Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1881 — TABLE TALK. [ARTICLE]

TABLE TALK.

1 am coming by and by, Ere long I’ll be on deck, Bringing ninty oente a peck. Singing here the sweet potato that I yam. The passage on the fine eUpper ships from Melbourne to Ixmdon, 70 or 80 days, is only $350, and a writer in a London paper suggests the excursion as a mode for families with fixed , incomes to retrench, as the living is good, he trip is health-giving, and there is to means of spending money.lt is nurther suggested that girls might pick sup husbands. - - It would not be possible for an*"experienoed raiser of thoroughbred stock, whatever might be his nationality, to visit the bine-grass region of Kentucky and the adjoining States of Tennssee and Virginia without at once admitting that soil, air, water and climate there combine to contribute all that is necessary for the production of a perfect type of race horses. Philadelphia has a severe law against selling liquor on Bunday, and of late an effort has been made to enforce it. Keepers of beer gardens in the suburbs complain bitterly that, while their places are relentlessly closed, traffic in spirituous beverages goes on briskly in Fairmont Park, under the countenance of the Park Commissioners. “The Park is the chief attraction which the city has for strangers,” says a member of the Board, “and it shall not be managed in a narrow, Puritanical spirit” He defies the Mayor to interfere in the management of the Park, and says that “temperance spies” will be kicked ■ out ’ .>■*"

Ben Thompson, who keeps a gambling hell at Austin, Texas, is soft in speech, small in stature and unusually mild in manner; yet he is one of the noted desperadoes of the Southwest, and has killed half a dozen men. He cannot be accused, however, of downright murder, for in every instance he technically acted in self-defence. That is his peculiarity. Whenever he gets into a fight in which pistols are drawn, he recklessly waits until his opponent has fired, and then deliberately shoots back. This plan affords him a clear defence id court, and has not yet resulted in his death, as it might reasonably be expected to do. According to the Frankfurter Valkszeitnng, in 1865 the number of letters sent through the post all over the world was estimated at 2,300,0000.000. The available data for 1877 shows that the postal correspondence had risen to >ver 4,000.000,000, which gives an average of 11,000,000 per day, or 127 per second. Europe contributed 3,086,000,000 letters to this enormous mass of correspondence. America about 760.000,000. Asia 150,000,000.. Africa 25.000,000. Australia 50,090,000. Assuming that the population of the globe was between 1,300,000,000 and 1,400,000,000 this would give an average of three letters each for the entire human race. The city of Baltimore is in an enviable position. It is well governed. A new proof of this is given in the construction of the Gunpowder water Works Several years ago the people voted §4,000,000 to construct the works. A magnificent tunnel, seven miles long, a greater prrt of it through solid rock, was cut; and now the works are completed, and their remains $37,000 of the appropriated $4,000,000 unexE ended. This circumstance, as its parallel in the history’ of the City Hall of the tame c»ty, for which' $2,000,090 were appropriated.' After it was entirely complete the Building Commission had over SIOO,OOO unexpended money ,on their hands.

While all the world nowadays know of the torpedo, invented and named by Fulton, as a machine to blow up' ships, comparatively few know tbat it takes its name from a fish, of marvelous electrical properties, which was anatomized by the famous surgeon John Hunter. The torpedo is found in the Medlteranean. the Bay of Biscay and the southern English and Irish waters. The ancients employed it asa therapeutic agen t. It is believed to use its extraordinary powers to benumb a big enemy or to capture a smaller fish. It loves to lie hrsaud.in which.it will bury itself by flapping its extremities, throwing the sand over its back. Tread on it then and you will be prone in a moment. It is sometimes sold for food in French markets. A Santa Fe paper tells a tale which recalls llolme’s novel of “Elsie Venner.” It says that there is a resident at Faudalaira, an individual having a scaly green skin,- exactly like a viper’s, which he sheds every year. It comes off in a single piece. He has no hair on his head. His sister, who died a short time ago, had similar peculiarities. Toward the. close of her life this viperous ?kin encroached on her eyes so that she could see only, through a small aperature. The same fate overbangs her. brother. These unhappy people are known as. “viper men an<f women.” The phenomenon is attributed to the fact of their mother having (as is common in Ciiba)'taken an ex< cess of viper’s flesh to cure a disease. Mr. H. J. Barron, secretary of the Swimming Association of Great Britain, writes to the London Times to urge the necessity of children being taught to swim “a good, straightforward breast stroke.” In case a person falls in to a heavy sea, a side stroke should be adopted, presenting the'back of the head to the dash of the waves. If, he says, a child is iaught merely to “tread water,” no douL({after a few lessons he will support himself; but he will not be likely ever afterward to • earn to swim with a good stroke. But If a child is taught the breast- stroke properly he will learn to support himself in fewer lessons probably, and a« he gains strength and confidence in succeeding years will practice and 1 ., become efficient in a great varietv v uf strokes. ’