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Of General Interest

Of General Interest image
Parent Issue
Day
11
Month
February
Year
1891
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

- The pumiee stone was a writing material of the ancients: they used it to smooth the roughness of the parchment or to sharpen their reeds. - In some places in Europe the number of telephone subscribers, in proporUon to population, far exceeds the ratio fn America. ïhis is said to be due to the low rates charged by the Government. which owns the telephone planta. - While Cromwell of England was Protector, the people of Maasachusetts and otherparts of New Enghindenjoyed unrestrained liberty as to their political government. but upon the restoration of Charles II. a chance carne. ('ommissionerg appointed by the King were sent aeross the sea to examine the affairs of the ICnglisheolonies in America, and to establish the authority of the King. - It is on record that the waves of the liennan ocean once broke in two a solid column of freestone thirty-six feet high and seventeen feet in diameter at the base. The diameter at the place of fracture was eleven feet. At the top of the Bound Skerry of Whalsey, in Zetland, the waves have broken out of their beds, which are eighty-five feet above the level of the sea, blocks of stone weighing from eight to ten tons. - Mr. Withers saw a body floating in the Thames and sent a man from his yacht in a rowbont to fetch it in. The sailor tied a rope to it and towed it ashore. A medical man pronounced it dead. However, two other fellows began to rub it, and, after two hours of unceasing work, discovered that it was not lifeless, but still John Iludson, who had been capsized from a sailboat and who is now in good health. It is the most remarkable case of recovery from supposed drowning known. - Some of the most prized appointments in the newest houses in New York are bits of old houses that have been worn out and torn down. Men about to bnild fine dweüingl now go shopping for colonial fire-place fixtures, old mantels, fanlights of 18:50 to 1840, door frames, door knoekers, and even the doors themselves. Sometimes whole houses are sold by the dealers in these wares. 1'here is a new hotel in Asbury Park, which was once an old hotel in the suburbs of New York. - Near Fort Worth, Tex., a full-grown African lion escaped from its cige on a railroad ear and was discovered attacking- a drove of cattle. It killed one cow and drove another into the barn, where the lion was surrounded. A posse of farmers arrived with various agricultural implements and the owner of the cattle emptied the contents of a doublebarreled giin into the animal with fatal effect. The circus people wanted to buy the hide, but the farmer refused to sell. He says he will sue for the damage to hls stock. - House decorators say that the beautiful quartered oak, so much in use now, is not the expensive thing that uninformed persons might suppose. In fact, it is the most beautiful, and at the same time one of the cheapest of the hard woods, says the New York Sun. l?lack walnut, for example. now little used in house decoration, is considerably more expensive. The carving of hard woods, as well as the decorative cutting of stone, has leen brought to a high degree of perfection in this country, and only the best class of European work equals that put into comparatively inexpensive buildings here. - "I assure you." said the doctor, "that many physieians'do a great deal of work without pay. There are emer?ency cases that must often be treated for nothing. Every doctor has scores of relatives who do not expect bilis for Kis services. The clergy are apt to be free patients. There are poor people and shabby genteel people who have not much to prive for fees. A medical man is sure to have scores of esteemed friends who would lie ofiVnded if he eharged them full rates. Then all -cinds of folks with all sorts of ailments seek a few words of aclvice and a prescription at cost price, whtch is cheap enough. - N. Y. Sun." - A statistical investigation of lightning strokes in Central Germany, covering a period of twenty-six years, has been recently carried out by Herr Kastner. The number of cases has increased about 129 per cent. In 1889 it amounted to 1,145. The investiga tor distinguishes four thunderstorm paths. The starting points of all these are in ;he hills, and in their course the woodiess districts and flat country, river valleys and low meadow ground about akes seem specially liable. while the wooded, hilly parts generally escape. The hottest months (June, andespecialy July) and the hottest hours of the day, or those immediately following them (three to four p. m.), show the most lightning strokes.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Courier