Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1887 — Lincoln’s Childhood. [ARTICLE]

Lincoln’s Childhood.

Of all these years of Abraham Lincoln’s childhood we know almost nothing. He lived a solitary life in the woods, returning from bis lonesome little games to his cheerless borne. He never talked of these days to bis intimate friends. Once, when asked wbat be remembered about the war with Great Britain, ho replied: “Nothing but this. I had been fishing one day and caught a little fish which I was taking borne. I met a soldier in the road, and having always been told at home that we must be good to tbe soldiers, I gave him my fish.” This is only a faint glimpse, but what it shows is rather pleasant—tbe generous child and the patriotic household. But there is no question that these first years of his life had their lasting effect upon the temperament of this great mirthful and melancholy man. He had little schooling. He accompanied bis sister Sarafi to the only schools that existed in their neighborhood, one kept by Za -liariah Kiney, and another by Caleb Hazel, where be learned bis alphabet and a little more. But of all those advantages for tbe cultivation of a young mind and spirit which every home now offers to its children, tbe books; toys, ingenious games, and daily devotion of parental love, he knew absolutely uothing.— Century.

A single fact is worth a ship load of argument. This may well be applied to St. Jacobs Oil, which is more efficacious than all other liniments. Mr. John Gregg, a well-known citizen of Watsonville, California, found it to be indispensable as a cure fbr rheumatism. Price, fifty cents. A new warmer for street-cars and other vehicles is proposed which would seem to be simple, economical and unobjectionable. It consists of fixing a tank under the car filled with compressed gas and of sufficient capacity to carry a day’s supply. To this tank is attached two 4-inch pipes running in two corners of the car and up inside an | iron tube six to eight inches in diameter, under the car seat, and in which a [ couple of Bunsen burners are fixed, and the product of combustion is carried off at the other end of the car. This is found to warm the car and to be easily regulated. The refining of tannio acid, one of the new industries, consists, according to a German account, in, mixing tannic acid w.th a certain percentage of gum substitute, sieving well and settling. Good tannic acid is quite soluble in • methylated spirits of wine, or leaves only ,a very small residue. Gum substitute is not soluble in spirits. It can be detected by the microscope. Some tannic acid contains matter insol dale in spirit, which is not gum substitute. It appears to be the woody part of the gal s, from which thd'ctannic acid is , prepared.

The National Druggist gives this form of ah absolutely clear solution of shellac: Prepare first an alcoholic solution of shellac, in the usual way; a little benzole iel then added, and the mixture well shaken. In the course of twenty-four to forty-eight hours the fluid will have separated into two distinct layers, an upper alcoholic stratum perfectly clear, and of a dark red color, and under it a turbid mixture containing the impurities. The clear solution may be decanted off. A. new alloy, melting at the low temperature of moderately hot water, and considerably below that at which the magic spoons of long ago were fused in a cup of tea, consists of forty-eight parts of bismuth, thirteen of cadmium, nineteen of lead and twenty at tin. It resists considerable pressure, and is especially adapted to many important uses. Is oiinca of discretion is batter than a 1 pound of knowledge. Why not spjnd twen-ty-flve cents for a bottle of Red Star l ongh Cure, and save a doctor's bill? A Hisimo baker in Calcutta, proud of the English he has acquired, displays the sign “European Loafer” over his door. & —| Advice to housekeepers^—ls you can’t can all yon want to, can all you can and dry all you can’t.