The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-06-23
FACTS AND COMMENTS,

The mayor Of Quincy, Illinois, is very
fond of fifteen-ball pool and his sister
is trying to wean him from the game.
She went to the billiard saloon when he
was engaged in it, the other day, and
gave him her opinion of him, of the
game and of the company in which she
found him, and, this proving Intellectual,
she dropped upon her knees in prayer
for her sinful brother, whereupon the
mayor fed through the back door. Even
mayors are mortal.
The movement in the industrial
world now seems to be toward obtain
ing substitutes for wood. The disap-
pearance of our forests is feared to be
an event of the near future, so that
any substance that can take the place of
wood is welcome. II is proposed to re-
place wooden sleepers with steel; slate
already has largely usurped the place of
shingles; cotton refuse is compressed
into building blocks; gum is made into
substance resembling black walnut;
sawdust is pressed into a form which
only experts could distinguish from the
original lumber.
An ingenious farmer, sticking a few
nails into clothesline to keen his
neighbor's cattle out of his pasture,
went about his other business thinking
no more of the matter. A sharp fellow
came along, saw the rope and began to
think about it. He evolved the "barbed
wire fence, and the very farmer from
whom the fellow got the idea has to pay
him tribute for an article which he
himself originally designed. And the
income of the monopoly is estimated at
800, 900 per month.
DIR. James, of Harvard college.
brother of the novelist. Henry James,
Jr., is lecturing to the medical students
on the use of alcoholic drinks. He
thinks the evidence, on the whole, is in
favor of total abstinence. Alcohol takes
the place of food by temporarily reduc-
ing the normal demand for it, but "this
effect is not desirable" or consistent
with perfect health. The effect of
alcohol on the circulation is to create an
illusionary feeling of warmth, while az
a after of fact the thermometer shows
decline of the bodily heat. Any task
requiring more than half an hour can
not be done as well with alcohol as with
out il. As an assistance to digestion
its real value he says, is that of flavor
which may be equally well secured by
the use of fruits.
An excellent charity has just been
established in London. An organiza-
ton has been formed of benevolent
districts of the British metropolis for
girls and young women who are earn
estly striving to gain an honest living,
but who are homeless; at the same time
to afford them profitable recreation,
and above all to surround them with
healthful influences and friendly guild
ance at the most critical period of their
lives. The rent of bedroom CON-
prising the use of dining and reading
rooms, supplied with books, magazines
and newspapers, is from sixty-two cents
to 81 a week. Board, consisting of
breakfast, dinner and tea Sundays IN
cluded), is charged at the rate of 81. II
Week, while separate meals are pro-
full weekly accommodation.
ACanadian paper, whose editor prob
ably believes that Friday is an unlucky
day, prints the following paragraph:
care not such facts as these enough to
make one ask, Whats in a name 2
The small excursion steamer that car
ried nine persons to their doom at Gait
three years ago was named the Empress
of India. The excursion boat that
went down in the river Thames, at
London, England, in the fall of 1873,
with about 600 souls on board, was
known as the Princess Alice. The ship
which foundered off Spithead in 1879,
and swept 600 passengers into the other
world, was called the Royal George;
and last, but not least, the steamer Vic
toria, that parted to carry desolation
into thousands of Canadian homes and
drape our land in mourning, bore the
name of our beloved queen, upon whose
birthday the boat gave up the ghost, in
sight, we should also say, of the sister
boat, the Princess Louise. Strange
fatality! Strange enough certainly to
put serious thoughts into ones head"
A couple of boys in New York town
learning that the odor and noise of sew
eral pigs were disagreeable to the
owners neighbors offered for a small
sum to abate the nuisance. Whether
their offer was accepted or not does not
appear. At any rate they proceeded
to business by buying two papers. With
these they properly prepared the apples,
potatoes and other garbage which was
fed to the animal with most successful
results. The swine went into rapid
decline and had to be slaughtered. The
parents of the boys were obliged to sec.
tie with the owner, but the neighbors
felt relieved. OF course the reader will
be curious to know what two papers
are useful in killing hogs. For if once
known there are stray ours and mid.
night cats enough to insure them g
large circulation. To know also where
they are published, and whether they are
daily or weekly. Perhaps without Civ
ing names it will be sufficient to say
that one was paper of pins, the othel
of tacks.