The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-08-31
SELECT SIFTIN6S.

A man breathes about eighteen
Zines a minute, and uses 5000 cubic
fe>t of air per hour
Inclosing waste lands and commons,
n orde' to promote agriculture, first
began in England in 1547, and caused
rebellion.
English sparrows were first intro
duced into this country in 1853 by a
gentleman named dubois in a garden
n Portland, Maine.
The ostriches in California have eX-
ploded the old story that the female
covers up her eggs and leaves them to
be Matched out by the hot sun. The
female sits on the eggs in the daytime
and the male assumes that duty at
hight.
When fans were invented no man
ran tell. There can be no doubt, how
ever, of their existence 5000 years ago,
or repre- entations of these familiar
articles have been discovered on the
omb, at Thebes. Fans, therefore, are
he Oldest articles in use by ladies, eX-
tept Their tongues.
Barnum says that he lost $4,000
n h vain attempt to bring two Sia-
nese white elephants to this country.
lis agent bought the beasts through
he connivance of a priest, and after
he king had Indignantly refused to
Fanction such a sacrilegious sale, but
tsey died on being taken aboard a
ship, and the old Snowman believes
hat they were poisoned.
The Japanese believe that ammon-
ties are petrified snakes. Fossil
brachiopods (lamp-shells) are called
stone swallows, and are said to come
TO life and fly from their hiding-places
ht the approach of wind and rain,
changing again to stones on the ret Urn
TO fair weather. Fossil fish appear
hnd disappear at pleasure. Their APP
bearance is prognostic of plentiful
harvest and prosperous times. The
stones if burned have a decidedly fishy
mell.
Minneapolis is reported to ship an
hually, beyond her local consumption,
,650,070 barrels of flour. "These,"
lays the Tribune statistician, eff piled
bne above the other, end to end, would
each $50 miles. The flour would
make about 493,255,000 loaves of
bread, the ordinary size of bakers
caves. These, piled in a pyramid.
would make, roughly calculated, a
square pyramid with base 800 feet
square and with height of nearly
900 feet
From the earliest times there have
been laws in England enforcing a
proper respect for Sunday. The most
tncient of these, which is still pre-
served, was made by Alfred the Great,
IN the ninth century. The second
dates from the time of Henry vi.
Another was passed under James 1.
The fourth, which is now the law of
England, was made 10y the parliament
bf Charles II. This latter law has
been made the model of Sunday laws
n al our States except Louisiana; and
the decisions made under it now form
part of our common law.
Firecrackers, says Nature, play a
large part in the superst t Gus obServ-
hnces of the ord nary Oh nese. 1t IS a
popular belief that the evil spirits
Everywhere inhabiting the air are dis
persed by cracking NOISES attended by
ire and smoke. Accordingly, fire.
crackers are used on all special occa-
Bions to frighten away the demons who
pre- tormenting sick person, or who
crowd around the people at the be-
ginning of the new year. Bamboo
which emits, when burning, crack
ing sound, is also used for the same
purpose.