Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1874 — ITEMS OF INTEREST. [ARTICLE]

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

A poor old man committed suicide in San Francisco because a pictorial sheet characterized him as an “old nuisance.” In view of the dreadful mortality from yellow fever at the Pensacola Navy Yard, the Nautical Qastette suggests the closing of that station from Aug. 1 to Nov. 16. Some people complain about their children being non-observing, but we’d like to see the child who won’t observe how the family pie is cut and who gets the biggest piece. —Detroit Press. Barrels of flour and fruit sent from America to Queen Victoria are always turned over to one of the married servants, who has red hair and a nose like a bugle in a table leg .—Danbury News. Salt Lake seems to have lost its savor. When the Saints first came to the valley, says a California paper, the waters of the lake yielded one pail of pure salt to three of water. It now requires five pails of water to yield one of salt. A Springfield (Mass.) gentleman concluded to have a bath the other evening, and in the dark got hold of a chunk of stove-blacking by mistake for the soap. A more polished man than he was has never been seen in the whole State of Massachusetts. Mark me results of advertising: William Wakeman, a California farmer, advertised for a wife, and got one. So far so good. But here he made his mistake. He stopped advertising, and how disastrous the consequence. The wife packed up all his money and fine linen and went —no man knows whither. A WiLLiAMETTE (Oregon) farmer wanted a hand to drive a reaper, and his married sister, who was there on a visit, heard him say he would pay $1.50 a day for a hand. She stepped forward, claimed the job, took the reins, and kept it up for several days, doing first-rate work. Saturday last a hound belonging to a man named 'Bcudder, of Fayette, Ohio, was tied toAtm end of a rear car on a Canada Southern train during the stop at Wyandmta His owner had a bet that the dojpwould keep up with the train and come into Detroit all right, and the hound did. The train ran at its usual rate of speed and the dog did not have to be pulled a foot of the way. The amount of the wager was SSO, the bet being S3O to S2O that the dog could not win, —Detroit Free Press. A clergyman of the Church of England was recently asked to say grace at dinner on board an Atlantic steamship. He arose, evidently embarrassed, and recited the familiar juvenile prayer beginning, “ Now I lay me down to sleep,” etc., to the surprise of some and amusement of many passengers at the table. He afterward explained that when called upon he could not recall one of the many forms of expressing thanks, and uttered the child’s prayer unconsciously. Clergymen sometimes surprise and amuse us all! —“ Norval," in N. T. Mail. The Lynchburg News, in a brief account of the game, rattlesnakes and other ferce naturae to be found in the Virginia mountains, mentions that in this wild and dismal scope of country there are many wild hogs, which do not hesitate to attack the traveler, and they are without doubt the most dangerous denizens of the mountains. They are usually found in herds of from five to twelve, and the sight of a human being is the only signal for attack that they require. The intruder has then nothing left him but to outrun them or climb a tree and wait for them to leave. One cause of accident in blasting but little understood and which applies to powder as well as nitro-glycerine is thus stated: “ The blaster, not aware that he is a walking charge of electricity, proceeds to his work, inserting cartridge after cartridge of nitroglycerine until he comes to the last, which is armed with the electric fuse. The moment his hand touches one of the naked wires the current passes through the priming and explosion follows. Let a blaster before he handles these wires invariably grasp some metal in moistened contact with the earth or place both hands against the moist walls of the tunnel.” A novel runaway has just come to light. Two little girls, aged nine and ten years, arrived in Philadelphia a few days ago on a trip from New York. They were imaccompanied by any adult, and were pot on a tramp, determined to see the worn. The little ones reside in the metropdns, from which, having seen all that was to be seen, they resolved to make a “ tour of the globe.” Their habits de voyagement were composed of shawls, dresses and bonnets, each a gold watch, finger-rings, ear-rings and breast-pins, and about S6O in money. They were re ■ turned to their home next morning under the guardianship of an irate papa. Can this be beat?

A young man residing with his father in Patcbogue, L. 1., a few nights ago heard a noise in the direction of a watermelon patch and, looking out of his bedroom window, saw a man in the act of 44 hooking ” one. He seized a gun loaded with small shot which he kept handy for such purposes and blazed away at the supposed thief. A yell followed and the young man was horrified to discover by the' voice that he had shot his own father. The “old man” came running into the house with a big watermelon under his arm which he had been selecting for breakfast the next morning, and it was found fortunately the entire charge had lodged in the melon—not a shot having struck the* person of the supposed thief.