Connecticut western news., 1877-08-31
NEWS IN BRIEF.

Two watermelons for nickel is the present quotation in Alexandria. La.
 A man eighty-one years old has started writing school at Newport, R. I.
 The late Dr. Hall, of Burlington, Vt., originated the school use of black boards.
 Boulder county, Colorado, is said to have mines of every mineral found in America.
 The town of West Newbury, Massa- chusetts, with population of 2,300 has only four paupers.
 At Monterey, Cal, two ladies have been nominated for Superintendent of Public Schools.
 The cost of the Paris Exposition of 1878 is estimated at 35, ,313, ,000 francs, or about $7, ,062 ,O00. ,.-.-..
 At Toronto, Canada, the newsboys have temperance lodge. The first one organized, with eighteen active mem- bers.
 -The Erie Canal is 363 miles long, with S4 locks, $50 feet fall and 4S rise. It's construction cost one and a half millions sterling.
 
 wheat fields in the vicinity of London, Ont, will yield as high as thirty bush els to the acre.
 The Chicago Times says there are 3O,OOO laborers out of employment in that city and 10000 unemployed clerks and book>keepers.
 HI. H. Honore, Fred Grants father 1n-law, has gone into bankruptcy owing T16 n ho1 Afx +, f,l, ,ol, a million is unsecured.
 Miss Won Hillern has succeeded in her attempt to walk fifty miles in twelve hours at Portland, Me-. with seven minutes and twenty-three seconds to spare. -. ....'.".s t..4
 A French lady, residing in New Bedford, Mass, forty-one years of age, recently gave birth to her seventeenth child. She has sixteen children now living.
 The emigrants from the United Kingdom to this country in 1776 num- bered 54, ,554, and the enigrants from this country to the United Kingdom, 54, ,697.
 The Musical Exhibition which it was proposed to hold in 1878 at Bologna, is postponed until 1879, in order not 10 clash with the Paris International Ex- hibition. ..
 Somebody estimates that there are 12, ,0O0 dentists in active service in this country, who use annually half ton of pure gold, besides cheaper filling material. .-.a ....
 The Governor of California, re- ceives in salary and perquisites, 5000. The assessor of San Francisco makes $25, ,OOe, and the county surveyor $l5, ,0OO annually. n Thirty thousand acres of land have been purchased in Henderson county, North Carolina, for Catholic colony of s1xty-five families, most of them from the North.
 The London, Edinburgh, and Quar- terly reviews do not restrict themselves to notices of new books only. The first article in the last Edinburgh is a notice of two works published eightyea ago.
 At the present time, 4,OO0,O Hin doc and 100, ,00O Mohammedan children are attending schools in India, and 50,- 900 to 60,0O0 of them are receiving in struction up to the English University standard. .t. ., ...'
 Prof. Fritzsche, Director of the Russian observatory at Pekin, has com pared his experience of the climate with the five year observations of the Jesuits there in l757-'62, and finds no evidence of any change. -s y.
 The destruction of sheep in CalIfor- mia by the recent drought is estimated at 7, ,500,O ,OO0 head, or two-thirds of the sheep in the State. Many of the great sheep herders abandoned 1000 to 10000 in the mountains. '-." .'-@'."
 Last year, in France, out of 800, ,OOO young men drafted for the army, there were from 300 to 600 who did not re- spond. In Germany, during the same year, out of 4O6, ,000 drafted 10000 neg lected to respond. | The commissioners of the District of Columbia have appointed Commodore Van Renssalaer Morgan, late of the Confederate Navy, as inspector of works and repairs on roads and streets in the District of Columbia.
 There are 1900 schools in the Ar genuine Republic, with 120,000 pupils, The National College at Buenos Ayres was opened on March 10, 1877, with more than 1000 stud ents enrolled and entered for the course of instruction.
 Isaac B. and Jacob A. Chesley, twins, of Rochester. New Hampshire, will be eighty-nine years old next Octo- ber.s They were born in that town, have always lived together, and enjoy such good health that they bid fair to become centenarians. . ...-.. More than five million cans of corn are now packed in Maine annually, and sold in every part of the world, yielding a business to the State of about $I, ,500,- 900, and giving a profitable employment to from eight to ten thousand people during the packing season.
 A blue ash tree seven feet In cir conference and eighteen feet in height, its top having previously been cut off, was recently dislodged by swollen stream in Ohio, fioated $40 yards, and again took root, six feet above the pre- sent level of the creek, and is now doing well.
 The number of letters stolen from the English Post-office is enormous. Sixty thousand missing letters were ap- piled for last year, of which 20, 900 were recovered, leaving 10000 unaccounted for, and the officials are convinced that not one-half of the letters lost are ever applied for. -'t--- .'.-
 Burlington, Iowa, is trying to get rid of the tramp harvester nuisance by prosecuting the steamboat officers who land them. It is said that fine of $300 was imposed on steamboat company for putting them ashore at that point, charging the company with illegally landing paupers. g.. e.s,'
 Red tape is illustrated by the fact that charge of $l, ,129 against General Scott for contingent expenses at his headquarters in New York, has been regularly brought down on the books of the Auditor since 1Sl6 until the pre- sent day. The Auditor now advises Secretary McCrary to relieve the Gen. nrnl from hiS liahilitu