The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-07-19
EDITORIAL AND OTHER ITEMS.

| ZIG shipping nj HAVANA T.
one-twelfsh Of the crops in Minnesota has
been destroyed by the grasshoppers.
Official returns show that the majority for
the Constitutional Convention in Arkansas
was II, 900. Out of 81 delegates elected 70 are
Democrats.
The Irish Secretary stated in the House of
Commons on June %, that since 1881 the num-
Der of public houses in Dublin had diminished
from 400 to 800, to the great benefit of the
! community. The population of Dublin in 1881
was 2o3. 900, but ut the last census it had in
creased to GAG, 900.
The tobacco, corn and oats crops in southern
and western Kentucky have been nearly de-
| stroyed by the drought. The Governor has
| been petitioned to convene the Legislature for
the purpose of providing some means of relief
for the people, many of whom are in great
danger of starvation.
| The astronomical editor of the Memphis At
| alanehe is Of the opinion that tho tail of the
Cogga comet is made up of Alex. III. Stephens
old editorial paragraphs in the Atlanta Sun. If
this theory be the correct ono, that comet has
q much longer and denser tail than mcst as.
tronomers suppose.
The street railway companies of Buffalo have
instructed their conductors to eject from the
cars passengers who spit on the floors. The
tobacco chewing riders spit in defiance, and get
put Off Several cases are in courts, the point
for settlement being how far the companies
may legally 60 in compelling passengers to be
decent.
When Mr.. Randall retired from tho Postoffice
Department in June, 1868, the number of post
offices was "a, 461. There has been an increase
of SOFA since Mr.. Cresswell's incumbency Mr..
Cresswell estimated that the revenues Of the
Department for the last fiscal year will amount
to over twenty-six million of dollars, being
increase, but still some five mill ons of dollars
short of the expenditures.
In the opinion of Herr Won Gysicki, dis
tinguished member of the German general
staff, France will be able to take her revenge
in the spring of 1877 if she be left alone until
then. For she will then have an active army
of TAO 900 men, with oil the necessary material;
and probably by that time she will have n
good ally or two. But will she be left alone
| for three yearsf Not if Bismarck can prevent
! it.
Cookery, says the London Telegraph, can
only DO learned as billiards are learned, partly
| by careful study of the best extant treatise
| partly by watching carefully the operations of
approved and veteran exports, and noting even
their smallest trick of style manner; but,
above all, by sedulous and devoted practice
extending over n long term, not SO much of
| months as Of years. r.
| The woman's rights question ia delayed an
other year in England. Dnring the present
session over one Thousand petitions, signed by
over three hundred thousand persons, have
| been presented in the House of Commons in
! favor of bill to remove the electoral disa.
bilities of women, but Mr.. Disraeli declared
that it was impossible to spare the time for o
discussion so near the close of the session.
Ira Brewer, of Pottstown, Pa, was for thirty
years an inveterate fisherman. Almost every
day found him out among the trout streams
and he never tired of the sport. His diver.
sion brought ills, however, and a year ago
|rheumatism, produced by exposure in bad
weather, laid him up. But he is determined
to fish. He has had a tank built in his yard,
into which live trout are put; and there he sits
every afternoon, propped up in an easy chair
throwing the fly, landing the fish, aud having
| q vast amount of fun.
French paper states that some American
travellers have just brought out, at the foot o
Mount Ararat, newspaper entitled TVhiGs O
.irGrat. Among other curious facts, we learn
lEOul Tue " HtUo IuAC lb inc Armenian villages Q
wife may be purchased at from S2 to ZIG
Tho peasants believe that the earth is sup
ported on the back of an OK, and that when O
fly settles on his head an earthquake is caused
by his efforts to shake it off, They are per
suaded that impossible barriers surround Mt
Ararat, and keep back mortals whose presence
would defe that sacred summit, where angels
mount guard before an indestructible frag-
ment of Noah's ark.
Frankish cemetery, containing numerous
burial-places, has been discovered at Belfort
1t appears to have occupied the site of for
mer Gallo-Roman village, and numerous frag
ments of armor and personal ornaments, mixed
with Roman pottery, were found in the course
of the excavations. Two tombs, one Gallo
Roman and the other medieval, have bsen
discovered on the Roman road from Breith to
Potiers the latter contained large number
of silver COINS chiefly of Philip vi. of valois
The French Government has recently voted