The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-07-02
PITHY PARTICLES.

Houston, Ala.
New YORK city has 6, 900 miles of tel
egragh and telephone wires.
A DRUM fish recently "hooked" al
Cape May weighed 96 pounds.
CIRCUsEs never want to take townby
storm. They prefer clear skies.
SAMUEL JOHNSON defined nonsense to
be "bolting door with a boiled carrot.
THE United States are pretty well up
to the time, as they run out !, 500watches
daily.
LUTHER WERTz, of Hollidaysburg, Pa,
killed snake that had two bodies and
only one head and tail.
JOHN REMsEN, of East Norwich, L. l.,
was fatally poisoned by inhaling Paris
green while using it upon potato vines.
WHY don't they have an examination
in cOlor-blindness at West Point
Philadelphia Bulletin.
The state of Virginia hires out 525
convicts to work on her railroads and
other public improvements, for whom
the state receives twenty-five cents each
a day.
The largest crop of army worms yet
counted has been one of 587 to the square
foot in Long Branch. Connecticut fears
the fate of New Jersey, State island that
of Long island.
ST.. PAUL's CHURCH, at Troy, n. Y, is
to have two organs, one in the choir and
one in the chancel. A pneumatic ap-
paratus will enable single player to
play both instruments at once.
HE Culver club of Cincinnati, recent
ly received 100 Messina quail. which
they will turn loose in Ohio and Indiana.
As an evidence of their hardness, not
single bird died in the long journey.
BIssEr, the animal trainer of Perth,
taught an ourang to wait on the table
and perform other household duties be-
longing to servants. A chimpanzee has
been trained to feed and attend a bakers
oven fire on board ship.
A LARGE live lobster coated with live
oysters was taken in Long Island sound
and carried into one of the markets at
Newport, r. l., last Friday. The
curiosity was sent to Professor Baird of
the United States fish commission.
Rocks in the Orkney islands were only
imported a year or two ago, but have
taken so kindly to their new quarters as
to form q colony of some 80 nests in one
garden. They are q regular feature of
!" the stately homes of England" and
the surroundings of ancient fanes.
The profession of arms is held in very
low esteem in China, and as a conse-
quence the officers are ignorant of the
military art and are soldiers uninstruct-
ed, though brave. A Chinese saying
runs: "You would not take good iron to
make into nails, and you would not take
a man worth anything at all to make
into soldier"
The census man has struck something
interesting away down east in Oldtown,
Me. He has found and enumerated"
youth twelve years old, named Joseph
H. Fortier, He is the fifth in succession
bearing the same name. A further cir
cumstance is that each Of the five was
the first born, and all five were born on
the first day Of April.
A MEN in Chattanooga county, Ga, re-
Gently saw large trout swim under
root, and ran his hand in the hole to try
and catch it. Instead of catching the
trout he was himself bitten in the wrist.
The mans arm and right side swelled
and turned black, and he came very near
diving, but at the last accounts he was
improving.
MORE than 100 years ago Harrison
Gray Otis, of Boston, owned large tracts
of land in Maine, and three towns were
named after him, respectively, Harrison,
Gray and Otisfeld. The citizens of
Otisfield intend to hold n reunion next
August, to which are to be invited all
persons who have gone forth from the
town and their descendants.
A CONVICT was lately discharged from
the Connecticut state prison, at the age
of 10, who had spent his childhood i'll an
almshouse, his youth in reformatory
school, and his early manhood in several
prisons. The authorities will try to get
him off on a long whaling voyage under
a good captain, in the hope that re-
straint, discipline, and absence from
temptation will even now reform him:
A FAIR and buxom widow WHO had
buried three husbands recently went
with q gentleman who in his young
er days had paid her marked attention,
to inspect the graves of her dear depart
ed. After contemplating them III
mournful silence, she murmured, An,
James, you might have been IN that
row now if you only had little more
courage"
Tnn other day a Young man bought
ticket at the Central depot, Rochester,
but I'm q few minutes returned, baggage
in hand, very much excited. He told
the agent that he had paid for ticket,
but had not received it. The ticket
seller told him to feel in his mouth. The
young man did SO, and sure enough
there was the missing ticket between his
lips, where he had placed and forgotten
it, though it impeded his conversation.
A FRENCH park-keeper recently OBJ
served at Auteuill man and woman
deliberately throwing little girl into
the Seine from boat in which they were
seated. The keeper followed up the
boat and arrested the occupants. They
landed, while another spectator rescued
the child from the water. On being
taken before a magistrate the prisoners
declared that they threw their daughter
into the Seine to teach her to swim.
AND now the oilymargarine manufac
turers have taken the wind out OF the
sails of their prosecutors by grayely an
nouncing that hereafter they will prose-
cute to the full extent of the law all iml-
tations of the color and appearance OF
their wares by the construction OF "ordl-
nary boarding house" butter. This ls as
it should be, and it looks now as though
the patient, down-trodden hash-chewer
of the toiling masses was at last sure OF
some protection.-San Francisco Post.
The Chinese has put the Celt to the
blush in Carson, New. Hi Wash recent.
ly paid off a number of his wOrkmen IN
Carson. Among them was an freshman.
Hi Wash gave him check for the amount
due him, but as the Irishman could not
read he was obliged to 60 to the bank
with him and cash the check. The
check was drawn payable to the Irish
mans order. When the bank clerk
handed back the check for endorsement
the Celt said he could not write. Ill
Wash signed his name for hlm, and
Patrick made the sign of the cross.
SINCE March LIST, 1880, missionaries Of
the American Sunday School union IN
the northwest have organized 134 Sunday
schools which have a membership OF BOO
teachers and 4,579 scholars. Besides
this they have visited or aided 300 old
schools where 1,190 teachers are giving
Bible instruction to 14,125 scholars.
They distributed 9S6 Bibles and testa-
ments. visited 1,94O families, delivered
$50 addresses, and travelled 81 41S miles.
Since 1924 this society has brought q
Gig. 500 scholars and AL, 0S5 teachers
into Sunday school, at total expense OF
$2,549, $3.50.