The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-09-16
TIMELY TOPICS.

More than $4,000 people are giver
employment in Baltimore in packing
fruits, vegetables and oysters in tin cans
More than Is, ,000, 900 bushels of oyster:
are said to be canned there annually
The number of cases of all sorts of good:
packed there it is estimated will not tai
short OF 1900, 900, averaging twenty.
four cans to each case. There are eighty
firms engaged in the various branches
of packing business, capital is 81, 200, 900
A plucky woman, living in Pittsfield
Me-, recently scared a quack out of his
seven senses. He had promised to
cure her of neuralgia if she would lay q
roll of greenbacks on the kitchen table.
She put the money on the table as he
requested. He then asked for pen, ink
and paper. and when she went upstairs
to fetch them he disappeared with the
| money. In moment she was behind
him with revolver at his ear, and she
kept it there until he had crawled back
into the kitchen, put down the money,
and begged for mercy.
In the Office of the treasurer of the
United States is glass case which con-
tains the keys which were used in the
Mr.. Gilfillan says that in the old times
the treasurer, when the vaults were
locked up, carried the keys home with
him, and several times the house
of the treasurer, who had the
keys in custody, has been broken into
by thieves to get these open sesames.
Under the present system the vaults are
locked by time and com bination locks.
There are inner and outer 7ors to the
vaults. The officer who knows the
mbination to open the outer door does
not know the combination of the inner,
and vice versa. When the combination
is changed the changes are noted by
different clerks and handed to Treasurer
Gilfillan in sealed envelope.
Syracuse, N. Y, has thirty-eight pro-
ducing salt wells, varying in depth from
$50 to 430 feet, and in strength OF brine
from ten to twenty per cent. of salt.
Over l,5ooC, 900 gallons of salt water are
pumped daily. The daily production
per kettle from the steam process ranges
from 300 to $50 bushels, according to
the strength of brine, and costs eight or
nine cents bushel. The solar evapor-
alton costs, of course, little for labor.
There are about $4,000 vats in use, with
the annual production of sixty bushels
per vat. The flow OF these salt springs
differs greatly. Some which gave early
promise have been known to cease flow
ing in few weeks; other have changed
the saline quality of their stream to
something quite different and mostly of
little or no commercial value. On the
other hand, there are springs now pro-
ducing abundantly which have been
flowing for thirty years or more.
According to the London Medical
Press, those timid beings who are
haunted by apprehensions of being
buried alive, and who make testament
airy provisions against such contingency,
may now take courage, for science has
supplied an infallible means of deter
mining whether or not the vital spark
has quilted the mortal frame. Electricity
enables us to distinguish with absolute
certainty between life and death, for
two or three hours after the stoppage of
the heart the whole Of the muscles of
the body have completely lost their
electric excitability. When stimulated
by electricity they no longer contract
If, then, when Faradism, as the treat
ment with induced currents of elec-
tricity for remedial purposes is called, is
applied to the muscles of the limbs and
trunk, say i've or six hours after sup
posed death, there be no contractile re-
sponse, it may be certified with certainty
that death has occurred; for no faint,
nor trance, nor coma, however
deep, can prevent the manifestation
OF electric muscular contractility. Here
there is no possibility OF mistake. as
there certainly was when the old tests
were employed.