Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1879 — MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Business on hand—» fortune taller’a. , —The finest eilk in the world b grown In Japan. t*. —Neither the Indians nor the whites of Alaska have ever been numbered. —A Methodlat minister named Trauter died at Salisbury, Eng., recently, aged 102. ' —A Burlington blacksmith has Just established a “ conservatory of homeshoeing.” V Bring in your spring poems before the fires are dispensed with.— Danbury Newt. —Three-fourths Of all the tobacco consumed in Great Britaimis purchased by poor people in half ounces. —When old Faust signed the contract with MephistOpheles in his blood, he wrote in his best vein, so to speak. —Trains on the Southern Pacific Railroad are now running to a point 800 miles south and east of San Francisco. —Modesty is a priceless virtue; but, if like the bloom on a woman's cheek, it is only “ put ou,” it loses its value. —Every man seems to be perfectly willing that his wife’slove should cover the multitude of his sins.— N. Y. Heraid> —“ Anonymous articles will receive no attention,” the editor remarked when a baby was left on his front-door step. —The man who goes abroad for his health, does so in preference to staying at home and looking for his health whore he lost it. —The French are acquiring a more stable government every year. Paris alone consumed 11,819 horses for food last year.— Norristown Herald. —A tramp who received a blow from an Amazonian widow declared that, until then, he had never realized the full significance of a widow’s smite. —“ My. dear,” said Mrs. Snodgrass, shuddering, “ how do tnese awful men succeed in entering dead people’s vaults?” “With skeleton keys I presume,” unfeelingly replied Mr. S. —The Geographical Society of Paris has taken the initiatory steps toward forming an emigration society, which will give information to those desiring to emigrate regarding all sections of the civilized world. —Since Joseph's time no Israelite has held as high a position in Egypt, it is said, as Blum Pacha (an Austrian by birth whose real name is Julius Blum), who has been made Assistant Secretary of State to the Khedive. —There are iron and coal veins, as well as marble quarries, in the Balkans, and it is said that traces of gold have also been found in Bulgarian streams. There is, therefore, a wide field for exercise of the energy of the new Government. —A happy discovery, made bv the Arabs, that camels have a weakness for the company of telegraph poles, and march much more willingly beside these links with civilization, has resulted in special care being taken of poles and wires. —A curious incident occurred in the course of the run on the AldersgateStreet Branch of the London and County Bank. An enlightened butcher came into the bank office when the run was at high tide and carelessly threw down £6OO as “something to go on with.” —Mr. Farnum, United States Consul General in Egypt, writes that M. Ferdinand Lesseps, who has been at the head of the Suez Canal since its beginning in 1854, expresses the opinion that the Panama Canal must be constructed without locks to be successful or remunerative.

—Nothing recent in the way of religious advertising is more novel than the announcement lately made in juu English newspaper by a gentleman- of Hammersmith, who styles himself “The Commander-in-Cliiefof the Salvation Army." It runs in this wise: “The Seventeenth Hammersmith Corps will take up arms against the Devil's Kingdom on Sunday next; firing to commence on the Broadway at ten o'clock: Every member to muster in the Broadway at six for general attack upon the Enemy’s Kingdom. Capt. ~W r -~.Bould. .in. presence of the Com-mander-in-Chief, will deliver his charge to the members of the corps, and explain the many advantages offered to those who will volunteer to join the army.” —The Neue Freie Presse, of Vienna, tells of the narrow escape of an aged Hebrew of that city from being buried alive. He had been bedridden for a long time, and, being taken with vio-, lent convulsions, became stiff and cold, and was taken for dead. It is a custom among the Orthodox Jews, which may have caused many a premature burial, and which the lteformed Jews have entirely discarded, to inter their dead on the day of their decease. Fortunately for Pejrez Fischer, the day of his supposed demise was Friday, and it was impossible, on account of the approach of the Sabbath, which with the Orthodox Hebrews begins at sundown on Friday, to bury him with the usual dispatch. He was laid out, and two faithful believers were set to watch and pray over him until the close of the Sabbath. Toward dawn of Saturdav, while the watchers were occupied with their devotions, Pejrez Fischer returned to consciousness, and, perceiving the meaning of his surroundings, arose with rage, horror and mad imprecations, while his terror-stricken attendants took to precipitate flight. One of them was so frightened that he fell sick and has since died, but Pejrez Fischer is in a fair way, from the shock he has received, to enjoy better health than he had before his supposed death.