Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1890 — MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. [ARTICLE]

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

A Boston man, on a visit to Colorado. writes heme as follows: “This is, indeed, a great country; every hamlet Ss a, town, every town a city, every farm a ranch, every barn yard a corral, every mound a mountain and every man a liar.” There is a little narrowgaugerailroad in Pennsylvania, of which one man is the President, the Board of Directors, the Superintendent, the General Passenger and Freight Agent, the Ticket Agent,; the conductor and the yardm aster. A pair of bantam chickens were sold at the London Crystal Palace for SSOO, which was almost exactly twice their weight in gold. This is believed to be the highest price ever paid fora single pair of fowls since the days of extravagant and luxurious Rome. The Bashaw of Tangier, the same who jeered at our war ship Enterprise, has become so corpulent that he is unable to walk abroad. He is pnly five feet two inches in height, and he must be about the same in breadth, as he weighs over four hundred pounds. He has been advised by his thirty-two physicians to fast for a month, but he Says that he will see them bow-strung first.

A boarding house mistress in Maine has a true view of the economies of her business. When some of her patrons began tobracethe system against the enervating influence of spring with tonics she posted this notice': “All boarders who build up their appetites artificially will be charged 20 per cent, additional.” I A certain Young Men’s Christian Association recently invited a gentleman to deliver an address. He did so, but was somewhat taken back when the chairman at the close of his address gave out the hymn: “Art thou weary, art thou languid, art thou sore oppressed?” One of the brightest women in New York, Mrs. Isabel Mallon, who, perhaps, knows more about woman’s dress and fixings than any woman in America, has been added to the editorial ,staff of The Ladies’ Home Journal, of Philadelphia. Mrs. Mallon is an experienced editorial writer, and will conduct one of the fullest and strongest fashion departments in the Journal ever attempted in a general magazine. Her new position makes her the best paid fashion writer in the country.

Nathan Harvey, of Topeka, Kansas, has in his possession his wedding suit, which was made in Richmond, Ind.,in 1832, in a shop in which Schuyler Colfax, General Burnside and ex-Con-gressman Shryock Were journeymen. The suit consists of white duck trousers, a buff vest with brass buttons, and a blue swallow tail coat also trimmed with brass buttons. The cloth* for these garments cost $4, and the making SB. Mr. Harvey also has a hat, purchased for the same occasion, which was made by Oliver P Morton. A novel method of ridding steamboats of rodents has been successfully tested at Pittsburg. The youngest son of the captain of a river steamer was some time ago presented with a pair of spotted snakes, which, as they were perfectly harmless, were deposited in the hull of the boat until they could be conveniently housed. A few days ago a great commotion was noticed among the rats, which always infest steamboats and barges in great numbers, and hundreds of them were observed scampering ashore on the handspring and stern lines. The evacuation continued all night, and in the morning the captain found both snakes dead, having been literally torn to pieces by the infuriated animals, but not oqp of the latter was found on the boat.

< In an article in the Homiletic Review for May, Dr. Arthur T. Pierson discloses some of the secrets of pulpit power. Among these he names good pronunciation, enunciation, appropriate gestures, avoidance of mannerism and imitation. Concerning the last, he says: “Some member of a presbytery, a couatry brother, complained that the city clergymen dressed too well, and thus made an undue distinction between themselves and their rural brethren. Dr. Breckinridge, always ready for debate, straightened up his tall, lithe form and indignantly denied the charge. In a burst of eloquent anger he declared that he was ready to change clothes with any brother on the floor. In an instant a' short, fat man, as broad as long, waddled into the aisle, and called out wheezily, “Mr. Moderator, I’m his man!’ The moral is that every man should wear his own clothes, rhetorically as well as otherwise.” The great Moslem University at Cairo, founded in 975, with its 10,000 pupils and Its 370 professors, is the largest in the World. The pupils have no benches or chairs, but study, eat and sleep on a blanket or straw mat. The Koran is the only book used for grammar, law, philosophy and theology. The professors receive no salary, but are supported by private instruction, by copying books, and by presents from rich scholars.