Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1893 — MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. [ARTICLE]

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

It is believed that the fly can make 600 strokes a second with its wing. Ah Me is the name of a Philadelphia Chinaman sentenced todeportation. In Rockland, Me., last Sunday a “sacred sleight -of - hand performance” was given. Americans drink tea hot and wise cold. The Chinese drink tea cold and wine hot. Canadian papers are advocating the revival of winter navigation on Lake Ontario. Relics of the battles that accompanied Washington’s retreat from New York are still found in the Washington Heights region. Potatoes first appear in history in 1503. In 1892 the United Slates raised 201,000,000 bushels. lu 1884 the world raised 79,000,000 tons. Fifty-three per cent, of the lunatics in the asylums of Bengal are there entirely as the result of using “hashish.” a poisonous drug. ,tn Egypt, Greece and Turkey the use of the drug is forbidden by stringent laws.

Yucatan is thehomeof an uncanny species of spider,the “mule-shearer.” It has a habit of creeping up the legs of mules and horses shearing off the hair that surrounds the hoof, especially the fetlock. A missionary in Chiu-Choo, received a letter-from a banker asking him to recommend ten or more Christians to be employed in his bank, “Because," he said, “the Christians are the only trustworthy men in the city.” A little girl near Winston, N. C., was bitten by a snake last August. She recovered, with this exception: Ever since the bite of the reptile her eyes have had a green color, and occasionally her tongue protrudes in the same manner as that of a snake. At the close of, the Columbian Fair Chicago papers are recognizing the existence of what they call the World’s Fair grip, whose symptoms are a slight, hacking cough, constriction at the base of the nose, and a general languor. The new Congressional library in Washington will, Librarian Spofford believes, accommodate copies of all the books of the world for one hundred years to come and still leave seven-eights of its available space applicable for other purposes. Two expressmen in Spokane, Wash,, a few days ago had a dispute over a dime, which resulted in a fight. Two hours later each paid in the police court a fine and costs amounting to sl7, and the question of who owned the dime is not settled yet.

The natives of the west coast of Africa are subject to the attacks of one of the most remarkable parasites known to the scientific investigator —a colorless, threadlike worm about two inches in length, which affects only the eyeball and the surrounding parts. A mountain, about fifteen miles from Tunscasori, near the boundary line of Arizona and Mexico, is said to have a great resemblance to the Tower of Babel. It is of a soft sandstone and pumice formation, and has many roads on its side. The mountain is about seven thousand feet high. For preserving wir • ropes carried under water or under the earth’s surface, a mixture of thirty-five parts of slacked lime and from fifty to sixty parts of tar is found thus far a very satisfactory method as compared with other processes which have been resorted to. - The compound is boiled and applied hot. Many queer stories have been told of the “Miraculous Thorn of Glastonbury,” England. It was said that! if the chips were planted they would sprout and grow like potatoes; that the leaves cured all inflammations, swellings, etc., and that “rods” cut from it would never leave marks on the children corrected by their use.