Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-05-08
FACTS AND FANCIES.

A Williamsport man has invented
garment combining both shirt and vest,
and applied for a patent on it.
Elder Knapp believed firmly in a per-
sonal devil who walked the earth in the
form OF a Universalist minister or an
editor.
The Sultan of Turkey has a passion
| for blue china, and his agents are going
through Europe to collect specimens of
the material Already he has become
quite delfic oracle.
Among tie most modern eenveniences
in dwelling. houses is the cremation eel.
lar with selfrotating roaster, odor.escape
hues and comfortable seats for the
mourners.-LOu. Courier JoNradI
The London Atheneum is severe npon
Miss Dickens novel, 1.-THE Mill Wheel,
and recommends TO the author course
Of grammar and English reading 1t
says the book abounds in slang, rhap.
sody and vulgarity.
The Mississippi Board of Equalization,
which has almost supreme power over
the property of citizens, is composed of
three negroes, one white salary grabber
and two other persons expensiVely known
to the people Of the State.
"Alasr' said the nurse who attended
the witty divine, Sidney Smith, in his
last illness, | have made mistake and
given you bottle of ink. Then,
said the dying wit, fetch me all the
blotting paper there is in the house"
The iron dome of the capital at Wash
ington is so influenced by the expansive
power OF the suns rays that in the early
part of the day the statue of Freedom
on the top tips four inches toward the
west, and in the afternoon four inches
toward the east.
The principal topic in Paris dramatic
circles continues to be Mile Croizette's
extraordinary death contortions in the
Sphinx" 1t is said she had rabbit
poisoned to watch its expiring agonies
Hard on the rabbit. Croizette is the
talk of the town.
There was, in the time of Charles x,
at the French court, viol so large that
several boys could be placed in it, who
sang the air, while the man who played
upon it sang the tenor. 1t was often
thus used at the concerts which we're
given to amuse Queen Margaret.
Bret Harte has found French srans-
lator. There must be wonderful fund
of humor left in his poems when they
appear in foreign tongue Ths wild
Western idiosyneracies of. speech when
done in French, must be excrnciatingly
funny to the literateurs of the Co0tinent.
Muzzle-loading guns can be altered
into breech.loaders without difficulty
This will be a welcome fact to many
sportsmen who have a great reluctance
to give up their old pieces to which they
have become attached and with which
they have done noble duty in times past.
The discomfort of the English with the
Russian Duchess of Edinburgh appears
to have been owing largely to the fact
that Marie wore highly colOred dresses,
whereas the present English styles are
chaste and sober. She has discarded her
haring trousseau, and the change is said
to agree with her complexion, as well as
with British opinion.
Every State should have one. But it
happens to be town in Kentucky that
at this writing claims to be honored by
the citizenship of lady who makes it
her boast that she has had but one new
bonnet in forty years, has made but two
calls on neighbors in eighteen years and
has taken but one meal away from home
in all that time; and yet she has health,
wealth and no physical disability Of any
sort.
The tomb of Petrarch was opened on
the Sth of December last by commit
tee appointed BY the Bevolents Academy.
The bones Of the poet, instead of being
collected in a wooden OF metal box, were
merely spread on a common board; they
were damp partly mouldy, and Of amber
color. The size of the bones show that
Petrarch was Of middle stature. A
statement has been drawn up and signed
by the delegates and then deposited in
sealed bottle in the tomb, which has
been closed agair.