Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1895 — Odds and Ends. [ARTICLE]

Odds and Ends.

In Essam they lower corpses from the roof, it being against the law to Carry them Through the front door. Scientific records show only 505 oases are known of persons having second attacks of smallpox. Tom ifurrows, the all-round Australian athlete, lias beaten the record by swinging a pair of Indian clubs for twenty-four hours, without stopping even for meals. In Russia the water supply never freezes because the pipes are laid below tho frost line. Street cars in Dresden are propelled by gas engines. By a new process stockings are now made out of paper. North China is the land of the doughnut. An Atchison man, 5,000 miles from Baris, is the first man to put a ‘ Trilby corn cure” on the market. Harmonics higher than tho natural open tone of the fiddle string can be got by almost any violinist, but J. G. Holmes, of Buchanan, Mich., claims lie can get a harmonic a fith lower than the natural tone. President Cleveland is having his portrait painted without sitting for it. The artist, Percy Ives, of Detroit, has a room opening into the President’s private office, and catches him at his desk when he can. Abbo S. Stiltz, a French priest, in charge of tho blind, has invented a typewriting machine whicli prints ordinary characters and the corresponding raised letters for tho blind, so that, tho sightless can write letters to their friends and also read them. Somebody has invented a letter copying book which, when rolled up and liold tightly in the hand, makes as good a copy as cun be obtuinod from a press. There are 200,000 more unmarried women in Englund and Wales than unmurriod men. The King of Italy sponds more for charity than any other European sovereign.

Franco has but one volcano —In the Department of Avoyron, and it is in active operation for tho first limo since 1870. An alarm letter box is a recont invention. When a package is droppod in it sounds a.boll In tho house to inform tho listeners that the postman has brought a letter. Six near rolutivos c. George H. Mcl'almon, of Biddeford, Mo., met violent deaths—tho father, grandfuthor, two brothers and two cousins. Caycao, a small Island in the Wost Indies, is inhabited exclusively by turtlos, somo of which grow to enormous size. Several vain attempts have beon made to establish human habitations there. Strange bod warmers are used by Chilian women. In cold woathor, wlion In bod, tlioy keep their feet warm by placing them on. a dog. Upon tho meeting of the Fiftyfourth Congress each member will find upon his desk a button, a pressure upon which will bo promptly answered by a pugo. A new imitation of gold is made of ninety-four parts of eoppor und six of antimony with a little magnesium and carbonate of lime added while It is melted. It is said that It preserves its color, is an almost exact imitation of gold, and that It costs only twenty-five cents a pound to mako It. Of tho few gonuino relies of Shakespeare preserved in his native town, the most interesting aro his signet ring, with the Initials “W. S."on it, and tho desk at which lie sat In the grammar school in Stratford. The average number of visitors to the poet’s home and church is 28,000 a year, of whom (1,000 are Americans. There is a poplar standing at the foot of Mount Michael, in Yancy County, North Carolina, at the headwaters of tho Cano River, that has a girth of twenty-seven feet nine inches at tho cutting height. It is apparently sound and estimated to yield over 20,000 foot of lumber. “Tribe of Gad” Is tho title of an association of teachers at Larned, Kan > In England imitation or filled cheese cannot legally bo sold as cheese. Mount Tacoma is tho highest point in the United States—about 15,000 foot. A Minnesota man has sued a barber for SSOO damages for ruining his beard. Thero aro in tho world over 120,000 species of flowering plants. Men or women who wear cords to thoir eyeglasses these days are the exception.