Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1880-03-11
TIMELY TOPICS.

2
Il The surface of Great Salt Lake. in
Utah, has risen eleven feet since 1867.
| Professor King believes this rise to be
| due not to the cultivation of the sur
rounding country but to a climatic os-
cillation that began about 1850, and
which is the first OF its kind and extent
that has occurred within at least $50
years. soi aa 4a Az w
/ One hundred and sixty odd entries OF
American race-horses in England this
year, 130 announced races in Saratoga,
from July IL to September l. the new
Coney Island and other courses, with the
great races at Jerome Park, Lon
Branch, and in the South and West,
promise to keep up a pattering of hoofs
| to the SHOWS of December. fs
!! According to DIR. Emil Holub, relies
of an extinct race, of much higher cul-
ture than now belongs to any native
tribes, have been found in the interior
of South Africa Among the remains
are seen workings of ancient mines, some
even of gold. and the ruins of rude for
tifications. These evidences remind the
great traveller of the African empire of
Monomatapa. as mapped on old Portu-
euese onAA'sE ,LzL L.dU0#
That certain insects possess a power
akin toreason isillustrated by Gleditsch,
a German naturalist, who relates that
he one day spitted a toad on a stick
which he fixed upright in the ground.
The odor of the decaying body of the
reptile attracted a number of bufying
| beetles but as they found they could
H. h. IL
air, they mined under, the base of the
stick until it fell, when they buried toad
and stick together. Such an engineer
presence of a definite purpose.
A Quebec telegraph operator claimed
to have invented a multiplex instru
ment by which any number of messages
could be sent over one wire at. the same
time. After opening negotiations for
the sale of his discovery to the Ameri-
can Union company, of New York, Sc
curing assistance from several specula-
tors, and selling to a company organ
lied for the purpose of pushing the
patent a three-fourths interest in it for
50, 500, the genial operator left for parts
unknown. Eighteen wires leading to
the instrument on which he 'texperi-
mented," which were discovered under
the flooring, solved the mystery of his
remarkable feats in telegraphy.
l. Peonle who think. mild winters are
unhealthy, viii learn from the records
that the past winter, unreasonable "
as it was, has been very healthy win
ter. The mortuary reports of Philadel-
phia may be cited in this connection.
The Philadelphia Ledger publishes a
table showing the number of deaths in
Philadelphia during the thirteen weeks
of this winter, compared with the deaths
during the same period of the preceding
year. The months Of Decent ber, Janu-
ary and February, 1883, which were
g seasonable," showed 4,602 deaths;
while the same months in IS79-S0, which
were held to be $ unreasonable ? and
g unwholesome, because they were
mild, show but 1895 deaths-or 606 less
in the mild winter than in its Immediate
predecessor. which was of the average
kind.
Mr. CarrollD D. Wright, the statistician,
who has recently perfected the statistics
of divorces in Massachusetts from 1860
to 1878, inclusive, supplies food for re-
hectiOn to all interested in preserving
the marriage relation. The figures pre-
sented by Mr. Wright are startling
Sinee]660 1928 divorces were granted
by the State of Massachusetts for forty
four assigned causes. The records show
that the marriage bond. was dissolved
in 2,400 cases on complaint of the hus-
band, and in 4, 1888 cases at the request of
the wife. In other words, twice as
many divorces have been granted to
women as to men in the period covered
by the statistics. From this report we
learn that '.desertion "was invented as
a suitable plea tor unmarTying people
in Massachusetts, in 1888. We also dis
cover that nearly half the divorces
were granted for causes that would not
have been entertained half a century
ago, and causes which would not have
been regarded as valid twenty five years
ago. -