Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1884 — A Senator’s Daily Bread. [ARTICLE]

A Senator’s Daily Bread.

When Senator Palmer goes to New York and stops at the Fifth A venae Hotel he always cariies a loaf of graham bread in his satchel. Before going to his meals he cuts a couple of slices from the loaf and putß them in his pocket. At the table he palls the bread out and has always something before him he can eat. In his house at Detroit he has a mill constructed on purpose to grind the flour for this bread and at home he will never eat bread made from flour ground at any other mill. When he first came to Washington he was invited to so many dinner parties and war obliged to eat so much that he was distressed and sick most of the time. At a dinner party later in the season, however, he happened to notice that Senater Mahone skipped every other course and only barely tasted of the dishes he took. Be profited by this suggestion, and since then when invited to dine he keeps his jaws in motion, but only nibbles at his food. —Boston Courier. The strawberry was introduced into England from Blenders in 1530.' *>

Colors in Leaves and Hewers. All common leaves contain pigment, known to chemists as chlorophyl, from which they derive their ordinary color. The c€lls of the leaf are stored with this pigment, while their transparent walls give them that superficial sheen which we notice so distinctly in the glossy foliage of the laurel and the bright fronds of fern. But very slight chemical changes in the composition of leaves suffice to give them a different color, which is not surprising when we recollect that color is nothing more than light, reflected in greater or less proportions of its constituent waves. The fashionable pelargoniums, coleuses, and begonias, or the dark sedums which are employed to form the quaint carpet-gardens so much in vogue, show us how easily the green coloring matter can be replaced by various shades of purple, red, and brown. These changes seem on the whole to be connected with some deficient nutrition of the foliage. It would appear that the normal and healthy pigment is a rich green; but that, as the leaf fades and dies, it passes through successive stages of orange, pink, and russet. The autumn tints of the forest, the crimson hues of the Virginia creeper, and the transitory colors of a dying plant, ail show us these passing nuances. If a single leaf, or even a particular spot upon a leaf, is insufficiently supplied with nutriment, its first symptom of ill-health is a tendency to paleness or jaundiced vellowishness. If an insect turns some portion of it into a gall-nut or a blight, the tips assume a beautiful pink hue. In short, any constitutional weakness in the leaf brings about changes in its contained pigments which result in an altered mode of reflecting light. Or, to put the same fact in another way, any change in the composition of the pigments is apt to be accompanied by a change in their color. Now, the ends of long branches are naturally the least nurtured portions of a plant, and the young leaves formed at such spots have a great tendency to assume a brown or pinky hue. Furthermore, these spots are exactly the places where flowers are formed; flowers being, as we saw above, mere collections of aborted leaves, destined to fulfill the functions of parents for -future generations at the point where the vigorous growth of the original plant is beginning to fail. Nothing can be more natural, therefore; than that the flower leaves should show an original tendency to exhibit the brilliant hues, a tendency which would of course be strengthened by natural selection if it gave the plant and its descendants any superiority over others in the struggle for life. It should be remembered, too, that the flower differs from the leaf in the fact that it is not self-supporting. The green portions of a plant are its mouths and stomach; they are perpetually engaged in assimilating from the air and the water those elements which are fitted for its growth. But the flower is a purely expensive structure; it does not feed itseli; it is fed by other portions of the plant. It uses up, in the act of growing and expanding, energies derived from the food which has been stored up by the chlorophyl elsewhere. Accordingly, we mght expect its pigment to present that less energetic, more worn-out form which produces the brighter hues of autumn and the pink tips of a growing bough. From whatever point of view we regard it, we see that a flower is naturally supplied with some coloring matter less active than that green substance which forms the assimilative agency in common loaves. It is easy, therefore, to guess how certain plants may have acquired the first tinge of color around their organs of fructification, and thus have attracted the eyes of insects bv their superior brilliancy. —Cornliill Magazine.

Dor Countrj as Compared with Others. The United States as compared with other leading countries of the world rates as follows: Age: United States, dating from the declaration of independence, 108 years; United Kingdom of Great Britain, dating from William the Conqueror, 800 years; France, dating from Charlemagne, 1,100 years; Germany, dating from Charlemagne, 1,100 years; Kussia, dating from Peter the Great, 350 years; Austria, dating from Charlemagne, 1,100 years. Population; United States,. 55,000, - 000; Great Britain, 34,505,000; France, 37,166,000; Germany, 45,367,000; Russia, 82,400.000; Austria, 39,175,000. Wealth: United States,sss,ooo,ooo,000; Great Britain, $45,000,000,000; Germany, $25,000,000,000; Russia, $2,000,000,000; Austria, $2,000,000,000. Debt: United States, $1,800,000,000; Great Britain, $3,800,000,000; France, $4,000,000,000; Germany, $900,000,000; Russia, $2,000,000,000; Austria, $2,000,000,000. Expenses: United States, $257,000,000; Great Britain, $415,000,000; durance, $650,000,000; Germany, $150,000,000; Russia, $600,000,000; Austria, $370,000,000. Productions: United States—Agriculture, $7,500,000,000; manufactures, $5,000,000,000. Great Britain—Agriculture, $1,200,000,000; manufactures, $4,000,000,000. France—Agriculture, $2,000,000,000; manufactures, $2,500,000,000. Germany—Agriculture, sl,800,000,000; manufactures, $2,200,000,000. Russia —Agriculture, $2,000,000,000; manufactures, $1,300,000,000. Austria—Agriculture, $1,000,000,000; manufactures, $1,500,0Q0,000. , The passion-flower was first discovered by the Spaniards in the South American forests. Their vivid imaginations saw in this pale, starry, dreamylooking flower the twelve apostles, the rays of glory, and all the symbols of our Savior’s passion. A lack of either faith or imagination blinds the vast majority of eyes to these wonderful types, but it is still greatly venerated in Catholic countries. In the manufacture of perfumery, Nice consumes annually 190 tons of orange blossoms, and Nice and Cannes, together, consume over 20 tons of violets. A single manufacturer in the latter city uses every year 140,000 pounds of acacia blosspms. the fikme quantity of rose leaves, and from 8,000 to 32,000 pounds each of violets tuberoses, rosemary, mint, lemons, citron, etc.

- An Uafiutoed Sermon. He who attempts to draw a wordpicture of some ancient event should be careful not to? put there things which were not invented until centuries after. The old masters blundered in this way. Abraham is represented as sending Hagar away from the pillared Eortal of a magnificent stone mansion. •avid’s men are painted with guns in their hands, and the virgin mother is portrayed as Receiving the homage of a Dutch burgomaster and his interesting family. Sometimes clergymen, when depicting Bible scenes, blunder into similar anachronisms. The judicious, grieve over shch infelicities, while the groundlings laugh. An anecdote is told of a minister m one of the rural districts of Virginia, whose d scourse was abruptly ended by a blunder of this sort. The preacher, better known for his goodness than his learning, was discoursing upon the passage of the Red Sea by the ch ldren of Israel. Scattered among the congregation were several ex-Confederate soldiers, one of whom was noted for his quick wit rather than for his good-breeding. The preacher rose to a high key. “Moses conducted them to the shore of the sea,” he shouted? “With his rod he smote the waters, and they separated. The Israelites passed over on dry land. Close behind them came Pharaoh with his host. He pressed on with his cavalry, his infantry, his spear-/ men, his artillery ” “Why didn’t he shell ’em?” shouted the irreverent soldier. The minister could not go on. The people roared with laughter, and dismissed themselves without waiting for the benediction. — Youth's Companion.