Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1910 — GLEANINGS AND GOSSIP. [ARTICLE]

GLEANINGS AND GOSSIP.

Epidemic cerebrospinal meningitii used Jo be rare in France, occurrinj cheiny in military centers. Now : , doctor is likely to meet with it in gen era! practice. It is proposed in Germany to havt an organization providing for old ag« and disability pensions for bank officers and bank clerks, annuities foi their widows and education for theii orphans. In Japan a convict may earn enough money while in jail to maintain bit family, He has the best of food and lodging, is taught a trade and. If he wishes, pursues the study of foreign ■latrgtiHgGa:*"~ In recognition of his 25 years of service as pastor of the Old South Church, Boston, more than »18,000, contributed by more than 500 parishioners,- the "Re v. George A. Gordon recently. Bakers in Birmingham, Eng., have raised the price of four-pound loaves of bread one cent British, households depend upon the baker for their daily bread and it is impossible to obtain a cook who can malic bread at home. The petroleum greas of the United States at present known are set dow-n at 8,850 square miles, or somewhat larger than the state of Massachusetts; and the gas areas at 10,055 square miles, or slightly more in area than the«tate of Vermont. On one of the Thousand islands an enterprising American nas started a pheasant farm. Fe expects in time to have 4,000 to 5,00(F English golden pheasants on his island. As the nearest land is half a mile away, he thinks he will be able to keep them at home. The largest electrically-controlled switch tower in the w’orld has just been put in operation at Providence by the Consolidated. It is equipped with 77 switch levers, providing 26b combinations. T 1 e power is taken front ’the -feed wires of the railway but there are two auxiliary sources which can be used in case of trouble. As a man was having his luncheon in the coffee room of a Birmingham hotel he was much annoyed by an other visitor, who during the whole of the meal stood with his back to the fire warming himself and watching him partake of his repast. At length unable to endure it any longer, he -rang—tfrH~~bell and said: “Waiter 7 kindly turn that gentleman round; 1 think he is done on that sidp.” One of the objects of the recent Stratford-on-Avon exhibition of ancient domestic furnishings illustrate! Shakespeare’s line, “And burn sweet wood to make the chamber sweet.” was a thing that looked like a pair ol wafer irons, but it was in reality a pair of bellows with a little chambei in the nozzle of which "sweet wood,’ like sandal or fragrant herbs, could be inserted in company with a bit of live charcoal. On working the bellows a smoke of exceeding good smell would be diffused in the room.

Mrs. Hilda Inowye, a wealthy and cultured Japanese woman, is complet iug a course in domesuc science at teachers’ college, Columbia University, in order that she may teach her country women the fine points of house keeping as practiced in America, Eng land and Germany. From teachers college Mrs. Inowye wiM go to the University of Chicago, where she will spend some mont.s. She has already taken a brief peep into the University of Michigan. Later she will go to England, and thence to. Germany. There are 500 inhabitants on the Tonawanda Indian reservation in western New York. Though divided by clearly defined party lines into Christians and pagans they retain in common many of their ancestors’ primitive customs, a vfery conspicuous custom bbing the annual corn drying. Cornstarch, so much used in America for food, is not in demand in China, as the natives use for similar purposes the water in which they have boiled their rice—congee water. This liquid when cold sets into a thick, viscous and transparent jelly, which is colored, sweetened and eaten as Americans eat blancmange. Herr Hager, a rich and Influential Berlin banker, frequently had watches picked from his pocket. At first he had recourse to all kiiids of safety chains; then one morning he took no precautions whatever, and quietly allowed himself to be robbed. At night, on returning from his business, he took up the evening paper; he uttered an exc’amation of delight. A watch had exploded in a man’s hands. The victim’s hands were shattered and the left eye destroyed. The crafty banker had filled the watch case with dynami.e, which exploded in the operation of* winding.