The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1884-09-12
MANKATo FREE Press
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER ls. 1884.
GLEANINGS.

L
A woman at Greenwood. Me-, is re-
ported to be cutting her fourth set OF
teeth.
Independence, Cal, has horned
fish with rattles and tail like rattle
snake.
In Kentucky both corn in the car and
its alcoholic extract arc sold by the
barrel.
Newest among the buildings is one
made out of grated pineapple and froz-
en- champagne.
In Massachusetts the insurance COM
panics i'm the last ten years have aver
aged SO per cent. in dividends,
The agricultural statistics of Ireland
continue to show steady decrease in
the number of separate holdings.
A fifty-one pound watermelon and a
one pound tomato is what fernando
county, Florida has done this season.
The average lifo of a locomotive Is
thirty years, during which one, if in
active use. will travel about 100000
miles.
There arc now over one hundred
acres of land on the southern keys of
Florida under cultivation in tropical
fruits and vegetables.
| A livc-oak tree ut Indian River Mar
rows. Fla. measures twcnty-three feet
and ten inches in circumference six
feet from the ground.
Boston's scholars cost her last year,
per head. $S9.57 in the high school,
$2S. AZ in the grammar and 1883 in
the primary departments.
A piece of land near Dupont circle in
Washington is worth $50 per square
foot. All lots in tho vicinity bring
from s3 TO $l5 per square foot.
Rev. j. i. Newman wants the time
to come when u Clergyman can go
from one church To another without
being suspected of having changed his
faith.
At the mineral exposition ut Zacate-
cas-. Mexico. is a piece of silver ore
weighing 40 pounds. taken from the
San Antonion mine, and valued at
81, 800.
| A recent visitor 10 South America
tells of sandal-wood trees that would
sell in tho United States for S., 900
apiece. but the natives arc unaware of
their value.
The enormous consumption OF milk
in London is illustrated by the fact that
one dairy company alone reports that
its sales in the past year amounted to
the sum OF SlSS. 100.
Buffalo Bill recently said to an audi
encc at the conclusion of his exhibition:
.You have seen more of life ON the
frontier this afternoon than you would
in ten years living on the frontier.
A prominent railroad man argues
that the country is now so well sup
piled with freight ears that no new
ones will be needed for several years.
Several car factories recently closed.
Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps puts
forth the theory that in the race for i'm
mortality the same conflict takes place
as in the physical world. The tittest
only survive in the process of spiritual
evolution.
Herbert Spencer. tho philosopher,
kindly affords the following informa-
ton: Incidental force falling on an
aggregate containing like and unlike
units segregatcs the like units and sep
ara;es the unlike"
A Boston man has invented a meth
cd of generating steam from water and
alcohol at half the expense and with
twice the power of the usual process.
Many man has raised too much steam
with alcohol and water.
In California they have discovered
that the castor bean plant is eflicacious
in killing grasshoppers by the million.
1t now appears that 1t is also useful for
killing lleas. multitudcs of which are
found dead on or under tho plants.
A Georgia man has drained large
swamp on his land by the scuttling
process. He bored IN artesian well in
the middle of it eighty feet deep and
came to fault" the water runs into
the hole and the ground is left dry.
Herbert Spencer, with all his philos.
ophy and fine figure of speech. is only
man. after all. He declares that he
will never marry 4 woman who is
'convex" in tho back, concave in the
bosom, and sentimentally dropping in
the shoulders.
The Aztecs. before the conquest OF
Mexico by tho Spaniards, recognized
tho value of trees for the maintenance
of moisture and the promotion OF
irrigation. Prescott tells us that their
law contained severe penalties against
the destruction of forests.
''Steve Meek. the pioneer hunter and
trapper of California" who first went
out to that state in 1882. is now al
Reading, Colorado. seventy-nine years
old. full of rheumatism, and, like most
of the California pioneers, not over
burdened with this worlds goods.
An anecdote is related that Mr. En-
erson would pay Mr.. Alcott a visit in
the morning, when they would con-
verse, and i'm the afternoon Mr.. Alcott
would return the visit and repeat the
words Mr.. Emerson had said to him in
the morning, when Mr.. Emerson would
exclaim after his departure, "Wonder-
full is Alcoll!'
Governor Bcgole has received,
through George NJ. Gowan, formerly a
major in the Confederate army, the
flag of the Twenty-third Regiment OF
Michigan Infantry. which it lost during
the war. The governor will turn II
over to the veterans at their reunion.
His own son died while q member OF
that regiment.
An erratic peach tree in an orchard
Mt Sunnyside, GA, full-grown, will
never yield fruit when the other trees
arc bearing. When. however, the carly
peach trees produce nothing, as hap
pens to be the case this year, then the
peculiar tree In question is sure to be
full offruit, and gladdens its owner
with lavish yield.
Shorthand is an accomplishment now
quite generally demanded in London
of clerks and bookkeepers. For f1OO
per annum the merchant often expects
to hire a clerk who understands both
bookkeeping and shorthand writing.
1t is more common in England than
here for young ladies 10 hold the posi-
ton of private secretary.
A curious needle. says the Toronto
Globe. is in possession of Queen Victo-
ria. 1t was made at the celebrated
needle factory ut Redditch, and repre-
sents the Trojan column in miniature.
Scenes from the Queens life are de-
picted on the needle, so finely cut and
SO small that they are only discernable
through microscope.
Mr.. Mather, the Commissioner sent
here by the English government to ex-
anime and report upon the condition OF
technical education in this country, re-
ports that there is generally greater
consideration shown here for the CON-
fort of workers in iron, "while at
work" than in England, but that the
hours of work are LONGER. He gives