The Newtown bee., 1879-06-03
TIMELY TOPICS.


 An Austrian glass spinner has estab- lished a business, offering for sale glass carpets, cuffs, collars, veils, etc. He not only spins but weaves. The otherwise brittle glass he changes at will into pli- able threads which make good, warm | clothing. The process is a secret. He | makes ladies' hats with glass feathers, which are lighter than real feathers. l Glass wool cannot be distinguished from the real article. Being non-conductor, it is very valuable for clothing and may cause revolution in dress material.
 lin France they vote by the aid of elec- tricity. When a vote is to be taken in the French Chamber, each member touches one of two buttons on his desk Gone for yea and the other for nay), and the ball falls in its proper compartment, in public place by the side of the speaker. Thus the vote is taken rapidly and publicly. AS fast as the votes are cast, the whole number is recorded in sight of all, so that the process of taking the 750 votes is not only rapid, but every member sees how it is going on. In ad- dition the machine writes down every name with the vote-the yeas in blue and the nays in red. ...--.r
 One would suppose that with the age of steam the old age of wagoning across the continent would have passed away; but the Paindealer, of Sidney, Neb., tells not only of the continuance of this style of emigration, but also of the manner in which some people do it. It says out of q total of thirty prairie schooners that were driven westward through the city during one week recently, twenty of them were commanded by unmarried young men, ranging from eighteen to twenty-five years ofage. A majority of them were bound for the rich and fertile valleys of Montana, and the minority for Washington Territory. Most of the movers were from Missouri.
 The extent to which illicit distilling is carried on, and the desperation of those engaged in it, is strikingly shown in report just made to Congress of the oper- ations of the Internal Revenue Bureau in the suppression of illicis distiilation in the States where it has been most preva- lent from July |, 1876, to the present time. It is shown that during that period 2,638 stills have been seized, 5,422 persons have been arrested for illicit dis 1 tilling, S l09, l35 have been expended for special deputies employed for the pur- pose of suppressing illicit distillation, ! an1 ,iin ,,a Eillol ,,I thirty-five wounded while thus engaged. In seven States the seizures numbered 2,263 and the arrests 4,9l5. Secretary { Sherman adds to the report that the ef- | forts made to suppress the illicit manu- 1 fracture of spirits and tobacco demon ] strate that in many of the districts this evil has become chronic. and that the 1 laws cannot be enforced against offenders i without the presence of an armed force adequate to overcome and persisently in- timidate persons disposed to violate the 1 law
 Some cur1ous facts have come to light about the regeneration of the eye during i experiments made by M. Philipeaux, facts of very pleasing kind if we only infer that what applies to inferior ami mals is applicable also to man. NJ. Philipeaux has been, it seems, anxious to discover whether, on completely empty ing the eyes of young rabbits and guinea pigs, the vitreous humor would be re- organized and whether even the crystal 1 line would be reproduced. With this view he has been conducting his opera tions, always, of course, taking care not to touch the crystalline capsule, for ex- perience has shown that in ord,r that an
 organ shall regenerate, a portion of it must besleft in it's place. It seems that a
 month after the mutilation was effected
 the experimentalist was able to state that
 the eyes which had been emptied were
 filled afresh and that the crystalline was
 reconstructed. He operated on twenty
 four animals, and in each case the mutil-
 ated eye revived. This would seem to
 show that the optic organ has the same
 capabilities as the bones: the organic
 process repairs an evil, and reconstructs,
 more or less completely, that portion
 which has been struck off from the
 whole.
 Ei