Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1905 — CHOICE MISCELLANY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHOICE MISCELLANY

Bur» Coat >788,000,000. We have the word of the statistician®! that the chinch bug annually destroy® crops valued at $60,000,000; that th® grasshopper eats up $00,000,000 worth, the Hessian fly $40,000,000, the com root worm, the corn ear worm, the cot»| ton boll weevil and the codling mothl of apple each $20,000,000; the armyt worm $15,000,000, the cotton bollworm $12,000,000, the grain weevil and' San Jose scale $10,0*10,000 each, the .cotton leaf worm and the potato bug $8,000,000 each and the cabbage worm $5,000,000. This makes a total of $208,000,000 worth of products that might have been expected to but never do get' to market because of the ravages of these most numerous insects. And this is not the only loss charged to their account. Shortage of crops affects various industries and Increases prices, and a deal of money Is spent in fighting the pests. Taking Into account all these things, the annual loss In thia, country from insect pests, distributed among the various products, is estimated as follows: Cereals, $200,000,000; animal products, $175,000,000; forest and forest products, $111,000,000; truck crops and hay and forage, $53,000,000; cotton, $50,000,000; fruits, $27,000,000; tobacco, $5,300,000; sugars, $5,000,000; miscellaneous crops, $5,800,000, and products in storage, SIOO,000,000, making a total of $785,000,000. —New Bedford Standard. The Admiral and the Dos. The late General H. V. Boynton disliked dogs, says the Cincinnati Enquirer. He said one day in Washington: “I know a lady who always receives her callers with a yapping, snapping spaniel, pampered and spoiled, on the sofa beside her. An old admiral, a friend of mine, visited her one afternoon, and the spaniel took a dislike to him. It began to bark and growl and show its teeth, and it leaped down from Its velvet cushion on the sofa and began to make little feints and springs at the admiral’s legs. “He as he talked held bls cane In his hand and kept the tail of his eye on the Infernal little beast. Its growls and yappings redoubled, and its feintlike springs at his legs Increased. For anxiety and rage he could hardly follow the thread of the talk. He took a firm grip on his cane. "The lady said calmly: “ ‘Don’t be afraid, admiral. My little dog never bites any one.’ “And even as she spoke the nasty brute nipped the admiral’s ankle, tearing the stocking and drawing blood. “He swung his cane and gave tile dog a rap on the skull that rolled it half unconscious into a corner. am,’ he said. ‘I never strike little dogs.’ ” Colonel Bradshaw's Money. Colonel Blythe while in Topeka told a good poker story. A northerner got into a game with some southern gentlemen in Alabama. When it came time to quit he was way to the good. Colonel Bradshaw, one of the southern gentlemen in the game, owed him S3OO and gave his check for the amount. The northerner was at the bank bright and early the next morning and presented the check. The cashier looked at it, jammed it down on the book, went to the vault and got a stack of bills, came back, counted out $2,600, counted it over again to make sure and then shoved it through the window. The northerner was delighted. He gathered it up, went over to a desk and started to count it. As soon as he looked at the first bill be stopped with a jerk and exclaimed to the banker: “You have made a mistake.” “How so7’ asked the cashier. “Why, this is Confederate money,’* said the northerner. “That’s the only kind Colonel Bradshaw has had in the bank since the war,” replied the banker.—New York World. Concerning College Athletics. There are certain general principles that ought to be kept in mind. One of them Is that professionalism, if it be honestly admitted, is not an immoral thing. The wrong is in playing the professional as an amateur and in trying to make yourself believe that your professional is an amateur. This is hypocrisy of a very odious kind, and its influence on the young men in our colleges Is deplorable. Though honest and openly avowed professionalism is not immoral, it ls e we believe, fatal to true college sport, for if you admit that it is proper you destroy absolutely all healthy interest in college contests. If an athletic association fiiay hire T? ■tar halfback, why may it not hire a whole eleven to do nothing except play football? Of course if any degree of professionalism be admitted there is no reason why this should not be done. But games played by such men would not be college games in any decent sense of the word.—lndianapolis News. Traiaa ar CrinollnMf Two ladies are said to have been mobbed in America who went out to ■hop in such vast crinolines that they could hardly get through the shop doors. I do not know which is tbs greater nuisance to others, a lady puffing out her petticoats like an inflated balloon or one wearing a long train. lam inclined to think the latter, for the lady occupies more space. What grace or beauty there Is in a train trailing after a.woman I have never understood. A peacock has a fine tall conferred on him by nature. But whe he wants to show it off the feathem are stiffened and form a fan. TbeSlrd is not so silly as to suppose that he would add to Its adornment by digging bis tall limp behind hjm. Possibly, however, were the lady peacoctw adorned with tails they would do thief —London Truth.