Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1885-05-16
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE highest point attained by fishes
in Switzerland, according to NJ. Y.
Fatio, is that of the minnow, which as
cends 1000 feet above the sea level.
With the exception of the perch, which
reaches $500 feet, and n or two
others, 1000 feet is the limit.
JOHN SMITH, a brakeman of the Phil
adelphia and Reading Railroad Com
pany, died from injuries sustained re-
Gently by falling under some coal cars
at Asbury Park. He had inherited
$40, 600, and was to have given up his
position as brakeman on the day he was
hurt.
II DaytonA Ohio, while two little
children, aged 5 and 8, were playing in
the yard, the little boy innocently asked
his sister to lay her finger upon a block
and he would cut it off. She did so,
and he came down upon it with a sharp
Ratchet, taking off her forefnger. The
child's cries brought her mother to the
scene.
4 DAUGHTER Of a prominent Canadian
merchant expired after an illness of five
days. She accidentally pricked her left
thumb with a needle. She paid no at
ten.ion to the matter till her thumb be-
gan to swell. When a doctor was called
he found that nothing could be done to
save her life, as gangrene had set in and
the arm was dead nearly to the
shoulder.
AT BELLAIRE, Ohio, several years ago,
some land was drilled for oil, but only a
slight flow of salt water was obtained.
The field was abandoned and forgotten,
the operators not being aware that they
had struck a vein of natural gas. Last
fall a hunter accidentally lighted the
gas in one of the wells, and it has con
tinued to burn ever since with a flame
six or eight feet high.
THE pastor of a colored Baptist church
in Baltimore was charged by members
with having run away with money be-
longing to the congregation. On his
return he showed that they had never
intrusted him with more than Sc at a
time, intended as a %fortnightly install
ment of his salary, and then crushed his
adversaries by asking someone to ex-
plain how he could support himself and
run away upon such an mount.
The horrible suffering of cattle in
Kansas is getting into print. It consists
Of starvation and freezing. The streams
have been frozen to the bottom, and
cattle, in ''rustling" for water, have
fallen on the ice, and, too weak to rise,
have frozen by hundreds. Again, in a
wind, cattle bunch in big herds for
warmth, the weakest being driven to
the center and crushed to death. Heaps
of these dead cattle dot the p~rairies.
"THE cost of the maintenance of re-
ligion in the United States is estimated
at one-halt a cent per annum for each
individual" said the Rev. S. T. Dekins,
in the Fourth Street M. E. Church,
Williamsburgh, N. Y. "The last census
shows hat while SO, 1853 lawyers receive
s35, 900, 900 every year in fees, $4,000
ministers get only Sc, O00, OOO." MI.
Dekins also said that SIS, 900, 900 was
spent every year to support the dogs of
the country. 8
AN Ohio paper thus enumerates some
of the crimes and casualties of the
roller. skating rink "a New Lisbon
young lady stole her poor old grand
mothers false teeth and pawned them
to raise money to attend the skating
rink. Two New Philadelphia girls
stole a crock of lard from their cellar to
pay their fares to the rink. Two Uhrichs-
vile girls bought coffee upon the credit
of the old folks, afterward sold the
same, and purchased tickets to the
rink
NoTrowAY COUNTY, Virginia, the re-
gion inhabited by the first settlers, and
made interesting by "reminiscences of
Capt. John Smith and Pocahontas, is
fast returning to its primeval condition.
"In twenty years it will be a wilder
ness" prophesies a visitor. The resi-
dents are old and sad. The young have
gone to more promising regions. Deer
browse where cattle fed, and the OAK
and pine cover great plantations where
the negro once cultivated corn and to.
bacco.