Connecticut western news., 1879-04-23
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

mischief. The meteor looked the size of child's hoop, or some thirty inches in diameter. Two bushels of fragments were found after the explosion. No one was hurt, but the electric fluid set fire to building and did some hundreds of dollars worth of damage. It also en- tered the library of Colonel Mutt and played many eccentric rranks there. It destroyed telephone, dashed the globes off chandeliers, burst a gas meter, and blew out all the window panes on one floor. Three minutes before the acci- dent Col. Mutt and his wife were talking through the telephone to friend at some distance. Had they continued in contact with the instrument their death would have been almost certain. Pieces of the aeroite are described by the local newspapers as being like clinker or slag, dark outside but almost white at the cen Ire. It is very rare and notable thing that meteor should fall and lightning strike at the same moment and in the same place. Sailors, indeed, generally feel safe from lightning when they see fire balls," or bolides, either at the yardarms or close by elsewhere.
 A correspondent writing from Wash ington, says The 'soriginal speech writer's a class of literary gentlemen who make 8 living by furnishing speeches to order to members of Con- gress, have been quite busy of late. One of these gentlemen furnished six speeches on the Army Appropriation Bill. He has already got one up on the disputed points in the Legislative Bill, and has orders for four more. These speeches are among the best that will be delivered on the bill, and besides being well filled with flowers, are stored with facts and more information thsn a new Congressman could gather in month.
 The daily consumption of milk in New York city and it's suburbs ap- breaches 100000 quarts, and at least $25, ,0OO, ,OOO are invested by farmers in this industry alone. No other business is conducted so loosely. A farmer with | 0,000 invested in farm and dairy equipments is very likely to consign his milk (because he can do no better) to an irresponsible peddler whose entire out
 fit isn't worth $500, and upon whose horse and wagon there is generally Q chattel mortgage. There are some heavy and responsible dealers, it is true, but in the large majority of cases the man | 1hn 1%o anything else in particular. To mer- chant of this sort the m ilk comes for 8 month, while no money goes to the farmer, for the simple reason that the peddler must wait until he makes his collections before he can pay. The farmer isn't even advised how much he
 is to receive until Eafter a "board of
 middlemen make up their minds whether
 they will pay him two cents or two and
 half cents quart. Then at the close
 of one month the milkman, if he doesn't
 fail or run away, will send the money for
 the milk he received during the previous
 month, deducting the price of certain
 number of cans which he chooses to con-
 demn as sour." Meantime the farmer
 is any day liable to find letter tied to
 one of his can-handles, informing him
 that his milk is no longer needed, and
 the perishable material is thrown back I on his hands. The milkman may give
 no reason whatever for his course, or Ee
 may deign to explain that "milk is too
 plenty" or he may accuse the farmer O.
 akimning or d1luting. The result is tht
 same in every case. There is absolutely no redress.
 How time does knock the romanc
 of history out of our hearts. Here i
 Parton, who tells us that Diogenes, wh'
 lived in tub, and who told the grea and powerful Alexander to get out of hi sunshine-Diogenes, for whom we al ways had quite degree of reverence 2 Parton tells us that he was nothing bu s tramp, who talked so much that h e could not help saying something once i : a while. He also says that the father ( e Diogenes, more than twenty-two hur e dred years ago, was rich banker ( l. Corinth, to whom the public money ( 0 the city was intrusted. He brought u J. this famous son to his own business o He was defaulter, and his son, it al }. pears, was participant in the crime, fo d both of them fled from the city to avoi 't prosecution. Diogenes came to Athen r. there being then no such thing as a ,r extradition treaty, and set out to becon 1t a tramp. From being delicate Coril E. thian dandy, he cast off the garmen r. and refnements of the age, went witl se out shoes and hat, sat in the burnir Id sun of summer, passed the day in wint of under the portico of 8 temple, or wa D. dered about the city, railing at all u as world, and living upon the food whi' al his admirers threw into his knapsac te He scolded or ridiculed everybody.
 Id The Toronto Globe has been loo of ing over the annual report of the Fri
 Registrar General, and it finds the
 some interesting figures and facts.
 finds that in the year 1878 over 200
 people left Ireland to settle in dista 'lt lands, and that but 6O6 of these fou, h. their way to Canada. Forty-one tho | a sand in all left Ireland last year, h. US going to England or Scotland; over | ly 900 came to the United States and US or seven thousand to Australia and N, en Zealand. Of the number who went Canada, three-fourths were from t no north. The Province of Munster co 'a' tributed 9.2 per LOGO of the populatie III Ulster 9.8, and Leinster and Connaue to 5.5 each, to the total emigration, whi by was nof, in exoass of 1877 and 4 ooo