Wanted--a Patent

Aruong the strange applications which reacb tbe patent office one, filed sorue years ago, was most extraordinary, it being a petition for a patent for an ant guard which consisted in inerely drawing a chalk mark around a table or other place by which it was claimed the approach of ants was stopped. It seems that cbalk xnakes an ant's legs slip as soaping a track prevents a railway engine from startiug. The petition was novel and caused considerable amusement. The application, however, was refnsed on the ground that there was nothing new in the invention, that chalk had been used for snch purposes bef ore and that such ideas were not paten table.