Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-06-05
MISCELLANEOUS.

Some of the questions which will
be brought before the new English Par
lament are in reference to home post
age of one halfpenny, an ocean penny
postage, sixpenny telegraph service,
and a universal money-order system.
The people of Spencer County. KY,
believe that there is a huge snake, eigh-
teen feet long, in their midst, and tn ere
is tradition that such reptile escaped
from a circus in that county many years
since and that it still lives.
The toadies to be most recently
fooled by bogus English lord are those
of Columbus, Ohio. He called himself
Lord Arundel, and he was welcomed at
once to fashionable homes, though he
was plainly an uneducated cockney. He
was invited to the floor of the Legisla-
ture, and the women dotted on him.
After borrowing all the money possible
he abScOnded.
More than one hundred years ago
Harrison Gray Otis, of Boston, owned
large tracts of land in Maine, and three
towns were named after him respect
lively Harrison, Gray and Otisfield. The
citizens of Otistield intend to hold re-
invited all persons who have gone forth
AIO1u cuO WV IL ttilti tllCll
The disappearance of the British
training ship Atalanta has given rise to
a suggestion in the Pail Hall Gazette
that every seagoing vessel should be
compelled to carry at least one of the
so-called "sea-messengers." The sea-
messenger is cask made in various
sizes of copper, in compartments, and,
according to its size, letters, dispatches,
oh ,t IL
can be inserted in it. The cask can be
can get in, and may then be thrown
will remain afioat for long time.
Hear what the unjust Judge saith
in Hungary: Some time a go q man died
bankrupt, and though he did not leave
his widow single penny, he bequcath-
ed her a very large unpaid bill at a local
public-house. His creditor did honor to
his memory by bringing an action
against his widow for the payment of
her husbands drinking account. She
proved that he was absolutely penni-
less, but the Judge condemned her to
pay the bill with costs, On the ground
that by her evidently capricious and inn
practicable temper she had driven her
late husband to the public-house, in or
der to find there the comfort and peace
which were denied him at home!
If we are to credit the New Orleans
Times matrimony is .played cut" in
that city. A fashionable young lady
who has been interviewed on the sub
ject says that the men who are not mar
ried are spoiled beyond all hope of re-
demption, while many of those who are
married are so angry with themselves
for having gone and done it that they
keep away from their homes as much
as possible. AS time goes on and a
period arrives when it might be sup
posed that the men would like to settle
down, it is found that they have lost all
taste for domestic life, and this is the
reason why New Orleans is crowded
with old bachelor beaux. Society, in
short, is found to offer much greater at
fractions than home. This is bad
lookout.
The great influx of Europeans to
this country, while gratifying in the
main, is not without disagreeable feat
ures. The discovery has been made in
New York that not only are many of
the immigrants destitute, but some of
them paupers within the legal meaning
of the term, and that these paupers are
being sent here at the expense of the
authorities of their native country. The
Government of Bavaria, it appears from
investigations made by the New York
Emigration Commissioners, has been
guilty of this disgraceful practice. A
party of eighty adults and a large num-
Der of children arrived at Castle Gar
den last week, their passage having
been provided for by the Bavarian
Government by contract with shipping
agent at Aschfiffenberg. These people
were burden on the state and were
sent to America that the State might be
relieved of the expense of providing for
them. From the statements of the
paupers it appears tina. the Bavarian
Government contemplates Kidding it.
self of others of it's helpless citizens in
the same manner.
Wonderful Birds, Beasts and Reptiles.
New Zealand is, or rather was, the
home of these wonderful and gigantic
birds called moas by the natives, and
dinoris giganateats and dinorais elephant
opis by scientists, which reach way back
into the post-pliocene period (the birds,
not the scientists), belonging to the
quaternarY epoch towards the close or
end of the glacial period, and which
have become extinct within the memory
of man. The bird is spoken of in the
traditions of the natives, and the last
living moa is said by them to have lived
in Poverty Bay District, in the North
Island, and when resting to have stood
on one foot with it's beak always turned
to the quarter in which the wind blew.
The feathers of the bird were said to be
very beautiful and to have been used
for ornament by the native chieftains.
There are fourteen species of this bird
of which the fossil remains have beer
discovered (many more may be found
in the future); all are now extinct. The
largest Oft these is the dsnor7sis giga,ateat.
(huge bird), probably twelve feet high
possibly fifteen Or sixteen feet. The
tibia, or thigh bone, has been found
nearly yard long and as thick as that
of horse; and an egg was also found
still well preserved, over foot long
and nine inches in diameter, which
would hold two gallons. These birds
are all wingless, with two enormously
powerful hind limbs (the forward limb;
or wings being rndimentary), adapted
for running. The dinorasis elephaastopis
was of even heavier build, had toe bones
as large as those of an elephant (three
toes on each foot), their feet were big
enough to fill those mysterious three
toed footprints of the triastic sandstone
in the Connecticut Valley, which hav,
caused SO much wonder, for nothing
could be found to fill them in the forma
ton in which they were imprinted. The,
stood out in bold relief, only three-toee
footprint. and nothing more. 1t ii
known that these birds have become
extinct at comparatively recent date,
because bones have been found will
| feathers attached and with piece.
| of horny skin sticking to the legs. Th,
dodo, clumsy old fellow of about fifty
| pounds weight, has died out within th'
last two centuries, and the apteryx,
bird like itself and no other, is fas
leaving us. The apteryx is the hjghes
representative of the warm bloodet
class of animals that ivedin New Zea
land before the introduction of man
| (The term introduction of man" j
Professor Owens, and you will notic
now cautious he is. 1t is such q vexet
| question how, when and where mar
first came upon the earth. that tn
learned Professor handles it carefully.
In Madagascar the remains of bir,
larger than any of these have been late