The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1881-08-31
BITS OF INFORMATION.

MEssRs. is an abbreviation OF Mes
sieurs.
MExrcos population is put at 10000
600.
THERE are 271,144 school-teachers
in the United States and the Terri
tories.
The deepest well in the world is at
Buda Pesth, Hungary. 1t has depth
of 3, 200 feet, over three-fifths OF mile.
For tho loss of an arm or a leg, q
pension of $24 per month is allowed.
DEsERrIoN for one year is sufficient
ground for an absolute divorce in Ar
kansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Ken
lucky, Missouri and Wisconsin.
ILLUMINATING gas, as made from coal,
was described by DR.. Clayton in 1739.
1t was first used for street lighting in
London in 1907. In Paris, not until
1919.
PRINTING was an early institution in
Scotland, if it be true, as Mr.. Robert
Dickson, of the Society of Antiquaries,
stated, that Andrew Miller printed =
book there in 1905.
The method of voting in England is
quite different from our simple and in
formal fashion. A voting ticket contain
ing the names of all the candidates of
both parties is supplied by the Sherift's
officer to each voter after he enters the
polling booth. He must use this ticket
and no other. In private box, secured
from observation, he makes cross upon
the names of the candidates for whom
he wishes to vote, and then deposits his
ballot in the box.
THERE have been many estimates OF
the number of Indians that were, in
100, in what we now know as the United
States, but none are satisfactory. In
deed, even now estimates OF their num-
ber vary widely, the census of 1870
placing them at about 100000, while
others offer estimates which show that
the Indian population is about 200, 900.
The more moderate place the number
in the neighborhood of 275,0OO or
2S0,000.
THERE never was such coin as
"bit" in the United States. The Span
ish coins formerly circulated freely in
the South, and one of them, of the value
of l2t cents, was generally known rs a
"bit" This custom spread throughout
the West, and forty years ago this coin,
if the pillars on the face Of it were fresh
and unworn, was called "long bit,
but if worn smooth it WAS called q
"short bit" and WAS worth but 10 cents.
| The American dimes also came to be
called "short bits"
PoPLARs are called "popp!es" in En-
gland and the United States. The word
is ased as localism. Under rulings Of
the Secretary of the Interior poplar is
not considered timber. BY that official
climber" is defined to be that kind OF
wood which is proper for building or for
tools, utensils, furniture, carriages,
fences, ships and the like; and, in an
other decision, pine, oak, ash, elm, wal
nut and hickory are especially referred
to as timber trees, and to this list cot
tonwood was added.
THE air known rs Yankee Doodle
was originally "Nankee Doodle" and is
as old as the reign of Charles III. 1t was
known in New England before the Revo-
luton, and one account of its appropria-
tion in America as u national air is that
after the battle of Lexington, the brig
ade under Lord Percy marched out Of
Boston playing it in derisive allusion to
the then-popular nickname OF the New
Englanders +; and that afterward the New
Englanders, saying that tho British
troops had been made to dance to cyan
kee Doodle" adopted the air as they had
adopted the nickname. The citizens OF
the United States do not now recognize
"Yankee Doodle" but Hail Colum-
bia as their national air.