South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-08-11
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

An inch of rain falling upon an acre of
land, weighs about 100 tons.
PREMIUMS, policies and dividends are
paid in cash in the Washington Life In
surance Company, of New York.
IT is strange that grocers never become
rich, since they always give their goods a
weigh.
"REMEMBER, life is but dream; Its
date the intermediate breath we draw" "
Insure in the Mutual Life, Of Chicago.
A NEW ORLEANS man who tried to
f1ighten his wife by playing burglar, hopes
to recover, even if they can't find the ball.
II is announced, upon the best medical
authority, that it is easy to I" see through "
a man who has pain in his side.
A UTICA man sat on his umbrella at a
lecture to prevent its theft. When he got
up it was gone, and he wants to know
where and how.
In THE Observation-Disclosures
Mary, dear, aren't you well why don't
YOU come down stairs ?" Wife" Oh,
| I've got one eyebrow blacker than the
other, and can't find a pencil anywhere,
and it won't wash off; Edon't know what
to do at all"
THE New Bedford Mercury says Charles
D. WrightingtOn, a, mechanical genius
of Fairhaven, has recently completed a
miniature steam engine, perfect In every
detail, of about one mouse power. The
boiler is three inches long, and the machine
contains over 500 pieces, some of which
are of gold. 1t runs finely.
THREE McCartys, one with baby,
have walked from Indianapolis to Phila-
delphia to look after tract of land be-
longing to Cornelius Titus McCarty, de-
ceased. The Philadelphia Press says
they were dusty and bare-footed after their
tramp for thirteen weeks. They begged
their food along the route.
NEARLY 5000 persons-a population
greater than that OF the average American
Villages-make day miserable and night
hideOus in the single block of tenement
houses bounded by Baxter, Park, Null
berry and Bayard streets. Yet nothing
can tempt them from this contracted
scene of concentrated pestilence and
misery to broad, pleasant and happy
pastures in the West-Ne1 York Tribune.
THE manager of a London theater OBJ
serving, one morning at the rehearsal of
some music, that one of the band was
uuiescent, he leant over from the pit in
which he was standing and touched him
on the shoulder-"Why are you not play
ing, sir?" Il have twelve bars rest, sir"
answered the musician. "Rest? Don't
talk to me about rest, sirl Don't you get
your salary, sir? I pay you to play and
not to rest, sirl Rest when you've done
your work, and not in the middle of it,"
EXECUTIONS of criminals in Prussia will
hereafter be performed with an axe having
a straight edge twelve inches in length.
The culprits are to be fastened to block,
and their heads are to be buckled in such
a manner as to make it difficult for the
executioner to hit with his axe anything
but the neck. Heretofore, not few exc
cutions resulted in manner horrifying to
the sensibilities of the spectators, owing
to the nervousness of the executioner, and
to the imperfect manner in which the vic
tim had been attached to the block.
A FEW nights since, at late hour, the
speaking-tube at the office-door of one of
New Haven's popular physicians was used
by some midnight wag, to the following
effect: The doctor was in a sound sleep,
when he was partially awakened by a
" halloo" through the tube, when the fol-
lowing dialogue took place: We'll, what
do YOU want ?" "DOes DR.. Jones live
here?" "Yes, what do you want?" "Are
you DIR. Jones?" "Yes." "Dr. Simon
Jones?' " Yes-yes! what do you want?"
why, how long have you lived here?"
"SOme twenty years; why?" Why?
why don't you ns00e?" "Ifyou stay there
about ten seconds more you'll find l am
moving?" and he bounded out of bed, but
the patient was heard "moving" down
the street at rate that defied pursuit.
A NEW and valuable invention has lately
been made by an engineer on the Eastern
Division of the Erie Railway. 1t consists
of an arrangement by which an engineer
of locomotive can instantly change his
headlight from a white 10 red light. This
is done by means of levers inside the
headlight, connected with the cab of the
engine by rod, by which red glass is
drawn over the disc. The peculiar advan-
tages of this light are developed on
double track When two trains are ap'
preaching each other on different tracks
and one meets with an accident which en-
cumbers both tracks with the wreck, the
light can be instantly changed, thus show
ing the danger signal Immediately, and
thus saving the three or four minutes nee
essary for man to run ahead with the
signal.
THE new explosive called ithofracteur,
literally stone breaker, has attracted con-
siderable attention in Europe. 1t is com
posed of nitro glycerine, gun-cotton,
CELEBRATES, infusorial earth, and the constit-
uents of gunpowder. The exact proper
tions and the manipulation in the prepara-
ton of the compound are known only to
the inventor, Professor Engels, and the
Gebruder 6 Krebs, of Col
ogne. 1t is of the consistence of soft
putty, and cannot be exploded by concus-
sion. When lighted in the open air, it
simply burns without explosion; when
confined and ignited by illuminate, its
power is fully developed. The Prussians
used it for destroying siege guns after the
capture of Fort Issy It's now used for
blasting purposes in England One pound
and one and half ounces of ithofracteur
fractured twenty-six feet of rock, and q
similar quantity of the explosive brought
down twenty tons of rock and loosened an
enormous mass behind the bore. This
new compound is gaining ground In Eu-
rope from its non-liability to explode IN
transportation, by conclusion, or by the