Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1879-07-25
TIMELY TOPICS.

A New York paper says the business
of renting diamonds and other jewels
for public wear is now as regularly
practiced in that city rs that of leasing
houses or letting carriages, while it is
hundred-fold more lucrative. There are
five or six Jewel lenders in New York
who reap princely gain by thus accom-
modating the vaiety of society women
whose ambitions are vaster than their
means. Their customers are drawn from
every rank of social life.
That Mr.. Edison is working at his
electric light problem without stinting
the expense is evident. He says it has
cost him about thirteen thousand dollars
to perfect his generator. He has spent
about eight thousand dollars in expert
ments on his lamp. 1t cost about three
thousand dollars to discover new
method of insulating his wires. The
meter experiments ate up fully two
thousand dollars, and the dynamometer
three thousand dollars more. He esti-
mates the total cost of his experiments
thus far at forty-five thousand dollars.
Such devotion to an idea is one of his
characteristics, and, fortunately, he is in
position of pecuniary independence,
and has ut his command all the money
that seems to be necessary.
Under the head of Good Advice for
the Dog Days" the New York Nel0s has
an article making these suggestions:
There are two provisions which should
be made in all large cities, in this eli
mate, to protect the public from expo
sure to and consequent proStratiOn from
sunstroke. In the first place every we'll
regulated city should be supplied with
sufficient number of shade trees ofspeedy
growth and abundant foliage as a source
of protection for pedestrians during the
prevalence of the greatest solar heat; and
in the second place there should be an
entire cessation of outdoor labor from
eleven to four o'clock on the hottest
days. A suitable regulation should be
concurred in for that end by both en-
ployers and employed.
Sitting Bull has been interviewed by a
correspondent of the Chicago Tribune,
who says of him: "There is something
remarkable in his face. 1t is rather broad
and fleshy, but the determined line
around the mouth destroys the impress
sion of flabbiness. His eyes are wide,
and black, and piercing. The upper lids
are heavy, and the outer corners hang
over the eyes as if the brain had escaped
into them His shoulders and chest are
broad and strong, and the arms muscu-
lar, and the hands awfully dirty. He
was dressed in blue lcggings, beaded
moccasins, a shirt made of the same ma
terial, figured like the patterns of broche
shawls, and his blanket was bound
lightly around his waist, for the after
noon was intolerably hot"
While it is true that our means of
making heat tolerable are infinitely less
than those of India, it is equally certain
that the heat which we are exposed to
is, in the worst years, almost as nothing
compared to what has to be endured
there, where Europeans oftentimes are
pursuing occupations fully as anxious
and arduous as any performed here,
where more than four or five days of ex-
cessive heat is extremely unusual. In
Madras, for instance, there is a hot sun
nearly every day in the year, which,
after ten A. NJ, can scarcely be borne
with safety, and the great part of the
night is frequently as hot as the day.
Madras has practically no cold weather,
and Bombay but about two months, but
Bengal has a distinct hot and cold sea-
son. In June the temperature there is
ITO degrees Fahrenheit in the shade, and
the humidity goes down to twenty-five
per cent. of saturation. By sitting be-
hind Il Melted grass screen in a shady
room, with Il fIuner blowing III dam p
air, the temperature can be reduced to
eighty degrees. In Lower Bengal and
the northwest provinces the periodical
rains set in during June and bring relief
from hot winds, but both the day and
night temperature remains about ninety
two degrees. By the middle of October
the cold weather has set in, but from
eleven to three o'clock the sun is always
uncomfortably hot. Still, the fact of
this change of season has a very favora-
BILE effect on Europeans, who do not age
in Bengal nearly as rapidly as in the
other Presidencies. Constitution and
their extraordinarily temperate diet en-
able the natives in India to work
throughout the day.