Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1896 — May Prove Interesting. [ARTICLE]

May Prove Interesting.

In the Tyrol girls who are fond of cats marry early. The Pennsylvania Dutch believe black cats cure epilepsy Throwing a cat overtioard from a ship will cause a cyclone. If the family cat lies with its back to the fire there will be a squall. If a cat sneezes three times the whole family will soon suffer from influenza. The more honest our intentions are the less suspicious are we of others’ designs. Cleverness is a sort of genius for instrumentality. It is the brain of the hand. The lotus in India is emblematic of life; in ancient Egypt it was a death flower. Beiore we boast of how bad we have been, we had better be sure we are not that way still. The purple columbine, in both England and Scotland, is symbolic of determination. Over 7,000 varieties of microscopic sea shells have been enumerated by naturalists. Say what you please, the greatest pleasure In the world is to scratch when you Itch. They say an ostrich can digest anything. We wonder if an ostrich ever tried radishes? To dream of a black cat at Christinas time In Germany Is an' omen of farming Illness. i If it rains on a Dutch girl’s wedding day it is because the bride has forgotten to feed her cat. When a woman contracts the habit of chasing the .men, it is as hard to recover from as the tobacco habit Mothers who have had experience say that big children cause them a great deal .more worry than babies. In Ireland the cat must not be taken to a new house by a moving family, especially If water has to be crossed. Every stop a woman makes when she is traveling she sits down in the depot and writes a letter on her knee. A cat born in May will be of a melancholy disposition, given to catching snakes and bringing them into the house. There are very few things in this world worth getting angry about, and they are precisely the things which anger does not help. We are ruined, not by what we really want, but by what we think we want; it is wise, therefore, never to go abroad in search of our wants. In the'south of France the handling of a sweet pea by a young woman to a young man is a polite way of stating that she is tired of his company. The Jesuits have purchased the famous palace Mondragone, near Frascati, Italy, from Prince Borghese, for SBO,OOO. It will be used as an institute. Spirits of,turpentine is one of the most valuable articles for family use. ItJ medical qualities are very numerous. For burns it is a good application, and gives immediate relief; for blisters on the hands it is of priceless value; for corns on the toes it Is useful; and It is beneficial for rheumatism and, sore throats. It was formerly believed that the hairs composing the fur of the ermine, which is brown in summer and white in winter, could not change their hue, and that the difference in color between the summer and winter coats of the animal arose solely from the fact that at the beginning of winter the summer fur is shed and a new coat of snowy whiteness takes its place. Lately, however, experiments have shown that if an ermine wearing its warm-weather coat is subjected to a lowering of temperature, its brown fur will quickly become white without shedding of the hair. It remains true, however, that the ordinary winter dress of the ermine is put on only when the summer one falls off.