The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1876-06-09

VOL. XII. NO 10.
: OF the money saved in the price of fuel
y something that will give satisfaction to
! lRaRnatiye people all summer.
! ne facts, as proved by Gen. Pleas
anten, are exceedingly valuable without
a2uDr, and no mind can measure the ex-
teptof their uses and their limitations
TO both vegetable and animal culture,
and lis capability of easy adaptation to
! eEeT day things, and the ease with
: whieh the theory is comprehended has
already set one half of New York crazy.
~ That lunacy is an unsual thing among
our people, but science is seldom its cause.
Mysterious Sounds.
effect of certain sounds upon the
Htn9is often very curious. We do not
aihi9 to the ordinary phenomena of
spee2, singing, and music, where the
SCUM m-producing apparatus is tolerably
iamtiar, and its distance from the hearer
esumted with near approach to accu-
racy3 The effect is only mysterious
wbe4there is any doubt as 20 where the
soltf comes from, and how it has origi;
natee the imagination then begins, aud
se,hefFles works itself up to very singu-
,-s~ aicinations. NiaAt, .ar darkness
S wIs.,. We ca... !. ','Es Eli6 s5dha. f@s
producing agent. conjecture i apt to run
wild and ghost stories often depend on
no better foundation than this. For in
I L.. 1,
heard at night, coming from the air
above, but from an invisible source-a
! kind of whistling or polonged cry, the
producers of which are known ID GER
tain parts of England as whistlers'
I Some legends make il out that these
whistlers are ghosts, some evil spirits,
some Wandering Jews. But the truth
/ is that the sounds proceed from the birds,
such as wild geese or ploveH, which are
in the habit of flying in focfs by night,
either for the purpose Of reaching distant
/ feeding-grOunds, or during their annual
migrations. The cry which is usually
uttered by the leader during these noe
/ turnal bird flights has, from ignorance Of
its cause, been regarded as weird and
mysterious by superstitious folks, who
associated it with impending evil.
Sir David Brewster gives an interest
! ing account of a mysterious night-sound
which would have frightened many per
sons, but which proved innocently harm
/ less when tested by a steady observer
/ A gentleman heard strange sound every
night, soon after getting into bed his
wife heard it also, but not at the time
when she retired, little earlier than he
/ No probable cause could be assigned ;
and the effect upon the Imagination be-
came rather unpleasant. He found,
some time afterward, that the sound
came from a wardrobe which stood near
/ the head of his bed. He almost always
opened and closed this wardrobe when
undressing: but as the door was little
tight, he could not quite close it. The
door, possibly affected by the gradual
! changes of temperature, forced itself
/ open with a sort of dull sound which was
/ over in an instant. From the lady not
! being in the habit Of using that ward
robe. the mystery became associated with
/ her husband only. Many a ghOst-stOry
would receive its solution by n little atten-
! ton to the sounds resulting from the ex-
pansion and contraction of woodwork,
such as doors, panels, walnscottIng, and
articles of furniture. Heard at night,
when all is still, the sudden creaking of
| furniture in a room is apt to be some
what startling, until one comes to know
that it is simply due to the weather
Sound being generally more audible at
night than in the daytime, is often ex-
! aagerated by those who overlook that fact.
! dnmboIas -sf,ooiall, y, noted -this--GVhen
| listening to the cataracts of the Orinoco,
and traced it TO differences in the hu-
midity of the air The atmosphere is
something more than usually Opaque, to
sounds as well as to light; DR.. Tyndall
has recently proved this in a striking
way, in relation to the audibility of fog
| sirnals in different states of the weather
! A little mystery Is also due 10 the fact
that we sometimes know that sound Is
being prodced by an object visible to us,
and vet we cannot hear il. The chirp of
/ the sparrow is audible to some persons
Others, who can hear it, cannot hear the
squeak of the bat; and all of us are at
/ the mercy of a kind of tOne-deainess
/ (anaIorous in some degree to DIR. Dal-
! ions color-biDdness). in regard to sounds
I of an acute pitch A singular case of
visible but inaudible drumming occurred
! during the American war of independence.
/ EBclish and American troops were drawn
I'M on opposite sides of river; the ont
posts were mutually visible; and the
! English could see an American drum
mer beating his tattoo, although
no sound could be heard. This
is attributed to kind of tone
| opacity which affected the air over the
river in particular state of temperature
and humidity.
There is to most of us, much mystery
in sounds when louder than we expected
IA find them. A well at Carisbrooke
Castle. Isle of Wight, has water at the
bottom and when even so small an OBJ
ioct as pin is dropped into the water,
The sound can be heard above, although
the we'll is more than two hundred feet
deep. At St. Adams cathedral, 1t used
70 he said, the tick of watch could be
hoard from end to end of that very long
building; whether the recent restora-
,ions have interfered with this phenome-
non. we do not know. Sound can be
beord over water at n greater distance
tLan over land; DIR. Hutton heard per
son reading at a hundred and forty feet
distance on the Thames, whereas he could
onIv hear him seventy feet on the shore.
Sonnd can be heard over ice, also, more
eos;Iv than over land. When lieutenant
/ Foster was wintering in the arctic re-
gions. he found he could converse with a
man mile and quarter distant, both
being on the ice in Bowen harbor The
human voice, it is asserted, has been
heard ten miles off at Gibraltar we pre-
s,1me over.the waterof the strait. The
wsiepsfIIig gallery at So. 1'aul 5 : always
a mystery TO visitors a whisper becomes
distinctly audible at the opposite side OF
the gallery but not at intermediate po-
sitions. The late Sir Charles Wheat
stone once made a curious observation on
sound at the colosseum in the Regents
Park (recently pulled down. Placing
himself close to the upper part OF the in
terror wall Ca circle hundred and thirty
feet in diameter), he found that a spoken
word is repeated many times; that an
exclamation appeared like a peal of
laughter; and that the tearing of piece
ofpaper was like the pattering OF hail.
In the cathedral of Girgenti, Sicily,
whisper can be heard the whole length of
the building, if the whisperer places HIM
self in the focus of the semicircular apse
at one end. A story is told that, long
ago, a confessional box was inadvertently
placed Just at that spot; that the details
of the confession were audible at another
spot near the entrance to the church
and that the authorities were first made
acquainted with this awkward fact by
ferment Arising out of one particular con-
fession
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