Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-09-23
IN GEN ERAL.

According to the recent census the males
of the United States are in the majority 10 the
extent of nearly a million This is contrary
to opinion, expectation and precedent
Five hundred more Mormon converts ar
rived at New York September 13, of whom
2j0 were Scandnavians and $50 English
There were many women in the party, all un-
married or widows.
Said old Cornelius Vanderbilt to a young
man who came to tell him the sad story of
how he had lost money by stock operations
'Sonny, don't ever buy what you can't pay
for, and don't sell what you haven't got"
"A woman who dressed herself in mems
clothes and went into the army during the
war, so that she could be with her husband,
and who was wounded in the service, has
just received 5000 in pension arrears at st.
Louis.
of the $11S, O00 900 Of gold produced by
the world last year nearly one-half was mined
in the United States, and $40, 900, 900 of the
800, 000, 900 worth of silver produced in that
year was the product of American mines.
Experiments with gun cotton at Wool
wich demonstrate that the transmission of
detonation from one mass of gun cotton to
another not in contact was SO rapid that a
row of cotton reaching from London to Edin-
burgh could be fired in two minutes
"A genuine portrait of Columbus has been
discovered at Madrid. 1t represents the great
dscoverer as about 40 years of age, with a
broad forehead, dark thick hair, brilliant
eye and beaked nose. The canvas is about
10 inches by II in size.
An Englishman arrived at a Swiss inn
and ordered an old bottle of wine of a better
quality than the wine of the country. The
landlord produced bottle whose label certi-
fed to fourteen years. When the bottle was
uncorked the first thing to appear was a live
fly.
"A white man now living in Ebert county
S. c., was blacked up once by q companion
in slavery times and sold as a slave in Charles
ton for 5000. The next day he washed off
the color, escaped and received half of the
purchase money.
B. B. Allen of Reading, Pa, gave a
horse and sleigh, valued at $50, last winter
for half Of the crop which George Thompsons
peach orchard was expected to produce this
summer. The crop amounts to Just two
peaches, which makes the price of a peach
| just $50.
Mrs. Thomas Thorn of Canisteo, N. Y,
loSi her powers of speech nearly year ago,
but when she recently saw her husband, an
avowed temperance man, standing at bar
and drinking birch beer, she thought he was
talk now.
| Fifteen miles from Island Pond, in the
town of Brunswick, this state, there are six
springs of different kinds of water in an area
of one square rod of ground, viz Sulphur,
| bromine, arsenic, iron, magnesia, and a chem
| ically pure water spring. Each spring is dis
tinct in its medicinal qualities.
Two diminutive brothers named Sparl-
ing have just entered Hillsdale College, Mich
igan. Christopher, the older, is is years old,
and is 394 inches in height and weighs 374
pounds. The other, Edwin, is 10 years old,
weighs 493 pounds and is 424 inches tailor
short.
james Mahoney was buried in st. Clair,
Schuylkill county, Penn, last week and the
Reading Times asserts that ii is well authenti-
Gated that he was 113 years old, and that his
wife, who survives him, is 105 years old. Most
people will ask for proof before erediting the
story.
Jean Ingelow's life is more beautiful than
her poetry Her face is well known among
the wretched poor of London, and three
times q week she gives dinner to the sick,
poor, and the discharged convalescents from
hospitals who either are unable to work
| or have not yet found employment. She once
said: 81 find it one of the great pleasures of
writing that it gives one more money for such
purposes than falls to the lot of most women. "
-Sojourner Truth, the colored prophecies,
who is now 1O7 years old, is recovering her
youth and apparently getting ready to live
| another century For many years her hair
has been perfectly white and her eyesight has
been poor. She was recently very sick and
during her illness lost most of her hair, but
since her recovery a new crop of black hair is
growing and her eyesight has improved so
that she reads without spectacles. She is
now lecturing in Michigan.
A great sensation has been caused at
Bristol, Eng, by the discovery that cargo
of 800 tons of human bones was being dis
charged there to the order of local firm en-
gagged In manufacturing manure. The bones
were shipped from Rodesto at Constantinople
and are supposed to be the remains principal
ly of the brave defenders of Plevna. There
are complete limbs among the horrible cargo,
and in some cases the hair still adheres 10 the
skull.
"A suggestive fact has been brought to
light in connection with the treaty by which
Russia has just acquired from China the right
TO enter that country through gateway near
the western end of the Great Wall Far to
the north and south of the gateway extend
barren tracts of country which do not look at
all encouraging for commercial undertakings
and the route, moreover, has for many years
been disregarded altogether But it appears
now that it was favorite one among Ptolemy's
Seric traders, and that in the sixth century it
was followed, with few exceptions, by the
Arab merchants. The person who cites these
facts-the writer of q letter to the Pail Mall
Gazette-adds his own opinion that the ply
steal advantages of the route may soon lead
to the construction of the first Central Asiatic
Railroad"
An extraordinary suicide is reported from
the city OF Brunn, Germany. Franz Valdez,
a young man who served as secretary TO a
physician, agreed 10 fight a duel with noble
man in what they denominated "the Ameri-
can style of duelling," according to which
they were to draw lots to see which of the
two should blow his brains out. Valdez
drew the black ball. He had until the 18th
of May TO shoot himself but his antagonist
extended the time to two months to enable
him TO arrange his affairs. When this time
had elapsed Valdez requested a further ex-
tension, but this being refused by the noble
man, who branded him as a coward, the
young man, on the 18th of August, deliber-
ately drove bullet through his head. He
left letter commencing the girl to whom he
had been betrothed TO the affections OF q
friend, and requesting his aoquaintanees TO
make ereditable showing at his funeral.