The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-09-21
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

eaA'D SOe'SNAA'
One of the best doctors at Columbus,
Ga, could not read when twenty-three
years old.
Pianos are mounted now on glass cas-
tors, which is said to improve the tone
very much. .
Here is a new sort of casualty. A boy
has just been killed in Boston by the
explosion of a beer barrel. Liquor bar
rels usually kill in a different way from
this, but the expeditions method is per-
haps to be preferred to the slower pro-
cess.
Several girls are now employed in
Milwaukee as carriers of newspapers to
city subscribers. They are prompt,
quick, and 80 for have bee n found relia-
BILE.
A French sewing machine is now on
exhibition in London which is driven by
clock-work arrangement, to be wound
up in the usual way. The speed is in
geniously regulated by set of vanes,
which may be adjusted to offer greater
or less resistance to the air. The inven-
tion saves both time and trouble, but
the price is so high as to prevent its
coming into ordinary use.
If we are to believe the medical ex-
perts apd official returns, upward of
5000 infants are yearly murdered in
England. In London itself as many as
4S1 infants were found in the streets in
less than year and ahalf, and numbers
disappear without any trace. The re-
suits of government inquiry, as just
made known, are q scandal to the coun-
try and the age.
Beverly, in Massachusetts, is known as
Bean Town" No virtuous citizen OF
that place thinks of passing Sunday
morning without baked pork and beans
for breakfast. Formerly they went to
the different bakeries Saturday nights,
each man with his bean-pot. Each pot
was numbered with check as received,
and the number given to the owner, ,and
crowds would gather around the bakery
door Sunday morning, each man calling
his number and receiving his pot. But
now they have a pottery in the town,
and each householder has had his beam
pot made to order, with his name or ini-
tials baked into the sides, and the plan
works beautifully. The bakers charge
six cents for baking beans, and it is no
mean source of revenue.
The Wabash (Indiana) country has
always been celebrated for the persist
ency and quality Of its fever and ague.
A local physician thus describes the
genuine Wabash article: alt comes
creeping up fellows back like ton of
wildcats; goes crawling through his
joints like iron spikes, and is followed by
d fever which prohibits the patient from
thinking of anything but Greenland's
Icy Mountains. 1t isn't the every
other day kind. but gets up with man
at daylight, and sleeps in the small of
his back all night. His teeth feel about
six inches long, his joints wobble like
loose wagon wheel, and the shakes are
so steady that one can't hold a CONVEX
sation except by putting in dashes."
The Toronto Leader says that an asso-
citation of French gentlemen has entered
into arrangements for the purchase OF
fifty thousand acres of land, in one of
the counties on the north shore of the
st. Lawrence, between Quebec and Three
Rivers, for the purpose of establishing a
habitants of Alsace view with abhor-
renee the idea of living under German
rule, and it is thought sufficient num-
Der to form large colony could easily
be persuaded to emigrate from their ma
tive land to Canada. They would form
a valuable addition to the population OF
the Province, for the Alsatians are an
Industrious and peaceful people, differ
ent altogether from the turbulent classes
who keep Paris and some other parts OF
France in almost constant turmoil.
f The difference between the diet of the
:. ancients and that of us moderns is very
q striking. The ancient Greeks and Ro-
t mans used no alcoholic liquor, it being
= unknown to them nor coffee, nor tea,
1 nor chocolate, nor sugar, nor even but
. ter, for Galen tells us that he had never
= seen butter but once in his life. They
!. were ignorant of the greater number OF
# our tropical spices, as Glove, nutmeg
n mace, ginger, Jamaica pepper, curry, pi-
mento. They used neither buckwheat
nor French beans, nor maize, nor toma-
toes, nor spinach, nor sage, tapioca, ar
row-root, nor pumpkin, squash, potato
q or its varieties not even the common
= but a sort of marsh-grown bean-noi
- many of our fruits, as the orange, tama.
;, rind. On the contrary they ate sub.
), stances which we now neglect-the NAL.
. low, the herb, ox-tongue, the sweet
. acorn, the lupin. They liked the flesh
= of wild asses, dogs, the dormouse, the
q fox, and the bear.
: Chicago claims to be able to compete
= ia the sale of foreign goods with New
q York. The Tribune argues that fcreig1
: goods can be delivered at Chicago
# twenty per cent. less than they can B,
s purchased from New York jobbers, O.
Y less than they will cost after going
r through our Custom House. There ha
4 just been an importation of dry good
e from Liverpool to Chicago, by steam al
9 the way, in twenty-five days, and evel
/" this time can be shortened. The 1ribun
It thinks " there is no reason why st. Loui
,. should not import through Chicago al
y the foreign goods it now gets from New
y York, and upon which it pays such ex
IT cessive tolls-the freights from Montres
6 to Chicago, and thence to St. Louis b,
y rail, being as cheap, if not cheaper, thal
IT from New York to that city by rail.
t. A very large proportion of the import
g at this port find market in the Wes
g Northwest, and Southwest, and all {
a these goods may be imported directl
is through Chicago at a large saving {
g. time and money. The 1ribQne estimat.
ii this saving at not less than $50, 900
k year, and it insists that everything d.
TO mands general adoption Of the IS
J. Lawrence route by the merchants ,