Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-06-01

] u5I uubDanu IN gambling games.
The veterans in the Dayton Soldiors'
Home are given a fish dinner every Friday,
and it takes 1 600 pounds Of fresh fish to sat
isfy them.
Gradually the Germans have gone back
to Paris and are trying to live down the
askance looks of dislike they still see The
German colony now musters 10, 900 strong.
About 40, 600 school children in Germa-
| ny have had their eyes examined and one
half Of them were found to be short-sighted.
In some schools the proportion of defective
| eyes was from 20 to 80 per cent. The evil is
attributed to badly lighted school-rooms,
poor desks, excess of study and too little
| exercise.
The New Orleans Pcayune thinks the
! composure of the Northern bride who, at
church wedding the other day, took a hair
pin from her head and fastened her glove
during the ceremony was equalled by the
New Orleans bride who, when on her way to
the altar, deliberately stopped and turned
around to survey the audience.
The Suez canal according to a corre-
spondent of The London Times, is fast be-
coming source of disease. The numerous
settlements that have grown up along its
banks have allowed their sewage pipes to iun
into the canal and owing to this fact, the
stencil is sometimes intolerable and many
diseases are prevalent.
"A Glen's Falls, N. Y, farmer, a few
days ago, put away large egg which he had
found in his barn among other eggs. On
breaking it open q short time afterwards he
was surprised and Mortified to see that it con-
tanned lively snake five inches long. He is
willing to make an affidavit to the fact that
there was no hole in the shell before he broke
it.
In Paris the post Office department is at
work laying pneumatic tubes which are to be
utilized for the prompt delivery of letters
from one part of Paris to another. All let
ters will be sent from the stations to their
designation within an hour Of their being
posted, and in some localities ten minutes
will be sufficient
There are said to be 119 different pat
terms of rails in use on the railroads of the
United States. These differ in height
weight shape and in other details, so that
those on one road cannot be used on many
Others II one or two standard patterns only
were adopted it would doubtless diminish the
liability of accidents and in every respect be
more desirable.
In France there is an established system
of pensions for railroad employees. A curious
fact developed by the statistics of the pension
service is that the office work of the railroad
companies wears out the lives of employees as
rapidly as manual labor or outdoor employ
ment Brain work is as hard work as any
other, and kills as quick, unless some extra
hazardous employments be excepted.
1t is said that the most satisfactory re-
suits have been attained in the attempt to
drain the Everglades of Florida. The land
along the canal which was formerly under
water, is now dry and the level of the lake
water has been greatly lowered. The health
fulness Of the region is attested by the fact
that laborers engaged in the work have had
but little or no sickness.
AT recent English wedding the mag
nifcent bridecake, weighing about one hun
dredweight, was in three ti,rs, each Of me-
dallions, with basket, and pockets of flowers,
with pillars between from each was a corn
ucopia of flowers. The whole was surmount-
ed with a vase to hold the bouquet of the
bride. At the base of this superb structure
of confectionery art were Cupids shells, &c.
The lip-readng method by which deaf
mutes are taught is progressing very rapidly.
At an exhibition given recently in New York
number of boys and girls answered lessons
in geography, natural philosophy, history and
arithmetic by articulation, the movements of
the professors lips being watched for ascer-
tanning the questions Some of the pupils
talked with members of the audience in the
same way.
Miss Anna, daughter of Senator Dawes,
is becoming quite as noted locally in Pitts
field, Mass, as her distinguished father.
She is President of the Wednesday Morning
Club, society of ladies who hear lectures by
eminent gentlemen, and have a programme
Of subjects to study and read upon for the
season a contributor to magazines, a lead
ing member of the Ladies' Literary Glass, a
lively advocate of town improvements, and
the editor elect Of the weekly which the Pitts
field Journal, now published daily only, is
soon to start. She looks like her father, and
seems to inherit his talents and industry.
An amusing story is told about the ordi-
nation OF young English clergyman, whose
name was Salter. Nature had gifted him
with hair which was the reddest of the red.
Feeling that in the solemn ceremonial of his
ordination this red hair might be the cause
of irreverent mirth, especially as the ritual
prescrbes that the bishop should touch it,
he determined to dye it black for the occa-
sion, which he did. The bishop afterward
expostulated with the hapless Salter, and al
legged against him the authority of the rubric
in the Prayer book which says: "The Psal-
ter must be read in the churches"
--Hippophagists are on the increase in
England. The butchers of Manchester are
excited by the fact that large quantities of
horse flesh are being offered for sale as hu-
man food in that city, and have petitioned the
City Council to require proper notification
of the article for sale by the dealers in such
meat. There appears to be much less alarm
among the consumers than among the butch
ers. In London the use of horse flesh is rap
idly extending among the poorer classes, as
il is much cheaper than beef or mutton and
is a nourishing article of food. In France it
is consumed largely. Except that it is rather
darker in color there is hardly any difference
between the flesh of horse and that of an
OK.
One of the most noted reunions of veter-
an soldiers that has occurred since the cruel
war was over was at the meeting last week at
Niagara Falls, where the Fifth Virginia Regi-
ment of Oonfederates were the guests of the
Twenty eighth New York Regiment. At tho
battle of Cedar Mountain the Virginians
captured the flag of the New Yorkers in a
desperate encounter, and on Tuesday they
returned it to the original owners. A one
legged Confederate Major handed back the
flag to a one armed Union Colonel, with ap-
propriate pacific and fraternal speeches on
the part of giver and receiver. The battle
SCARED veterans have seldom fought their
battles DER again under more pleasant circum-
stances
"A young lady belonging to an aristocratic
family in Konigsberg, in Prussia, gradually
| lost her power of vision and became entirely
blind. Her eyes, on being examined, were
found to be perfectly sound, whence it fol-
! lowed that the cause of the trouble was in the
brain. All treatment proved unavailing until
the discovery was made that she had received
some months previously heavy blow on the
head from a falling board. Professor Munck,
the famous experimentalist, who examined
her, convinced the oculist and surgeon that
| the affected part must be that part OF the
brain which his experiments on monkeys had
| proved to be the central station for sensations
| Of sight. The blow had evidently injured
| the membrane of the brain. This made per-
| foration of the skull necessary. The opera
tion was successfully performed and the pa
tient recovered her eyesight completely.
DR.. Mary Howard, an American woman
doctor, is creating quite a stir in social life in
China. She attended the mother of Prince
Ii, Hung Chang, and although she did not
save her life, she showed so much skill that
she was called in to treat the wife of the
great Minister From all parts of North
China letters from the wives Of mandarins
and high officials are pouring in on her en-
treating her to come to them or to send 9TH
or wise women from America" Eastern
women of rank die with obscure diseases
rather than submit to operations performed
by male surgeons. An American physician
| who snent some time in Turkey was called in