People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1894 — TO CORRESPONDENTS. [ARTICLE]

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

AH communications for this paper should be accompanied Ut Uie uauc of the autiior; not necessarily for pvillcatTon, bm as an evidence of good faith on the part of the writer. Write oniv on one side of the pa per. Be particular! v careful in fjiving names aim dates to have the letters ana hem res plain and distinct. Proper names are often difficult to decipher, because of tj*t? careless manner in which they are written.

Fob the first time in the history of Cornell university the Stewart L. Woodford prize in oratory has been won by a woman. The fortunate winner is Miss Harriet C. Connor, of Burlington, la. _____________ The model for the equestrian statue of Gen. Hancock is finished. The work has been accepted by the commission for Gettysburg monuments. When cast in bronze and placed on Cemetery hill, it will be the first equestrian statue erected on a battlefield in this country. Postmaster General Bissell does not like women for postmasters. There are some 4,000 of them connected with the department, and in refusing to prefer a woman candidate, the other day, he said there were more complaints made against them than against the male officials. Under lowa law husband and wife are' one and can not conspire, bargain or do any of the numerous things which it requires two to accomplish. This oneness of husband and wife saved Mr. and Mrs. Metzger of Council Bluffs, from prison for conspiring to defraud a neighbor.

Sam Houston’s grave in the little cemetery at Huntsville, Tex., is in so shabby a condition of neglect as to excite regret on the part of many Texans. There have been propositions before the legislature to remove the patriot’s remains to Austin, the state capital, and erect a monument over them, but nothing definite has ever been done. Mr. H. H. Dixon has been studying the locomotion of insects and spiders by means of instantaneous photographs. He finds that the limbs move together in diagonals. In insects the first and third legs on one side move with the second on the other, the antennae moving with the first leg on the same side. In case of spiders, which have eight legs, the first and third on one side move with the second end fourth on the other. A private in the Second infantry, United States army, has been confined in the guard house near Omaha for refusing to engage in target practice on Sunday. The private claims to have conscientious scruples against that kind of work on Sunday and for conscience’s sake went to jail. A settlement of this question by the secretary of war may precipitate a discussion more lively than that the Presbyterian general assembly has just passed upon.

The English sparrow domesticated here finds a defender in Mr. I. M. Pray, before the American Naturalists' society, who says it is not the evilminded, litigious, greedy or pugnacious bird which it has been asserted to be, but a useful, diligent and peaceful tomtit of a creature, worth twice its weight in cuckoos or chickadees, and of inestimable service in consuming noxious varieties of tree-destroying worms, and insects which other birds won't touch.

The theory is advanced by S. E. Christian, in Poplar Astronomy, that stellar scintillation is caused largelv by inconceivable numbers of small meteoric bodies, which are constantly passing between the stars and our earth. “Momentary occultations of tthe stars by these bodies, which are revolving outside of our atmosphere, would certainly occur if these bodies were numerous enough, and recent investigation seems to point to the fact that they are.”

The United exhibitions at Milan were opened May 6. They comprise ten exhibitions of fine arts, oils,’wines and other specialties. An international sanitary and health exhibition is to be held in Boulogne from July to September next. An international exhibition opens at Bucharest August 20 and closes November 12. And now Tasmania comes forward with an invitation to the world to participate in an international exhibition at Hobart November 15 next. The Photographic Society of Geneva is investigating the strong facial re.semblance which married couples who (have lived harmoniously for a number of years so frequently acquire. In twenty-four cases out of seventy-eight the pictures taken showed a greater resemblance between husband and wife than it is usual to find between brother and sister. In thirty-four cases the resemblance was about equal, while in the remaining twenty-four there was no likeness at all. “Venetian iron work” is one of the latest fancies of womankind, and a very pretty art it is. The iron is bought in long slender strips about half an inch wide and thin enough to be bent in any desired shape with the fingers. Antique candlesticks, brackets, chains with ornamental single and double hooks, lamp frames, picture frames, pen racks, grill work and ornamental scroll work for the finishing of desks or sideboards, are a few of the things made in this work. Pbof. Atwater is recognized as one of the best authorities in ths United States as to the nutritious value of the various foods. In that department of the government service which treats of this subject he is recognized as an oraclfc.and Prof. Atwater says that five cents’ worth of round steak contains more nutrition than a tenderloin steak Or twenty-five cents’ worth of oysters, and yet in ninety-nine cases in a bundled where people have their own choice between a round steak and a porterhouse they will take the porterkouse and pay from twenty-five to fifty per cent, more for it.