The Iowa transcript. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1858-1866, 1866-10-12

"A woman named Steele, sentenced to
| six months imprisonment, at the City Police
! Court, London, seems TO have carried on q
J wholesale system of housebreaking in the
neighborhood Of Rochdale road and Old
ham road. The thoroughness of this thief
is not often surpassed. In one instance
she stripped child while it lay asleep in
bed, and carried away its clothes.
The Madras Railway Company have
been experimental on the relative costs Of
wood aud iron for railway sleepers. II has
| been found that for q series OF years the
wooden sleepers have averaged cost Of
Sl69 per mile, while the iron ones have
cost but S7I per mile. The advantage Of
iron over wood has been made so apparent,
that the company has resolved to use iron
hereafter altogether.
The Lake of Agnano, in the Neapolitan
territory, 80 fam us for savory fish, threat
ems to become fishless sheet OF water like
the Dead Sea, not from On excess OF salt,
but through the agency OF that mischief
brewing botheration called Vesuvius. A
subaqueous Eruption from that dreaded
mountain has engendered gases of such
Aepbitio nature, at the bottom of the lake,
that tn, poor things rush to the shore and
die. The banks are swarming With the
dead. .
A Paris letter, speaking Of the cholera
experience, says: "But the total Of IL al
is, that the large majority Of scientific men
believe: First, that the disease is most fire.
4nently developed spontaneously, under the
influence of some atmospheric condition
not yet understood; second, that persons
who would not otherwise take the disease
may do so from breathing the air which
surround. cholera patients; and third, that
the viiialiOn Of this air is caused mostly by
the elections from the sick"
1t is reported from Bucharest that a
Frenchman named Poltin had arrived in
that city to exhibit two elephants, male
and female, the same which were shown in
Paris = few years since. These animals
have killed their master in a singular man
ner. The male seized him with his trunk
and threw him into the air; the female
caught him as he fell and threw him back
again, and this game at ball was continued
for quarter Of an hour. When assistance
arrived it was too late; every bone in the
poor fellows body was broken.
The influence of costumes on mortality
il shown in a very instructive manner by
by one Of the English Register Generals
reports. Thus, from one to FIVE years there
is an equality of deaths by scalds and burns
among boys and girls; but from five to ten,
double the number Of girls to that Of boys
die from these causes, while from ten to
twenty, there die one hundred and two
women and only twenty-seven men; and
from twenty and upwards, seventy. one
women and twenty-five men-showing the
influence of muslin and founces in produc-
ing death, Notwithstanding the greater eau
ton of the female sex.
Sc They have singular mode of pun.
ishing robbery in China said mission
airy who had just returned from the Coles
tial empire, to number Of friends who had
called in to hear his account Of things in
the land Of marvels. "Does it cure the Of
fender Of his unfortunate propensities!"
eagerly inquired q philanthropist, whose in
terest in human beings was in exact ratio
with their villainousness SWELL" replied
the missionary, 81 never saw the saw the
punishment inflicted but once, and will
tell how it was done, and then you can
judge for yourself as to its retaining and
in large mortar, and then fired him head
foremost against stone wall"
The health of the French Emperor con-
tinues to be matter Of much solicitude.
In addition to his regular physician and
personal friend, DR.. Conneau, he has COM
manded the services of the three most en-
inent men in the profession in Paris-Drs.
Rayner, Nelaton, and Ricord-a fact that
would seem to indicate q case almost des-
perate. Perhaps it is more likely to insure
one. Ricord is an American by birth,
native of Baltimore, but went to Paris when
na NH al HA 70
sixty, and wears in his button hole the rib
bon of the Legion Of Honor. His income
is 500, 900 year; nevertheless he is con-
stantly in hot water and in debt. Although
he could not save himself from prison,
lately, he is expected to save the Emperor's
life.
"A most ludicrous conversation took
place, few weeks ago, in small village
near Paris. Two peasants we're discussing
about the war between Prussia and Aus
tria, when one Of them remarked that he
not understand how messages could be sent
by the electric telegraph. His companion,
after having tried 10 make him comprehend
the manner in which the telegraph works,
st last, struck with bright iiea, ex-
claimed, "lmagine that the telegraph is an
immense long dog-so long that its head is
at Vienna and its tail at Paris. WE'LL tread
on his tail, which is at Paris, and it will
bark at Vienna. 10 you understand now,
stupid, what telegraph is like - 80,
yes.' replied the other, 81 have an idea
now what a telegraph must be-"
Some Frenchman of statistical turn
Of mind, who, evidently, has but little to
do, publishes in a Havre paper some curl
Gus statistics of the average talk Of men
and women. He has discovered that an or
binary middle aged man spends three hours
day in conversation, calculating at the rate
Of 100 words per minute, or 80 octave pages
per hour, which would amount to 600 pages
per week, or 81 big volumes per year. Hav-
ing ascertained these facts IS regards the
masculine portion of the human race, the
statistician applied his best energies to as
certain the amount Of time spent on an aver
age by the fair sex in general conversation.
After the most patient Investigation and alb
struse calculation. this able arithmetician
was compelled to give up the question, and
confess that the magnitude Of the figures
produced even at the outset Of the inquiry,
baffled all human calculations.
From the Herald Of Health.
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