The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1881-08-03
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.


ONK-THRD of all the gold mined goes
to wear and tear, one-third into circula-
ton, and One-third into the arts and
manufactures.
AT Russian hotel you are obliged to
stipulate for bed-linen, pillows, blankets
and towels, or pay extra for them, as the
landlord assumes that you carry these
articles with you.
To MAKE shoe pegs enough for Ameri-
can use there are consumed annually
100, 600 cords of timber, and to make
lucifer matches, 800, 900 cubic feet of the
best pine timber are required every year.
Lasts and boot-trees take 500, 600 cords
of birch, beach and maple, and the
handles of tools 500, 900 more.
IT has been observed that during Sc
we're thunder-stOrms the lightning has
never done damage In large cities. tits
believed that the iron which enters SO
largely into the construction of cities
In buildings, railroads, telegraph lines,
etc.-so completely dissipates the cleo
trio fluid, as it approaches the earth,
that it Is rendered harmless.
In 1869, M. Cugnot, a Frenchman,
constructed q locomotive steam engine
designed for use on common roads. 1t
ran on three wheels, and was moved by
the impulsion of two single-acting cylin-
ders, the pistons of which acted alter
nately on the single front wheel. This
machine would travel at the rate of two
or three miles an hour, and would carry
four persons, but the boiler was SO
small that it was necessary to stop about
once In twelve or fifteen minutes to get
up steam.
A COUNTERPART of Dickens Miss
Havisham, in "Great Expectations, y
lived few years ago at Louisville, Ky.
She was rich woman of 20 years, hv-
ing all alone in a darkened house,
which she never left, except a few
times to attend church, and then was
closely yelled and muff1ed. She never al
lowed an article of furniture to be
moved; and lived in constant dread Of
fire, fearing the publicity that would
result from it.
THE mica mines of North Carolina
have been worked only ten years, but
shafts, cuts and debris of supposed pre-
historic mining have been discovered,
and there is some debate as to whether
these early wOrkmen were the mound
builders or Europeans. The Cherokee
Indians have tradition that white men
worked these mines long ago, carrying
away the white metal mined during the
summer on mules. An ak, wedge and
other wrought-iron tools lately found
are also thought to confirm the notion
that Europeans opened the mines.
BYRON, throughout his life, had pro-
found repugnance to being bled. When
he was on his death-bed his physicians
proposed phlebotomy, but Byron refused
to allow it, combating the quackeries of
his medical advisers with the Logic of
common sense and experience. But at
last, worn out by the persistent impor-
tunities of the doctors, he extended his
arm and angriy exclaimed: There,
you - butchers, since you viii have
it, take as much blood as you like, and
have done with il" Repeated bleeding
hastened his death.
THE real name of Voltaire, the French
philosopher and poet, was Francois
Marie Arouet. The assuming of the
name Voltaire was long puzzle to his
biographers, but within tow years it
has been discovered to be simply an
anagram, or transportation Of ArOuet, !.
.. ; the letters l. j. standing for Le .jeas,ae,
or Junior. The letters u and were for
merly regarded as the same character,
and were freely interchanged in writing
and printing. So also and j were used
Unfortunately, the one for the other.
Hence
572 "a 8
Ar u t, l. ].
Reads UOltajre, or Voltaire.