The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1880-04-15
ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST.

cisco, that there are over 500, 900, 600 of
banking capital and deposits in Cali.
fornia to-day.
The life of the late Marquis OF
Anglescy was insured in various COM
panies for an aggregate amount OF not
less than S3,75O,OOO.
Great Britain is n growing country.
The excess of births over deaths in the
whole United Kingdom for the last three
months of 1879 was $3.50.
An English Journalist observes that
"every traveller in the United States
has had abundant experience that the
American system of checking luggage,
supplemented by the express agent, is
such an Improvement upon our system
that it is impossible to understand why
we did not long ago adopt it,"
from 1869 to 1877, inclusive, 1914
deaths-I59 of men and thirty-fve of
women-from lightning are returned
by the registrar general as having oc.
Cured in England. But these returns
are admittedly incomplete. In Prussia
during the same period of time, with
population exceeding that of England
and Wales by only some five per cent,
according to report from the statisti-
cal bureau of Berlin, l,0Oi deaths were
caused by lightning. In the forty-nine
governments of European Russia 4, $40
deaths are recorded from this cause
within five years, and 4, 1872 fires are at
.ributed to the same meteoric energy.
An extensive Nevada lake has mys'
eriously disappeared. Where at one
time, says the Eureka Leader, was Ruby
lake there is at present not drop of
water. This sheet of water seven or
eight years ago was from eighteen to
twenty miles in length, and varied in
breadth from half a mile to two or three
miles, and was in a number of places
very deep. 1t was fed by springs along
the base of Ruby mountain, and was the
largest body of water in Eastern Nevada.
For number of years it has been grad
ually drying up, until at last It has en-
tirely disappeared. What has been the
cause of this is mystery. The Ruby
range, besides being well wooded, has
been the best watered chain of mOun-
tains in Nevada.
A Canadian defaulter played cute
Crick. Having stolen and skipped with
$4,000 which was intrusted to him in the
double capacity of postmaster and tele-
graph operator, he stopped in the even
ing at Il country village and stepped
into the telegraph Office. There he
heard the message come over, "robber
escaped" The operator was a girl, and
he told her he was repairer sent by
the telegraph company. She asked him
for help, as the wires were out of re-
pair. So he took the message in full;
but, instead of copying out, invented
and substituted one saying that the thiet
was coming that way, and would try to
pass himself off for detective in pursuit
of the thief. Then he lit out again
and crossed the line, settling in the
United States. Meanwhile the pursu-
ing detective, who never caught him,
was arrested and trotted around the
village for people to look at as the big
thief, till the robbed man came up and
released him.
At Wilmington, Del, first trial has
been made of the Fishhawk, a steamer
built for the use of the United States fish
commission. The Fishhawk is an iron
steamer of some 500 IONS, $50 feet long,
twenty-seven feet beam, with twin
screws, and the hull is encased with
wood. The vessel is specially adapted
to Matching fish and transporting young
fish and spawn. She will be roomy
enough to carry some twenty officers
and hands, with additional space for
such complement of men as may be
requisite for securing spawning fish.
This vessel was contracted for in June
last for $45, 900. With the present aug
in the price of material, she
would certainly cost to-day some fifty
per cent. more. The Fishhawk,
equipped as she is for this special work,
marks the most notable advance that
has yet been made in fish culture, and,
no doubt, her plan of construction and
methods employed in Matching fish,
looking toward the production of fish
food in the future, will be copied by
other countries. Tho vessel is amply
provided with lifting engines, as no
small part OF her duty will be TO work
apparatus.
The Berlin Militar-Zettt,lg prints an
paper on the watering of
horses, a subject, the writer remarks,
TO which too little attention is given by
officers in command of mounted troops.
The practice of allowing horses to
drink only once day, and then in the
evening, which is advocated by many
because it is in vogue among the Arabs,
Is strongly reprehended by the German
writer, who points out that while in
Europe the horses ration consists al
most exclusively of corn and hay, the
Arab gives his horse dates, Il variety of
plants, and even milk. Fed as they are
IN European armies, horses should, the
writer maintains, be given water three
lines day, and they should be allowed
zach time to drink as much as they
ike. On the march also horses should
DC allowed TO drink whenever circum-
stances permit. Formerly men on the
march were strictly forbidden to drink;
,ut now, on the contrary, especially
when forced marches have TO be made