People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1894 — TO CORRESPONDENTS. [ARTICLE]

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

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An interesting experiment is being tried by a minister in London —the establishment of a church for children. It is a unique effort to meet the “leakage" between the Sunday-school and the church.

Italian grujc culturists are now makii g ilium,nating oil from grape seeds, from which they get a product of from ten to fifteen per cent. It is clear, colorless and inodorous and burns without smoke.

An original certificate of membership in the Order of Cincinnati, issued to a signer of the Declaration of independence and signed by George Washington, was recently sold at Wilmington, Del., for $32, probably less than a tenth of its selling value had bidding been pressed.

Gkneseo, _\. Y., has a century plant, or Wadsworth aloe, which has attained a height of twenty-one feet and has thrown eighteen flower shoots. It is expected to put out five or six additional branches and to grow at least two feet. Botanists all over the state are being attracted by it.

A scheme for a ship canal connecting the Baltic and the Black seas, from Kherson to Riga, is being considered by the Russian ministry of ways and communications. The canal is estimated to cost thirty million roubles. The construction of the proposed Caucasus railway has been postponed for two years

Justo Gonzales is a leading lawyer in Buenos Ayres. He was called upon to defend Madame Tetrazzine, the famous South American prima donna, in a divorce suit recently. He charged her SBOO for his services, but the money was not forthcoming and he obtained an order for the seizure of the ' lady’s jewels. All of the jewels turned out to be first-class paste.

An English scientist, after careful experiments, finds that when potatoes are cooked without removing the skins they lose only 3 per cent, of nutritive quality through extraction of the juice. When the skins were removed before boiling the loss was 14 per cent., which makes the process of cooking the potatoes without their jackets an exceedingly wasteful one.

Henry S. Huntington, United States consular agent at Castellamare, Italy, reports to the state department that the grape crop produced in that country during the past two years has been 60 enormous that in many districts in southern Italy there were not barrels enough and demijohns sufficient to hold the pressed juice, and cisterns were emptied and filled witli wine.

The distinction of owning the most powerful light and tile largest light-house in the world belongs to France. This monster light has been set up at Cape de la Ileve, near Havre, in the center of the most dangerous section of the French coast. The light now in use at this light-house has power equal to 40,000.000 candles and its reflection can be seen 243 miles.

A Skowiiegan (Me.) manufacturer of patent medicine made an offer of $20,000 to any one who would invent for him a bottle that could not be refilled after once being emptied. An ingenious mechanic named McQuilian has invented such an article and the firm has allowed him six months more to make any improvements or changes needed in his invention. It is a curious yet simple article, and will cost only a trifle more than an ordinary bottle.

Philadelphians celebrated Arbor day by planting an elm tree in Fairmount park in memory of Dr. D. Hayes Agnew; a sturdy oak in memory of Gen. Meade, of Gettysburg fame; an ash for George IV. Childs, and a sugar maple for Gov. Hartranft. In the case of Mr. Childs the planting of a memorial tree was peculiarly appropriate, for it was his custom whenever a distinguished man visited him at Wootton, his country estate, to ask his guest to plant a tree there.

Sir Charles Tupper, the agent general for Canada, was present ten days ago at the residence of Jubal Webb, of Kensington, London, and witnessed the formal cutting of the enormous cheese which formed such a conspicuous feature of the Canada section at Chicago exposition. The cheese, it will be remembered, weighed ten tons, was produced in 1802 under governmental auspices at Perth, Ontario, and was made from the milk of 12,000 cows. The cheese, it is said, was excellent.

It is proposed to build at Coquet, Minn., on the St. Louis river, a dam 800 feet long and 80 feet high,by which back water on St. Louis will be extended 60 miles, and the largest dammed body of water in the world will be secured. A line of steel piping to the hills above Duluth will be laid, where a reservoir is to be built, whence, under a 600-foot head of power, electricity will be generated and distributed. \\ ater will also be furnished for fire protection and, if wanted, for drinking purposes.

One of the deadliest serpents in the tropics is the fer-de-lanoe, of which there are at leasteight varieties. These snakes are of precisely the color which will enable them to hide among the foliage or roots of trees. Sometimes they are a bright yellow and can scarcely be distinguished from the bunch of bananas within which they lie coiled. Again the reptile may be black, or yellowish brown, or of any bye resembling tropical forest mold, old bark or decomposing trees. The iris of the eye is orange, with red flashes, and at night glows like a burn* taf 0001.