Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-08-05
TIMELY TOPICS

There is at Brussels curious case of
chronic drowsiness. A man about
forty-hve years OF age, apparently in
perfect health, has lately been attacked
by an irresistible tendency to sleep.
As soon as he stops walking or seats
himself even to eat he falls into q deep
slumber. All the remedies prescribed
by the leading Belgian physicians have
failed to produce any effect upon him.
This is said to be the first case of the
kind in Europe, although such cases
are by no means rare among the natives
of Guinea. who call them Nelavan.
AS M. Cabot was fishing in the Seine,
neal, ,Suresnes, he noticed boat float
ing down the stream without any one
apparently on board to g1ide its move
ments. On proceeding to it in his punt,
he found 1t was tenanted by a couple OF
young children, a girl and boy, aged
about fifteen months and two and a half
years respectively, who were sleeping
peacefully in two cradles covered over
with piece of sailcloth. Both were
carefully wrapped up, but their cloth
ing bore no marks by which they could
be identified. Attached to one of the
cradles was paper bearing the follow
ing words in pencil: 81 have aban-
doned you because / am unable 10 sup
port you, and as cannot live without
you, / am about to drown myself TO reioin
your dead father. May somebody save
and take care of you" The two chill
dren have been sent TO the Hospice des
Enfants Assistes. where several offers
TO adopt them have already been re-
ceived.
| fata lal
to the invitation of Congress to contri-
butte two statues, to be placed in Statu-
ary hall, House OF Representatives says
Washington paper, are Rhode Island,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York,
Maine and Vermont, and the only
States known to be having statues made
are Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
These States Except Maine and Yer
monO being among the original thirteen,
of course have larger assortment OF
departed statesmen and soldiers from
which to select their subjects than the
new States. New York has contributed
statues of George Clinton and Robert
X. Livingston, both in bronze; Rhode
Island, marble statues of General Greene
and Roger Williams; Vermont has con-
necticut, Sherman and Trumbull in
marble; Maine, William King in mar
bic, and Massachusetts, Samuel Adams
and John Winthrop in marble.
A Philadelphia grand jury recon.
mends the revival Of the whipping post
for criminals. While" says the
jurors, incarceration to a sensitive ma
ture may be painful and humiliating
enough to accomplish all the objects
sought TO be attained by punishment OF
any kind, yet in the case of very large
proportion Of the dangerous classes of
society-the professional thief. the we'll
dressed pickpocket, the adroit swindler
and confidence man, together with those
of more brutal nature-a short term of
Imprisonment in comfortable quarters,
with wholesome food is not adequate TO
obtain the end required. Criminal pun
ishmonts should be severe. she rt, and
decisive. Then the prison would be
sufficient to meet the requirements.
Judge Biddle, who was presiding when
the communication was read, said that
il would not be for the welfare of the
community to revive brutal modes of
punishment. He had great faith in the
efficacy of hard labor and solitary con-
finement.
The marvellous rate at which history
is made nowadays is forcibly brought
TO mind by the death of General Suttcr.
in whose mill-race gold was first found
in California, only thirty-two years
ago. General Sutter Originally Suter)
was born Mt Kandern, Baden. February Y
Is, 1903. He was educated in Switzer-
land, and emigrated to this country in
1884. After many adventures in the far
West and along the Pacific coast, en- =
gagged in the fur trade, he settled on n
, grant OF land which included the present
site of Sacramento. Cal, calling his fort
, New Helvetia. The Mexican authori.
: ties appointed him governor OF the
northern frontier country; and, subse-
! quently, under the American authori-
ties, he was justice of the peace and
Indian agent. He acquired great in
, fiuence and wealth, but was ruined in
/, lS4S, when gold was discovered on his
property, near Coloma, FL Dorado
county, in February. His laborers de-
serted him, and his lands were ovsrrun
J by the gold diggers. During recent
years he has received an annual allow
ance OF $4,000 FROM the State of Cali
fornia. In 1873 he removed TO Litz,
Lancaster county, Pa.
, Many Americans think that the to.
mato, now in season, originated in this
country because IL Is so freely used here
and that IL has become quite recently an
article of food. The origin of the vege-
table. or fruit, as some claim that It Is.
is not positively asceTtained, though
there is reason TO believe that IL was
first found in South America, and that
: 1t was cultivated centuries ago in Mex
leo and Peru. Several varieties were
known in England toward the close of
the sixteenth century, and Gerard, the
. surgeon and botanist, speaks OF 1t. we
think. in his History of Plants" hav-
ing himself introduced IL into the king
dom as an exotic. Dodoens, the Neither
land herbalist. mentions the tomato as
early as 1888 rs n vegetable TO be eaten
with pepper. salt and oil. 1t belongs TO
the nightshade family. and was used IN
: cooking by the Malays more than a
, century and halt since. It Is exten-