The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-23
NOTES OF CURRENT INTEREST.

lament for Blrmlng CHAM, has offered that Guy
fully-equipped manual training school provided
that a sufficient number of parents agree to send
their children there for instruction for one year.
A temperance party has been formed in the
British Parliament, and committee has been
appointed to keep watch upon all proposals
which promise in any way to affect the liquor
traffic The members in favor of womans sui
frage have decided that when the franchise bill
is introduced they will propose an amendment
granting equal suffrage to male and female house
holders
In the island of San Domingo there is re
markable salt mountain, mass of crystalline
salt nearly four miles long, estimated to contain
So 337 GOO tons and so clear that type can be read
through a block foot thick. The mountain,
biologists say, was once plain at the bottom OF
the sea and, as the island rose from the ocean,
this plain formed the bottom of shallow lagoon,
where the salt was deposited.
A spider was once imprisoned in paper box
and starved Day by day the eye of his tor
mentor was upon him. A journal Of symptoms
was kept Weeks passed. and the record spoke
of nothing but animation and good nature. For
POI DAVIS the prisoner maintained health, spirits
and his normal plumPness. Then he lost strength
and temper, and on the 204th day he died. What
q pattern for impatient men, congressman espe-
cially.
Some letters of Horace Walpole, just published
for the first time, give strange pictures of the
London of his day A favorite morning divers
ion was to pass under the heads of newly hung
criminals at Temple Bar where people made
trade of letting spyglasses at halfpenny look
Another fashionable amusement was seeing prs
oners hogged at Bridewel Hospital, where men
and women stripped to the waist, were brought
one by one to the whippingpost.
What are known as singing sands" have been
hitherto believed to exist in but two places-one
being in Europe and the other in America. But
recent investigations the part of the life-sav-
ing service, under orders, have brought to light
twenty-six examples of these phenomenal sands,
found in twenty six different localities in the
United States The popularity of these sands
consists in the fact that when trodden upon or
otherwise disturbed they emit musical sounds.
The London World says that at the funeral of
the late Lord Grosvenor no paraphernalia OF the
undertallerS trade was to be seen. The coffin
was of plain deal, an unornamented hearse con
veyed it to the church, and on the next day the
keepers the estate carried 1t to its last resting
place covered with wreathS and crosses of flow
ers The funeral in accordance with the
recommendations of the Funeral Reform Asso-
citation, and was ''the more impressive by its in
tense simplicity
The draining and replanting of the Roman
Campagna is gong to be attempted again on
grand scale. A certain amount of drainage work
has been made compulsory the different land
owners, and no less than eighty irrigation com
panies under government control. have been set
on foot to reclaim the waste of centuries. One
or two minor experiments have been fairly sue
cessfu and. among other things. plantations Of
eucalyptus have made certain long deserted
spots habitable, notably about S. Paolo fuori lie
Mura
According to the Baltimore American, one of
the most interesting features of the Johns Hop
kins University library is the newspaper bureau
Iii nd oeo;eto,,+O Toll +Ia
resentative dailics mark superior articles on i'm
portant subjects, and afterWard clip these eX-
tracts for arrangement into large envelopes or
Oblong boxes Bulletin boards are covered daily
with clippings from the latest papers, arranged
under the leading heads of current topics This
plan is elaborate. but can he recommended to
otherinstitutions of learning as in many
schools the idea of instruction from newspapers
is carried out with favor
Speaking of newly-born infants, Prof. GEM
1ner says that the sense of touch is developed
from the earliest period, and reflex actions are
readily excited by the slightest stimulation, es-
pecially of the face, and then of the hands and
the seles The feeling of brain is only clearly
exhibited after four or five weeks before which
time infants do not shed tears. Hunger and
thirst are manifested i'll increased general irrita-
bility with reflex movements which cease after
the first week. Smell and taste are not diStin-
g1lishabe to infants. Hearing is perceptible in
the first or second day Of life They are very
sensitive to light, and after few days learn to
follow the motion of objects by moving their
heads Between the fourth and fifth week the
eonvergenee of the pupils and power of coOrdi-
nation in vision perceptible. A distinct per
ecption of color does not exist under four or five
months
A number of very interesting relics of the poet
Thomas Moore have just been received by Mr.
George W. Childs, the proprietor of the Philadel-
phia Public Ledger, from an old friend, Mr.. S. c.
Hall. gentleman of distinction in literary and
artistic circles, and editor of the Art Journal
The relics consist Of a small deal table with an
ivory plate bearing the following inscription:
4NThis table, that stood during many years in the
Terrace Walk at superior, was bequeathed to
Mrs. s. c. Hall by Bessy Moore, the widow of
the poet Thomas Moore;7 miniature, sweet
toned tarp, presented to the poet by his Limerick
friends, and upon which he often played as he
sang his Irish melodies his college gown, much
the worse for wear; his silver pencilcase: a small
brooch made Of one of his sleeve links. and a
variety of lesser matters. Mr. Childs possesses.
a. is well known unique collection of literary
mementoes, to which his recent acquisition will
be a valuable addition.
Goldsmith is said to have taken the palm for
chronic extravaganza and impecuniosity He
made the tour Of Europe on foot, playing his
flute and begging his way from town to town
He used afterwards to boast that he owed money
in every country III Europe. His success in al
ter life when money flowed in upon him. made
no difference He was always in debt What
he earned one day he would spend, gamble or
give away the next. His passion for fine clothes
made him the butt of the circle of wits in which
he moved ''He was dunned for his milk score.
arrested for rent, threatened by lawyers, but he
never learned the virtue of economy" Improvi
dence was his curse. He could refuse no appeal
to his pocket, and he would borrow a guinea
and hand it to beggar. He earned from his
pen Is coo in fourteen years, and yet he was in
debt to the tune Of Cd, 900 when he died besides
having received payment in advance for works
he had promised to write but had failed to do so.
Tabular View.
An Rn.hnl.lr in, ID Id nh.