The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1885-06-25
TIMELY TOPICS

TIMELY TOPICS
Editor Shropshire of the Cossa hive
(Ga.) Neos and his wife, are SAID TO o
the youngest grandparents in this country
He is thirty five and she twenty eight
yet they have a grandchild over yea
old.
The Pixies peak railway, which vii
be in operation probably next year, VII
be the most notable piece of track IN tn
world. 1t will mount 1000 feet hlghe
than the Lima and Croya railway in Peru.
It is now in operation to point over
II, 900 feet above the sea level.
A kindergarten movement in the form
of church schools is taking shape at New
York. Already few such schools exist
and are doing excellent work. Rev.
Heber Newton has a free kindergarten IN
the basement of his church, where eighty
poor children are instructed from half
past nine till twelve, and then given a
free luncheon before being sent home.
At present the Rothschild family con-
troll the quicksilver supply of the world,
but a new mine has been found at Schup-
mastena, near Belgrade. There are only
few quicksilver mines known, the two
largest being in Spain and California.
Both are owned by the house of Roth
schild, who only permit supply but
never a glut of the market to issue from
their mines, and thus they control an
immense and very profitable monopoly.
The yearly consumption of quicksilver is
cut down to 100000 bottles, the larger
part of which comes from California,
while Spain furnishes about 10000 bot
ties.
One of the most remarkable women in
California is Mrs. Hill. Eight years ago
her husband died, leaving her a family
of three children and a legacy of debt
amounting to 81, 400. By hard work with
her hands at washing, taking boarders.
raising chickens and the like, she paid
the debt in five years. Then on small
scale she began the raising of pyrethrum,
the flowers of which are ground and used
as an insect powder. Last year she man
ufactured ten tons of the powder. The
present year she will devote two hundred
acres to the profitable weed. She is
now worth half million of dollars, and
employs from fifty to eighty men, women
and children on her ranch.
Australia is 10y no means destitute of
rivers. The Murray is larger than the
Danube, being navigable I, ZIG miles in
New South Wales and 5S7 in South Aus
tralia. The Edwards and the Wakool.
tributaries of the Murray, are together
navigable for 400 miles; and the Muir
rumbidgee, another tributary, is navi ga
BILE 500 miles. The Darling is navigable
for 1853 miles from Wentworth, where
it joins the Murray to Walgett in the
north, making in all 3,774 miles of in
land navigable waters in this colony, and
making the navigable water in one line
from Walgett to Wentworth t. 1853 miles,
thence to the sea 5S7, or in all 2,344
miles, so that the Darling stands third
among the rivers of the world, estimated
by their navigablc length.
Present indications point to consid-
cradle decrease in the number of sheep
in this country, while in Australia, our
greatest competitor in sheep husbandry,
there is no increase. If such be the
of certainty that the sheep raiser who
preserves and cares for his t1ocks will ere
long receive substantial. reward. Sue
cessful merchants and manufacturers ere
those who form an opinion of their own
and are not swayed by popular whim or
impulse. The successful sheep raiser
will be he who makes acareful survey of
the field and forms an opinion of his
own, based upon the diminished number
of sheep and the positive increase in the
number of consumers of wooden cloth
ing. It is certainly mistaken policy to
sell sheep when their market value is as
low as at present.
The case of Emma Bond, the unfortu-
nate school teacher who was so outra-
geously assailed in Taylorville, ILL.,. in
1882, is most remarkable one. She
has never recovered from her injuries,
and now goes about on clutches, but
the mental effect produced is the most
extraordinary. A letter 10 the St. Louis
Globe Democrat says since receiving that
injury all recollections of former events
and of the terrible treatment of which
she was the victim has passed out of her
mind. She does not recolect anything
about her former home, nor is she able
to recognize any of her acquaintance,
and knows no one except her relatives.
She does not realize that she is crippled
and attributes the use of her crutches
to the fact that she is getting flesh. She
has even forgotten her former knowl-
edge of music, in which she was quite
proficient, and to occupy her mind she
is taking music lessons The memory
of the past seems to be entirely blotted
out.
Alder gulch, Southern Montana, which
is estimated to have produced upward of
$50, 900, 900 in gold, stands at the head
of the placer producing mines of the coun-
try. Platinum is now found to be another,
and, it may be, greater treasure of the
famed gulch. Last fall an investigating
miner, owning claim near Virginia
City, reduced with the common mining
pan a quantity of the sand and gravel
found in the ''pay" portion of the gulch,
and sent the concentrates thus obtained
to Edison, the electrician, being aware
that he would be more concerned about
the discovery of platinum than prob
ably any other man in America. The
miners dreams proved to be we'll
founded, and his most sanguine expecta.
tons were more than realized. Not long
since he received two cards from Mr..
Edison, on which were passed the parti.
Giles of platinum obtained from the CON
centrates sent. The local paper looks
upon it as one of the most important dis
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