Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-09-17
Miscellaneous.

uncle: " He hasn't got single laugh In
his face"
There is much point in remark
some one made recently to the effect that
the wisest being who ever walked on
earth never wrote but once, and then
wrote in the sand
1T has recently been ascertained that
the temperature of the upper strata OF
the earths atmosphere is warmer than
the lower strata, which is quite the re-
verse of the previous hypothesis.
-" A memorial bust of the Earl OF
Aberdeenn-and Mrs. Darlington stopped
to contemplate the horrible sight OF an
Earl on a memorial bust Isaac" said
she with inexpressible solemnity, "be
careful and never bust"
of all the arts for ministering to hui
man vanity, says G. ID. Warner, the pho
tographic is the most useful, but it is a
poor aid in the revelation of character.
You shall learn more of mans real ma
ture by seeing him walk once up the
broad aisle of his church to his pew on
Sunday than by studying his photograph
for a mouth.
AT Toledo, Ohio, few evenings
since, an old gentleman with defective
vision was passenger in a railway car,
and at one of the stations was attracted
by the cry of Peaches" He at once
put his head out of the window to make
purchase, and found out too late that
the window was closed. He paid for the
glass and didn't get his peaches.
Nitrous oxide causes people to laugh
who inhale it, because it introduces into
the body more oxygen than can be con-
sumed 1t therefore deranges the nerv-
Gus system, and, being powerful slim
ulant, gives an unnatural activity to the
nervous centers and brain. This de-
rangement usually exhibits itself in a
pleasurable excitement to those who in
hale it-causing them to be merry, al
most to insanity. 1t has therefore been
called laughing gas.-7he Druggist
The world is waiting for the discov-
erer who will explode water. The diff
Guilty is that water when heated goes oil
in steam If it would only explode it
would be far more powerful than gun
powder The nearest anyone has vet
come to accomplishing the feat-and the
experiments have been numerous-is by
putting quantity, not more than drop,
of water into a ladle, partly filled with
lead, and giving gentle tap to the sur
face Of the melted lead. The explosion
is said to have shown a tremendous
force, and to have scattered the lead be-
yond recovery.
--Ex-Presidept Walker, of Harvard
University, who has just turned his
eightieth year, graduated at Harvard
sixty years ago. In 1918 he was or
dained pastor over the Unitarian Church,
and in 1889 became Assistant Professor
of Moral Philosophy, and President in
1858. Since his retirement in 1860 he has
lived quietly at Cambridge, a constant
and earnest student, and occasionally
appearing as writer and preacher. His
mind is as clear and his conversation as
bright as ever, though his bodily power
is little off.
The Eccelsior Wdgazine, very
choice and entertaining monthly, is pub
lished at $3.50 year. Every effort is
being made, by securing the services of
the most brilliant contributors to period
ical literature and the best art critics and
essayists, to furnish highly desirable
| family paper. A handsomely illustrated
fashion and etiquette supplement accom-
panies it. Subscribers are very easily
obtained, and rare inducements in money
or prizes are offered to getters up Of
clubs. Sample copies twenty-five cents.
Office, Room so, No. 1877 La Sale street,
Chicago, I'LL.
Nearly every season paragraph
goes the round OF the newspapers assert
ing that the movements of a tide have
been noticed in the great lakes. 1t is
we'll known, however, that such is not
the case. In order to establish the fact,
however, one way or the other, one of the
ablest officers connected with the United
States lake survey, at Detroit, Mich, for
several seasons carried out series of
observations at several points upon the
lakes, the effect of which would be to
show that there was tide, providing
such flow of water existed. The re-
suit, however, was established without q
doubt that no tide was perceptible at any
of the points, or if SO not to exceed one
or two inches, which was practically no
tide at all.
1t seems curious fact that, notwith-
standing the number and ingenuity of
scientific processes which have been
brought into requisition in the prepare
ton of leather, science has thus far failed
to satisfy the demands of this important
art. Chemists have certainly indicated
specific substances in lieu of oak bark,
containing a greater amount of tannin,
and these, as for instance, terra iaponica,
SeeSii, SdeSShu, CtSs, pIOuuEC
their effects in greatly less time; but the
leather, after all, cannot be said to be so
durable. With sumac, too, light skins
can be tanned in twenty-four hours and
with the aid of alum, even in one hour
but the resulting manufactures do not
equal those by the old methods. Atmos-
pheric and hydrostatic pressure have been
used to hasten the absorption, heavy
rollers have squeezed the solution
through the pores, but these and other
processes have had, at best, but doubt
full success. The leather manufacturers
acknowledge that the resulting leather is
too porous, too hard or too soft, or not
sufficiently durable; and, SO many physi-
cal conditions being involved in the pro-
duction of really good leather, it is the
opinion of not a few of the best Judges
that good sole leather requires about a
year to tan, and even calf-skins should
consume month in the operation.
The New Ell Dorado.
he l.a L., T. M