The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-01-27
MINOR TOPICS.

The ladies of England are not disposed
to allow their sisters on this continent to
have monopoly of honors won in intel
lectual contests with the "lords of cre-
ation." Miss Isabella G. Clark success
fully passed the Major Examination Of
the English Pharmaceutical Society, and
was thereupon duly admitted as phar-
maceutical chemist. Her performance
in passing the examination is the first on
record of lady doing 50.
Or the forty odd million dollars gold
and silver currency in circulation as re-
ported by the Director of the United
States Mint, there is an absolute loss of
$l00, ,00J per annum, to cOunterbalance
which there is no gain to any human be-
ing. In 1872 there was an estimate
made of the coin in circulation in Great
Britain and Ireland, which placed it at
E1O0,0O0,00O. The loss on this sum, by
wear, according to the test of actual ex-
perience, in three years, is in the neigh
bOrhood OF $S,OOO,OOO.
If it were not that the Prince of
Wales is in India, it would probably not
be deemed of Importance to telegraph
that Lord Darlington had his collar-bone
broken at pig-sticking, and that Lord
Napier met with similar misfortune by
being thrown from his horse at parade.
The presence of the Prince, however, in
the mind of the loyal Britisher, invests
a collar-bone accident with vast inter-
est-fully equivalent to a neck-breaking
affair under ordinary circumstances
The New York Legislature leads off
this year with the usual proposition to
punish those charged with murder and
acquitted on the ground of insanity by
imprisonment in the Lunatic Asylum for
life. Should law to that effect be
passed, it will be barbarous toward the
really insane criminals, if there are any,
but it will do something toward protect
ing society. Perhaps that is all that can
be expected until society devises some
decent method for ascertaining whether
murderer claiming to be insane really
is so.
The New York Worlds reporter has
been interviewing the stewards of the
various vessels on which the dynamite
man has taken passage. He is described
to have been fat, good-tempered scoun-
drel, with gold spectacles, prodigious
appetite, and good taste for the game
of poker. He was very sociable with his
fellow passengers, and after pleasant
evening in their company would go
smilingly otto his state room and tinker
at internal machines to blow them up.
Altogether, he seems to have been some
thing after the Count Fosco style of
villain.
The injury to the sight caused by a
long exposure to the glare of snow has
led to various devices for remedying the
difficulty, such as, among others, the use
of spectacles of green-tinted glass, sur
rounded by gauze. These, however, fail
in practice, as the glass part of the spec
tacles is liable to become dim and cloudy,
while the gauze and wire, by means of
which the spectacles are fastened behind
the ears, will, in an Arctic climate, get
80 cold that to the human skin they will
have the sensation of being made of red
hot wire. To obviate these objections,
London oculist has introduced pecu-
liar kind of spectacles, which have
neither glass nor iron in their compost
tion, being made of ebonite, and tied on
to the head by velvet cord. They re-
semble somewhat two half walnut shells
fastened over the eyes; but their special
popularity is that the wearer sees
through simple slit in front of the pu-
pill of the eye, and the sides of each eye
box are perforated with minute holes, in
order that the wearer may get a side
view of objects.
THE proceedings of the secret investi.
cation of the Pacific diaster, by Captain
Waterman and James Hillman, United
States Inspectors at San Francisco, are
made public. They report the accident
was the fault of the officers of the Or
pheus on account of steering wrong.
The inspectors are unable to account for
the failure Of the Pacific TO stop and back
when a collision became imminent.
They find it was impossible to take steps
tor the preservation of life after the col
lision on account of the panic among the
passengers. Captain Waterman justifies
his course as Inspector of Hulls by say
ing the Pacific was perfectly seaworthy.
The effect of the collision upon her is ac-
counted for by the fact that she gave the
blow with the bluff of her bow, where
the space between the frames is in a
steamers front, twelve to twenty inches,
whereas in vessels it is not more than
from three to six inches. The timbers,
also, are smaller, and the whole con-
struction lighter They are therefore
much weaker. The opinion is expressed
that the same effects might have been ex-
perienced if the Pacific had been new
vessel instead Of an old one.
How to Use Dead Horse.
A dead horse or other animal should
ba akinned and rOuphly cut nm into as