Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1874-12-04


of persons in the street below. Seized with
a sudden idea that the spectators were going
to shoot him, he sought refuge in chin
new and slid down to within a few feet
of the first floor, where he became wedged
in beyond the power of extrication. At
about the same moment, the inhabitants oil
that story, unaware that the draught was
choked by human body, lighted hre-
The unearthly noises which proceeded from
the chimney were attributed to some agency
similar to that which recently caused the
mysterious bell-ringing in the same city ana
it was not till two police officers entered the
room. and made an attack upon the fireplace,
that the scorched inebriate was rescued from
his perilous position.
A Paris correspondent, who does not be-
lieye in the efficacy of mineral waters, tells
q good story about Perlet, the well-known
actor. whose leanness be describes as ''some-
thing phenomenal, - and who therefore nat
uraliy desired to "get some flesh on his
/ homes. A well-known physician advised
him to 20 to one of the bathing places in the
pyrenees. Perlet accordingly asked Tor
leave of absence from his theatre, and went
off to the prescribed locality, where he drank
| and bathed with the utmost zeal and perse-
yerance. But neither drinking nor bathing
seemed to have any effect on him, and he
remained Just as much OF skeleton a. be-
fore. patience :" urged the local doctor,
in reply to his expression Of disappointment
"there is nothing like the water OF our
springs for making people fat - One day.
when Peret was perfectly soaking himself
in bath, in the hope Of an increase OF
weight which seemed in no haste to declare
itself, he heard colloquy in the bathing
cabinet next his wn, between the local Is
culapius and lady of enormous obesity.
Doctor" remarked the lady, al am really
losing heart and pa tience." Why So
INQUIRED the doctor. Because. though l
have been taking these waters regularly Tor
two months, am not one ounce lighter
to have quantity of books, amounting TO
several hundred dollars in value, imported
free Of duty, beingdesigned foi' his profession
journalist. library. lie claimed the right
to have the goods imported duty free under
the provision of the customs laws whlch
permit the free important Of book to be used
in the library of a physician, an attorney or
a clergyman. The customs OHIO ers at the
port OF Baltimore, where the books were I'M
ported. ruled that journalist could not
claim the benefits of that law for ahe reason,
as they put it, that journalism Is not pro-
I fession. This journalist, on behalf OF him
seq and his fraternity, appealed to the Sec
retarv Of the Treasury, who vest 'rday, IN
spbsta nee, decided that journalism is pro-
fession in the sense which will permit a
journal to partake Ct the advantages nj this
law Tbi decision of the Secretary 1T the
Treasury is somewhat technical, and e1, iudes
certain clas es Of books, such as novels, from
the benefit Oh free importation.
A hill has nssed the Oregon senate which
nrovides that husbands and wives without
children NAV considered divorced by sun
ply ceasing to live together. This would
receive the apr ayal of the most advanced
free lovers.
There was ither gloomy meeting oil the
FngIisb Vegetarian Society at Manchester,
recently ON which occasion he members re-
called themselves it'll weak solution OF tea,
eccomnanied with inoffensiye cast, and IN
dulred in liberal at use of their nenlightened
fellow men, who PERSIST in eatin,y meat ana
liking ii. The chairman of the meeting
stated the interesting fact that he hau ii'e1
on vegetarian diet for thirty-six years. ana
believed that the rinciples of vege arlaDism
were sustained by all the arguments drawn
from scriptural, historical, physi' illogical
! chemical, or hum unitarian point OF view.
Another speaker p layfully alluded 20 per.
sons of contrary vie VS. as =" blood-lal,pers
and patronizers of slaughter horses.
There Glanced to b. one unbelieyer present,
, Who took occasion to resent the epithct OF
bood,lapper." He affirmed distinctly
h Is Partially for bee and mutton, and ] ntl-
m ated that If he hacl been one of the 5000
W 10 were fed with tv o fishes by Christ, he
sb ,ud not have refus: the food which the
10. d offered. With this single exception
the meeting was quite harmonious, and this
dis enters remarks were cut short by the
chat r.uan 1t appears that the association OF
vege, a. Ran oddities ha We been IN existence
twenty or thirty yea RS, and has funds
enough to publish monthly organ,
and hire n speaker to I'D dress public meet
inCs.
Ills well Inown II at the English are Won
derfully ignor ant oft We An erican geography,
but it Is not often tina they confess IT, LORI
P,sabnrv in rece, It speech in London,
said that she could wa Tx up to map IN tne
dark and put his finger on the size OF cicero TO
villa, but if any one sked MIN wiiere oa, n
Francisco was he should nave 10 tninK Twice
Th;, ro,nark rs:oIls 70 The table-talk editor
of the Gsntlsmdn's Ma Tdstne similar re-
mark of Mr.. Golden, 81 waxing Oh Englisn
ambassadors, and of the n 'cessity OF turning
| them into &C numerical ira ieiers these nnel
know wherc the Ilissus IS; 6pt they kho"
nothing of the MississiI rpi. III was twenty
wears agol Yet the Mi ssissip vi coulu hoa'
all the na vies of Europe Epon its BOSOM, anC
it took me half day TO find the ilissI'
when was in Athens. and then only
found the bed of the river. Half u '1el
washerwomen had de mined up the Ilissus 9
wash their clothes.
l,y some newspapers it is thought worth
men tioning that Mr.. Henry Cornings, rep
! resen tatiye of Berkshire in the Legisla-
ture Of Vermont, never IL ayelled on a rail-
rav till he went to attenc the present session
at Montpelier. Common tators upon this fact
differ. Some of them are ,ue from it rare
and unsophisticated hone sty-others deduce
rerdancy and sluggishnes, in this gentleman
Of sixty years. 1t is proper to bear in mind
that the railway trains have been running
while Mr. Comings has been staying at home
that although be has not gone out to seek,
| mueh h. q been brought 10 MIN. WI ile not
riding hi, 1self, he has associated with those
who aid rte. 1t would be different if it
could be said of him that he never read a
newspaper, or that he could not read at all :
or if he we're stone deaf and could not hear
every days re port. Nobody can, In these
times, be SO pc rsistent in his ISOLATION that
rumor cannot reach him. Mr.. Comings' ior
instance, is member Of legisla, we oody.
He had no need to take early or lat,'' iast or
slow trains to hear the dreadful story OF the
Credit Mobilier, and one participant in these
discreditable transactions received his coup
de grace, though there was not much gr. Se
in it, almost under this stay-at-home oil
gentieman's own eyes. So it is that rail-
ways while promoting travel, in some re-
spects, with the aid Of the telegraph and the
newspapers, supply travels place. Moreov-
er, Mr.. Comings in his old age experiences
the advantage s ola novelty to keep him from
growing slow or stale. Such arc TIE COM
pensations OF his past - clusion-though W
DO not sdvise anybody "a follow his szampls.
~ Y. Nibxss.