Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-03-07
Weekly News Summary.

IHE annual report of the Bank of Italy shows
the Pope has thirty-two million dollars in that
instituton...l 1t is said that nineteen hundred
oarres of oysters are shipped from New York city
to England every week. The Swiss watch
makers are beginning in self-defense to introduce
the American system of machine-made watches
and company with a capital of five hundred
thousand francs has been organized for the pur-
pose at Neuchate The Minnesota prohibition
lists propose constitutional amendment allowing
women over twenty-one to vote on the question
OF allowing ntoxcants to be sold 1t is thought
that the legislature will let the matter 20 before
the people. Official figures show that in 1870
there were in Cuba three hundred and sixty-three
thousand slaves; in 1878, two hundred and eighty.
seven thousand, in 1876, one hundred and ninety
nine thousand. The number of free blacks in
1873 was twenty-siX thousand in 1874, fifty thou
sand; in 1870 seyenty-fve thousand and in 1876
eighty-iour thousand The free blacks in four
jurisdictions where no census could be taken are
estimated at six thousand. 90. The Springfield
Illinois, Iron Company is now rolling rails sixty
feet long and and weighing thirty-five pounds to
the yard, a thing never before done. . General
Newton has just finished plans for erecting new
bridge which is to cross the Hudson at Peekskill
1t VIII be one magnificent span of one thousand
six hundred and eighty feet, and the floor will be
one hundred and siNty-iive feet above the water
1.-Two steamboats,, built in sections for trans
portation, have been sent by rail from Greenpoint
y. Y, to san Francisco, where they are to be put
together. The whole mass of freight including
engines and machinery weighs one thousand two
hundred tons and the cost of transportation nine
thouRuuI dollars la
New York florists this winter Is for lilies of the
valley, and some dealers make n speciality Of It
One man in New Jersey annually sends one hun
dred and fifty thousand sprays to New York, and
at one shipment recently sent ten thousand sprays.
valued at one thousand five hundred dollars.
rhe five family mansions of the Rothschilds in
Paris are valued at one hundred million francs
....Mr Calling inventor Of the gun Of that name.
has brought out new mitrailleuse, from which
three hundred rounds "A minute can be fired
The new church property tax law of Maine ex-
empts from taxation property worth not more
than five thousand dollars, Nearly ten thou
sand Germans settled in some forty counties
in Texas, particularly Comal aud Guadalupe. and
they are highly successful as agrculturists
A sheep raiser in Pope Valley, California sold his
flock to man living in the adjacent valley Of
Berryessa, ten miles distant Soon after the
former missed his dog, which had always assisted
him in herding the sheep and searched for him in
vain. He was n valuable dog, and his loss was
duly mourned for Il couple of days when, To his
masters astonishment in he came from Berry essa
with the whole flock of sheep, which he had
brought safely home again. The two hottest
days ever known in Australia were the 10th and
10th of January, when the thermometer registered
one hundred and five degrees in the shade in
Melbourne. There is a project ON foot in Vir-
gina City to utilize the hot water pumped from
the Savage Hale x Norcross, and other mines
and negotiations are pending for the control of
the boiling fluid Some Connecticut families
who have resolved to move out Of New England
have decided that they will retain the New England
village style of life They have bought land in
southern California, and will there establish
village, with a school, a church and no liquor
saloons A clergyman IL at the head Of the en-
terprise e.. Eleven signals are employed at each
of the new weather obseryatories on the German
coast, to give the requisite storm warnings Single
and double cones, pointed upward and downward,
are arranged so as To indicate the quarter from
which n gale is expected, and various flags are
used To show in what direction the wind is likely
to shift. The gardener Of the University of
Berlin has made the discovery that hyacinths may
be propagated by their leaves. He cuts them
close to the bulb, places them in II saucer aud
covers with a thin layer Of sandy leal mould.
The saucer having been placed in n greenhouse
the extremties of the leaves will begin to turn
dry in about eight weeks, a sure sign that bulbs
are growing out of them