Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-12-13
GENERAL BREyITIES.

at Springfield, Mass.
A FIrLI-BLoopED African with straight
red hair is one of the curiosities OF Chicago.
lie talks of lecturing.
Mrs. COUGH thinks it better for a woman
TO be laughed at for not being married
than TO be unable to laugh because she is
married.
A MERCHANT who should sell his sign
board and attempt to carry on business
without one because money is scarce would
be considered little better than insane.
Those who stop advertising for the same
reason are equally foolish. Hoarders of
money the country over are waiting to
learn who will sell cheapest those articles
of comfort and necessity which even the
closest hoarder cannot do without.
DIR. EDWARD WARREN writes from
Cairo, Egypt. to friend in Baltimore that
there is "a splendid opportunity for women
dentists in Egypt, as in the East women
are forbidden TO consult with men," There
are three or four English women practis-
ing dentistry in Cairo, according TO DIR.
Warren's letter, and all are doing well.
The horned toad, according to writer
in the Anlericon Naturalist, is an exceed
ingly prolific animal. He gives two in
stances of its fecundity, i'm one of which
twenty-five and in the other twenty-seven
young were produced at time. The lit
tie ''toadies" were exceedingly active. and
could run, it is stated, as fastas the mother.
A MAN at Lockport, n. Y, of intelli-
gence, responsibility, and not lacking in
cash, has been at work for twenty years on
the supersedure of steam as a motive pow
or by electricity. He has made small ma
chimes, which are propelled readily by
electricity, but has not yet surmounted the
Il
sufficient quantities to propel larger ones.
He is hopeful.
To GO up Salt River will lose its mean
ing, If Salt River valley, Arizona, contin-
ues to be happy, prosperous settlement
This year the valley produced 100000
pounds of wheat, 100000 pounds of bar
ley, 100000 of beans, and sweet potatoes
and vegetables in great abundance. There
is prompt market for everything raised.
and the valley has eight dry-goods aud
general merchandise stores, three black
smith and wagon shops, two bakeries, a
school honse, Touring mill, only four
saloons, and no lawyers.
PERHAPS one of the oldest elections on
record occurred at the last general election
for member of the General Assembly in
Germany. A certain district had only one
legal voter, who walked proudly up to the
Doli> anu lDE fllulctll. lilt OlllA tll1l-
bic member in the district. But when his
name was announced as the elected menu
Der, he pompously arose, said, 4" Messrs.
Commissioners. l do not accept the cleo
toni" and walked gravely off.
THE veritable pins used by the Salem
witches, and now on file in the Office of
the Clerk of Courts of Essex county,
Mass, have been so often appropriated by
relic hunters that the balance are sealed in
vial and can only be seen through glass.
The death warrant of one of the malefac-
tors, with the return of the officer that he
had caused the prisoner to be hanged until
she was dead, and burRed Though the two
last words are erased), still hangs on the
walls of the clerks Office in an excellent
state of, preservation.
An extraordinary shoal of behring's late
ly visited Waterford harbor in Ireland.
The fish were wedged together in a COM
pact mass, and there was great danger OF
the immense weight breaking the nets.
Tue farmers from the surrounding coun-
try came with carts TO carry away loads OF
= fishes. The first Dungaryen fisherman
who arrived, in two days sent his poor
wife and family check for 60. The har-
borwas soon crowded with fishing craft
and buyers came over from England and
bought as many fish as they could barrel
CONCERNING MEMoRY.-It is doubtful il
there ever lived man who possessed that
quality in so remarkable degree as the
historian Niebuhr. When only twelve
years of age he astonished all by his know
ledge of history, statistics. and geography.
He acquired twenty languages. His men,
DRY never gave up what he had once made
his own. His wife and sister tried him in
Gibbon, and questioned him, according to
the index, on the most trivial points; but
they soon gave up the hope of finding him
Ignorant of any point of history, however
unimportant. Yet, with all his learning.
he delighted in lively and witty CONVERSE
ton, and the joyous games of children.
A BOYS FIGHT WITH AN EAGLE.-The
New Bedford Mercury says that a few days
ago Nelson III. Stevens, boy living al
East Fair Haven, Mass, saw large eagle
swoop down on a flock of fowl, seize one
and fly into the woods. The boy went for
his gun, which was loaded with shot for
Notwithstanding, and, on pursuing the
eagle, found that the fowl had escaped.
and that the eagle was chasing it through
the bushes. He then fired, wounded the
eagle, and fierce hand-to-hand tussel en-
sued, in which the boy thought he had
killed it. He seized his prize and started
for home, threw it over wall which came
in his way, when it again flew back to the
wood. The boy followed, and i'm another
fight made sure of killing the bird. He
then took it home and found that it meas
ured six feet nine inches from tip to tip.
The length of a flash of lightning is
generally greatly underestimate. The
longest known was measured by NJ. +.
Petit, at Toulouse. This flash was ten and
half miles long. Arago once measured
series which averaged from seven to
eight miles in length. The longest inter
val ever remarked between flash and a
report, was seventy-two seconds, which
would correspond with a district of four
teen miles. Direct researches have shown
that a storm is seldom heard at greater
distance than from seven to ten miles,
while the average are barely heard over
four or five miles Off This fact is the more
curious as cannon may be distinctly heard
double or treble the distance, and i'm special
cases much further. During the bonn
bardment of Paris, in the winter of 1870,
the krupp guns, which had been left over
aN.n