The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1879-09-17
TIMELY TOPICS.

Among the other innovations intro
duced by the elevated railways in New
ork city is a practice INDUCED in by
employees of throwing kisses at all the
pretty girls along the lines of the road.
Some of the ladies resent these passing
attentions, and complaints have been
made to the officials of the load, who
give notice that whenever any of the
Offenders are identified they will be
promptly punished.
At Hamburg, in Germany, the longest
day has seventeen hours and the shortest
seven. At Stockholm the longest has
eighteen and half hours and the shortest
five and "a half. At st. Petersburg the
longest has nineteen and the shortest
five hours. At Finland the longest has
twenty-one and a half hours. At Won
dorbus, in Norway, the day lasts from
the 21st of May to the I'd of July, the sun
not getting below the horizon during the
whole time, but skimming along very
close to it in the north. At Spitzbergen
the longest day lasts three months and a
half.
"There is talk Of getting up a six
days walking contest in this city," says
a Virginia City (Nev.) paper, between a
horse and a man. 1t might seem to most
people that a horse could easily beat a
man in such a contest, but such is not
the fact. First-class pedestrians have
| frequently covered all average of eighty
some of them ninety-miles day for
| six days, but it would be hard to find a
horse, or any other quadruped, capable
of such a performance. In nearly every
recorded instance where a man has been
pitted against horse the horse has been
badly beaten"
81 1t had hardly seemed possible, three
months ago." says the New Y ork San,
s. for the Paris-American dentist Evans
"a man who has been more or less in the
mouths of the gabblers there for years,
to enjoy greater advertisement than his
dentistry long ago brought him. And
yet the undreamt-of climax of his career
was then impending was the only
man in the universe who could officially
identity the decomposed remains of the
Prince Imperial, which he did from a
peculiar plugging he had given to one OF
the princes teeth. In one way and an
other, Evans has been queerly mixed nI
with affairs of state and persons of state
and the revelations and "reminiscences Of
that dentist would be as comical, prob
ably, as those of most diplomats"
Laura Lane, a colored girl of Valdosta
Ga, who went to Liberia in 1877, re,
turned to her old home recently. She
gives anything but a cheerful account Of
her life in that model African Republic
Among other things she says that 1.-The
natives season everything very. highly
with pepper, and when a child is born
among them they stuff its mouth with
red pepper and cruel, and lay it out il
the sun for an hour. They say it will
make it strong and healthy" Also. she
says, s. the natives are very hard on oul
people when they commit crime" She
mentions the case of one Reuben Cayho
an emigrant from America, who stole
something from one of them and they
caught him, tied big rock around his
neck and threw him in the river. Tha
was the last of him.
1.-The question of the availability O
elephants in African exploration, lately
so much discussed, is now about to bt
put on the crucial test of expert ment,
says Nature. 1.-The four elephants pre-
sented by the Indian government to tn
king of the Belgians for the use of hi
expedition have arrived safely at ZanZi
bar, and have been landed near Dares
Salaam, not, however. without SOM
difficulty, as the following extract from
aletter written by lady who witnessed
the scene will show: We never though
the first elephant could get alive t,
shore. 1t swan more than mile il
distance, and was in the water for NOR
than an hour. Long after it was hal
way it would keep turning round anc
trying to come back to the ship. | can
not describe to you the excitement ther,
was on board. / fairly cried once will
anxiety and excitement; it would hav'
been too horrible to see it drown.
tried to climb up the ships side once. /
was pouring with rain, which mad,
things seem more dismal. We were al
wet through, but nobody cared. w,
had to get our experience as we went on
as no one knew anything about elephants
on landing. We managed the othe
three much better, and made the captain
take the ship nearer inshore. Captain
Garter has staid over there to take tn
elephants to Pares- Salaam, distance o
four miles, and will stay to see then
comfortably settled"