The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1882-10-20
NUMBER II.
GLEANINGS.

| "f',N'O, uha q CuuICu VI
1853.
Eighty-cight Swiss converts contain
$40 male and 1920 female inmates. The
aggregate wealth is rs, 900, 600 francs.
The average height of the British
| guards sent to Egypt is stated to be five
feet ten and q half inches, as against
| five feet ten inches in 1851.
| For the first time in its history a
| gloom has been cast over an interior
Texan town by the death of "good
man."
A company of capitalists are putting
n good deal of money into the zinc mines
of east Tennessee, and expect profitable
returns from their investment.
BY actual count of the Geneseo On.
W Republican. there are in that village
| POI unmarried ladies of marriageable
age, and but 65 unmarried men.
Wild turkeys are reported as more nu-
merous than usual this season Of the
year throughout the west of Texas and
on the line of the railroads.
Twenty years ago there were fifteen
hundred boats on the Lehigh canal, and
now there are not five hundred.
Branded soda water is drink that's
sold in large quantities at the soda fount-
aims in the London drug stores.
The people of the United States drink
about 70,0O0,0O0 gallons of whisky a
year. No wonder that there are so
many snake stories.
Large numbers of hogs have recently
been purchased in Ohio and Illinois to
be sent to Georgia to be fattened. There
is something refreshingly novel in this.
DR.. Felix Oswald says that perma-
nent indoor work is slow suicide. He
adds that preaching and pettifogging
are the healthiest of all the learned pro-
fessions.
Fractions of penny have never been
paid by the Bank of England in distrib-
uting the dividends ON the national
debt, and the accommodations of the un-
paid fractions amount to $143,000.
1t is proposed to open the Tennessee
Southern railroad to New Orleans with
in year. Three intermediate and part
ly built roads are to be consolidated
with it.
The lumber trade of Apalachicola,
Fla, is becoming enormous. 1t is ex-
pected that five hundred vessels will
load there during the coming CONNER
cial year.
A fleet of forty vessels from Key West
are gathering sponges off Arclote and
Clear Water Harbor. On one day re-
Gently 5000 worth of sponges were
bought at Key West.
John T. Raymond. when asked by
New York reporter why he looked so
sad, replied that he was sorrowing be-
cause he must leave his wife and part
with his moustache to strut the stage.
The Victoria Cross is special deco
ration for personal valor under fire in
the British army, and though it has oc-
casionally been won by a lord, has
never yet fallen to Prince of the
blood.
During dearth of news in Western
office, says an irreverent Eastern ex-
change, the office eat was damned into
the job press and the editor Immediate
" set up the following head lines:
| dreadful Accident-Nine Lives Lost"
A physician falls into fit while max
| ing round of visits, and is carried in
| to a drug store. .'Send for DIR. ""
says somebody. mo, no, not for him."
says the dying man, feebly, at the men,
| tion of his rivals name; IF he brought
me round it would advertise him!
prefer To die"
Lake George Us summer resort has
made marvellous leap into popularity.
Twelve years ago there were only four
hotels there. Now sixty hotels line the
| sides of the lake and dot the islands.
The four or five Thousand tourists who
| used to visit the lake have increased this
year to forty or fifty thousand.
North Carolina is getting famous for
its '.yarbs." One day recently fifteen
hundred pounds of roots and herbs were
shipped from Shelby to New York. A
shipment of similar importance was
made the week before, and another of
catnip was to follow speedily.
A gentleman, while working on a
new building at San Jose, Cal, the other
| day, discovered u tarantula hole in the
ground, in which were three large tar
antulas and kind of shell or cocoon,
which was supposed to contain tarantu-
Ia eggs. The shell was broken and he
counted three hundred young ones.
The project of cultivating oysters in
Salt lake, Utah, is regarded Whereabouts
rs impracticable, as there is in the lake
no suitable food for oysters, and arti-
fetal feeding would be improbable,
while there is danger that the mud and
salt that is carried into the lake each
spring would smother the oysters.
Henry johnson was sold on the auc-
ton block, in King and Queen county,
Virginia, when eighteen years of age.
He served General Dick Taylor until he
was transferred to General Andrew
Jackson's household. He was with
General jackson at the battle of New
Orleans. He is now living at Oberlin,
at the age of 109 years.
New Orleans claims to lead in rose
growing. There may be seen in that
city Lamarque rose vine with a stem
eight inches thick. In some private
gardens there are 100 varieties. The IA
vorite rose is the Gold of Ophir. 1t is
small, of very pale pink, shading toward
the heart into deep, rich gold color,
while faint streaks of crimson touch the
outer petals.
The ex-King Cetywayo still sticks to
beef as the chief article of his Diet
English beef he considers good, but not
so good as that of his own country, for
there is too much fat about it. The
other day fourteen pounds had been
prepared for his breakfast and that of
his three chiefs. The latter ate thirteen
pounds before .Cetywayo made his APP
pearance, SO fresh supply had to be
cooked.
The operator of the Mobile Office of
the Mobile and Gulf Telegraph Company
was recently surprised by hearing over
his wire through messages from New
Orleans to New York. An investigation
showed that an unfortunate frog had
found its way into a cable box, and its
body, burned almost to crisp, formed
sufficient connection between the
Western Union and the Mobile and
Gulf wires.
The story is told that in Schuyler
county, New York, there is a young-old
man. who without apparent cause, liv-
ing plainly on farm, has in eighteen
years passed through the physical
changes of four-score. At the age of 6.
he had all the development of strength
and muscle usual in q lad of ID. At II
his beard was grown and gray hairs APP
peared. Now, Mt Is, he is decrepit as
an old man of 80, and seems lettering
on the verge of the grave.
The graziers of Australia and New
Zealand, of late years have reckoned
the rabbits rs their worst enemy. In
many districts those prolific creatures
have left SO little grass that the sheep