Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1885-02-19
Items Of Interest.

A Paris company has submitted to tho
Pope plans for lighting up the dome OF
st. Peters at Easter ceremonies with
electric burners.
Near Danbury stands white oak tree
that is thought to be 200 years old 1t is
more than 100 feet high, and the circum-
ference ut the first limb is IS feet.
Italy has to keep 5.Sc3 persons under
sentence OF penal servitude for life.
Prison expenses are S2,oO0,0jo year
moro than those for education.
A recent estimate, made by means of
very intricate testing apparatus, places
the rate of which an electric dot travels
over a telegraph wire at 10000 miles
per second.
A clean and perfect copy of John Bun
yanis Pilgrims PROCESS 1878. has just
been added to the British Museum ib-
rary. Only three other copies are known,
and but two of these are perfect
The wife Of the jailer, at Ocontn, Wis,
wns left on guard and armed for the day
with a pistol, which her son doubted sho
had the courage to discharge. He made
test by putting on q prisoners costume
and whooping at her.
There is little OF interest now to bc
found in Elba, Napoleon's island prison.
All the relics of his stay there were long
since carried away, and the place has
aunk into the insignifcance from which
his presence raised il temporarily. The
population is rather over 10000.
The fire engines in Italian cities are
etill the same little hand pumps used in
the beginning of the century; not a
single steam fire engine exists on the
peninsula, owing to the rarity of fires,
but a movement is now on foot to intro
duce steam engines according to the
American style.
DR.. Spitzka says the popular delusion
ihat the human eye has On influence
over insane people similar to that claimed
for the same organ over wild animals, is
one that is often ridiculed by the insane
themselves. He adds that whoever at
tenlpts to utilize the notion win recognize
its absurdity.
A dealer in cod-liver oil in marseilles
advertises that his fish are caught in q
safe and quiet harbor, where marine
monsters cannot enter to frighten them
into diseases of the liver. "They live
there" he says, Sin peace and comfort !;
their livers are healthy, and this is the
reason why my cod-liver oil is the best"
That the cars upon the rails of certain
railroads creep has been a matter for COM
plant which every one has heard II
will be greater news to many to know
that the rails on sleepers creep, too, in
the direction OF greater traffic On the
St Louis bridge proper the rails have
been known to creep 26O feet in one year,
and on the bridge approach 400 feet.
It is said that the sand used in the
manufacture of mirrors is now used by
Paris company to make white bricks and
blocks, said not to be injured by frosts,
rain, etc, and to be very light. the
specific gravity being only 1.50 to 1.s5 of
clay bricks. The sand is first strongly
pressed by Hydraulic power, and then
baked in ovens at very high tempera.
ture. The bricks are almost pure silica.
"Oh Moses" is the name of what is
thought to be the largest tree in the
world It stands in grove near Tule
River, in California Although the top
is broken of, it is $40 feet high and 12 feet
in diameter at the broken part. The
hollow of the trunk will hold $50 per-
sons and is hung with scenes of Cali
fornia, is carpeted and fitted up like q
drawing room, with table, chairs, and
pianoforte.
1t has been discovered by experiments
with dogs placed under the influence OF
morphia even to coma, that the hypo-
dernic injection OF solution of theme,
the active principle of ten, is an almost
instantaneous. antidote, neutralizing the
effect of the narcotic, aud reviving the
animal, after the action of the heart has
become imperceptible. Caffeine possesses
similar properties, but is less immediate
in its operation.
Fredericksburg, Virginia, lays claim
TO the distinction of being the burial
place of Edward Heldon, q contsmpo-
rary and one of the pall-bearers of the
immortal Shakespeare. A red ssrt,-
stone slab marked the grave in ST.
Georges churchyard until it was mis-
placed by Burnside, who cut road
through the burial ground and removed
The stone to the Masonic cemetery,
where il now lies under locust tree.
It was in Fredericksburg that the
mother of Washington lived after she
became widow and reared her family.