The Newtown bee., 1880-06-16

A Georgia paper gives this description of huDlming- birds nest recently brought to it's office aH was set upon limb of a tree the size of mans thumb, and coated outside with the moss of an oak, so as perfectly to represent knot. It was about the size of.a large hickory nut, an inch high, and constructed of cotton and hair. It contained two little white eggs about the size of a common snap bean.n
 M. Fautrat has been convinced, by his studies of the influence of forests upon the moist currents that pass over them, that pines and other needle-leaved trees have strong attraction for the vapor of water. He believes that the resinous trees transpire twice as much as other trees; and has also observed that when they are exposed to moist air they absorb vastly more water than tbe latter.
 Of our points of punctuation, the per- iod is the most ancient. The colon was introduced about 14s5; the comma about 1521, and the semi-colon about 1870. In Sir Philip Sidneyf Arcadia, published in 1887, they all appear, as well as the note of interrogation, asterisk and par entheses, The ancients do not appear to haue had any syssem of punctuation, and doubtless employed arbitrary signs to distinguish the parts of a discourse.
 Professor Max Muller lately sent to the American Academy of Arts and Sci ences a paper on the discovery of San skrit texts in Japan. ''Life," said he, in the accompanying letter, is too short for one man to exhaust the innumerable veins of gold that run almost across the surface of linguistic studies; and as we grow older nothing is so delightful as to sec younger men thoroughly working the mines, which we could only open, and had to leave half explored"
 The severity of the customs regula- tions on the frontier between Germany and Austria is illustrated by the experi- ence of Saxon farmer who had fields across the border in Bohemia He sent his 'rkmen in the Bohemian fields lunch of bread and butter and brandy, but the refreshments were seized as con- traband by the Austrian customs officers, and the farmer was summoned to appear before some high authorities to answer | !, ,1uo rf ho regulations.
 A most melancholy picture of Pales- tine is given by recent traveller. For ests are fast disappearing, rich plains of garden soil lie uncultivated, domestic villages are nothing but mud huts in an untidy condition. This is doubtless large 1 ly the result of excessive taxation. Ev- erything is taxed-trees, cows, horses, every kind of garden vegetable, eggs, etc.; and when, after years of bad har- vests, there comes a prospect of abun- dant crops, double tax is imposed.
 In .ioiners' work, executed during the 18th, 14th and 18th centuries, the wood has neither warped, split or shrunk in the tenons or at other joints. This ex- cellence is ascribed to the practice of sea- soning the wood for at least six years aft CT it was sawed, by first leaving it in damp places or even in water, and then stacking it in open piles under cover, where it was often turned and sometimes smoked. After such treatment, the wood, when worked, has tendency to acquire in the course of time the appear ance of Florentine bronze.
 Mir. Whistler, our American artist, who by his wit as we'll as his pen has won much fame in London, went recently in to London hat store to get his hat blocked. While waiting he took a chair by the corner of the counter-of course without his hat-and looked very much at home. While the clerk was still ab- sent at the other end of the shop, we'll known notability, who prided himself on the perfection of his costume, entered, and taking Whistler for the natter, at once addressed him testify: 'I say, this hat you sold me the other day won't do. You must take it back. It's too tight, l it's too small, it-doesnt fit me well in any way" Whistler, looking up at him very carefully through his eyeglass, here replied, "As for that, no more does your coat" The angry swell not merely sub- l sided-he was demolished.
 I It is said that American beef and nut ton are better and cheaper in London, Liverpool and Glasgow than they are here. This surely ought not so to be. It is very well to send an excellent quality of meat to foreign markets, but home \ consumers should not be defrauded there by. Several causes of the inferiority oi our meat have been mentioned: it is said that the best animals in our livestock yards are exported to Europe, the second quality shipped to Cuba, and home con- sumers have to put up with what is left. However this may be, there is no doubt but that there is great difference in flesh of animals which have been hur- ried from distant places and driven di- rectly to slaughter, and that of those which are first rested and fattened. The { high price of meat is due, in great measure, to the numerous middle-men, who all come in for a share of the profits ] 4 speculator in the far West buys herd