Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1879-08-29
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

There were 2s7 labor strikes in Eng
land in 1878.
There are 600 lighthouses on the coast
of the United States.
There are forty lawyers confined in
the prison at Auburn, N. Y.
A canvas back duck-Getting rained
on in the top seat of circus.-Grip.
Three feet make yard. Very true;
but two feet unmake it mighty quick,
provided they are hens feet.
We sincerely trust that success at
archery will make none of the contest
ants arrowgant.-NeD York NetUs.
The number of destitute and neglected
children sent from the cities of the East
to homes in the West thus far is 5000.
Only one of the first seven Presidents
had a son (Adams), and lie succeeded
his father in the occupancy of the White
House.
The Western Union Telegraph Com
pany purchase about 10000 miles of
wire annually, which gives some idea
of the enormous extent of their business.
There is this difference between a
fashionably dressed gent and spring
chicken: One is dressed to kill and tho
other is killed to dress.-RonH Sentinel.
1t is said that the profits on the sale of
threshing machines are about sixty per
cent, and yet thousands of young men
are still rushing to college to learn law
and medicine. .-Detr0tt Free Press.
The introduction of petroleum, like
certain kinds of machinery, has de-
stroyed an old industry. The Pacific
whaling fleet of 1855 consisted of 600
vessels. 1t now numbers but forty.
A horse, it is said, can remember for
ten years. The animals memory will
lose much of its retentiveness, the Bos-
ton Globe thinks, when he becomes suf-
ficiently evoluted to borrow money.
Whenever and wherever grain is
plenty in Africa the natives distil
spirits, and men, women and children
drink them to excess. Such is the re-
pot of Mr.. Mackey, an American mis-
sionary, and so says Stanley.
Ten messages of twenty words each
can now be sent from New York to
London by cable in the space of sixty
seconds. This is wonderful, but it is
only the minimum capacity of the i'm
proved means of telegraphing.
''Those midnight yells-those midnight yells s--
How sad tale their music tells
! OF ,nelans green, of apples hard,
OF peaches that should be debarred!
What touching accents these produce,
More mellow than the me elon juice.
! The human stomach little knows
| Ofgreater ills than collie woes,
And to the world its anguish tells
By midnight yels, shrill midnight yells."
An electric target-that is, target
which by means of electricity shows,
instantaneously, upon another target
set up at the firing station, the exact
spot where bullet strikes, and thus does
away witht necessity of employing
marker to signal the result OF each shot
has been lately perfected, after years
of labor, by a Swiss locksmith.
A man in Trenton, N. j., has curl
Gus looking stone, which has all the fes-
lures of human being. He noticed it
lying in front of his house, and every
time that he saw it he became impressed
with its resemblance to human skull.
At last he pulled il out of the earth and
had it examined by experts, who pro-
nounce it to be the petriied skull of a
child.
The Bornean soldier wears a quilted
sleeveless jacket, thick as an ordinary
wool mattress, round his body and as
low as his hips, his bare arms and legs
sticking out therefrom, giving him a
somewhat scarecrow appearance His
favorite war weapon is the sumpitan-a
long hollow reed, through which, by
means of his breath, are propelled darts,
insignificant in size, but deadly danger
GUS in consequence of the venom with
which they are smearcd. These wasp
ish missiles are not calculated to carry
with fatal effect at longer range than
twenty yards; but this is enough. as
they are used only in bush-fghting.
The sunpttan brigade are known as
Rata hutats, or wood devils. The chief
warrior of this savage region wears q
coat of deerhide and helmet of green
u;tllias