The Newtown bee., 1879-07-09
TIMELY TOPICS.

TIMELY TOPICS.
 A telephone has been placed in the Congregational church, at Mansfield, O., the wires leading to the houses of several aged and invalid persons. It sur mounts floral decoration on the table in front of the open platform, where it is hardly seen. The speaker pays no att tention whatever to it, yet every word uttered in the auditorium is easily heard in the rooms of the dwellings which the wires reach. The. first message from the minister was from Scripture: "The worc is nigh unto thee;n His word runneth very swiftly"
 According to the Rail,Cay World, near ly 400, 900 persons are employed on the railroads in the United States, and five times that many depend upon the roads for support. It is also estimated that between $500, 1000 900 and S4OO, ,oOO, 900 are annually paid to employees. and to persons who furnish the companies with supplies of various kinds. This vast business has sprung up in the lifetime oI one generation, and its growth IS stlll rapid. What another quarter of cen tury will develop in this field would doubtless seem fabulous could it now be foretold.
 When the Zulus rushed in on the small British detachment of Col. w ood, and while there was yet an open road ln one direction, Col. w Weatherl ly, an Eng fish cavalry officer, clapped his son, boy of thirteen-who was with him, on horseback-kissed him, and told him to fly for life. The lad jumped from the saddle, striking the horse a lash which sent it galloping of, and said: Father, I'll die with you" The father handed his revolver to the child just as the Zulus reached, over British bodies, the spot where they stood. eatherly slew five Zulus before he fell, but the son was killed at once.
 There have been some singular cir eumstances in which the eruptions of Mount Etna have differed from others. One occurred in 1852. when, after the throwing of lava had ceased, in a certain area the trees, vines and even grass were struck dead as if by lightning, with no visible cause, Another was the burial of a glacier under the lava, which Lyell states remained for thirty years unmelt- cd, a gigantic ice-house for the Catan- ians. Much of the ruin caused by the eruption of this volcano in l755 resulted from the sudden melting of the snows above the Val del Bove and the pre- eipitation of flood ot water two miles in width.
 The amount of water passing over Niagara Falls has been estimated at 100, 900, 900 tons per hour, and it's perpen- dicular descent may be taken at I50 feet, without considering the rapids, which represent further fall of 150 feet. The force represented by the principal fall alone amounts to l6, 800, 900 horse power an amount which if it had to be produced by steam would necessitate an expendi- ture ofnot less than 266, ,000, ,000 tons ofcoal per annum, taking the consumption of coal at four pounds per horsepower per hour. In other words. all the coal raised throughout the world would barely suffice to produce the amount of power that annually runs to waste at this wonderful fall. '
 The Scientific American asserts that the common fault in lightning rods is that they are not sufficiently connected with the ground They are generally stuck down two or three feet into dry earth; but such an arrangement is worse than useless; 1t is almost like placing the bottoms of the rods in glass bottle. In all cases the bottoms of the rods un- Sderground should be connected with iron or water pipes, if they exist; or in lieu thereof, the rods should be extended long distance underground, or should connect with @ mass of old iron, or iron ore, or charcoal, or coal dust of any kind, laid in trench. No lightning-rod can be regarded as a safe conductor unless it's lower extremity is carried deep into the ground, and there put in good con nection with large surface of conduct Ing material" @ 2
 Apropos to the inter-oceanic canal across the isthmus of Darien, a cores pondent in Buffalo writes to the New York Graphic, suggesting the construc- tion of an enormous railway across the isthmus, constructed and equipped to carry ships of any tonnage. He would have the track at each end of the route run down into water deep enough to support properly built dock, so that a vessel could sail into basin surround ing this approach to the track, and then be docked and drawn across the isthmus on wheels. The writer does not profess any engineering skill, and modestly ad- mits that there may be difficulties in the way of his scheme which he does not see. If so, others will probably see them. He thinks such road might be built for tenth of $200, 0,000, 900, the estimated cost of the proposed canal.
 The police statistics of large cities are often more impressive than a long and rhetorical sermon could be. Take those of Chicago, for example. The annual arrests number about 30,000, one-half for drunkenness nd of the total, 6,0OO are women, Without going into elabo- rate comparisons of figures, it may be af- firmed that Chicago is not greatly worse than other large cities; it may not be as