The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1880-07-21
TIMELY TOPICS.

TIMELY TOPICS.
II is getting to be fine state of things
when one way to tell a bad bill from s
good one is because in the counterfeit
the engraving is much superior to the
workmanship on the genuine bill. The
clerks in the United States treasury de-
partment recently came across a s lO(
counterfeit that in makeup and finish
was equal to the real article, and in many
respects was greatly superior. Weshal
have to be careful not to to take in those
800 bills heedlessly.
In recent lecture on the possibility
of foretelling earthquakes, Professor
Palmieri expressed the belief that by
means of seismoeraphic stations, tele-
graphically connected, for registering
and reporting preliminary earth trem:
biings, it would be possible to foretel]
earthquakes Just as tempests are now
toretold, and to issue warnings to
threatened districts about three days in
advance. He did not expect to live to
see such system in operation, but he
hoped and in q measure expected that
posterity would be benefited by its uni
versal and permanent blishment.
Last January California fruit dealer
took 200 fresh lemons fresh from the
tree and buried them in the gr, und, to
see how they would keep. Four months
after he dug them up and found hem in
perfect preservation, as sound and fresh
and nice as the day they were buried.
Every one knows how potatoes keep
when properly covered by earth
Apples would doubtless do equally well {;
and possibly the same method may an
swer for grapes and other more perisha-
BILE fruit. 1t would not cost much to
try a few experiments in this direction,
and success could not fail to be advan.
tageous.
The Tay bridge, at Dundee, which
was blown down last year, is soon to
be rebuilt. The main features of the
new structure will be two. The old
.ong girders, which were thirteen in
number. are to be replaced by twenty
six email girders, and they are to be
thirty-one feet lower than they were in
the old bridge. This new plan will give
abundant security for stability, but it
will, of course, involve lowering OF
the girders already standing, and it is
on this ground that the plan is expected
to be opposed. The people interested
in the fifteen or twenty smacks that
find there way up the river to the
neighborhood of Perth in the course of
q year will, in the name of "the navi-
CATION of the Tay," probably take con-
siderable exception to the new plans.
1t has been officially decided that a
railroad company or steamboat corpora
ton has no right to detain or imprison
a passenger for refusing or neglecting to
pay his fare. The Metropolitan Ele-
waited Railroad company detained a pas
senger, because at the end Of bis journey
he had lost his ticket and had tried to
force himself past the gate. The court
awarded him 800 damages. A Harvard
student, last summer, going to Newport
bought through ticket to New York
for dollar, the fare to Newport being
$l.6O. The officers of the boat kept him
on board by force at Newport until be
had paid the extra sixty cents. The
court adjudged him $75 damages for
false IMPRISONMENT. Another passen-
ger lost his ticket during the night, and
was not allowed to depart next morn
ing until he had left his watch in pawn
for his ticket. The court gave him $50.
A Nashville correspondent of Brad
streets Weekly Reporter furnishes for the
last issue of that paper some statistics
of the sheep raising of the world as
timely in reference to the statistics upon
that subject expected from the pendin
census. Possibly many will be astons
ished to learn that, Notwithstanding it
vast extent, the United States raised in
1878 only one million more sheep than
Great Britain, and that the weight OF
the years product of wool in Great
Britain actually exceeded the weight OF
the same product in this country by
million of pounds. or that
Australia raises double the number OF
sheep that are raised in Great Britain
and the United States together, although
its yearly weight of wool is only thirty
seoen millions of pounds more than the
yearly weight raised in Great Britain.
The correspondent estimates that this
country will need s73, 100000 pounds OF
wool by 1890.
The Emperor of Brazil is still indulg-
ing that fondness for material progress
which caused him to express SO much
admiration for this country when visit
ing here. He has just given. the last
stroke to the new Rio Janeiro water
works, letting into the city water from
streams forty miles away, carried,
through vast intervening reser-
yo;rs. to Rio Janeiro by two
mains {; and he
he has also given the first stroke TO
new and important railroad. These
things, however, cost money, as the
Khedive of Egypt found out, Brazil's
finances show q prospective dencit lo[
the new fiscal year, even exclusive OF
the Sc, ,OOo, 900 desired for public works.
II is believed that she must continue
for a while to add S9,OOO,O 900 or BIO, ,OO0,-
600 year to her debt, when now, III.
Guiding outstanding oollgatlons III paper
currency, is labout ga 'o6o'Qoo m,ai,t,s' Ian y,
or about $407, ,OO0,0O 1t has been IN.
creased by about Sl7,ooO'oOo the past
year.
Mr.. George G. lockwood, director OF
the choir Of the Church of the Holy
Trinity in New York, offers q prize OF
$40 for the best anthem tor full chorus
with or without solos, duos, quartets'
etc.. interspersed, and prize OF $50 tor
the second best. The words are to be
from Holy Scripture exclusively, and
the length of the piece must be from
four to seven minutes. The judges ap-
pointed are MIR. Joseph Mosenthal, the
Rev. DR.. George Jarvis Geer, Mr..
George E. Aiken, the Rev. DR.. Marvin
r. Vincent and Mr.. A. R. Parsons.
The object declared in offering these
prizes, namely, "to contribute to the
promotion of a digniied and reverent
school of sacred composition in Amer.
ica," is surely an important one; and
if MIR. lockwood can do anything to
diminish the scandals of the prevalent
church music he will be public bene-
actor. In the present scheme the COM
posers of the successful works are ex-
pected to surrender their copyright 30
that the anthems may be published at
cost price.
The Medical Times anil Gazette men
lions the case of young man who,