Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-08-06
NO. 80.
IN GEN ERAL.

london contains about as many people as
New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Chicago,
st. Louis and Washington together
-"Satan died here, reads sign, at Pitts
burgh, Pa, by which the owner intends 10 in
dictate that satns are dyed at his shop.
Many artesian wells have been sunk in
California, and they have given q large sup
ply Of water at small expense A well near
Stockton, at the depth Of 97G feet, struck
stream which flows 800, 900 gallons daily.
Several women in Memphis have made
applications for positions as letter carriers,
but were refused because they would lose SO
much time reading the postal cards.
"A driver in one of the mines at Georges
Creek, Md, was struck by lightning the other
day, while sixty feet under ground, and in
stautly killed.
AT Sandoyal, Ill, few days ago. potato
bugs entered the Congregational church dur
ing temperance meeting in such numbers
that the meeting had to be adjourned.
"A Newport lady dropped $500 in green
| backs overheard from o Fall River steamboat
the other night The roll struck the guards
in falling, and separated. With the aid of a
boat and locomotive headlight, one part, con-
tanning Sl35, was recovered. The other was
lost.
The manufacture of paper bricks is said
especially in California, where the best iibrous
material is provided. The quality of the
bricks renders them well adapted for building
purposes. The Chinese make the soles Of
their shoes Of paper similarly prepared
-Bergh, the ant-cruelty-to. animals man,
has come to the conclusion that there are too
many cats in New York for the good of the
city and the peace of its inhabitants He
wants to have pet cats taxed, as dogs are, and
| the rest exterminated.
"A substitute for ice has been put down on
the floors of certain skating rinks in London.
1t consists of a mixture of carbonate and sui
phate of soda, which forms a crystalline mass
Offering about the same resistance to skates as
ice does. 1t is cut up as easily as ice, but can
be readily smoothed and repaired.
"A grocer in Auburn, Cal, sent some
clothes to a washerwoman to be laundried.
The woman found in the pockets of the trou-
sers $4,000 in bills and promptly returned the
money to the owner. What did the grocer
do He gave her a bar of soap and thanked
her.
Free ice water in New York has had a
damaging effect on the liquor shops which
shows that one reason why people are led to
intoxication is that it is usually easier to find
drink of whiskey than glass of cold wa
ter. Temperance people can take hint from
this
"A story Is going the rounds of English
papers that large agriculturist has been Civ
ing his harvest hands cold tea instead of beer
to drink in the harvest field, and that the re-
suits were extremely satisfactory there being
none of the sullenness, excitability and rude
ness that had previously been observed and
attributed to beer.
-Hawley, Pa, is building great silk mills,
which are to employ 1000 hands. The main
building is to be $50 feet long, $50 feet broad,
and five stories high. splendid stream of
water will furnish the power, and it is expect
ed that more silk, and of finer quality, will
be turned out by this mill than at any other
in the United States.
"A person with turn for curious statistics
has calculated that the ten million barrels of
beer reported by the brewers congress as sold
last year, would have filed a canal 81 feet
wide and five feet deep, extending from New
York 10 Philadelphia, and that it would take
pump throwing thirty gallons minute, run
ming night and day, over 81 years to pump it
out 1t was all swallowed, however.
The crown of William Penns hat, which
is to adorn his 3G-foot statue surmounting the
lofty tower of the new Philadelphia public
buildings, will be just 535 feet from the pave
ment The highest towers which have yet
been constructed are those of the Cologne
cathedral, which have at present height of
524 feet IL inches.
In Wyoming territory, recently, man
observed a crow jumping about in very e1-
cited manner, and soon discovered that the
bird was having an encounter with a very
large rattlesnake. The snake would strike re-
peatedly, but the crow would dodge every
time, and finally flew away, when it was found
that the snakes head was picked to pieces and
the reptile was quite dead.
On the slopes of the volcano of San Sal
vador, in Central America, exists curious in
termittent spring, which the natives call the
Fugitive River" During seven consecutive
years it flows freely when, at a fixed time,
the water suddenly disappears and the bed of
the river becomes dry. At the end of anoth-
er period Of seven years the water begins to
How again. The last suspension was from
1873 to 1880, and in January of this year the
water promptly reappeared.
DIR. w. w. L. Phillips of Trenton, Nj,
who was State prison physician in 1874, is au-
thorily for the assertion that in July and Au-
gust of that year John Parvianes, a native of
Finland and then a convict 33 years of age,
tasted 40 days. He was excited to the under
taking 10y the Scriptural accounts of fasts. He
was tempted with all sorts of food, but refus-
ed it, and took only ice-water. After the fast
he became deranged and is now in an insane
asylum. The turnkey corroborates the state
ment.
Dipping" is the latest London amuse-
ment. The Countess of Antrim, it seems, re-
Gently invited people to an "at home" through
cards which mad in the corner clipping at
4;3O precisely" and dipping" proved to be
what is called a grab-bag at church fairs, ex-
cept that each guest drew forth some small
and elegant present-whioh, as is well known,
does not happen at fairs 1.-THE new amuse-
ment has proved popular" says a London
letter writer because IL enables people to
show off their wealth in an undeniable man
ner, and this seems the great ambition OF So
ciety."
"A letter has recently been delivered in
France, after being detained in the post-office
for half a century. A singular discovery was
made three weeks ago in the course Of the
operations now going on in the general post
office at Paris. In panel near one of the
boxes was found letter which had been post
ed exactly fifty years ago, and which by some
mischance had got stuck in the panel instead
of finding its way into the box. The letter
was duly forwarded to the person to whom It
was addressed, who, still more strangely, was
alive and received it safely. The writer, how
ever, had been dead many years.
The full-grown mahogany tree is one Of
the monarchs of tropical America. It's vast
trunk and massive arms, rising to a lofty
height and spreading with graceful sweep
over immense spaces, covered with beautiful
foliage bright, glossy, light and airy, clinging
so long to the spray as 10 make it almost an
evergreen present a rare combination of love-
illness and grandeur The leaves are very
small, delicate, ana polished like those of the
laurel. The flowers are small and white, or
greenish yellow. Lumbermen in telling a
tree build platform ~ feet high and cut Il
above the platform, thus relinquishing ~ or
10 feet of the largest part of the tree. Yet
some trees have yielded 12, 900 superficial feet
of lumber, and have sold for $4,000.
According to Virginia paper, the Great
Dismal Swamp is by no means dismal place,