The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1878-08-08
NE WS AND NOTES.

NEWS AND NOTES.
! DURING thunder storms the shelter of
trees is anything but safe.
<s NEARLY two billion cigars were
smoked in this country last year.
TIE first piano in the United States
was made in Philadelphia in IT'S.
The voracious grasshopper is devas-
tating the States Of Central America.
The finest building in Iceland is the
capital Jail, which has never had pris-
oner.
PERSONS wearing dark clothes are
much more liable to sunstroke than
others.
INSTEAD of dying out from the effects
of freedom, the negroes are increasing
in numbers.
HOUSES with tin roofs are not as apt to
pc struck by lightning as those covered
with wooden ones.
fNEwsPAPERs are used in many public
schools of the West, instead of books,
for reading lessons.
A SIGNAL service for predicting grass
hopper waves along the Mediterranean
is to be established.
A PHYSICIAN says that many women
are becoming crooked shouldered by
holding up long trains.
AMONG the mechanical toys at the
Paris Exhibition are dolls that dive,
swim and tread water.
The Earl of Beaconsfield is still dandy
enough to be particular about the fit Of
his lavender kid gloves.
DR.. TUKE says that one in every
three hundred of the population of En-
gland is either insane or idiotic.
SIX Spanish jour- ais are being sued
by the Government for insinuating that
the late Queen Mercedes was poisoned.
GAS from a cargo of decomposed
fruit killed two sailors who descended
into the lower hold of the vessel, at
Quebec.
The Crown Princess of Denmark
should be spoken of as Her Hignness
she stands six feet two inches in her
slippers.
MUNICH is to have an International
Art Exposition next year, similar to
that of 1860. Preparations are making
for it already.
HIPPoPHAGY is becoming decidedly
were slaughtered for food during the
first five months of this year.
The German Emperor keeps diary
of everything he shoots. In 1910 his
gun was discharged by accident, and he
entered "Forefinger right hand"
Two prominent Albany physicians
are wearing shoes made from the skin
of Sam Steenburg, the negro murderer,
! who was recently hanged at Fonda,
n. Y.
PROFESSOR Vogel, in the Deutsche
Ru'adscnou, reckons the annual consump.
ton of silver for photographic pur-
poses to be 100000 marks, or about
So, $500
IT is said that 100000 pounds OF
perfectly worthless tea-dust have been
imported from China within the last
year, to be mixed with teas of better
quality for Americans to drink.
IT is a curious circumstance that
nightingales entirely avoid certain
counties in England. They abound in
Kent, but are never heard in Devon.
shire, though both are southern counties
THE coal area of Illinois is estimated
at $4,000 square miles, which is three
| times as extensive as the coal area oi
Ohio and Pennsylvania. 1t comprises
one-ffth of all the productive coal
fields of the United States.
AN old woman was lately arrested Al
| Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, for selling
salmon which she had heavily weighted
with sand and small pebbles. The in
sertion of this ballast was 30 ingen
iously performed that for months be
fore the trickery was discovered she hat
been reaping large profits.
| ALEXANDRIA in Egypt is Threatened
with water famine. The canal, thirt,
miles long, supplying it from the Nile
has become almost dry. 1t is choke,
with mud, the water being diverted b,
great land owners higher up for thei
cotton crops. The old Roman cistern
have mostly been broken up for build
ing material, and those remaining ar
too foul for use.
TIE Bayeux tapestry, wrought b
Matilda, wife of William the First, reI
resenting the circumstances attendin
the invasion of England, is two hur
dred and fourteen feet long and nint
teen inches wide, divided into compart
ments, representing the train OF event
from the signature of the will of tn
besotted Confessor, down to the crown
ing of William. This very curious reli
is ow preserved in the Royal Library {
, Paris.
A BILL has been introduced into tI
New Hampshire Legislature providin
that any person asking and living Q
r charity shall be deemed tramp and |
imprisoned at hard labor for fftee
, months. Tramps who carry firearms
enter dwelling house without permi
sion are liable to imprisonment for
: term not longer than two years, ar
! ! malicious and willful injury done /
l tramps is punishable by imprisonmel
: for term not longer than five years.
Z SAND floors are frequent near g
J. shores where the wind carries the sar
i on the beach, and thence over the Ian
n In Africa vast tracts of native sand a
+ thus carried over adjoining district
v and have gradually encroached so as
n threaten all Egypt with their sterilit
having since the Christian era narrow
the Valley of the Nile as well as t
northern States of Lydia, Cyrene, ct
a while the sands of Arabia have e
e croached in Central Asia. These san
e float like waves before the wind, and
l. distance resemble the waves of t
,e sea, while tornadoes in them are fatal
Us travellers.
l. A BALTIMORE tramp mistook gosr
tent for circus last Sunday. The RI
Mr.. Cummings was leading in pray
N and all the brethren were on their kne
d, when a strange figure darted up t
k aisle with a yell, and, mounting I
Of pulpit, gave the Bible preparato
or whack, and proceeded to square off, as
to address the crowd. The effect v