Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-02-27
IN GENERAL.

uries.
The British national debt lacks little of
being twice as large as that Of the United
States.
Three of the five children recently given
birth to by Mrs Adam Murray, in Pictou
county, Nova Scotia, have since died, but the
mother is doing well.
Alexander II. Stephens weighs only 90
pounds, but congratulates himself on his
great increase in avoirdupois since he first
came back to Washington after the war; at
which time he weighed only II pounds
Mr. Crookes the eminent English scien-
tist, who believes in Spiritualism, is said 10
suffer greatly from the exposures which come
from the trickery of false mediums
The ubiquitous grasshopper has appear
ed in Russia and has alarmed the government,
which has already sent scientific commits
sion to investigate the habits and possible
depredations Of the unwelcome visitor
An ocean steamer which arrived at New
York, recently, had on board a large white
owl, which dropped upon the vessel in an ex-
hausted and famished condition, 800 miles of
the coAst of Newfoundland.
The Lincoln Guard of Honor was organ
lied at Springfield, ILL.,, on the recent 71st an
niversary of the birth of the martyr President,
one of its leading objects being to purchase
and put in repair his late home in that city,
and keep it open to the public under certain
restrictions.
james Moore Of Burke county, n c., has
been notified that he is to receive four annual
installments of $250O each. 1t is the CRATE
full reward of federal officer, whose crying
thirst Moore relieved as he lay wounded up
on one of the hotly contested battle-felds Of
Virginia during the war.
TTnitad Ctotac pioGaI 6va nanf ,,iaoa
furnishes key to meteric measures and
weights. This coin is two centimetres in
diameter and its weight is five grammes.
Five of them placed in a row will give the
length of a decimetre, and two Of them will
weigh decagramme.
Butter is not a modern invention. Some
supposed to be a thousand years old has been
found in an Irish peat bog 1t was rath-
er cheesy. Some Egyptian butter, supposed
to be at least 2500 years old, has been discov-
cred Though little turned, it still tasted
aud smelt like the genuine article.
There are now ten oleomargarine factories
in the United States. In France the manu-
facture has become an important industry,
and in Holland there are "A factories, while
in Russia and Germany there are large fac
tories One house in New York sells nearly
1000 pounds of oleomargarine daily.
The winter is so severe at Venice that the
wells are frozen over, the Grand Canal is
closed, and the Lagoon itself is only kept
open by artificial means. Snow instead Of
rain having fallen, the people are threatened
with a water famine. At Rome the numerous
public fountains are frozen in the most fan
tastic shapes.
Some English judges are given to joking
when on the bench. Lord Justice James, re-
Gently, sitting as President of the Appeal
Court, was listening to the reading of a volum-
inous document by the counsel. Presently
he closed his eyes with this remark: wake
me up, Mr.. --, when you come to some
thing relevant" Vice Chancellor Bacon
makes funny sketches of the the witnesses.
Bessie Turner, the witness in the case of
Theodore Tilton against Henry Ward Beech
er, has married Charles Walgrain, stage car
penter of Berry's Broadway Theatre, in
Brooklyn. She played soubrette parts about
the country in various combinations, for
some time, with the appreciation of her man
ayers, but she has abandoned the stage and
settled down to Housekeeping.
DR.. j. b. Witherspoon of Greensboro,
Ala, grandson of one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence, owns a manu-
script copy of the Bible which an English
monk of Cornwall was 40 years in finishing
in the days of King Alfred. The style is the
old German text-hand and the first chapter of
every book beginning with q large capital il
Illuminated with different colored inks.
Marrow gauge railroad projects are still
favored in Minnesota, and the Minneapolis
and Northwestern railway has contracted for
building 81 miles of narrow gauge road from
Minneapolis to Hutchinson, to be finished
November /. The entire scheme contem-
plates adding at least 95O miles of thoroughly
equipped railroad to the system of roads cen
tering in Minneapolis and controlled by the
business men of that city.
Mrs. Lorenzo Adams of Deer Island, Me-,
can go to the head. Last Thursday she took
a revolver from the mantelpiece, and pointed
it playfully at each of her children, swapping
it each time. One chamber had been left
loaded for upward of year, and had been
snapped frequently, and would not go of, but
when Mrs Adams snapped it at her youngest
child, the charge exploded and the bullet
struck at the corner of the right eye, and has
not yet been found.
Japan is rapidly improving in the matter
of education. There are seventeen public
schools at Hakodadi, attended by 1851 boys
and 430 girls; there are also a number of
private schools there. In other parts of the
island there are thirty Government schools,
instructing 1869 boys and 312 girls. During
the past year industrial schools have been es-
tablished, wherein girls are taught spinning,
weaving sewing and washing, besides writing,
reading and arithmetic.
"A Philadelphia paper prints what pur-
ports to be copy of rough draft of a bill
in the handwriting of Abraham Lincoln, TO
compensate any State which should abolish
slavery by paying to it per cent. bonds to
the value of the slaves thus freed. 1t was
provided that if any State should afterward
re-estGblish slavery these bonds should al
once be null and void in whosesoever hands
they might be. The bill bore date July IA,
1862.
The yexed question as to how Jefferson
Davis was dressed at the time of his capture
seems to be settled at last Mrs. Dorsey, the
lady who left Mr. Davis her money, left also
to the State of Mississippi photograph of
that person taken in the identical clothes
worn when he was captured. Mr.. Davis has
forwarded this picture to the authorities Of
Mississippi, and in the letter which accOmpan-
led it he states that when he left his tent he
wore waterproof Raglan" and "a shawl
about his head and shoulders" which he
dropped on being confronted by the Federal
cavalry. 1t seems, therefore, that the carica-
turists were right when they represented Mr.
Davis in the disguise of female.
One of the most important of modern
mechanical improvements is the application
of dynamo-electri machines to telegraphy In
the western Union telegraph office in New
York, these machines have been introduced,
and the result is said TO be g reduction Of
more than fifty per cent in the battery cost,
while the machines occupy one-tenth tho
space required by batteries furnishing the
same power, and require the services of only
one attendant. This application Of these
mechanical generators of electricity to tels-
graphy not only economies space and means,
but it supplies known quantity in place Of
an unknown quantity. 1t replaces the action
of variable acid and zinc with the constant
and positive power of steam.
The discovery of temple cut in the SOL
id rock after the fashion of the rock temples