Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1891 — LIVELY TURNS OF THOUGHT. [ARTICLE]

LIVELY TURNS OF THOUGHT.

Los Angeles Is to Duild a sewer to thf ocean at a cost of 83,000,000. Eighty highway robbers were executed at Pekin on the 26th of April. The offers received at Johnstown to adopt orphans is far in excess of the supply. William Lincoln, who lives near Grafton, W. Va, has a cat that plays with rats bat is death to snakes. Cow’s hair is now used in making carpets. The process is described as a cherp one and-the product as ah improvement on the woolen article. The French Council of Hygiene has just forbidden the use of blue paper in the public schools, claiming that it was making France a near-sigHted nation. The people of Bonn have purchased tht house in which Beethoven was born, with the intention of converting itinto a museum of objects illustrating his life and works. Napoleon the Great’s favorite writing table, from Malmaison, has just been sold in Paris. It is rather an unwieldy piece of mahogany, with choice copper ornaments. At the top of the Eiffel Tower, for a fee, specially prepared note paper, dated from the summit of the tower, is provided, and the writer can have the letter posted on the spot. Bees settled in tho top of a house near Atlanta, Gx, eight years ago, and the other day, when the gable end was removed, the entire roof was found to he filled with honey. The “Monstuart” mansion of Lord Bate, near Rothesay, is said to have cost not less than $5,033,003, and is believed to be the largest and costliest private palace in existence. The scepter of an Egyptian king has been examined chemically by Professor Berthelot, and proves to be nearly pure copper, with only traces of lead. It is supposed to be about six thousand years old. A man in Coshocton has a safe that contains $123. It has been locked up three years, and he has forgotten the combination. Meanwhile he is awaiting the return if the agent of the safe company. Jerusalem seems to be a rapidly growing tity. This is due to the great number ol .Tews who are flocking there yearly. They now number 30,003 more than the moslem and Christian population combined. A Frenchman tried his flying machine in the suburbs of Paris the otlffer day. He flew off a barn, and it will be several nionths before his broken legs will allow him to canter around as blithely as before. The doctors of Cincinnati are divided in their opinions as to whether ice water is harmless or harmful, and meanwhile outsiders are doing as they please about it which is probably the best way to do. <a. Tulare Lake, in California, which was formerly twenty by thirty miles in extent, is now only fifteen by twenty. Although the water is strongly impregnated with borax and alkali, the lake is full of fish. The Royal Meteorological Society of England is making a collection of photographs of lightning flashes. On each pho tograph is noted the time of the flash ant the interval between it and the thunder. Strawberries as large as teacups grow wild in Africa, and when a boy wants tc knock a dog over he grabs for and hits him with a strawberry. But for this the boys and dogs of Africa couldn’t have any fun. A census of horses is being taken ir Paris in order tc give the authorities some idea of the animals available for military purposes should need arise. At the last census Paris contained 98,080 horses and 38 mules. It is expected that the grape crop in California this season will be the largest in the history of the state. The wine productioi is estimated at from 30,000;030 to 35,000,00( gallons. The raisin crop will be a very heav y one. A citizen in Virginia is seeking to have the sulphur springs of that state indicted as nuisances injurious to health. He has lived near one for three years, and he sayi that strawberries and dead hogs now smell alike to him. Farmer John Landis, of Franconia town ship, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, hanged himself to an applq tree a few days ago because his son would not heed the parents’ objection to the erection of an addition to the barn. There is a larger proportion of the boys ant girls of New Jersey than of any other state in the union who go to Sunday-school. Ii appears by statistics recently taken thal there are just about 283,030 children in the 1,997 Sunday-schools of New Jersey. Marion Stubler, who lives near Cincinnati, when he went to clean his teeth the other night, picked up a bottle filled with some kind ofacid, thinking it was a tooth wash and since then he has been going around town with a set of beautiful green teeth. News comes from Tounga, Burmah, that Koh Pal Sah, a timber merchant there, ha* founded a new religion, which is described as a sort of mixture of buddhism aud Christianity. The disciples, who number several thousand, keep the Christian Sunday and abstain from strong drink. A curious feature in ornithology is report ed from Eckmgton, Yorkshire, England, where a hen has hatched two chickens from one egg, both chichens being in a perfect state except that they are joined on one side of the membranes of the wing. Beyond this they walk about and feed in the usual manner. “Put a penny in and you will have a surprise,” says a legend on the latest form of automatic machine. When one has been unwise enough to comply with this Invitation, one receives a card on which is printed: “You trive me a penny and I give you nothing in return. You are surprised. Voila!” A cat in Falkirk, Scotland, ll bringing up a brood of chickens. But the prize cat is to be found in the hamlet or Trinity Gask, j Perthshire,Scotland. It is seriously relatec of her that, having been dopri ved of her kittens, she caught a mouse, which she adopted. and is now mothering with great ten derneas. A man at Allentown, Pa.', has two tree frogs which dwell contentedly in a glass jar containing water and a tiny ladder. When the weather is fair tho little fellows crawl up the ladder and gaze around, nut when c rain is coming they dive to the bottom O' tho jar. These movements aro made hdurs in advance or the change in the weather. It is reported at Reidsville, Gx, that lasi week a man in Tattnall county, while dipping turpentine, was struck about the corner of his mouth by a large rattlesnake. He seized the reptile and was struck oa tba - arm. He then tried to throw the snake from bin), and was again struck on the thigh. It is said he died before reaching a house.