Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1882 — Page 2

?wk.fi - ' Where where are the mounted columns That darkened the village stne t Where wnere are the flying legions In grim war’s nrray complete! T walk where the breath oY Miy time VeaTbagarlands tor other-dead And the blossoms bright are shining While the sky gleams overhead. Is Freedom a burnt out ember While her sons are lying lowl JDa the living yet remember s The brave ’neath the blossoms. snow 1 To the silent roll call, calling Tne proud endless thousands 4 ccme While upon my ear is falling O never a note of drum. O silent as dews of heaven Does the serried phalanx stand, For they were the sacred leaven To purify the land. * From starriest reach of sarllght From deepest depths of earth Cometh the tears we are shedding O’er a blood bought Freedom’s birth! 'ThesaMte through the hour glass falling Fete a Nation’s outstretched h and; With garlands for sons immortal By mountains or sea girt strand, The Incense of sorrow spoken, The sackcloth of sorrow spread, We cannot with laurel token Wake one of the mighty dead! The roll of the ages coming - Swift swift down the aisles of space . Wrote over the life blood flowing; O Nation take heart of grace! For blast of war time is blended With peace that is dearer now Bemuse of the triumph signet O’er many a dying bro w. The sword is buried in billows Of grain on the green hillside; The sheaves of the harvest, willows A-weeptng for those who died, O gray, and purple and hoary, Pine crowned the mountains stand Like sages telling the story Of woe to a tear wet lai d. £i» »vrai< n altar holy A ladder for human kind, Buildedof stars and of blossoms Up up to the deathless mind! For leas than honor we lovedlhem Though, tnev were as life blood dear The brether, the son, the father ■Or the ‘unknown” sleeping here. Then come as a Nation coming With banners a trailiug low To the muffled drums deep throbbing One chord of the common woe! The blood of a Nation’s weeping Roehristens the dewy sod, The graves of a Nation’s sleeping . Are numbered alone by God! Sighs on the sqa of the human, The throb of a purpose divine Was bathed lu their life blood c rimson Red, red, as the richest wine! The plummet spuudeth the pa ssion Of a Nation's blt’rest tears Thank God that Freedom shall fashi on The web of the coming years!

SHAKES EGGS.

Odd Facts About Snak e«.—Large and Small Reptiles And Their Habits,. - "! 1 ■ " "I"*"*-. _, Pythons and Anacondas—Snakes Etrgs and How They are Hatched—Rattle* snakes as Food for Human Stom* aehs—Adventure with Reptiles. T ere was brought to the Star office by Mr. G. O. Starr, yesterday, an enormous egg. It was twice the size of a goose egg, but was not as regular in Shape. The outer covering instead of being hard and brittle like a shell, was so soft that it could be easily indented by the finger.. This singular egg was cold and clammy to the touch, and it gave a person who handled it an uncomfortable feeling like that which would result from contact with a snake, toad or frog. “This egg,” said Mr. Starr, “was laid by the 30Q pound python which was brought to this city by Mr. G. B. Bunheli a few days ago. The python ia sitting upon a nestfull of such eggs and within a short time a lot of little snakes will be hatched out. They will be nice pets for people who have aa admiration for reptiles. The mothec snake is twenty-five feet in length, and she is colled upon her nest and patiently awaiting the advent of her young. Her temper is just like that of a setting hen. She is very ugly, and if she is disturbed she manifests her displeasure in a way that gives all meddlers to understand that she wishes to be left severely alone. “What shall I do with this thing?” was the inquiry made by the representative or the The Star to whom the python's egg was handed. “You can have it hatched artificially” was the reply of the donor. “Just keep it in cotton jin a place which is neither too warm nor too cold, and Obe first thing you know you will be the owner of a real, live python. Then, if yon take proper care of the young snake, it will grow so large that it will be able to coil about you and crush you in its vice-like folds.” Mr. W. A. Conkling, superintendent of the Central Park menagerie, ■peaking of reptiles, said: -.‘There is scarcely any animal that commands Msemuch aversion as the 'Serpent, yet in spite of this it is one of the most intefeOcing of all that come before the naturalist. Yet little attention has been paid to tbe snake, as-compared th.Wthers of the ao imal kingdom. The ancient writers speak in respectful tanes of serpen's’"siib 4 JfovMV. Ariatotie tells of the immense Lybiau ■nrpeuts, so large that they pursued ana upset s -me of the voyagers’ boats that visited that coast. The story of the gigantic snake that threw the aggy of Regains into disorder by kill-

ing flnd Qevouri ng several of his'sbtdiers, and squeezing a few hundred to death in his folds, will be remember* ed. Rpgulus finally killed the monster by aid, of the, qngines used to assail for* i fled pladefl. The. bifid of this python was 120 feet in length, and for years adorned one of the temples of Rome. Mr. Conkling added: “The story that snakes 'cover their prey with saliva is an error, Mr. > Robert Ker Porter says the Python does mot first cover its, prey with saliva. The mucous does not pour out of the glands unless the prey is largo and it is required to lubricate the jaws and throat for the seemingly disproportionate feast. Pythons wdjl cling by the tail to some tree growing in the water, and then float upon the surface and wait for animals that’ may come to the water to quench their thirst. They often feed upon each other. In the Zoological gardens in London, one who had lived for years on friendly terms with a brother nearly as large as himself,, was found one morning sole tenant of his den. As the cage was secure, the keeper was puzzle 1 to know how the serpent had escaped. At last it was discovered that the remaining inmate had swollen remarkably during the night, when the truth came out. Mr. Bunnell has enacted the snake charmer. IJ emember how years before he grew to be a great showmanlhe used to handle the serpent-. He was known as the Ceyionaise Serpent-Trainer. But if you want a good up and down snake story let me introduce yon to Professor Hutchings.” “Can I tell you anything about snakes? I should say so,” said Rev. Mr. Hltchings. lightening calculator and lecturer upon Bunnell’s wonders. Sir!! could tell you facts, sir; facta in relation to the betrayer of our common mother that would overwhelm you with amazement. I remember, one in the year 1864. I was at Gilberts Museum, Market 7 near Second, San Francisco, Cal. Fifty in gold and ail expenses. These were glorious days; gold way up, and myself generally in a like condition. I noticed for several days a man they called Reynolds hanging about the place. He was a man about 50, no taller than myself, gray locks hanging over his shoulders. A bent form, like a tree that had been brought up wrong. Eyes with a far-away look. He had a peculiar gliding motion, and his. feet, muffled in slippers, gavefortn no more sound than the reptile. Shortly after I noticed the proprietor advertised for snakes. One day a mountaineer came in with a box pierced with air holes. From the inside came forth a sound like unto the rattle of musketry.

•‘What yer got, stranger,” said Reynolds, pushing through the crowd. “Rattlers,” said the mountaineer. “Let me take one,” said - Reynolds, reaching for the box. “Better look out; they bite, and when they bite they kill,” was the reply. ,‘lf yer brovght these in answer to the advertisement them’s my snakes,” said Reynolds, as he plunged his hand into the box. In a second he brought forth a six-foot rattle-snake, and holding it between a thumb and looked at it. The far-away in the eyes of the mysterious man had given way to a dancing, sparkling brilliancy, before which the snake was powerless. “Ain’t hejpurty? Bee the Bun strike its handsome bide and come back in rainbow colo-s. Kiss me, bey.” Slowly the deadly serpent went toward his mouth and then darted dqwo his throat. The crowd idid not mbve; they scarcely breathed; I felt my nair rising; I might say, in New Haven slang. “We were paralyzed? At all events we were rooted to tbe spot as firmly as the pyramid are to Egypt’s kand. In an instant his hands were in the box, and no less than twenty of these deadly animals were dancing arouhd him to the music of their rattles. The mountaineer was as pale as a sheet and trembled as with the ague. Back went the snakes into the box. Turnr, ing to the mountaineer, Reynolds exclaimed: “What’s are ye cold ?” His voice broke the spell; the mountaineer gave one look and then made for the door. He never came to pay for those snakes.” Among the visitors to see the enormous 300 pound python on exhibition there was a nativeof Central America. He told the attendant at the door that a long residence in a warm climate had made him perfectly familiar with reptiles and their habits. He acknowledged that the python in the museum was a remarkable serpent; but he said he had seen many such in Guatemala. A representative of the Star who happened to come along just then and overheard the Central American’s remark, asked him to relate some of his experience with snakes The man was a veteran of sixty-five or seventy years. His face was bronzed, and his hair, which he wore long, was as stra-ght as that of and Indian. He was fully six feet tall, and the lankness of his figure gave him a singular appearance. He told the reporter that his name was Senor Jose Dece, that he was born in Mexico, and left that country for Central America when a young man. The Benor Was well educated, and is able to speak in the English language with the same fluency that he does his native tongue. He said: “I have camped in dwamps and thickets,and slent with pythons and anacondas cfawllng all around me. I never Wks afraid of thbm;' The stories told in books of immense' snakes attacking Ikrgte animals and most part exaggerations. It is true that small animals are often killed and swallowed whole by anacondas and boar-constrictors; but it is safe to say that no full grown man was ever made a meal of by a serpent.”

“Were you ever attacked pent?” the reporter asked. ‘ I never had one tackle me, but a sailor with whom I was acquainted light night twenty-five or thirty years ago when he suddenly found himself thefoWvef* krerwmdous snake. I suppose he would have drawn a knife from his pocket and cut the reptile In two, but unfbrtd-' nately for him he did not happen ‘fin have any cutting instrument with him at the time. So all that was hft for him to f do was to struggle and free himself the best wav he could. He made a desperate effort and loosened* himself from what was a very closet embrace. Once free he procured a large stick, and pounded the anaconda upon its head until it was dead? There is a certain spot at the base of a snake’s skull which if struck even a slight blqw will cause death.” “Is an anaconda good for human food ?” “Now, that is a question which is very hard to answer. It may be wholsome enough, but 1 think it would be pretty tough eating for any human being who has an ordinary set of teeth and the average digestion. I think I would prefer a good beefsteak or a tenderloin if I wanted a square meal.” Is any kind of snake suitable for food?” “Oh, yes; rattlesnakes are delicionaead wholesom. I have been ni coun ttes where they formed a large sharus f the regular diet of the inhabioints.” “To-what countries do you refer?,, “Wetli sir, the people of Brazil and Chili eat rattlesnakes; But you need not go so far away from New York to find serpent eaters. The folks tdown in the northern part of the state of Pensylvania eat rattlesnakes, The s r tents in that state are particularly plump, and exceedingly inviting to* the palate of an epicure. According to the orthodox method, the rattier is skinned and cut up into piece# about an inch and a half long, and 1 then fried the same as you would cook an eel. I have eaten rattlers' lots of times, They taste something like eels, only a great deal sweeter-, I prefer rattlesnakes to frogs any day in the week. Frogs are Insipid.” “Did you ever see a pyramid of snakes?” > * “If you mean one of those conical piles of reptiles such as Livingston saw in Africa,! never saw a pyramid, but I have seen a heap or big knot of serpents all twisted and intertwined in a wriggling, squirming, slimy, hissing bunch, I was exploring a cave in South-America a lew years ago, when I came to a passage that was so long and narrow that I was compelled to get down and crawl upon my hands and knees. I had to hold my torch in my teeth, and, as I could not manage it well, my light was extinguished, and my on y alternative was to grope along in darkness. Suddenly I felt eomething cold and slimy agaipst my hapds. I knew from the feeling that I had touched a snake. Then I blindly put my hands forward and thrust them into a nest of serpents. You can believe that I got out of the place' as speedily as possible.”- New York Star.

Bogus Rutter.

Missouri has a new law forbidding the manufacture or sale in that State of any imitation of butter, no matter whether represented to be genuine or not. The oleomargarine: interest made a desperate fight in a test case tried in St.LcUiS, but it was decided that the prohibitory act was constitutional.. The case was appealed, and the fight will be renewed in the State Supreme Cburt. The result will be watched with i great deal of interest, and if the'decision is sustained it is probable t hat several other States will endeavor to secure the passage of similar laws. In Illinois, Where the manufacture oi bogus butter has reached the propdrtions of- a mammoth business, Requiring millions of capital to conduct it, the enforcment of Such a law would meet with still greater opposition than in Missouri. The makers of gepulne butter, however, would indorse such a move, and lend the full force of their means and influence to carry out its provisions. The {Missouri decision has had the effect to arouse the feeling against the “bull” butter makers in Chicago, and every effort will at once be made to foster a still greater opposition to the fraudulent stuff. The honest dealers here have for three years waged a war upon the makers and those who retail these imitations of butter, and if such a prohibitory law as exists in Missouri could be enforced in Illinois it would result in the abandonment of a business that carries with it so many evidences of fraud and deception.

Mr. O. A. Porter, president of the North Chicago rolling mills, the greatest corporation in the northwest, says: “My anxiety about the period from October to May arises from this: There might be such a thing as a famine, even in this great country. These long-continued cold rains are very damaging and are causing railroad men to wear very anxious faces. The railroad men know what effect these storms are having. They watch the whole crop-bearing northwest, and instead of increasing their facilities for handling .an. immense crop they are curtailing expenses. Now you can see, with a small crop, apd with the presept light supplies of all the necessaries of life and their exceptionally high prices, what would happen next winter. x A New Hampshire man has borrowed water from a neighbor’s well, one hundred rods away, for twentytwo years.

SCTENCE NOTES.

French hydrographers find the water of the Meoiteranian Sea to be ..The aIXLQI. Bondonjiuring a fog h found to contain a large excess of carbolic afidptfr the The electric light will affect the sunlight. tns.nqhiflv a In France there are 259 establishwwwo these JmimM Employ what isi knowxi as the diffusion process, a method ' whicn is likely. soon to be in general usGq * ' states that he has prepared Wood’s alloy, which melts at 95 d ,tty ’compressing, at 7.500 atmospheres,iron filings with Bismoth,cadmium and tin in proper proportions. He has so obtained Rose ’s alloy, which consists of lead, Bismuth and tin and also brass,by pressure of the constituent metals. The electrical piano of Boudet is a ecent novel application of electrict . An ordinary instrument is provided with two sets of hammers, the upper or electrical series being brought into action by pressing certain Keys. An organ-like effect Is produced by the electrical hammers, which continue striking the wires ra pidly so long as pressure on the corresponding keys is given. Late experiments by prof. Phillips appear to confirm the theory of Freytag that plants absorb all soluble matter indiscriminately through their rootlets, and that the absorption of poisonous metals causes no disturbance until a certain degree of concentration is reached, when the plant rapidly withers and dies. It is thus of the greatest importance to prevent any crop growing soil from becoming impregnated with any poisonous elements.

When the vessel La Providence, which sank in the Bosphorus, was being raised,the telephone was added tot he diver’s equipment. One of the glasses of the hejmet was replaced by a copper plate in which a telephone was inserted so that the diver had only to turn his head slightly in order ttf.receive his instructions and report what he had seen. The adoption of this means of communication in diving operations will, in case of danger or accident, tend to insure safety to lives that otherwise would have been sacrificed. In determining the eouivalent of carbon by the combustion of the diamond. Prof.H. E, Roscoe employed the same arrangments as M.M. Dumas and Star, but substituted Cape for Brazilian gams. Gape Diamonds do not contain a trace of oxygen, though they leave a little ash. If Oxygen is equal to 15,96,carb0n becomes 11.07. M. Dumas, while communicating the above results to the academy of sciences, Paris remarked that if Oxygen is represented by 19. carbon becomes 12,092’ that is a whole number within one two thousandth part. The great earthquake record of Mallet catalogues between 6,690 and 9,000 earthquakes between the years 1605 B.C. and A.D. 1842. Probably the most memorable of these is the terrible earthquake which destroyed Lisbon in 1752., Wi th scarcely a moment of warning, a rumblelug violent shock came which overturned the city and in six minutes 60,900 persons had perished, and a portion of the town was permanently engulfed at a depth of 600 feet belqw the surface of the bay. The shock was felt with greater or less severity over a great area, extending from, the Baltic to the West Indies, and from Canada to Algeria. Humboldt estimates that a portion of the earth’s surface equal to four times the size of Europe was affected. Professor Othniel C. Marsh,of Yale contributes \o the American Journal of Science and to a recent Nature a description of one of the meet curious of fossil wing-fingerea reptiles. The solitary specimen is at New Haven, but was found in Bavaria in the same series of slates that has shown a number of famous fossils, among them the Archoeopteryx, a reptilian bird with feathers and a long jointed tail. The described fossil is a Rhamphorynchuß,to which Professor Marsh has given the name of phyllurus, owing to a long rat-like tail which ends in a broad, leafshaped rudder. The wings of this ancestor of bats are membranous like those of bats, but much slenderer and more graceful. The head is comparatively long and large, with a formidable supply of teeth* The specimen was no larger than the ordinary fox-headed bats seen alive in menageries, and not so large as some of the living Indian and African bats. Professor Reinsch.in a lecture lately delivered gave the result of his researches regarding the manner in which coal bad been formed. He had examined with the microscope not less than 2,500 sections of coal, and had come to the conclusion that coal had not been formed b'y the alteration of accumulated land plants, but that it consists of microscopic forms of a lower order of protoplasm, and although he had carefully examined tbe sells and other remains of plants of a higher ordet he computed that they have contributed only a fraction of the mass of coal veins, however numerous they may have been in some instances. He referred * to the fact that Dr. Muck, of Bochum, ’ held that al gab have mainly contritei uted to the formation of coal, and' that marine plants were rarely found in coal because of their tendency to decompose, and that caloarous remains of mollusks disappeared on account of the rapid formation of oar bon ic acid during the process of combustion. •

FARMNOTES.

THE HORSE IN THE FALL. Farm horses n the fall are often ungratefully neglected. Their hard toil in helping with the hfeavy work _nf the season ones over, when only odd jobs await them, it is too frethemselves on the pastures, often heedbd shelter from the wind get chilled aad<run about in the dark in search of warmth, which they often find only-at the eost or a stumble or fall resulting,often, ih a sprain or a cut that injures or disfigures them for life. ,/Thtq wheprWarm and tired they lie dopn to rest’ what wonder they rise up stiff, spiritless, and not rarely suffering from asevere cold after the heated blood and relaxed sinews Mvahem e*posed.td the blasts « d J roßt < of •» chilly night. When the flwfcjgbjJiiL stonay it is enough to let horses run in the pasture, but night should find them comfortably peaden and fed in the stable. Ingratitude* to our fellowmen is justly considered an odious vice, but is there not often a strong taint of it in the treatment of these noble animals, towhose faithful help ip all kinds of drudgery farmers are deeply indebted for full barnes and comfortable homes. WHAT MANURE LOSES BY HEATING. It is not always true that a pile of manure steaming with heat and smelling strongly is losing amonia. Amonia la a very volatile and pungent gas, and might be known by its peculiar scent, which is freely given off by close, ill, ventilated horse stables, or by the coat of ill- cleaned horses. But it is not often that this peculiar scent escapes from manure heaps; on the contrary it is a more disagreeable odor, similar to that of rotten eggs. This is sulphuretted hydrogen, and not amonia, and occasions no loss to manure except the sulphur. If in making a manure pile some plaster is mixed in, the heap, all the amonia will be caught and held by it, and all the water contained in the manure will also contain a large quantity (700 times its bulk) of it, and will not give it off at a heat that can be raised in a manure pile. If the manure is left, »to heat and get dry and "fire fang,” or slowly burn to a white dry light stuff, the amonia is lost and the manure 'seriously injured.

THE BERKSHIRE HOG. This breed seems to carry away the “sweepstakes” as often as any other, and its ability to do so is due to the perfection to which it has been bred. It has certain peculiar marks, and a breed that unerringly comes true to spots In color is indeed worthy to be Slaoed in the list of thoroughbreds. Tow, we can well understand that a solid Whtte hog, like the Suffolk, Yorkshire bn Chester White, will produce young that are purely white, and that a solid black h >g, like the Essex, will show the same in the litters of pigs; but when It is expected that a nog must impress certain spots on its progeny, and those spots to be exactly on certain parts of the body, we must admit that breeders have been vra> skillful a ith, Berkshires. The breeder has placed a white spot on the forehead of the Berkshire and a white, spot on each foot, like a stocking;. ano there is likewise, a white spot on the tuft of the tail. With tMese Exceptions the body is black. Is it pot wonderful that every pure Berkshire has exactly these marks, with no deviation—no m >re nor an.yTeto-J-hut a true, unerring set of badges or marks are thus fixed, and which act as his types of purity? He is noted fair the find hams he produces in preference to other breeds, and fifty years have been spent in developing hint to his present state of excellence. -1 - How the field cricket feeds on grain is explained by Mr. F. M. Webster, Waterman. 111. t “One morning, after a rainy fijght, as I was passing along the highway, I noticed one of our common field-oricketa working at a kernel of corn that had dropned froth - some farmer’s wagon on the way to market. The rain nad softened the ?rain, and, after watching the insect or some time, I found it was eating the germ of the softened kernel. I watched patiently until the cricket seemed to hpve satisfied its hunger, and found that the germ had all been eaten away. Early, in the Autumn I found them in corn-fields eating the crowns of kernels or ears that had blown to thp ground, something I had always before attributed to mice. The same insbet has annoyed farmers considerably in another manner. Much of the .harvesting is done with self-binding harvesting machines, using chord for binding. Judge of surprise and chagrin of the farmer when, on drawing in his stacks of grain, he finds instead of compactly bound sheaves, only a mass of unbound grain, the bands of cord having been cut in many places by the crickets. European fiewspapers are talking of the possibility of American wheat being eventually driven out of the markets of Europe by grain from Tunis. Land can be bought in Tunis, it is said, for half it costs in the Western States of the American Union, and it is so fertile that it will yield two drops in the year. The quality of the grain, moreover, is equal to that of the much prized Hungariah wheat. England and ■ France aae determined, if possible, to secure* rqore than one source offoreign qupply of wheat. However they doaiqtrealize the enormous The New York crop reports of November 21 indicates that Clawson wheat is the most popular variety sn that State. Out of 189 reports, 149 Indicate a preference for the va-' riety.