Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-04-30

there were In Boston six carvers of
these heads now there is only one.
Sailors are fond of poking fun at
them, and often q ship comes into
port with a pipe in the mouth Of the
winged cherub on her bow.
Chickens, two minutes after they
have left the eggs, will follow with
their eyes the movements Of crawling
insects and peck at them, Judging
distance and direction with almost in
fallible accuracy. They will instinct
lively appreciate sounds, readily run
ming toward an invisible hen hidden
in box when they hear her "call. :"
They are moving Lord Carrington' S
house IN Whitehall, London, en- masse
to an adjacent site, after what they
call the American fashion, and the
operation, so simple with us, is caus-
ing considerable excitement in Lon
don. Had they taken to this Ameri-
can fashion earlier many houses of
historic interest, among them the
several residences of Milton, might
have been saved.
Soap trees similar to those growing
In China and Japan are said to flour
ish In Florida. They are prolific bear
ers OF berry about the size of a
marble, which may be used as sub
stitute for soap just as they are taken
from the trees. In Florida, however,
| they are usually boiled down and cast
into bars. It is thought they may be
made to grow ON Northern farms after
a little acclimatization.
CelLuloid, or splendid imitation of
it, is now made from potatoes, which
are boiled in. water containing per
cent of suIphuric acid. The resulting
pasty mass is then deprived of its ad-
herent moisture by pressure, and IS
afterward nodded into any required
form. It is said that good billiard
ball can be made of this Substance,
and that pipe-bowls manufactured
from it are difficult to distinguish
from meerschaum.
An English lockmaker has con-
structed a key which be claims is ca
pable of opening %, 600 patent lever
locks, all of which differ in their
wards or combinations. AS described
the key weighs three ounces, is nickel
plated, and is said to be the result of
three years labor on the part of the
inventor in making drawings of the
different wards and combinations.
A Westmoreland county, Pennsyl~
vania, school teacher was recently
on trial before the directors upon a
charge of using improper language.
He was acquitted, and the following
is a sentence taken from the entry
concerning the affair made on the
Official records: "Witness were not
very strong and the board voted I'M
anermus in Mr.. Ferghosons favor"
The Anglican Communion through
out the world embraces at the present
time 206 bishops and 29.66S clergy.
OF these II bishops and 1868 clergy
belong to the United States. This
gives an average Of one bishop to
every LA clergy. In England there
Is only one bishop to every 553 clergy;
IN Ireland, one to 146; Scotland, So;
colonies, SO; and United States, 81.
FROM a return published by the
Berlin municipality of the population
of the German capital it appears that
Berlin had on Dec. 1, 1880, (the last
census day of the German Empire),
1, 1923, COS inhabitants, including the
military By the end Of 1881 the pop
ulation had risen to 1,156, 1872 souls;
1882, to 1892, 073; 1883, to /, 1926, 1872;
1884, to 1,263,196. The garrison of
Berlin was, at the end of the latter
year, 20, 064. A fresh census of the
German Empire will be taken on Dec.
l, next.
WHEN Queen Victorias guests are
hidden TO sleep at Windsor Castle
they do not see much of her Majesty,
who seldom makes her appearance be-
fore dinner. After that meal q few
words OF conversation may be had
with the sovereign, but she presently
retires to her private apartments and
is no more seen. She is a great stick
Ter for etiquette and insists upon ladies
wearing much lower dresses than
would otherwise be customary among
the fair sex who are not the possessors
of plump shoulders.
Mr.. D. @. ROBBINS, in his annual
Review of the drug trade of New
York, " states that in 1884 we imported
1 1868, 732 ounces of quinine and 3, 588.
3O7 pounds of cinchona bark. We
are importing more quinine and
manufacturing less every year. In
1884 we imported twice as much
quinine and half as much bark as in
1882. In 1888 more opium was i'm
ported for smoking (293, 153 pounds)
than for all other purposes put togeth>
er. The large duty placed upon this
form of opium reduced the import for
1884 very considerably.
It is most curious fact that one of
the most famous poems in our lang
uage appeared originally ia a maya
zine that seldom toushes poetry at all,
and the same periodical, after an in
terval of sixty-six years, now brings
out another poem very similar in
theme. Bryant's "Thanatopsis" was
first printed IN the North American