Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1885 — Renewel of Brain Cells. [ARTICLE]

Renewel of Brain Cells.

An American who is Hie lessee of a deer forest in Scotland has made himself conspicuous for evidence of one of the worst traits of landlordism. He has brought an action against a shoemaker and crofter for keeping a pet lamb in the forest, and says, in his explanation: “What I desire is to get rid*of the cottages and their inhabitants. I shan’t leave a stone unturned until I get rid of them.” He must suggest a study of “Washington Adams,” and his tribe to his English neighbors. ilu. Percy Peeve, the rising young • eOmposer, has met with a singularly unfortunate accident. On Saturday night recently, in London, Mr. Barrymore, the actor, who was leading man to Mme. Modjeska for some seasons, and is married to a sister of Mr. John Drew, Mr. Daly’s first juvenile, was demonstrating to Mr. Reeve and a few friends at the Greenwood Club the excellence of certain catches and grips when wrestling.and in so doing he experimented on Mr. Peeve so successfully that he broke that gentleman’s arm close to the shoulder. The sufferer was conveyed to the Charming Cross IJospital Pere Hyacinth has fallen upon evil days since his return to France. He is indeed, a voice crying in the wilderness, as religious bodies of all denominations refuse him their pulpits. The other day he proposed to deliver a discourse at Neuilly, in the neighborhood of Paris, but cduld find admission nowhere. At last, in desperation, ho besought the English rector of a little Anglican church, recently erected, to grant him admission and at first the English minister was as obdurate as the rest. Finally Pere Haycinth won him by promising to pronounce a panegyric on Luther which he did, comparing him to himself. The congregation amounted to seven. A Binghamton, New York, man who purchased two “ounces” of zephyr at a millinery store in that town, paying 20 cents therefor, returned shortly and demanded his money, alleging that he had weighed the yarn and found that it did not weigh two ouuces. The milliner told the irato individual that yarn was not sold by the ounce, in the general acceptation of the term, but the word was used to designate a certain number of skeins. He could not he pacified, and, as his money was not refunded, he brought an action to recover the 20 cents. The milliner, not caring to qnarrel further over so small a matter, settled the dispute by paying the amount claimed and 85 cents costs. ' It is gravely related by the Yarmouth, (N. S.) Times that a citizen went into a store at Port Maitland to buy a dozen eggs, but only eleven could be found, and he started off with these. He was overtaken by his dog, which had been in the store with him. The animal had found another egg in the store, and, bringing it in bis mouth, placed it in his master’s basket. During last fall the dog was given a basketful of corn to carry home, and, finding it too heavy, he took several ears out and left them on the road, took the basket home, ihen went back and brought the remaining ears in his mouth. The dog is only 17 months old. Barnum should send for him. His present sphere of usefulness is too limited. There is a good cold-weather story told on a prominent Presbyterian minister of Chicago. He is a generous giver to all works of benevolence, and passing the ladies’s missionary meeting. where they were packing boxes for the poor in the Northwest, he informed the ladies that if they would send to his house there was a large bundle of half used clothing which had been prepared for them. They at once sent the janitor to the house. The pastor and his good wife were both out, but the servant girl, upon the inquiry of the man for the bundle of clothes, jumped to the conclusion that it was the laundryman, and gave him a huge bun die prepared for that individual. Everything was peaceful until near the end of the week, when, upon investigation, the actual state of facts was divulged. The clergyman made haste to the missionary rooms, but too late; the family washing had days before gone steaming toward some distant point in the Northwest. There are many tests of the greatness of our country. The tomato test iis one not to be derided. Statistics published by the special journals of the grocers’ trade Bhow that the “tomato pack” in the United States for the year 1884 has been 2,021,178 cases contain- ,' ing 48,508,248 cans. This is enough to supply every man, woman, and child in Great Britian and Ireland, Sweden, ..Jforway, Holland, and “Switzerland each with a can of tomatoes and have 17,567 cans left over. Nevertheless it [ has been a poor year for tomato packing. In 1883 there packed 2,943,571) cases, containing ‘ 70,545,896 cans. ! This was enough to supply, besides the - inhabitants of the countries above named, those also of Denmark, Belgium Portugal, Greece, Roumania, and Servia each with a can, and have ' * 7 87.089 cans left over toward the ne-

cessities of Turkey. / Yet it is scarcely three-quarters of a century since the first tomato ever grown in this country was raised lrom seed that was brought from Italy and planted in the garden, of a gentleman in Salem, Massachusetts.-' ■ r - Many readers have been inclined to doubt the frightful account recently published by Mr. S. St. John, says the London Spectator, of the revival of cannibalism in Hayti, but a narrative just received from the "West Coast of Africa shows that the practice existß in our own territories. Captain Barnett, District Commissioner in Cape Coast Castle, recently found it necessary to suppress a riot in the interior by force, and, finding that it was fomented by a nativo priest, ordered the fetish-house to be entered. He there found portions of two human bodies baking in a large brass pan, their owners having evidently been murdered by blows which crushed in their skulls. Voudouism, which now rages in Hayti, is, in fact, an old African creed, and its priests hold cannibalism necessary to their rites The crime' will, of course, be summarily put down in Cape Coast Castle; and we think it will he found that the plea of religion, which is no better plea than that of hunger, will not be admitted. In his last days Macaulay was grievously vexed by the modern penalty of fame. Any one who thought he had a grievance wrote to him, either to advance or ex J tinguish it, as the case might be. The historian in hia journal mentioned the clergyman who wrote to him three times to ask what the allusion to St. Cecilia meant in the account of the trial of Warren Hastings. A Scottish gentleman, who wished to publish a novel, wrote that he would be glad to come to London and submit his manuscript to the judgment of the essayist if the latter would remit him $250. A cattle painter appealed to him “as he loved the fine arts,” to hire or buy him a cow to paint from. A schoolmaster in Cheltenham, who published a wretched pamphlet on British India, full of errors, received a courteous note from Macaulay, pointing out two gross mistakes, whereupon the schoolmaster issued a new edition, which was advertised as “revised and corrected by Lord Macaulay.” These are the penalties of popularity, and, as the story now goes, Lord Tennyson is suffering as acutely from the same affliction. He has been obliged, we are told, to give up answering, even by secretary, his multitudinous correspondents, and so consigns the manuscripts they send him to hjs private Balaam box. A middle-sized, wiry-looking, blackmustacjied man stepped up to the Palmer Hofase office, and inquired if there were any telegrams or letters for Frank James, and received a reply in the negative, whereupon he adjourned to the barber-shop and placed himself in the hands of one of the artists. The clerk turned, to the bookkeeper, and said: “I wonder if that is not one of the James boys, of Missouri.” The latter remarked to the cashier: “I guess that is the famous Frank James.” She in turn said to the head porter: “They say that is the Missouri bandit.” He spread the information among the bell-boys that Frank James, the railroad robber had gone in to get shaved. Then of course everybody, including guests, barbers, and awe-3tricken colored waiters, knew all abont it. The particular barber who had the man in charge was proud of the job in hand, and his companions proportionately envious. The victim soon became aware t’uat he was an object of attention. Men sauntered in and out, each taking a square look at the outlaw, and barbers made pretenses of borrowing pomade, scissors, and other articles for the purpose of getting a nearer view. The job was finished, and the man forced his way through the throng, once more confronted the clerk, and with some uneasiness and apprehension asked him: “Is there anything strange or peculiar abont my appearance? What the devil have I done, or what is the matter with all these lunatics who are following me around, and eying me with so mudh curiosity?” The clerk suavely answered that they were laboring under the impression that he was the famous trainjobbing Frank James, of Missouri. “Well, lam not. I am a trnnk manufacturer from Milwaukee, and I am no thief, nor any relation io one,” with which he sat down over against one of the marble pillars* and chewed his mustache viciously.

According to the novel computation of a German histologist, who has been calculating the aggregate cell forces of the human brain, the cerebral moss is composed of at least 300,000.000 nerve cells, each an independent body, organism, and microscopic brain, so far es concerns its vital relation bnt subordinated to a higher purpose in relation to the function of the organ, each living a separate life individually, though socially subject to a higher law of function. The life term of a nerve cell he estimates to be. about sixty days; so that 5,000,000 die every day, abont 200,000 every hoar. and nearly 3,500 every minute, to be succeeded by an equal number ojf their progeny; while once in every sixty days a man has a totally pew brain.— Scientific Ameri-. can.. ' . I'HE limbs of a man after birth grow more rapidly that the trunk.