The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-08-13
GENERAL BREVITIES.

In the United States there are twenty
six counties and forty-five towns naIsed
after the great and good Father Of his
Country.
LONDON grumbles at having to pay a
dollar a thousand cubic feet for gas, not
withstanding that bituminous coal is twice
or even thrice dearer than here.
A NAN whose neglect caused a recent
railroad disaster I'm Connecticut was bag
gage-master, station agent, express agent,
freight clerk, and postmaster. ~ -
An old gentleman died recently at Al
1entOwn, Pa. who had been married four
times, the ceremonies having taken place
on his fortieth, fiftieth, sixtieth, and seven
tieth birthdays.
OF the group of seventeen ministers who
took the oath of allegiance to Queen Vic
toria on her accession TO the throne thirty
seven years ago, but two lived to partici-
pate in the recent anniversary celelebra-
tion-Lord Russell, now in his eighty
second year, and Earl Gray, who is ten
years younger.
ACCORDING TO a late census there are
100000 cats IN England, and venerable
grimalBn attached 10 the editorial staff of
the London Standard estimates one mouse
and five rats to every acre, making an az
gregate of 81, ll6,00 of these animals, con-
Stunning grain enough tofeed nearly 3,OOO,-
600 human beings. And yet some people
do not like catsi
1T has been found cut that doll babies
are Of but little worth in the struggle for
life; and capacity on the part Of a woman
TO sweep out a drawing-roOm without
fainting, and to make a loaf of bread not
sour or sOggy, is of more importance than
the satin in a check which the fingers OF
diphtheria may unravel, or the color OF
the hair which one strong grip of fever
may pull Out.-ChTiStIaH at Work.
Mr.. DICKENS told story of a young
lady who, being intensely loved by five
young men, was advised to jump over
board, and marry the man who jumped in
after her. Accordingly, next morning,
the five lovers being on deck, and looking
very devotedly at the young lady, she
plunged into the sea head-foremost. Four
of the lovers Immediately jumped in after
her. When the young lady and four low
ers were out again, she says to the cap
tain: g What am L to do with them now,
they are so wet?' "Take the dry one"
And the young lady did, and married
him.
''IF were asked" writes Miss Muloch.
sat what period of a woman's life she is
capable of the intensest love, the sharpest
grief, / should say it was in her teens,
when she is supposed too young to under
stand either, and late in life, when people
think she ought to have done with both.
Chiefly because when young we can
scarcely take in the future: when old we
know that for us the future exists no more
Therefore, | am much more sorry for girls
and middle-aged women, when in love,
as the phrase is. than j am for those in the
prime of life, to whom thatvery fact brings
strength and compensation"
TWENTY-FIVE years ago, j. Dreibeldes
left his family on a farm near Dubuque, TO
make his fortune in the gold-fields of Cali
fornia. A few days ago he was brought
home by his son from Council Bluffs.
where he wrote from, informing his family
he had no funds to get home, having been
robbed of all he had i'm the world. He was
gladly received back to the bosom of his
family after his long absence. His farm,
having increased in value as the years roll
ed on, is worth to-day a sum of money that
will make him independent for life. His
wife remained true to him. although he
was given up for dead ten years ago.
MOUNT ARAFAT has been encroached
upon by Journalistic enterprise, and news
paper, Whifs from Arardt has been estab-
lished by the American pilgrims at the
very foot of the mountain. The paper
contains some curious local topics. quotes
the price of girls for wives in the Armenian
villages, varying from g to GIG, and dis
cusses the peasant notion that the world
rests on large OK, which. being irritated
by fly, losses its head and thus causes
earthquakes, and the belief of the natives
i'm the neighborhOod Of the mount, that inn
pasSable barriers surround Ararat to pre-
vent its being deSecrated by mortal feet,
while angels keep guard on the summit
least one piece of the ndestructible wood
OF the ark should be borne away.
THERE are many curious facts about
vegetable life. We can, for example, says
the Massachusetts PlouqhnldH, graft the
apricot on the plum, and the peach on the
apricot, and the almond on the peach, and
thus we may produce tree with plum
roots and almond leaves. The wood, how
ever, of the stem will consist of four dis
tinct varieties, though formed of one con-
tinuous layer. Below the almond wood
and bark we shall have perfect peach wood
and bark, then perfect apricot wood and
bark, and at the bottom perfect plum wood
and bark. In this curious instance we see
the intimate correspondence between the
bark and the leaf, for if we should remove
the almond branches we might cause the
several sorts of wood to develop buds and
leafy twigs each of its own kind. Each
section of the compound stem has its seat
of life in the cambium layer, and the cam
blum of each reproduces cells of its own
species out of a common nutrient fluid.
Col. CALEB G. FoRsHEY, of the New
Orleans Academy of Science, aprOpOs OF
the question whether snakes swallow their
young, states that this habit is certainly
Ound among alligators. "That alligators
swallow their young says Prof. Forshev,
" have had ocular demonstration in a
single case; and have the universal tradi-
ton of negroes and whites i'm this region
of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. that
such is their habit. In the winter of 1913
A was engaged making survey on the
banks of the Homochitto Lake. The day
was warm and sunny, and as | halted near
the margin of pond partly dried up to
pick up some shells, | started litter of
young alligators, that scampered off. yelp- |
ing like puppies, and rctreating some TWEEN |
ty yards to the bank of Lake HOmochttO. |
/ saw them reach their refuge i'm the mouth |
of a tive-foot alligator. She evidently held |
open her mouth 20 receive them, as, in sin |
gle file, they passed in beyond my obser- |
walton. The dam then turned slowly |
round and slid down beneath the water, |
passing into a large opening in the bank, |
beneath the root of an ash tree. Doubt |
less the refuge is temporary, and the young
are released at their own or the mothers
pleasure"