The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1885-03-21
Warning to Sceptics.

| called the father o. Lies, instead OF the
| Father OF History. because OF the won
/ ders related by him which have since
/ been shown TO be facts. The poor I'm
/ intellect andveracityl are always with
/ us; and they can never admit that
anything exists outside what they
know, or understand how any traveller
| IN little known regions can fail to lie
/ Justify when he comes home again.
| Among the creatures thus specially
rldiculed was the monster earth
worm described by Rapp, some
forty years ago, and those who
believed in it, or declined utterly to
reject 1t, were sneered at Just as those
who recognize the reasonableness of
the sea-serpent are laughed at now.
Rapp said he had seen in South Africa
a monstrous earthworm, several feet
in length. One OF these he described as
s feet two inches long and proportion
ately thick The measurement was
regarded as not worthier of credence
than Gulhver's precise statements of
the height of Liliputian and Brob-
dingnagian animals. The alb
surdity and impossibility of the
thing was abundantly proved.
\ worm OF the ordinary kind
averages, let us say, SIX inches in
length. Here, ii this lying traveller
was to be believed, was an animal
more than twelve times as long and
therefore some 500 times as large.
Now, the ordinary boa constructor is
about Is feet long Multiply his
length by II and we get a serpent 216
feet in length. Credat WdUS. etc
Rapp was demonstrably a vendor OF
lies, so, at least said the young buc-
cancers OF the press. Well, there is
now IN the Geological Gardens in Lon
don a living specimen of the species
described by Rapp. 1t Is not one of
the largest. Indeed these creatures
arehard to catch and keep alive and
probably the biggest are the most diff
ticult to secure. They are described as
fairly abundant in the neighborhood
OF Port Elizabeth and other parts of
Cape Colony but they keep out of
sight unless heavy rains drive them
out OF their holes, when hundreds of
them can be seen crawling about, but
they usually perish soon after thus
visiting the surface. The specimen at
the Geological Gardens is about five
feet long, however; so that it is quite
a gOod-sized worm. Here, then, is a
case where a creature, the description
OF which excited as much rlGicuie as
that of the sea-serpent, is found not
only to exist in large numbers, but to
be amenable to the customary treat
ment extended by our kindly race to
the inferior races. We have captured
a specimen and keep it on show.
To Supplant the Potato.
While the Irish are endeavoring. as
it would appear, to destroy everything
English, the latter, or at any rate
some OF them have undertaken a labor
which should end in the agricultural
betterment of the sister isle. This is
nothing less than a determined effort to
replace the old dfamily OF potatOes-the
SOlanum TuberOsum introduced by
Sir Walter Raleigh-by new race of
tubers belonging to the same species,
but newer and more powerful to resist
the various rOts and diseases which
seem to prey upon the wOrn-Out old
SOlanum which has been the parent OF
all the varieties exhibited at agricultur-
al shows 1t appears that all efforts
to generate, to restore its old quail
ties, have failed, and. with few exCep-
tlOns they are growing year by year
more watery and less farinaceOus or
nourishing. In this emergency an En-
glish farmer has been making a series
OF curious experiments with a new
tuber called the SOlanum Maglia, which
seems to refuse to be prey to any OF
the unpleasant diseases OF the present
species. This new Solaum is one of
the many discoveries of the elder Dar-
win, the well known botanist, father
of the teacher OF the doctor of evolu-
ton. He found it in some islands in
the Pacific on the coast of Chill. 1t
will grow even in marshy, wet ground,
and thrives without trouble. As yet
the growth is not quite satisfactory,
the plants not producing sufficient
tubers to be profitable, but the plant
may become the potato of the future,
more especially as those which have
been cooked have been found to con
tain all the best qualities OF the old
Murphy"
Smoking Among the Puritans.
From the New York Post.l
The early settlers of the Plymouth
colony were greatly addicted to smok-
ing, which practice subsequently be-
came so common that the weed was
smoked in church during service. This
custom, 1t seems, soon caused cOnsId-
cradle annoyance. as the exercises
were greatly dist Irbed "by the click
ing of fiints and steel to light their
pipes, and clouds OF smoke in the
church" Hence, in 1879, the colony
ma CSad his law - II * enacted that
any person or persons that shall be
found smoking of tobacco on the
Lord 5 day, going to or coming from
the meetings, within two miles OF the
meeting house. shall pay 2 pence for
every such default" Under this law
were fined Richard Berry, Jedediah
Lombard, BENJAMIN Lombard, and
James Maker for smoking tobacco
at the end of Observation-Disclosures
on the Lords day"
OsMAN DlGMA's original name was
Alphonse Vinet, he being a full-blOod-
ed Frenchman. He was at one time
sold as a slave to Mohammed Ahmed
el Mehdi, but quickly rose in the
prophet s favor and he became hisson-
in-law He IS now about 53 years old.
FROM the 14th to the 18th Of Sep
tember next is the time selected for
holding the Illinois state fair III
Chicago.
First National Bank