Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-06-15
MIisceIInnnous I,om..

MiscellaneOus Items.
Major Cook, who was trusted member of
Lees staff, is now principal of the negro high
school in Petersburg, Va.
Cassimeres of decided excellence of material
and texture are manufactured at Oregon City,
Oregon. Chinese labor is mainly employed in
their production.
Nova Scotia paper says that if the home
government continues TO treat them as shabbly
as it claims it has the treaty of Washington,
they will follow the Goldfish" and come over
TO this country at once.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton, author of
Thoughts About Art" says: 81 humbly
thank Providence for having invented dogs, and
| regard that man with wondering pity who
can lead dogless life."
The combined population of the eight largest
cities of the United States-New York, Phila-
delphia, Brooklyn, Chicago st. Louis, Balt-
more, Boston and Cincinnati-are less than the
population of the city of London, as announced
by the recent British census.
Rev John Dickinson late professor of math-
ematics in the University of the Pacific at Santa
Clara, Cal, has been sent to the twenty-seventh
street Methodist church of New York, Mr.
Dickinson is a brother of Miss Anna L. Dckin-
son and was regarded as one of the most effect
i've preachers in the California conference
Some new disease is prevailing in the oyster
beds of South bay and Oak island, N. Y, which
makes the bivalves turn greenish color when
the shell is opened, and emit very offensive
SMELL The baymen have hoated over 100 900
bushels within the last two months, and their
loss will be more than as many dollars.
The climate of England does not agree, it is
said, with Eugene de Montijo, who is very de-
Sirous to take up her residence in Italy or Spain.
She prefers Rome or Madrid to any of the other
cities, and seems divided between the two. Her
only reasons for remaining at Chiselhurst are
declared to be political.
Among the princesses of Europe, the empress
of Russia and the princess Frederick Charles are
the best painters, the princess of Wales the
best performer on the piano, the queen Of HOl-
land the best poet and author, the empress of
Germany the best conversationalist, the en-
press of Austria the best-looking lady, and the
queen of Denmark the best housewife.
Mrs Gen. Gaines, of lawsuit fame, is now
siXty-four years old, but set TO work, the other
day, as briskly as ever, in new lawsuit. She
is now the richest womaniin the world, proba-
bly,, next TO Baroness COuttS, and has unlimited
offers of marriage from youth and age, but pre-
fers to remain single. She is bent on doing
good with her fortune, and proposes several ex-
celent institutions tor women.
A Maryland paper asserts that since the
establishment of Baptist church in their
neighborhood, the citizens of Delaware town
refuse to eat fish taken from stream in which
the converts are baptized, for fear the evil
spirits which they suppose to be removed
from the baptized persons have entered the
fish, and they will thus become possessed of
them.
Rapid progress is being made with the works
of the great tunnel under Mont Gents. Com
munication from end to end has now been open
for some little time, but there are still about
seventy metres of the tunnel to complete in the
centre, and the permanent way to lay down. 1t
is expected that the whole will be finished by
the end Of June.
Messrs. Appleton & Co., in reply to an asser-
ton that they reprint Mr.. Darwin's descent of
Mai" without remuneration to the author, an
nounce that they pay regular copyright, the
same as that usually paid TO American authors,
to Messrs. Huxley, Tyndall, Darwin, Spencer,
Lubbock, Lecky, Gallon, and other English
scientific writers, whose works they reprint.
Of John Stuart Mill the London Times recent
ly said; "Mr. Mill was born TO excite hope and
disappoint expectation. He is always gay and
always abortiVe. With never-failing freshness
and inexhaustbe good nature he resumes be-
fore each audience his old position at the begin
ming of all things, and marches US triumphantly
up to dead wall" An exchange adds: Gun
like the Times, however, he rarely butts his
head against it more than once"
Professor Gould, who has gone to superintend
new observatory, founded by the government
of the Argentine republic at Cordova in his re-
marks about the climate, gives few particulars
which exemplify its extreme dryness. ga
bowl of water" he says, cleft uncovered in the
morning is dry at night; ink Yanishes from the
inkstand, and becomes thick almost by magic;
dead bodies of animals, left exposed, dry up in
stead OF accomplishing; and neither active exer-
else, nor exposure to the sums rays, causes per-
ceptible perspiratioD."
The Burlington New Jersey Gazette referring
to the recent capture of q seal near that place,
relates the following singular facts: For
week or ten days previous to the seal being cap
tured, the shad in the river almost entirely dis
appeared. The fishermen caught so few that
fishing proved losing business, and the price
OF the few shad went up to a high figure. All
this time the seal was swimming to and fro in
the river, no doubt doing his share at shad
fishing. To keep clear of him the shad must
have been driven away from their accustomed
tracks, and hence out of reach of the fishermen.
But the very day after the capture of their enc
my they returned to their old haunts where the
fishermen took them in large numbers, at once
giving us abundance and at low prices.
The Buffalo Courier says: A few years ago
the experiment of extra speed was tried between
Boston and Chicago, and with entire success, so
Tar as safety was concerned. ltwaS abandoned
on the score of economy only. The expert
ment is again being tried and the rate of speed
ventured by the new schedule recently adopted
IS higher than ever before attempted. The
Chicago express from Boston, just put on, made
the run in thirty-two hours and half, which is
seven hours less than before; and the New
York express, which leaves Albany at 5 p, NJ,
reaches the metropolis ats, running a mile in
every minute and half, including stops. We
are informed that nothing like this speed has
hitherto been attempted in this country, and
the problem is whether it is practicable. The
first consideration Of course, is safety; and the
next is economy. Practical engineers say the
experiment can be made to succeed, but that it
should only be attempted on first-class roads
and with 6rst-class engines and cars. The track
must be carefully ballasted, the machinery per-
| feet, and the vigilance unceasing. Under such
circumstances it is asserted that an average
speed of forty miles an hour can be maintained
| froW Boston to Chicago, as safely as twenty.
| five miles hour NNnr q run L an nn ~