Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1883-12-26
TOPICS OF THE DAY.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.
Seventeen United States senators
are worth in the aggregate $55,000,00O.
They come high, but we must have
them. Mr.. Bayard of Delaware is at
the foot, and is worth only 100000,
while at the head stands Mr.. Fair of
Nevada, worth $lS,000,0O0
William and Mary College, Of Vir-
ginia, has closed its doors, having but
one student at the beginning of this
school year. Next to Harvard, this
was the oldest college in America,
having been founded in 1893, and was
the only one that received a royal
charter. Among the most eminent
men educated in its halls were Wash
ington, Marshall, Randolph, Tyler,
Breckenridge, and General Scott.
The melancholy suicide of a New.
Yorker in Philadelphia recently points
its own moral. 1t seems that he was
addicted to gambling and for time
was unusually lucky. But he was
ileeced by sharpers who were sharper
than himself; his enormous winnings
went first; then his private fortune.
lie resolved to make one desperate
attempt to retrieve his losses; but his
duck" had changed, and pistol-bullet
ended his life.
Lord Ripon, the present governor
general of India, is perfecting a scheme
to introduce local self government
among the cities and large towns in
that country on the plan that Amer
lean towns govern their affairs, Coun-
cillors are to be elected by the people,
with full powers to do almost every
thing but impose taxes or perform
judicial functions. Should the expert
ment prove satisfactory, the India
legislature will also be made elective.
Medical men have for some time
arrived at the conclusion that con-
sumption is infectious. The matter
has been taken up in a very practical
way in the German army, in which the
disease is stated to be very prevalent
All soldiers suffering from it are iso-
lated, and, to prevent any possible
infection, on no account are they to be
allowed to associate with patients
suffering from pneumonia or acute
bronchitis, while special means are to
be taken for the dsinfection Of the
sputa in infectious cases.
When Congressman William d, KEEL
ley, of Philadelphia, was young man,
he and Representative Randall's father
were one day talking together with an
eminent doctor in Paris. Health was
the topic of conversation, and, ~ Dung
man." said the doctor to Mr. Kelley.
''if you will make it a rule never to
get exhausted 50 long as part of the
day remains in which you have any
thing to do, you will live to be as old
as am 81 followed the advice"
said Judge Kelley to Cleveland
Ledder correspondent, "as far as |
could, and have already lived to be
older than either the gray-haired doctor
or Sam Randall's father"
One of the defunct industries of
Detroit is the manufacture of dog oil,
which, it is only fair to say, never
reached colossal proportions. 1t was
made by man named Blakely, under
arrangement with the guardians of
the dog pound, and was purchased
chiefly by veterinary surgeons, who
used it in the compromising of a lni-
ment. But three dollars gallon was
all that they would pay for it,and at that
price the business did not prosper. 1t
might be supposed that the dogs of
Detroit might breathe freer now that
this enterprise has collapsed, but in
reality it makes little difference to
them, for they were always drowned
before their surrender to Mr.. Bakely.
The London Times finds that the
number of watches manufactured in
England is yearly becoming less and
less and traces the cause of the decline
to the use of new ideas and inventions
by workmen both in America and
Switzerland. ain America it says,
"everything is done on large scale,
while we still stick to the methods of
our forefathers. Here, the different
parts of watch are made in different
shops or in different portions of the
country, and trotted about from one
to the other In America, a complete
watch is made in one building. One
American house alone made 2Ol,000
watches last year, while our total pro-
duction was not more than 10000"
There seems to be little doubt that
TIE germ of yellow fever las been dis
covered at Rio Janero by Or. Domin-
Cos Friere. The British foreign Office
has sent out paper on the subject. 1t
comprises the report that the microbes