Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-01-26
VARIETIES.

III NaIiIoIuiH Nuebt-BTONluB Is Yield
ing larger returns than gold mining ever
did.
Eight dollars was The princely price
which newspaper, the Wilkesbarre (Pa.)
Workingman, brought at sheriGs sale
few days ago.
Jacksonville has grown faster than any
other city In Florida, the population in
creasing within a few years from 1000 to
1900.
"A general reduction in tie wages of ag-
riculiural laborers has been made in most
parts Of England since the close OF the au-
tumna season.
AT London, during the last week in
December, the weather was 50 warm as TO
be quite oppressive. Firos were let down
and windows opened, while in the garden
| lilac trees were coming into leaf.
IT is related that the Pope lately agreed
to pay the fees OF Protestant in the Acad-
emy at Rome, stating when the religion of
the student was objected TO, that The "Acad-
emy was for artists"
"A Missouri bridegroom dropped the
hand Of the maiden about the middle of
the ceremony, with the remark "lhat is
enough" bolted for the door, and has not
been seen In the neighborhood since.
Horace Clark once told the old commo-
dore, his father-in-lsw, that II was a pity
he did not have a college education. "Did
you have college education, Horace ?"
asked Vanderbilt. "Yes SIR" "Well, Hor-
ace, don't think l could afford 10 swap
with you" the old man replied with re-
! guish twinkle in his eye.
"A Helena (Montana) doctor has utilized
snow in a surgical operation. Having to
extract a tumor OF Tue size OF an ample
from a mans side, he mixed some snow
and salt, applied the freezing mixture to
the tumor till the surface became white,
and then cut out The tumor, The patient all
the time reading newspaper, and uncon-
scious Of the action of the knife.
DIR. Howard Duncan of Boston writes
to Miss Jennie Collins that he often pre-
scribes medicines to his patients which are
to be taken after meals, and very often
poor girl hesiiates a moment and then tells
him that she has only one meal a day. And
Boston spends $500, 600 to keep an old curl
osty shop, and $50, 900 for a first class re-
vival.-N. Y. Graphic.
Gov. Pillsbury of Minnesota is making
personal examination OF the needs of the
people in the "grasshopper counties' in
that State, and he goes prepared TO relieve
the most pressing cases Of want and suffer-
ing, while efficient means arc taken to as
sist through the winter all who are needy
and deserving.
Young Americas tricks are slowly
contagious. An English paper says that
party Of young men dined sumptuousIy at
restaurant. in Dublin. and each one in
sisted upon paying the bill. To decide the
mailer it was proposed 10 blindfold the
waiter, and the first one he caught should
pay the bill. He has not caught any of
them yet.
Laura Bridgman, the poor creature
whom DIR. S. G. Howe rescued from the
terrible isolation of blindness and deaf
ness, and whose story Dickens told with
such enjoyment, is now forty. seven years
old. writer in the Cungregatioualist de-
scribcs her as good looking, and as very
industrious, in spite of her blindness, knit
ting, crocheting, reading AMI doing very
wei as pianist.
C. w. APP of Memphis has just finish
ell a remarkable pair of shoes for a negro
preacher wh9 lives in Arkansas. The
length of the shoe is seventeen and three
quarters inches, and six inches across the
sole. Tho negro's foot, according to meas
urement, is fourteen inches around the ball,
while the insiep is nineteen inches. The
man is over seven feet In height, weighs
400 pounds, and is not more than 20 years
Of age. He has not worn pair ofboots for
years, and this pair is intended for Sun
days.
-Liltle Agnes H, aged three years,
was one day looking over a "Chidren's
Bible" and came across picture of Adam
and Eve in The Garden of Eden. She ask
ed me who they were, and, when l told
her, turned again 10 her book, studying the
picture intently for some minutes and
stri wing 10 reconcile the partial nudity of
the figures with the present style of dress.
At last she arrived at some conclusion, and
looking up in my face, with big, serious
eyes, remarked: ~ dess they are doin'
bathin'."
1t is marvellous TO what degree of fine
ness platinum wire can be drawn. 1t has
been made for the ohject-slasse of tele-
scopes by inserting the wire in a cylinder
of silver, wire-drawing the whole, and then
melting the siver coating. Some has been
procured only the eighteen-thousandth of
an inch in diameter. 1t is calculated that a
piece OF platinum the size of the tip of a
mans finger could be drawn across Eu-
rope.
There is something rather ludicrous in
the idea OF quenching riot as you quench
Gea MI krd
ii, but at a revolt at the Westboro (Mass.)
Reform School, or Friday night, 18th inst,
water was more effective than firearms or
anything else. The boys were tumultuous
and disorderly till they were drenched in
tremendous cold-water bath, and then they
begged for quarter. Not boy of the hum
dred concerned in the affair escaped, and
the ringleaders are to be brought before
the courts for sentence TO hard labor in
some penal institution.
Vanderbilt could have given a million
apiece TO every man, woman and child
among his lineal descendants. But he did
not. He gave his son WIN. II. over forty
millions and divided fifteen millions among
the rest. He thought women had no need
of much money, and only gave his daugh-
ters half a million apiece; but VIM. ii. is
to make their portions round million
apiece. His spendthrift and epileptic son,
Cornelius, gets only the income of $500, 900.
Four OF his grandsons are thrown on cold
world with the following little sums Cor
nelius Vanderbilt gets S5,4OO,O 900; w. X.
Vanderbilt, $2,OOO,OOO; Fred A. Vanderbilt,
g., 2,OOO, 900, and George Vanderbilt, s2,OOO,-
900.