The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-05-30
GLEANINGS.

The coffin used at Pleasant Ridge
| (Ohio) funeral was painted red, white
and blue and draped with Union flags
Girard College is to have complete
machine shop. with work bench. forge
and gas engine for each of the ninety
| pupils in practical mechanics.
The difference in cost between a mar.
row and standard gauge railroad is !
to per cent in favor of the narrow
roads.
The only railway in Yucatan, Mexico,
charges 10 cents per ton per mile foI
carrying freight, and is said to be earn
ing about so per cent per annum on its
! entire cost.
The lowest average price for running
! locomotive last yearxevaS 1852 cents
| per mile. This was on the Illinois Cen
trail. The cost of fuel is 40 to so per cent
OF the expense.
The snuff box that used to travel across
| the table from Charles Lamb to his sis
ter and back again is now owned by j.
Holhngshead, the London theatrical
manager.
When the prince of Wales heard that
Sara Bernhardt had really and truly per-
| petrated matrimony, he is said to have
exclaimed = ''ByeJevei Sara getting
married! She must be madr'
The Geological Metropolis society, OF
London, England, has set apart $40, 900
| tor the purchase of a dogs and cats
cemetery, and home for domestic ami
mails while their owners are out OF
| town.
King Humbert. of Italy, refuses to
allow an appropriation to pay the debts
of Victor Emanuel, but takes upon him
self the honorable duty of paying his
fathers debts, and lives close.
The dying patient of San Francisco
doctor has confessed that he was one of
four Communists who killed the French
Prince Imperial in Zululand. This lets
out the Zulus, if anybody wants to be-
lieFe the dying patient.
The London Builder attributes the
marvellous durability of mortar in Italy
to the fact that the lime remains in pit
covered with water for two years before
it is used. Here the lime is used half
an hour after it is slaked.
Senator Hill cannot recover, but is
not troubled by regrets. II cannot
complain" he said, recently. 81 have
lived fifty-eight years, and l suppose no
man ever lived fifty-eight happier years.
1t may be best that they be all
Baron de Bourgoing, the Frenchman
who was close beside the late car when
he was fred at by Berezowski in Paris,
and whose courage in placing himsN #
between the czar and second shot from
the assassin was much admired, has
lately died.
Mrs. Arnold, the only sister of Stone
wall jackson, was stanch unioniSt,
and during the war showed helpful kind
ness to countless federal soldiers. She
opened her house ut Beverly w. Va,
where she still lives, to the sick and
wounded among them, and herself ten
DERBY nursed them.
1t has been ordered that ore ssservice
stripe for every five years continuous
service in the police force of Boston
shall be worn on the outside half of both
sleeves of all coats worn by the sergeants
and patrolmen of the department. This
order viii take effect OF the adoption of
the summer uniform.
Charles After got cable dispatch
from Bonn, Prussia, saving that he had
fallen heir to $50. 600 in money and con-
siderable real estate. He was working
for 81 day ut Peru, Ind, and WASH t
able to reply by telegraph without bor-
rowing. After his friends had made up
the required sum, he hesitated about in
vesting it, as he surlniscd that the news
was hoax. But he finally sent the di-
rections how to remit, and has received
money enough from a Bonn solicitor TO
take him across the water, where he will
get the property.
Cats eye is a beautiful mineral
brought from Ceylon. Its colors are
rrra brown and rod of uarinnG
shades. From a peculiar play of light
arising from white flores interspersed
with the substance it has derived its
name. 1t is easily broken, and is class
ed by the jewellers as precious stone.
In Norway woodpeckers damage tele-
graph poles by boring through them,
supposing the humming sound produced
by the wires is caused by insects upon
which they feed. Bears also remove the
supports of the poles, instinct leading
them to suspect that the humming is pro-
duced by wild bees, and that the poles
contain honey. Instinct, like reason, is
not infallible.
Electricity is a wonderful thing
There is an electric hair-brush, warrant
ed to make the hair grow and cure head
ache, and an electric flesh-brush that
will cure several other ills that the flesh
is heir to; and now if some fellow will
bring out an electric clothes-brush that
viii make an old suit of clothes look and
wear like new, he can sell thousands at
dollar apiece, or three for two dollars.
The returns of the census taken in
Italy ut the close of 1881 show the popu-
lation of the kingdom to be %, 49,, 000,'
an increase during the decade of $780,
S46.. The number of Italians living in
other countries is estimated at 800, 900.
The only city in the kingdom whose
population has decreased during the last
ten years is Florence.
The outrageous rates of interest charg-
ed by some moner-lenders was illustrat-
ed at Boston recently, in the discharge
of a mortgage at the city hall. The
Journal saws that on Jan 6. 1870, wo-
man borrowed $3.50, for which she paid
5 per cent. per month up to-day, when
she handed the money-lender the princi-
pal The total amount of the interest
was "a, $50.
A most remarkable phenomena ccurr-
ed afew miles below Chattanooga recent
". The river at that point flows into a
basin seventy-five feet deep and twenty
acres in area. On the afternoon in ques-
ton The entire body of water was seen
to rise six to eight feet as if by volcanic
action; and a mass of sediment which
had accumulated Mt the bottom arose
and fioated off. The occurrence is mex
plicable A tradition exists that pre-
ciSclE similar phenomenon occurred in