The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1884-02-02

|
strength of character to the regard paid
to the book of Proverbs, has led a
French Christian to print and circulate
widely a copy of the Proverbs OF Solo
mon, as an antidotc to the lax morality
which now obtains in France.
A Young woman in Holyokc, Mass,
called on the City Clerk, and, after
examining the marriage license regis
ter. told him TO erase her name. as the
I Young man who had taken out a certi-
licatc did it without her leave, and she
did not propose to marry nm. She
was accommodated.
Henry Stanwood, Of Philadelphia,
facctiously gave 3 cents to colorcd
minister who was collecting money To
build church, and two minutes after
ward discovered that he had given one
penny and two s. gold pieces. lie
Jumped to overhaul the collector, but
the good old laborcr in the vineyard
had disappeared.
Apropos OF the recent arrest OF pri.
vatc detectives, the New York Worla
remarks: The detective population
needs thinning out. About three prl-
vatc detectives TO every married man anu
woman in the country would be safe
proportion, and it should not be allow
ed 10 run over that, for the simpe rca-
son that when threc-iourths OF the pop
ulation undertake to detect each other
confusion ensucr.
An Alabama paper claims that many
Of the persons who left that state loi
Texas have quickly repented and are
| on their way back, and North Carol-
ma journal records with delight the re-
turn OF many North Carolinians who
/ had tried pastures new IN the South
west without realizing expectations
| Their report is that with similar effort
| the old Southern States will yield as
good living as those wcst OF the Mis-
eissipp'.
Daring her soiourn at hotel a lady
broke an article belonging to a china
toiet-Set On leaving the house she
was charged with the entire set As
remonstrance was unayailing she paid
/ the bill, and, pleading the excuse OF
, having forgotten something, returned
/ to the room and broke each and every
article Of the set for which she had
paid And some people say, women
are not clever.
/ A French motcorologist has, in the
exposed court OF hi, house, two bars OF
iron planted in the earth, to each OF
which is planted a conductor OF coated
wire, terminating in telephone re-
cciver His practice is to consult the
apparatus twice or thrice every day,
and it never fails, through its indica-
tionS of earth currents, to give notice
of the approach Of a storm twelve to
fifteen hours ahead.
Here is Il description of a Russian
prison, written by Professor Thun, OF
Leipsic: "The prison at Kara, near
Irkutsk is said to be one of the worst.
1t is an ordinary farm house, surround
ed by high fence. There are no Ia
bes or chairs. only platforms, on which
the prisoners lie packed like sardines.
The food consists merely OF bread and
soup, with a very little grit. There Is
no hospital or other care for the sick.
All those condemned to hard labor are
compelled to wear chains, whether at
/ "DTh VI III VliSolI, illti hIi NoLiSSpohu
ence is forbidden"
A letter from G. Adams to the Kcene
On. H. Sentinel says Vermont has a
peculiar way of arranging its property
for taxation. 1t makes up what Is
called grand list which is 81 on
every hundred of its actual valuation;
so that a town that has a grand list of
$40, 900 has valuation of $l,0OO,O0J.
And on this basis of a grand list
taxes are laid. Most of the towns
vote tax OF from 80 to 80 cents
on dollar of the grand list, while oc-
casionaly towns more expensive or
more in debt lay tax larger than the
grand list itself,
"ln the Chelsea High School, says
the Boston Transcript, is telephone
made of the halves of cigar box, with
the diaphragms OF shcet-iron and cleo
tro-magnets whose distances from the
diaphragms are controlled by screws
of the simplest kind. In every way
the instrument is very crude. The
thing. however, works satisfactorily,
and because of it's large and easily
seen parts it is still employed to Illus
tratc the fundamental principles OF the
telephone, The instrument was the
invention of Mr. Albert III. Low, of
Chelsea, who had got thus far III work
inc out his ideas when the announce
ment of Professor Bells invention rem
dered further experimentation unneccs-
sary. Professor Bell says: Il have no
doubt that | have deprived You of the
opportunity of making great discoy-
cry. am sorry that | should have
struck so near your idea, for | know
from experience how notifying it is to
find our ideas anticipated by others. "
The project of flooding the Sahara.
and thus opening up Central Africa to
commerce and civilization, appears to
be reviving --the opinion is still being
urged by gcographers and engineers
that, if the water of the ocean could
thus be let into the desert, the climate,
the soil and the sanitary condition
would all be improved. Though near
" two-thirds as large as Europe, and
containing some 10000, 900 inhabi-
tants, the only means OF communica-
ting with the rest of the world lies IN
the caravan tracks. In the Sahara
a 10, 4.