Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-02-07
NO.6.
IN GENERAL.


The salary Of the President Of the French
Republic is fixed at GOO, 600 francs, with an
allowance Of 3O0, 900 francs for household ex-
| penses.
The recently circulated story of the fall
Of an acrolite in Indiana, and its passage
through the cabin and body of the sleeping
farmer, is pure fiction from first to last.
The unprecedented severity of the win.
/ ter South is shown by the harvesting Of 5000
| tons of ice at Griffin, Ga, something never
! before done in that section.
There is curious creek in West Texas,
which enters rocky gorge and roars under
/ ground for six miles. In some places natural
wells 24O feet deep are found through which
the roaring of this subterranoan creek can be
heard plainly.
The Michigan lumbermen have been fig
uring up the work that they have done in
years past and it frightens them, almost, to
find how much territory they have cut over.
Since 1873, 5000 million feet have been cut in
the Saginaw valley alone, and logging is 90
ing on there at the rate of 800 million feet
yearly.
1t is related that the late Dean Richmond
once asked a would-be deadhead the grounds
of his application for a free pass. "Simply
because don't want to pay" he answered.
The testy old railroad king at once handed
him pass, and said Sir / respect you.
You're the first deadhead that ever told the
truth"
Hayes Hinman has just died at Utica,
N. Y, after q silence to which he committed
himself half a century ago. He was n boy
of lG then, and vowed that he would never
speak again, because his father swore at a
member Of the family. The recusc was
close student during his years of silence and
ken n nj hie tlouUbfa nd
He left S24, 900 to nephew, with the advice
to keep his mouth shut.
The Cincinnatans and Indianapoisians
are talking and singing songs at each other
by telephone with perfect distincthehs and
with mutual delight By the combined aid
of the telephone and microphone in Cncin-
natl the other evening, the orchcstration and
the comedy at the Grand Opera House woro
heard with pleasure by people at their home
firesides.
A New York Sun reporter has been on
mission of observation among the cheap lodg-
ing houses of the city, sacrificing himself to
the extent of spending seven nights in them
He found the beds foul with dust and vcrmin
crowded into little, unventlated rooms, and
occupied by people equally foul in body and
mind. In fine, the cheap lodging houses of
New York seem to be very nurseries of small
pox and other contagious diseases.
In the State of New York there are about
G00O canal boats, and i'll addition to the adults
that float in them in summer and live on
board all the year round, there are from COCO
to 10, 900 children, who attend no school ex-
cept for portion of the time in the winter
season. England has 100, 600 people living
in this way on board of canal boats, and in
an unhealthful condition.
-Bonaparte, when emperor of France, or
dered letter-boxes to be fitted up in all the
churches of Paris, where the virtuous poor,
without their delicacy being wounded, could,
as they passed, deposit q note expressive of
their wants. These boxes were only opened
by the higher clergy, who were sworn to Sc
crecy; and the wants of the parties were
thus relieved without any of the humilating
circumstances of public application.
The Misses Thornton, daughters of Sir
Edward Thornton, English Minister to this
country, have not heretofore taken part in
Washington gayetes because English etti-
quette requires that young ladies shall be pre-
sented to the Queen before they enter general
society. During their recent visit in Eng
land two of them went through the ceremony,
and they are, therefore, now at liberty to ac-
cept social attentions in this country.
A mechanical curiosity at Lebanon. Ky,
is clock run by IL pendulums in motion at
once. The pendulums are all of one length,
other. They are hung above the dial in
circle of 20 inches diameter, the main pendu-
lum receiving its motion from a little wire
in the top of the clock. Four pendulums re-
volve about the main one, five inches from it,
and at twice the distance there is another row
of eight. The pendulum balls are of colored
glass, and as they are hung on fine wire, all
that is seen is II number of colOred balls NOV
ing in all directions.
The disputed question whether Abraham
Lincoln's parents were ever married has been
settled. In Lannon's Life of Lincoln" an
attempt was made to show that owing to their
extreme poverty the parents of Lincoln were
never legally married. because, according to
the laws of Kentucky, it would have been
necessary to file bond to guard the State
against an overplus of paupers, and this bond
they could not procure. Researches made by
Ex-Secretary Brstow show, however that
they did file such bond and that the mar
riage was legally performed.
The United States Commissioners of Ag-
riculture believes the time is coming-is at
hand, in fact-when nearly every family in
the Middle and Southern States may grow
their own tea and better tea than they at
present buy in the general market. He also
thinks that ''when the time comes our peo-
pie will produce mechanical inventions by
which the preparation of the leaves will be
conducted cheaper and better than the dex-
terity and cheap labor of Asia now do it,"
Meanwhile DIR. Collier, lately appointed chem
list at the Laboratory of the Department, has
discovered that large amounts of excellent
sugar may be obtained from stalks of COM
mon maize, and new variety of sorghum
called Minnesota early amber"