge. Do you mean it, sir ?” he replied, looking at me with an intelligent and irrepressible smile. , “Certainly I do. Examine the door. If you can manage it, go ahead.” K. made only a short inspection, and then picked up a couple of tools. “I think I can doit, sir; shall I try?” I nodded assent and in less than three minutes the safe door swung open; the lock was completely conquered. I will not risk mentioning the names of the makers of the safe, which,, indeed, I do not remember. But it was a patent and presumably first-class safe which thus succumbed so easily to the skilful housebreaker. Fortunately there was an inner smaller safe, which answered all our purposes of security until the outer safe could be properly repaired. As for K., I thanked him, and the next time he came with a request for one of the small privileges so coveted by prisoners, I think it was not denied him.

The Canary’s Mirror.

Not long ago my wife purchased a canary at a bird store. It had been accustomed to companions of its kind at the store, but at our house it was entirely alone. The pretty little songster was evidently homesick. It would not sing, it would not eat, but drooped and seemed to be pining away. We talked to it, and tried by every means in our power to cheer the bird up, but all in vain. My wife was on the point of carryiiig the bird back to the store when one day a friend said, “Get him a piece of look-ing-glass.” Acting on this suggestion, she tied a piece of a broken mirror about the size of a man’s hand on the outside of the cage. The little fellow hopped down from his perch almost immediately, and gqing up close looked in, seeming delighted. He chirped and hopped about, singing all the pretty airs he was master of. He never was homesick after that. He spends most of his time before the glass, and when he goes to sleep at night he will cuddle down as close to the glass as he can, thinking, Very likely, that he'js getting near to the pretty bird he sees so often.— [St. Louis Globe-Democrat. English laborers of all kinds are now paid over twice as much as they were a century ago.

» A tailor jacket imported from London is a novelty which can be worn in many ways—open, displaying a natty waistcoat, the long revers being kept in place by a button at the waist on either side; closed to the waist, or partlv open to show the necktie. J

CAPES AND CLOAKS.

NEXT SEASON WILL BRING MANY NEW STYLES. In Buying Now a Fur Cape or Cloak There'* Btek, Fit Being Ont of Date Next Win. ter—With Cloth Wrap* It WIU Be Different. Gotham Fashion Gottip. New York eorretpondent:

EFORE there will again be need of very heavy outside garmente, there will be plenty of time for styles to change. Yet, if a good chance comes to buy furs for next season, it should be taken advantage of, only don’t get a cloak nor a cape. Get a buttoned Eton. Let it fit without ornamentation of any kind, buttoning from throat to waist, with a very high collar to turn about the ears, and with sleeves very large at the shoul-

der and tapering to the wrist, where a big cuff turns widely back. This sort of thing will be modish for many seasons to come, either in seal, sable or ermine. In buying now a fur cape or cloak there would ba too much risk of its getting out of style before next winter. With cloth wraps it is different; indeed, the spring styles for coats invite purchasing for use at once, by their novelty of design and adaptability to immediate needs. The initial picture portrays a coat of odd cut, made from myrtle green cloth and trimmed with Persian lamb and fine black silk cord. It has a separate draped pelerine, forming points in front, which is circular and sewed to a round yoke. This yoke is ornamented with parallel rows of black braid and finished with a band of fur which also borders the cape. The right side is fastened to the left shoulder and slightly lifted. The coat itself is fitted ana first buttons in front and then the right side laps over, with the bottom slightly biased. This coat is of very light-weight cloth, and will not prove much of a defense against really cold weather, but, light as it is, it is much more of a

WITH EPAULETTES AWRY.

protection than the jaunty little cape of the next Illustration. This is of equally thin cloth, and is made of gray cloth with a square yoke and stanuing collar of brown velvet It is shorter in book than in front, and is lined with white sicilienne and bordered with feather galloon. The epaulettes are faced with brown velvet and extend across the back, forming a finish for the yoke. Their ends are of oddly unequal length in front to give the appearance of a careless drapery held in place by a rosette on the left shoulder. The edges of epaulette and yoke are bordered with silver passementerie. The woman whose light purse sharpens her lookout for things which, though fashionable, are not lasting, will pounce upon this cape. For, even if epaulettes of different lengths are going to have a “run"—which is very doubtful—the device will look well only so long as the garment is aggressively new. With a bit of crumple, stain or fray, the beauty of the whole will vanish. Herein is a chance for the scoffers, who are wont to decry what they consider, on the part of the designers of women's apparel, encouragement to feminine extravagance. But let such a critic cons der for a moment the vast variety of cape shapes which prevailed last winter, and bear in mind that new ones were positively demanded for this spring, and excuse will appear for such creations as that just described. After all, women needn’t buy such things if they don’t want them, and if they don’t purchase, the designers will very soon learn the obvious lesson. [ There may be still greater risk of offending those who persistently advise—for others—the strictly sensible in clothing bv presenting the theater collarette of tne third picture. Though more an accessory than a garment, ite cost is greater than either the coat or cape described. But let the storm of

A JACKET IN MANY FORMS

disapproval howl and rage as it will, the possessor of such a collarette can reasonably be as calm as the reflected face appears in this picture, for she will know that she has a new and handsome addition to her toilet and one which will be much admired. This one is composed of heliotrope velvet and consists of a yoke richly embroidered with silver and a double velvet ruffle which is laid in pleats on the shoulders and reaches to the waist in front. In the back the ruffle is arranged in revers and also reaches the waist, with a plain velvet piece in the center that is sewed to the yoke and 1 fastened to the revers with invisible stitching. The high Stuart collar is also embroidered with silver on the outside and faced with shaded white, pink and heliotrope feathers on the inside. The feathers continue down either side of the fronts, which close with large hooks and eyes. There is every promise of the daintiest gowns in the world the coming seasons. While there will be a tendency toward severity on the street, dresses for other occasions will be as sweetly frivolous and fluffy as any one could wish. Soft figured silks will be combined with lace and ribbon, skirts will be prettily flaring and there will be just the right balancing fullness about the shoulders to make the whole graoetul. As for organdies, dimities, lawns and muslins, you may have all the frills, puffs and details you want, as the only rule seems to be that you must look as fresh as a bunch of posies just out of the garden. Bertha effects

will be much made use of, yokes will be cut round about the throat, and white pointed vets let in and outlined with cascades of dainty lace will be characteristic of many of the prettiest gowns. The prettiest fashion of guimpes is to be revived, the gpimpe amounting to a sort of underwaist, over which the bodice seems to be draped, the guimpe showing from a point at the waist to over the round of the shoulder. For slender figures exquisite little bodices are designed in muslin, that are drawn in to fit the figure by row after row of ribbon, inserted under lace and drawh tight to tie in a series of pretty bows in front, or, more girlish still, at the back. It looks as if the girls are having all their jewels unset to put into buttons, the craze for costly buttons having all of a sudden been revived in a really virulent form. Almost every girl has been coaching up a fad in some particular stone, and has a collection of her favorite stone. Happy she who has enough of them to give her a matched set of buttons. Turquoises are lovely, and a set of six matched and as big as peas set as buttons in dead gold rims, may be put on any cloth gown and make the wearer the envy of all her friends. Opals are mounted in silver and worn on velvet or brocade. Sapphires are just right on velvet, and amethysts go on silk. If you cannot match your stones in size, it is just as well to make the set a graduated one, a big stone for the top button and the others smaller. A set of six gives a double-breasted coat four for the front and one on each cuff. Such a coat is,

TRIMMED WITH GARLANDS OF SPRING FLOWERS.

of course, cut very low. A set of twelve allows six in front, two for the “sword buttons” and two on each sleeve. Smaller Jewels are used for glove buttons, and you may after all ieel fairly happv if you can raise three small ones for the stock collar. Copyright, 1894. >< A judge in Cincinnati has decided that a man who blows out the gas must stand the consequences. Unless a physician is hard by he generally does

ALMOST A CAPE.

TRAINING SEALS.

They Show a Remarkable Degree of Intelligence. 1 ‘There is no limit to the capabilities of seals,” said Professor Woodward. “They not only learn to imitate, but they also reason. Unlike other animals, the seal is trained without punishment. In fact, to use * whip would be to frighten the animal, which is the most timid and nervous of all brute creation. It will learn by imitation, and none has ever lived long enough to test its capacity for acquiring knowledge. There is a steady and constant improvement in them until they die. A seal understands that it is to be rewarded if it performs what is expected of it, and that It is not to be rewarded if it fails, which indicates reasoning faculty. If a performing seal has done its work, and by any oversight fails to get its fish, it will flap its tail on the floor and cry to attract the attention of its trainer; but if it has not done the work, no fish is expected, and when it falls to get any, no objection is made. “In the training of seals another exception to usual training methods is made. It is never well to begin too early. The baby seals are weak and cannot stand the strain. The human expression in the eyes of seals has often been commented upon, and it is not strange that there should be a good deal of the human in the disposition of these animals. Some of them are Inclined to take a very serious view of life, while others appreciate a joke. Some have a greater degree of intelligence than others, and they all display an affection which approaches the human. “They have beeh trained to do some very remarkable things, the usual repertoire, however, being to play banjos, tambourines, drums, guitars, cymbals, etc., of course, without any particular tune, but they will operate the instrument, commencing and stopping at words of command. They sail yachts by pushing them along; smoke cigars, blowing the smoke away from them, giving the appearance of its coming through their nostrils; sing songs by emitting their peculiar sounds by word of command, one of them playing an accompaniment on a musical instrument; carry a line in the water to a person adrift, turn grindstones, push a needle, and make a very interesting imitation of sewing, waits, climb chairs, stand on their tails, jump, with other diverting feats that show an adaptability to training possessed by no other animal, unless it is the dog. A clown seal is also a feature of most performances with trained seals. Ido not believe that there are any tricks except those of agility taught to dogs which cannot be successfully imitated by seals, and many aquatic performances they do that no other animals can. They enjoy the tricks in water, but a troop of seals does not like the part that has to be done on the stage.”—[St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Native Fodder.

Hon. David T. Little, of Illinois, says the Washington Post, is a constant habitue of Chamberlain’s when in Washington. He is taking life easy now and living on the fat of the land. He has a farm out In Illinois which raises the finest corn, hogs anti cattle In the country. He has got tired of the un-American and imported custom of course dinners, and entered his emphatic protest against it last week. He says It is a fashionable plan to starve a man to death. So he sent out to his farm for 150 pounds of pork sparerlbs, sides, backbone and tenderloin, chickens, turkeys, sweet and Irish potatoes, celery and “flxins,” and had John Chamberlain cook half of them into a dinner. Then he Invited all his Union cronies and gave them a good, square meal. Two days later he had the rest cooked and Invited all his old Confederate friends In. He didn’t care to mix them, for there is no telling what brave men will'do when they get a good meal under their belts. There were Joe Blackburn and half a dqzen more oldtimers of the same sort, and everything was brought In and put on the table at once, in the good, old-fash-ioned way, so they could tell what there was to eat and plan their campaign accordingly. And the way they ate was a caution. It seemed as though none of them had had a square meal for three months. The sparerib and turkey and chicken and “fixins” simply disappeared like a snowbank in July. Senator Blackburn was telling a friend about it afterward. “I was having a good time,” said he, “with my face up against as fine a bit of backbone as ever I tasted, with the dish right in front of me, when in slid a little scrimp of a fellow from Missouri, named Vest, who just fell on that dish of backbone and I didn’t get another smell of it the whole evening.” Vest tells another story, but it doesn’ t matter.—[Courier-Journal.

“Such Going up Stairs.”

At the great slaughter-houses it the Parisian suburb of La Villette there is a granary from which the beasts awaiting execution are fed. The way to it is up a substantial ladder staircase. One of the bullocks having escaped from the pens, climbing up this staircase before he could be stopped. When his escape was first discovered he was seen on the stairs slowly and laboriously making his way upward. As soon as he reached the granary two or three attendants followed him and endeavored to get him down, but all their efforts were unavailing. There was nothing to be done, therefore, but to leave the beast there to eat his fill and then see whether he would be clever enough to return by the way he went. Possibly some thought of exhibiting him in public may have crossed the minds of his guardians, but if so they were doomed to disappointment. The stupid animal, instead of trusting to the staircase, got out of a window on the opposite side of the building, and put one foot on a little thin ladder standing against it. There was a crash, the ladder broke in half, and the too adventurous bullock fell, breaking all his legs, so that he had to be killed on the spot.—[London Mews. i

COMMON BUT BLIND SAYINGS.

Treeing the Origin of Everyday Proverbs and Comparisons. “He was mad as a hatter," is a phrase often used to indicate that a person has been very angry, says the Indianapolis Journal. The original phrase was “Mad as" an atter,” the last word being the Saxon for “adder,” which gives it sense, as the adder is supposed to be always mad and ready to sting. "Mad as a March hare” is another much-used phrase. The hare is not reputed to be ferocious at any time. Those who have given information respecting the hare assert that in March the animal is particularly wild and shy. Consequently the phrase can have no meaning except as a sarcastic allusion to one’s lack of spirit and courage. One often hears, “He’s as dead as a doornail,” yet it is probable that most of those who use the phrase cannot tell \«hy a door nail should be any deader than any other nail that is made of metal. It is explained, however, that the door nail in earlier times was the plate on the door upon which the oldfashioned and now unused “knocker” struck to arouse the inmates of the house. As the plate or nail was struck many more times than any other nail it was assumed to be deader than nails struck only when driven Into wood. “I acknowledge the corn,” meaning to retract, to take back, has a number of explanations, the most plausible of which is that in 1828 one Stewart of Ohio made a speech in Congress in which he declared that “Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky sent their haystacks and cornfields to New York and Philadelphia for a market. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, questioned the statement. “What do they send?” asked Stewart. “Why, horses, mules, cattle and hogs.” “What makes your horses, mules, cattle and hogs?” continued the Ohio man; “ you feed SIOO worth of hay to a horse; you iust animate and get on top of your laystack and slide off to market. How is it with your cattle? You make one of them carry SSO worth of grass and hay to the eastern market. How much com does it take at 88 cents a bushel to fatten a hog? Why, thirty bushels. Then you put thirty bushels in the shape of a hog and make it walk off to the eastern market.” "I acknowledge the corn,” shouted the Kentucky member. “A little bird told me” is an almost universal adage based upon the adage that this übiquitous wanderer from the vantage of the upper air spies out all strange and secret things and tells them to those who can understand. Thus is Ecclesiastes x., 20: ‘ ‘Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber; for the bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.” “Let us return to our muttons,” meaning let us return to the subject matter from which we have wandered. The phrase comes from an old French play in which a draper who had been cheated by a lawyer of six ells of cloth appears In court to defend a shepherd who had stolen twenty-eight sheep of the draper. The pretense of the thievish lawyer causes the draper to wander from the sheep thief to his swindling lawyer, confusing the two misdemeanors, which caused the judge to frequently exclaim: “Let us return to our muttons” (sheep). “ Not worth a tinker’s damn” is really not profane in itself, as the last word should be spelled without an “n.” A tinker’s dam is a wall of dough or clay raised around a spot which the plumber is repairing, just as he desires it fixed with solder. The material can be used but once, consequently after being used is worthless. Hence the force of the adage for a comparison of worthless things. “ Everything is lovely and the goose hangs high ” is a much-used expression and turns on a misapprehension of the word “ h<?nks,” the cry of the wild goose as it flies. On clear days wild geese fly high, hence they “honk” high. Consequently the adage means everything is lovely and the weather is fair. “ I’ll put a spoke in his wheel,” had its origin many years ago when wheels were solid except three holes to receive a “spoke” or pin when going down hill, which acted as a brake. In 1689, in a memorial, two measures designed to interfere with the arbitrary government of James 11. are spoken of “as such spokes in their chariot wheels that made them drive much heavier.”

How Ice Forms.

On the surface of a river or water exposed to the air ice is made by the coldness of the air against the top of the water. When water is cooled thus it at first shrinks in size, and, therefore, sinks below the less cold water next to it. This in turn gets cooler, shrinks and Sinks, and so on, till the water from the top to bottom is lowered to four degrees above centrigrade zero. As soon as the water gets colder than this it begins to swell, and, therefore, no longer sinks as before, but stays on the top, and, if the cooling still goes on till zero centigrade is reached, it begins to turn into iqe. When, by the colder air a-top of it, as much heat is taken away from this water at zero as would have raised a pound of water at zero to a pound of water at seven-ty-nine degrees centigrade, a, pound of ice is formed; when twice as much, two pounds, and so on, till, if the air above the water keeps cold enough, the whole of the water will in time be marie into ice. Perhaps the most satisfactory way of all for producing ice in large quantities is that of compressing dried air by means of a force-pump into strong wrought iron cylinders. As the air is forced into the cylinders it gives out the heat it contains to surrounding objects colder than itself. When again allowed to expand the air requires this heat once more and takes it from anything it touches. If, therefore, a vessel of water is held in the stream of air issuing from such a wrought-iron cylinder, the water loses its heat to the expanding air and gets frozen. This process is in use on vessels bringing the carcasses of sheep and bullocks from Australia and America.—[Atlanta Constitution.