Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1880 — ALL SORTS. [ARTICLE]

ALL SORTS.

The largest manufactory in Texas is a big saddle and harness shop at Dallas. A pork-packer Ja Indianapolis has invented machinerywhich will scrape seven thousand hogs a day. Probably not less than fifty thousand persons are directly employed in the manufacture of shoddy into cloth in the United States. A new industry has been started in Flushing, L. L, that of constructing houses in sections, which can readily be pot together with movable pins. The Paris Globe announces that “Victor Hugo is the most powerful literary luminary of this century, and there, is not a name that does not pale before his.” Two young women-Of Bungalore, India, have been admitted as probationers into the post-office in tnai place. They are the first women who have been able to get Government employment in Asia.. Whoeveb knows of any valuable use for saw-dust can make a fortune at Minneapolis, Minn., where the saw-mill men do not know how to get rid of the 300,000 cords of it that accumulate every year. The demand for flowers was so great in New .York last season that the florists wflere driven to fill orders. They are glad that Lent has begun. Jacqueminot roses have been worth for some time past from forty to fifty dollars per hundred. The fact is that, if a woman is satisfied to accept housework, the field of employment open is larger than to destitute men. There are fifty-two thousand house servants in New York receiving from ten dollars to twenty dollars a month and living on the fat of the land. —Detroit Free Press. Recently in Holland a competition was held for tarred and untarred rope. It was shown that tar diminishes the tenacity of ropes against pulling force, but maintains the tenacity longer by protecting the rope against atmospheric and other influences. The deree of tarring most suitable for ropes about fifteen per cent. Chauncey Slater, a foreman at the shop of the Elastic Frog Company, in Mansfield, Conn., has fallen heir to 9100,000. A few days ago he received a check for nearly the whole amount. He put it in his pocket and kept on at his work. He tells his fellow-workmen that he intends to remain at his work, wearing his working clothes. Blower Brown made himself famous in the last walk at Agricultural Hall, London, by covering 553 miles in the six days, •with some time to spare. This beat the previous record—Weston’s 550. Nevertheless, until the last day the attendance was meager, thus indicating that walking matches are losing their former hold on the affeotions of the British public. A negro at Wallace, Tenn., told his wife he must kill somebody before he went to bed. She begged him not to select her, and he obligingly said that he would go down to a ball in the village for a victim. He loaded a pistol, went to the ball, and shot a young negro girl whom he did not even know; but he failed of his object after all, for she was only slightly wounded. The observatory for which James Lick left a fund is to be built soon, a site having been selected on Mount Hamilton, fifty miles from San Francisco, and six thousand feel above the sea level. The principal instrument, if the testator’s directions are carried out, will be “ the best telescope in the world;” but its size, character and maker have not yet been decided upon, and some preliminary experiments will be made.

Leadville is a place of strong contrasts. The characteristics of a new mining town are seen there yet; gambling nells and bar rooms are more numerous than any other places of business, the pistol and the knife are in common use, highwaymen rob the stages close by anudesperate adventurers abound; but opposed to these things is a strong desire for law and order, schools and churches are being established, and it is thought that the civilf ization of Leadville will soon be accomplished. A young man named Elmer Severance, who was working at Smith & Carter’s camp, at Princeton, Minn., bet one of his companions a quarter Chat he could place a dipper of cold water on the stove and hold his finger in the dipper until the water began to boil. The wager was accepted. Severance held his finger in the dipper quite a while, but was obliged to withdraw it before the water had reached a boiling pitch, hence he lost his bet. On examination it was found that the fingeir was completely cooked; it painea Severance so that he jjwas obliged to quit work The probability is that the linger will have to be amputated. The trouble and annoyance caused by the circulation of clipped, mutilated and defaced coin is likely to be soon remedied by such deteriorated pieces finding their way to the melting pot, as they are now refused at all the Government offices, either in the way of payment for articles required, as dues to the United States, or for redemption as a superabundance of a circulating medium. For a while it was supposed that coins with holes in them had been merely worn as charms during the war, when metallic currency was very scarce, and when again put into circulation were taken by storekeepers, but the fact that many of the mutilated currency bear dates subsequent to the reissue of coin as a medium of exchange, gives evidence that pieces have been cat out in a fraudulent manner to depreciate the intrinsic value. —Chicago Times.

—This is the way a restaurant-keeper in Lafayette, Ind.\ was taken in and done for a few days ago: A stranger came in and ordered a cup of coffee, tendering a two-dollar note in payment. He was "handed a one-dollar bill and ninety cents silver in change. The dollar-bill he put in his pocket and, placing ten cents with the ninety cents, said, “ I don’t like to carry loose silver; just give a dollar for that/’ The-clerk took a dollar out of the drawer, and shoved It toward the man, who, quickly placing the loose silver coins which he still held his hand on with it, said carelessly, “ Better give me a two-dol-lar note for that.” By this time the clerk was somewhat mixed, and .the other playing the game boldly he very naturally handed oat two dollars without thinking, and drew back the dollar in change and dollar note, the swindler pocketing the two-dollar bill and walking off. When the clerk came to think the matter over he found he was out just ninety cents on the transaction. : h —Mr. Parnell, the Irish agitator, has a brother living at West Point, Ga-, who is a famous fruit grower, and owns an orchard containing fifty thousand peach