The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-01-02
Items of Interest


Sassafras oil, which is used for favor.
ing soap and soda water, costs 81 gal
Ion.
New York has 800 photograph galleries
within three miles of Union square.
Forty years ago there was only one
daguerrotype saloon in the city.
Tom Thumb took TO drinking and also
to stock gambling, and when he died his
fortune of 100000 made in the show
business, had dwindlel down TO about
$40, 900.
The greatest tea thinker in England
IS Mr.. Gladstone, the greatest in France
NJ Clemenceau, and in America Mr..
Boucicault. The latter carries while
travelling flask of tea as others do OF
cognac.
a deep cave has been found to exist
under the town OF Blaukston, Iowa, by
farmer who was sinking I'M artesian
well. Three unsucce 'sfu attempts were
made TO sink the we'll but each time
the drill sunk into the cave.
The United States army that conquered
in Mexico consisted in round numbers
of 100000 men, and the entire loss did
not exceed 20 per cent, leaving 80, 600
men of the average age of twenty-eight
years to be discharged in 1917.
The late Duke of Buccieuch spent
money on his estates with liberal hand,
and also gave freely to general charities.
During a long life he had an annual in
come of about 81, 250,O 600, and yet the
left less than $4,000, 600 in personality.
There have beeu five presidential
widowers in the White House, Jefferson,
Jackson, Van Buren, Tyler and Arthur.
One was bachelor, and Harrison never
had the wife there at all. Andrew John
sons wife was an invalid and his
daughters did the honors.
Oliver Cromwell was no less than
forty-three years of age when he first
embraced the military profession; and
by force of genius, without any master,
he soon became an excellent officer !;
though perhaps he never reached the
fame of consumma!e commander.
After much experimenting, DR..
Richardson has found satisfactory
means of causing painless death, and
has introduced it into the Home for
Lost Dogs i'll London. The animals to
hp la1 Il.
with a mixture of cabonic oxide and
chloroform vapor, when they TRANQUILITY
fall asleep and wake no more
In the year 1900, the caual connecting
the Cooper River with the Sautee River,
South Carolina, twenty-five miles in
length. was completed, and boats passed
through it. 1t cost 5000, 600, a sum, it
was said, seven times greater than the
amount the province had sold for
seventy-two years before
Pavements made of brick impregnated
at a high temperature with asphalt are
found more durable for wear than
granite or compressed asphalt. BY
driving out the air and water the bricks
take up fifteen or twenty per cent. OF
bitumen; they are then put endways on
concrete bed with hot tar.
Charles Dunsler, blacksmith OF
! Leesville, Ohio, has made n clock, most.
| ly with blacksmith's TOOLS which has
excited considerable comment in his
neighborhood. 1t is principally of steel,
| and i'll glass case so the movement car
be seen, and give the time III clever
cities, striking the hours and quarters
md is seven feet high.
The Mississippi Valley produces abou
! one-half the cotton crop of the United
States, two-thirds the grain, nearly al
the sugar. and a considerable portion O
the hay, potatoes, tobacco, rice, fax
hemp, beans, peas, millet, etc, of til,
dairy, orchard, forest and Market garden
| products, besides most Of the petroleum
and great deal of the iron, steel ant
! other minerals.
Native cooks in the East Indies. CLAIM
value in the following method of dis
tinguishing the edible fungus mushroom
from the poisonous varieties that re
semble it. A silver coin is thrown int
water which boils the mushrooms. /
the metal retains its color the musli
rooms are pronounced safe, but if j
turns black with coating of rust til
plants are condemned.
Two gentlemen hired large store i
Kansas City and succeeded in gettin
about $4,000 worth of dry goods col
signed to them. Then the doors wer
closed and peoples curiosity was .sati.
fed by seeing a bit of Grape on the ou
side, supposed to be on account of til
death of q daughter of one of the pre-
prietors. Finally, however, creditt
became impatient, and the store WI
broken into and found empty. All IL
goods had gone and so had the tw
partners.
In 1893 an act was passed by the vi
ginia Assembly, setting forth a roy
patent granted to Thomas Neale, to g
tablish post in the American coloni,
for the transportation of letters al
, packets at such rates as the plante
, should agree to give. The act autho
!, lied rates of postage, and the estahlis
ment of postoffice i'll every town in Il
colony. Other colonies passed simil
acts, and colonial postoffice systei
very limited and imperfect was esta
lished under the patent This was t
6 beginning of the postal system in IL