Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1884 — Tattooing. [ARTICLE]

Tattooing.

There are other ways than that described by “Fred” for tattooing, and that practiced by the Yukon Indians in Alaska, if followed by him, might make him less anxious to have a man-of-war tattooed on his breast. Instead of pricking the stuff in with sharpened bones or needles, they make a paste out of charcoal and grease, soak a thread in it, punch a needle through the flesh so that it comes out at a different hole from the one where it entered, and then draw the thread through under the skin. The operation is painful, for the flesh swells up and looks very much inflamed. Men tattoo only their hands and wrists with pictures es the nobler animals or fish, but the women? tattoo their faces also. These latter begin the process when they are quite youpjg, making birds, turtles, or some other insignificant things on their hands and wrists, while they draw lines of different kinds on their chins and the the lower part of their cheeks. As a rule, this tattooing is done entirely in blue, and now and then there is an Indian who has dotted red spots through the blue, —American Cultivator. Among the latest inventions reported from Australia is a machine for producing rainstorms. It is intended to force a rain supply from the clouds during a period of drought. The apparatus is in the form of a balloon, with a charge of dynamite attached underneath it. The balloon is to be sent into the clouds, and when there the dynamite is to be fired by a wire connecting it with the earth. A trial of this novel contrivance is td be given upon the dry districts of New South Wales, and the result is looked forward to with interest by some of the residents of that colony. The latest cause given for famines in East India iB the existence of an excessive number of goats. The theory is that goats destroy the trees, and the consequent decay of forests decreases the average rainfall. There are 14,000,000 goats in the Madras Presidency alone. A ir*w method of fastening tho strings of upright pianos has been invented by the Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piano Company, which is regarded as one of the most important improvements ever made, making the instrument more richly musical in its tones, as well as more durable, and less liable to get oat of order. —Boston Journal. **