Blount County democrat. [volume] (Maryville, Tenn.) 1879-1883, 1879-07-31
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Ihe utmost alarm prevails ia
France at the prospect Of poor harv-
ests.
A man in Marshal county, Iowa,
has spring that thrsws water thirty
feet high.
A telephone between Petersburg,
Va, and Wilmington, N. c., a dis
tance of 226 miles, is success.
The crops in many parts of Great
Britain have been ruined by rain, and
the agricultural outlook is everywhere
very bad.
New Hampshire pays its Governor
81 600 a year, its Chief Justice $2,400,
its Associate justMs $4,000 each, and
its State Treasurer $1,000.
North Perry, Maine, has an infant
giantess in perfect health. Though
only one year old, it is three feet high,
and stout in prol2Gtion: s~S@
A clergxnIKg >McNSWst camp
In$ShgSt Bucyf6s, Ohio, prayed
that God would~kin Sae member of
every anti-Christian family in the
county.
A<&w caSe has been discovered
near Newsom's Station, in Davidson
County, Tenn. One branch has been
explored two miles and another three
miles. 1t is not yet known how long
it is.
The Thames River is the principal
and longest river in England. 1t is
$50 miles long, and the area of its
basin is 6,l60 square miles. 1t is nav
igable for vessels of 200 tons to Lon
don bridge.
The postmaster at Levering. Ohio,
has postal card which he sent around
the world. 1t made the trip in one
hundred and nine days, passing
through New York, Liverpool, Alex
andria, Singapore, Yokohama, and
San Francisco. He thinks it is the
first and only American card that has
travelled SO far.
The distance between New York
and San Francisco is 1882 miles. The
hours of time occupied in going by
train are l6S. The distance from New
York to Liverpool by water is 3,0l3
miles, as follows: Liverpool to Queens
town, 2l0 miles; Queenstown to Cape
Clear (FastneO, 60 miles; Cape Clear
to Cape Race, LIB miles, and Cape
Race to Sandy Hook, 1000 miles.
The bridge over the river Volga,
in Samara, Russia, on the line of the
Siberia Railroad, will, when complet-
ed, be the largest in Europe. In the
spring season the Volga at that point
is over four miles wide. The bridge
will have twelve piers, eighty-fve feet
high, at intervals of 364 feet. Two
thousand men are employed in build
ing it, and the estimated cost is $3,-
100000. This immense structure will
be completed next year.
The custom of shaving the beard
was enforced by Alexander of Mace
don, not for the sake of fashion, but
for practical end. He knew that the
soldiers of India, when they encoun-
tered their foes, had a habit of grasp
ing them by their beard, and so he
ordered his soldiers to shave. After
ward shaving was practiced in the
Macedonian army, and then among
the Greek citizens. The Romans imi-
tated the Greeks in the practice, as
they did in many other things, and
spread it to the different European
nations yet barbaric. In the Middle
Ages, at the time of the Renaissance,
shaving was introduced, and the habit
retained, though classicism gave place
to romsnticism, and that in its turn
was replaced by realism. The beard
was a source of trouble to Peter the
Great, who, simultaneously with the
introduction of his great reforms in
Russia, tried to induce his people to
initiate the shaving nations. This in
novation was resisted by his subjects
with the utmost resistance, and they
preferred to pay heavy fine rather
than suffer Disagreement of the i'm
age Of God. TO the Russians of old
Ell times the beard was symbol of
liberty. In several countries of West
crn Europe, and in the United States,
the beard was restored to honor only