The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1885-08-14
items of interest.

to light cavahymsn.
A New York editor recently advertised
that he hal vacancy, and portland
bean restaurant sent him up bill of
fare.
The REDWOOD post Of o fence erected in
Napa, CAL. thirty-two years ago were
recently removed and found in as good
condition as when first put into the
ground.
The Chicago Public Library, now
eleven years old, contains III, 621 vol
umes, and has the largest number of
readers of any library in the country cx-
cepti that Of Boston.
Tommy Atkins isgenerally accepted
nowas the typical name for an English
soldier, just as John Bull is for IN
Englishman and, curiously too, the first
guardsnan wounded in the Soudan was
Sergeant Atkins
A patent has been secured for making
imitation maple syrup Hickory bark
is soaked in water and an extract is thus
cose syrup, gives it the maple taste and
smell.
A Frenchman named Combeville, who
lived near Saint Denis, recently inher-
itei so, 900 francs The money worried
him. How to take core of it, how to in
vest it, and how 10 guard against thieves
and sharpers puzzled him during the
day and kept him awake in the night.
At last he couldn't stand the annoyance
of riches any longer. So he hanged
himself.
The celebrated Alderbach echo is OF
length surpassed by o seventeen-tongued
one discovered in Silesia- If horn is
sounded at point called Garvos Rub,
near Charlottenbrun, there will be heard
after the lapse Of few seconds, a success
sion of sweet, clear notes coming back
at intervals, until seventeen in all have
answered.
Among the curiositics Of commerce"
none perhaps is more curious than
that the major portion of the prod
uce exported from South Africa is sim
ply used for the adornment Of ladies.
Out of yearly total value exported Of
seven million five hundred thousand
pounds, ostrich feathers and diamonds
account for the large sum of five million
pounds.
Queen Victoria detests smokers, and
keeps up in her palaces the standing or
der, Positively no smoking here, y
much to the annoyance of the Prince of
Wales, who, Us the first dandy of the
land, not only smokes, but sets all the
fashions, though his reputation as a
rake is exaggerated. The Queen is
noted also for three other things, ridicu-
lous dressing stinginess, and fondness
for Germans and Scotchmen.
1t is said that young ladies in Vienna
wear their initials worked in silver and
gold ON the breasts of their jacses il
which they appear in the streets. It is
curious to consider from what Begin
nings fashions some times spring. Initials
originally were restricted to handker-
chiefs and such other small articles of
clothing as it was feared might set
mixed up and lost in the wash.
Coal is said to be an almost unknown
luxury to the Chinese Of San Francisco.
Their mode of cooking is to have an
empty oil can serve as stove, upon
which they place their tea kettle or u
cooking pan. They start q fire with two
or three small sticks of wood, which they
add to as they burn, and in this way
manage to establish a good degree of
heat with but small expenditure of
fuel.
"Why Not Eat Insccts?" is the title
of recent English book. Tile writer
thinks that such diet would have GER
tain advantages for poor people, and he
insists that an "appetizing relish is to
be found i'll "boiled caterpillars, fried
grasshoppers, and grillcd cock -chafers...
His argument rests mainly on the descrip
tons of half-starved travellers concern
ing their personal enjoyment of cooked
insects, and the fact that certain savages
thrive on such diet.
The ordinary dwellings, of the Japan
.ese are not firmly attached by founda-
tions to the earth but rest loosely on
square stones OF boulders buried in the