Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1898 — MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

—lt is illegal to practice hypnotism in Belgium. —An inventor in Madrid has succeeded in making a superior quality of soap out of grasshoppers. —To obtain admission as a member of the “Giants’ club” in Berlin a man must be at least six feet in height. —All of the blood in the human body is driven through the heart in about 32 beats—in less than half a minute. —Two seals, the larger of which weighed over 400 pounds, were lately killed in the Columbia river by David Hunter, of Troutdale, Ore. —The resurrection plant, a native of South Africa, becomes withered and apparently lifeless during dry weather, but after rain begins to fall it quickly revives. —The smallest tree in Great Britain is the dwarf willow-, which grows on the summit of Ben Lomond. When mature it is only about two inches in height. —The violence of the wind on the Grampian hills is so great that on several occasionsit has brought to a standstill railroad trains traveling from Perth to the north. —A freak of nature, a kitten with eight legs and two tails, was lately added to the family of Christopher Jeffries, of Rahway, N. J. Two of the legs grow out of the back. —Over one-half of the ladies who attend the Unity church in Chicago take part in the services with their hats off. This is in obedience to the request of the pastor. Rev. R. F. Johnnot. —An ingenious mechanical device just invented /pastes paper labels on 100.000 cans in ten hours. Down a chute rolls a ceaseless procession of cans, and each can picks up a label as it passes. —A cow belonging to Robert Knowlton, of Ashford, Conn., suddenly became ill and died. An autopsy revealed the fact that a long piece of wire used in baling hay was wound around the animal’s heart.