The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1876-09-14


staple becomes loose to draw 1t out, plug
No with wood and re-insert. But screws
and staples 80 secured soon come out
again. I has been found that a much
better way is to fill up the holes tightly
with cork. Screws and irons 80 secured
will remain perfectly tight as long as
when put into new wood.
The bill concerning the Washington
monument, which has now become law,
provides that the sum Of 100000 shall
be appropriated, but that the expendi-
ture of this amount must run through
four years that is to say, only $4,000
shall be expended yearly. AS it is esti-
mated that il will take 100000 to COM
plete the work, at the rate named it will
be eight years hence before the shaft is
finished.
ABOUT eleven years ago the last canni-
bal feast was held in Kandavu, one of
the Fiji islands. The remains of the
pits in which the bodies were burned
are still To be seen, and the chairman"
at the banquet is not only alive, but
has the honor to represent on the island
in an official capacity her majesty queen
Victoria. We regret that no journal OF
that period has preserved a record Of the
speeches that were made and the songs
that were chanted on that occasion, but
we doubt not that "the feast of reason"
which took place was accompanied with
all the hilarity thai was suitable.
SIN JOSEPH WHITMoRE recently ex-
hibited three hexagonal steel plates at
the Kensingt0n museum, which were so
accurately planned that when one was
placed on the other it glided about as If
floating, and when one was dropped on
another "cushion" of air deadened the
metallic sound, while, when the air was
squeezed out, the contact was 50 close
that the lower plate adhered to tho'up-
per when raised. He next made meas
urement of 1900, 000th of an inch with
machine which, at a certain temperature,
will measure the millionth of an inch,
and lastly showed the tensile strength oil
steel, a specimen of which bore a strain
of seyenty-fYe tons to the square inch,
without breaking. For bridges, etc, only
Ave tons strain to the square inch, are
required for safety; for guns, forty tons;
for shells, fiity-five tons.
THE postal card has been the source of
more worry TO the postmasters than one
would suppose could have been got out
of a bit of pasteboard. First, the clerks
were ordered under no circumstances to
read anything but the address, and then
Immediately after were directed to stop
anycard of adisFeputable nature, though
how they were 10 find that out without
reading it nobody knew. And then the
country postmaster finds that they gave
him a great deal to do. The writing il
often bad, and he gets the gossip Of the
neiQhborhood hopelessiy mixed. Occa-
sionally, as we have heard Of the post
master doing, he calls in outside assis-
lance TO help him untangle some twisted
sentence or semi-legible word. The latest
thing in postal cards, however, Ii the
frankness Of a yankee postmaster, who
ran out from his wayside station the other
day, flourishing card and calling out
TO a lady an she drove up to a lady
friend, "You'd better read it She amt
comin'l"
THE personals In the papers pub
lished a hundred years ago were as
piquant as any printed In our own day.
Even Martha Washington was mentioned
In "A London Journal an having separated
from her husband thusi "Mr, Wash
ingt0u, we hear, II married 10 q very
amiabls lady, but It Ia said that Mrs.
Washington, being a warm loyalist, has
separated from her husband since the
commencement Of the present troubles,
and lives, very much respected In the
city of New York, The following Ii