The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-12-30
FACTS AND FANCIES.

The debt Of Philadelphia has increase,
from $40, 794, 1854 in 1870 to about S73, 900,
600 at the present time.
The good people of Springfield, Mas.
have house for healing by prayer, which
yalids are taken there and prayed over b,
medicines are used.
The Rev Phillip Brooks thinks that it II
more important to live in such close com.
mnnlon with God rs to receive constant
supplies of grace than it il to seek some
authoritative and final statement of Chris.
tian truth. He says that those who art
10 anxious TO make creeds want reservoir
when they may have river
Nine. Christine Nilsson says that it anus.
es her to hear people in France speak of the
dreadful habit that Americans have of car.
| rying their food to their mouths with Their
knives. She says that she has been ut table
between German prince and diplomat
who went through the same sleight of hand
Italy, Spain and Portugal have absolutely
prohibited the importation into those cOun-
tries of hogs orpork from the United States,
because of the prevalence of hog cholera
here. The value of this article of export
has reached $50, 000, 900 per annum, and un-
less measures are taken to eradicate the dis
ease this source of revenue will be lost to
this country.
A queer freak of plant is noticed in
South Bend, Ind, where wild clematis
vine has forced its way through brick wall
into the parlor in ex- Mayor Miller's resi-
dence, and is growing like q thrifty house
plant. 1t came into the parlor between the
wall and mop board, and il now over two
feet high.
mean fellow in Taunton, Mass, whose
| aged mother had made over to him a large
and well-stocked farm, under promise
that he would care for her az long as she
lived, recently applied to the city authori-
ties to extend aid to heras a pauper. The dis
creditable facts were acertained, and he was
given very forcible reminder of the ad-
visibility Of flial obedience.
Probably fifty years hence there will be
an abundance Of trees in the West Agri-
culturists are rapidly awakening to the ne
cessity of planting them. The Fort Scott
and Gulf Railroad Company has begun the
planting OF hundreds of acres of trees on
its lands. Boston capitalists has engaged
Il company of raisers of forest seedlings in
Illinois to break and pillow a large area in
Kansas, and plant no less than 2,720 trees
| to the acre, and cultivate these until they
shade the ground, when the plantation will
be delivered to the owner. The process
will take about ten years.
Miss Bird, whose experiences in Journey
in Japan have been recently noticed, saw
some rather unusual sights in that country,
where the wearing of any clothing ut all in
hot weather il considered by the people of
the interior rs foolish concession to for
eign prejudice. Writing from farm house,
where she awaiteda relay Of horses, she refers
| to prediction made to her before setting
| out, that she would see some strange sights,
and asks: Gould there be stranger one
than decent looking, middle aged man ~
ing on his chest in the veranda, raised on
his elbows and intently reading book
clothed only in pair of spectacles?"
The Irish harvest this year is described
as the best known for more than genera
ton. The area planted with oats was very
large, and the yield has turned ont TO be al
least IS per cent. in excess Of that of last
season; while the grain has obtained, il
anything, better price in the market than
| il did last year, when the yield was SO scanty.
| The yield of wheat has been in some parts
as much Us twelve barrels to the statute
acre; and the quality, both red and white
has been superior to that of any harvest
within living memory. The green crops,
too, have, AZ q rule, given the Irish farmer
satisfaction, although the potato crop has
| been slight disappointment.