St. Landry democrat., 1878-07-27
of the jury was set aside and a new trial
Miscellaneous.

The supporters of the Scotca Presbyte-
rian mission on Lake Nyassa are, it is
said, about to place steamboat On the
lower Zambesi river.
The Scientific American notes the
fact that OF two hundred and sixty hang
ings in the country during the past five
years, seventy-fve per cent. have occur
red west of the Alleghanies.
| The atmosphere of London is vitiated
by the fumes arising from its innumer<
able coal fires. In paper read before
the Society of Arts it was estimated that
the coal annually consumed in London
is over eight million tons.
The experiment of girl cigar makers
has been emnently successful in New
York. A number of dealers have had
printed upon their labels: These cigars
we've made by American girls" Their
customers rather like it.
The compensation of postmasters of
the fourth class was fixed by the forty
fifth congress at so per cent. of the first
5 100 worth of stamps cancelled at their
Offices in each quarter, 80 per cent. on
the next $500, and 40 per cent. on all
in excess of 500.
In the Mariners Family asylum at
Clifton, N. Y, there are about forty old
women, wives, widows and sisters of
sailors, varying in age from sixty to
ninety years. One has reached the age
of ninety nine, and plays with cups and
saucers and her dolls like child.
The cheapest railroad in the world is
said to be in East Friesland, connecting
the village of Westertede with the Old
enserg-Leer railway, Germany. 1t is
five miles long, of two feet fve-and-a-
half inches gauge, and was built by the
rural population of the district at a cost
of about fifty thousand dellars.
A national nsrrow-gauge railroad CON-
vention has been called to meet in Gin
cinnati, July 7 and 10 next. The
questions to be considered embrace every
thing relative to the construction and
operation of narrow-gauge lines, and
comparison with the standard gauge in
economy and practical efficiency.
On the 10th of May a conference of
delegates from the Protestant missions of
Japan met at Toxic to take measures for
scouting translation of the entire bible
into the Japanese language. The YER
sion Of the New Testament will be COM
pleted in 1879. The delegates provided
for the translation q The Old Testament.
The recent calculation says that the
demand for lumber increases in the
United States at the rate of twenty. five
per cent. per annum. The forests de-
crease at the rate of seven million acres
year. The fences alone are valued at
one billion eight hundred million, dol
lars, and they cost each year ninety.eight
million dollars.
There were twenty thousand shares of
Keelemotor stock issued originally at
800 face value, selling first at $50, then
going up to 5000. Now no one will
touch them. In the construction of the
machinery $3.50, 600 have been expended,
and the company has spent all its funds
and $4,000 of the directors money
[Chicago Tribune.
The first instance on record where q
Chinese man has given collection Of
books to an American institution; has
just occurred in New Haven, where
Yung Wing, graduate of Yale College,
has given to the college library valuable
collection of Chinese books, numbering
about g % volumes, embracing classical,
historical and poetic~l works, encyclo-
pedias, etc.
Sir Henry Thompson, the eminent
British surgeon, has discovered that by
the aid of the microphone he can dis,
cover accurately the existence of even
the smallest obstructing substance which
may be in the body. He imagines, too,
that by the same instrument he can
learn the exact position of small bull.
let. In fact the microphone will be
grand discoverer not only in surgical
cases, but in physiology.
General LIE Due, the commissioner of
agriculture, is experimenting on a new
root called chufa. It grows in hills like
the potato, is about the size of walnut
and has the favor of an almond. 1t is
no trouble to raise, and the experiments
made demonstrate that hogs and chick
ems fed on it are of the most superior
quality, not only in their size, but i'm
the luscious sweetness of their flesh. 1t
is predicted that chufa will become q
staple crop among farmers in few years.
A correspondent of an English peri.
odical incidentally gives some figures
respecting the expenditure of Americans
abroad. He estimates that from twenty
to twenty thousand Americans visit
Europe annually, expending on an
average from EGO to e2O0 each. The
total annual expenditure, therefore, of
citizens ofthe United States residing or |
in Europe ammounts to
This large sum, annually