Connecticut western news., 1879-07-16
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

every U1I O1 paper Ulll HolnoIauuuAA nAu what not from the start in 1899. This accumulated mass of "paper," covering nearly four centuries, has just been turned over to an English scholar, Dr. Birdwood, for inspection, and he is un- earthing host of curious things. He finds that this company, out of which sprang the great Anglo-Indian Empire of to-day, was organized because the Dutch raised the price of paper from three shillings u pound to six.
 It is contrary to the law in Cyprus to cut down trees. The son of an old priest, having cut one down, was sum- moned to answer. He being ill, his ] father went in his place, and was con- demned to seven days Imprisonment, and to lose his hair, moustaches and beard. One of the sacerdotal attributes | of the Greek priesthood, says a oorre- spondent, is to have their hair and beard grow long and intact. They are supposed not to use razors or scissors. It is said that the venerable old priest begged very hard and tried all he could to escape such an outrage. He offered to give up the whole of his fortune, even to lose his head, rather than to submit to such an ignominy, but of no avail.
 After the operation he attempted to col
 lect all the hair and keep it, but to com- plete the disgrace, the zaptiehs and
 prison wardens picked it all up and
 threw it away. The consequent excite
 ment of the Cypriotes was very great.
 The anti-rent agitation in Ireland is
 increasing. A short time ago at pub
 lie meeting in County Galway, speech
 was made by MT. Malachi O'Sullivan to
 fourteen thousand persons. They had
 come, he said, to assert with no uncer-
 tain voice that the land of Ireland be-
 longed to the people of Ireland, and not
 to few men, or to men who never saw
 the soil of Ireland. He mentioned the
 case of man who had not penny, but
 who bought an estate with borrowed
 money and then raised the rents to enable
 him to pay for it. He complained that
 owing to the land jobbers farmer could
 not buy meat for himself or his family,
 or the ordinary necessaries of life.
 How, he asked, were they to get rid of
 this system? They must have system
 of peasant proprietors. Three cheers
 were then given for the French Revolu-
 tion and for the Irish Republic. He
 told them that they must save the people
 and take the sharing into their own
 hands. This advice elicited three cheers
 for the Zulus and King Cetewayo,
 whereupon he said that they did we'll to
 cheer for the Zulus, for, after seven
 hundred years of English rule, they
 knew what the Zulus were likely to
 suffer if they were brought under it i;
 but they would not be brought under it,
 for they would fight to the last.
 By coincidence which will be
 thought, perhaps, to have some scien-
 tific significance, the skeleton of a mas-
 todon has been found near Newburgh,
 N, Y., only three miles from the spot
 where the famous skeleton which Dr.
 Warren discovered more than thirty years ago, and which has since served as
 the type of the species, was found
 Almost the whole skeleton seems to have
 been obtained-the skull, all the bones
 of the legs except two pieces, the ribs, numerous vertebr@, teeth which are in @ state of perfect preservation, etc.-and
 the acquisition is unquestionably one of importance. The land on which the dis covery was made is part of swamp, : which fifty years ago formed the bed of pend covering three acres. About 1929 the water was drained off, since which time the bog has been used for , the cultivation of vegetables. The
 morass is formed of rich, black mud to the depth of twenty feet.
 One hundred years ago the town oi Fairfield, Conn.,, was sacked and burned by the British forces. At o'clock in the afternoon the troops landed below
 Kensie's Point, and soon after began 3 their work of destruction and pillage. The invasion was so sudden and unex- ! pected, that no systematic plan of de- 5 fence was attempted, and what little op : position there was, was made by few l militiamen. Lieutenant Isaac Jarvis ! and party of twenty three militiamer , had possession of the fort, and thougl 1, the British made one or two attempts to v capture it they were unsuccessful, SC r bravely did the little handful of men de s fend the position. During the night tht U invaders destroyed 96 houses, churches . the courthouse and jail, 15 stores, Il
 shops, and 55 barns. Before the houseI e were burned the troops were given per }, mission to pillage them.
 ,- The City of Port au Prince, which wal {. lately the scene of destructive fire, i r the capital of the Republic of Hayti, ant
 is situated at the head of the Bay o '- Gonaives, on the west coast of tn, l- island. The city is built on rising J. ground, and has population of abou a Q 21,O00. The streets, though wide, ar }. poorly paved and very filthy, and thu D houses, which are built of wood, ar, s generally in dilapidated condition II u to do with the spread of the conhagra l. tion. The principal public building i. are the Senate house, the President n residence, Custom House, Lyceum, , > college, and few schools. The cit, was founded ill 1749. It has severa o times been almost raised by earthquakes
 notably in 1751, 1770, and 1842, an' ,t disastrous fires have frequently occurret H. within it's limits. In January, 1S43, f. fire destrOved one-third of the hOuses