Scraps

It has been found by experiment that tea retards digestión. One of the latest patriotic societies is one to be composed wholly of descendants of colonial governors. In Arran, where the maidenhair fern grows plentifully, some of the inhabitants use it as a substitute for tea. Rotary snow plows are being used with some success in throwing water off the railway tracks in South Dakota. A Kansas woman, who travfeled to St. Louis to marry a man who advertised for a wife, has brought suit against him because he backed out when he saw her. The jewel of the coming London scaEon is the emerald. Good specimens command high prices, and recently a single stone of seven carats sold in the English metropolis for f40,000. A thermometer was left near a stove in a sleeping room at Dusseldorf recently, and the fumes from the mercury poisoned two children so that their lives were saved with difficulty. The Visitor - "And what are you going to make of him?" Mamma - "I want him to be a philanthropist." "Why, there is no money in that." "But all the philanthropists have been very rich." - Life. A New York chappie boy will soon have a 'coming out tea." It will be given under the auspices of his eider brother. All the dudes of the 400 are in a flutter over the receipt of exquisite cards of invitation. A chamber where camphor is manufactured is a veritable fairy palace of pure white crystals. Fac símiles of palms, ferns and masses of tropical vegetation droop in graceful festoons from the roof and cover the walls. A Western religious paper heads its list of deaths with the words, "Th Rainbow Round the Throne." Anoth er Western religious paper offers to publish with its list of deaths portrait of the "worthy, but ofoscure dead." Bicycling seems to be having a ben eficial effect on British art. A criti of a recent exhibition states that "ow ing, perhaps, to the rage for bicycling the amateur works are less numerou than usual this year, and smaller in size." The new White Star liner will ex ceed in length by 65 feet any vesse either afloat or in courss of construc tion. Tihe Great Eastern was 679 fee in length. The Oceanic will be 704 feet. and her gross tonnage will exceed 17,000 tons. Recent statistics maintain the reputation of the society of Friends for longevity. Of all the members of the society who died last year in Great Britain and Ireland, ranging in years from 1 to 101, the average was 60 year i 6 months and 19 days. According to a provisional agreement between the Liverpool corporation and the Liverpool tramway company, the company's undertaking will be acquired by the Corporation at a price representing f 12 los per share, of f560,000. - London Times, March 19. Únele David thinks that a dictionary is the most useless book ever printed. Hfl says that he can't find out by it how to spell a word unless you know how to spell it in the first place. Thit. remark was made after an hoür's search among the "ks" for the word