Facts And Fancies

Immersion of timber in water faeilitates seasoning by solving the sap. Ten ménages oï twenty words eaeii can now be sent from New York to London by cable in the space of sixty seconds. Wire ropes usually con sist of six strands consisting of six wires laid the contrary way around a smaller hempen core. When an English patent costs $878 an American one costs $35. So that English brains are forced to enter the race with ours heavily handicapped The French Academy of Art has just paid eight hundred dollars for an Egyptiun papyrus, believed to be four thousand years oid, but in a most perfect state ofpreservation. In Iül9, ninety young women were imported from England, and sold to the colonists as wives, at 100 pounds of tobáceo each ! This was the origin of many of the F. F. V's. Professor Lubbock believes thatants produce sound which are heard and understood by each other, but which are not sufflciently loud to be distinguished by the human ear. Major Fred. Nicholls of the 1 phis Avalanche is the only member of the staff who has not fled from the city. He edits, sets type, and prints the paper without assistance. He alone stood to his post during last year's epidemie. In the arctic regions, when the thermometer is below zero. persons can converse more than a mile distant. Dr. Jamison asseits that he heard every word of a sermón ii"èhe distance of two miles. The Empress of Japan is the sort of a wife to help a king get along and lay up corner-lots. She cooks, washes, bakes, and does the darning, and one paper of pins lasts her three months. What is believed to be the largest rope in the wprld is a grapnel rope, 10,000 fathoms long without a splice, and has been made for the Siemens Telegraph Company. It is made of three strands, the diameter of the eompleted rope being two inches. A wind-mill with four arms 70 feet in extreme diameter, and six feet wide, will raise 1,000 pounds 218 feet in one minute, and ïf working on an average of 8 hours per day is equal to 34 men. It is estimated that 25 square feet of canvas will perform the work of a man. A flsh can't frighten Mrs. Eldred, of Barclay, Bradford county, Fa. A few days ago she saw a large specimen passing down the creek nedr her house. She made a lucky hit and stunned it with a stone and so disabled it that she captured the visitor, which proved to be a pike three feet in length. Consumption, the most disastrous malady that afflicts humanity, is now said to be caused by a j east plant that flourishes in the blood. The presence of this f ungus in the blood is readily shown by the microscope, and now forms the subject of careful study among physicians. In 1877 the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania yielded 21,000,000 tons, and although in 1878 the demand was curtailed to 17,000,000 tons, it is expected that close upon 30,000,000 tons will be required this year. Up to date 12,750,000 tons have been mined, against 7,300,000 tons for the corresponding period last year. A man up on North Hill is just the maddest man. He went to Philauelphia and paid three hundred and twenty dollars for a pure-blood bird dog, with a pedigree longer Ui" tho chronological table of the kings of England, and the dog hadn't been home two days before the next door neighbor killed him with a brick in his hen-house, where the thoroughbred was sucking eggs. Blood is as uncertain and rare in a dog as it is in the South American battle, Sheep, owing to their shyness, should be treated withgreatkindness. Their treatment should be such that they will actually learn to entertain an affection for their keeper. A flock of wild sheep is about the most unprofltable investment that a farmer can make. They are continually getting .hemselves into trouble and causing annovance if not loss, to their owner. Never haul them about by the wool, but place the arms about the body and round the f ore leg. Jn catching them take them by the hind legs just above the hoek. The ways of jurors are peculiar. In California, as in New York and elsewhere, when locked up to consider upon a verdict, there are parentheees in the discussion which are more or less filled up with fun. Kecently in Truckeo, California, a jury had been out four hours, the judge sent the sheriff to ascertain whether they were going to agree. The sheriff put eyes and ears to the key-hole, and then he brought the judge. Together they opened the door. On a table in the centre of the room stood a bottle of whisky, and around it the hilarious twelve were marching in single file. The foreman carried on his back a bass-drum, upon which the man behind him was pounding. Next, a juror playing on a snaredrum ; then a shrill whistle, imitating a fife. The rest were singmg. "We couldn't agree on a verdict, nohow," said the tipsy foreman, in reply to the judge's reproof, "and we didn't think 'twas any hurt fur to have a soc'l time, s'long's we was a congen'l party." Then they all took just one.