The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-12-26
SOME INTERESTING ITEMS


The fruit trees in Santa Barbara are being
dug up and English walnuts planted in their
stead.
The population of Oregon, according to the
County Assessors is 204 900, being an increase of
$4,000 since 1880.
Germany devotes 100000 acres to the cul-
tivation of the potato. The yield last year was
%, 00O, 900 tons.
"A rustic visitor to Burlington, VT. spent
Thanksgiving Day on the horse railway, making
the trip of four miles twenty-five times.
"A Stonington Comm man, who has been
chewing tobacco for fifty years, has suddenly re-
ceived an unaccountable aversion for the weed.
The King Of Bavaria's debts are estimated at
S4,5OO,OOO, and it has been arranged to appro-
pirate $4,000 a year from the royal civil list
until all his debts are paid.
-"It is absolutely impossible" said Lord Iscse-
berry in recent address in Scotland, shat in the
future war could ever take place between the
United States and England"
"A pet deer belonging to W. II. Payne of
Spencerville, CAL, has voluntarily returned to
captivity after year of freedom spent in the for
est in company with its kind.
Miss Smith, wealthy old lady, who died
recently at Chapel Hill, N. c., bequeathed 100
acres of land and $125 in cash to each of six of
her old slaves who are now living.
The necessity of maintaining, as at present,
eighteen palaces when Queen Victoria resides but
in one, and that for only three months in the
year, is likely to occupy the next Parliament.
The Prairie du Pont levee near East Caron-
deet ILL.,, just reaching completion, will protect
10000 acres of choice bottom lands, the flooding
of which last summer caused the loss of $500 900.
This levee will cost 10000.
"A Chicago street corner lot that was bought
thirty years ago for less than $4,000, has just
been leased for ninety nine years at an annual
rental of $4,000. A ten-story building to cost
a round million will ha erecfed unon IL
During the recent cold snap at st. Louis men
were watching along the levees all day and night
ready to step on the ice the moment it was able
to bear them, and stake out o "claim" to an area
for cutting. Such claims are always respected.
Mr.. Shaw-Lefevre, ex-Postmaster- General,
said lately that there million of children in
England who do not attend school by reason of
the poverty of their parents. 1t may be added
that in half Of these cases drink is tie of it..
The much abused drug clerk is not the only
person liable to accidents with poisons. recent
case is cited in Jeannerette, La, in which father
of two sick children gave the medicines prescribed
for each of them to the other, thus killing both
children.
The residents along a lumber Aume in the
mountains above Chico, CAL, have a novel way of
getting their mail 1t is started on q raft from
the head of the fume at regular dates, and the
people below watch for it, take out what belongs
to them and then send the raft with its precious
cargo on the way.
The Union Pacific Railway Company now
operates 449s miles of road, and either controls
or has proprietary interests in 1,3O5 miles more,
total 1904. In operating this system, which pen
etrates five States and Territories, over 10000
men are employed.
The Wisconsin Central Railroad has made a
desirable innovation upon bad custom by pay
ing the porters of its new sleeping lines $50
month, and forbidding them, on pain of discharge,
from receiving tips. The Pullman Company pays
its porters SO month
An object of public curiosity, near New Phil
adelphia, Ohio, is a man who never shears the
wool from his sheep, or piucks his geese, or
'rings" his swine. He says it is sinful to inter-
fere with nature His own hair and beard are
never shorn, nor are his nails cut. Every ,Hensl
about the farm is home made.
All the undertaking of the Mkado of Japan
is made of peculiar soft white silk and as this
"Son of Heaven" never wears garment twice,
one that has been washed, he consumes great
amount of this material; but it is not wasted, for
the royal cast off garments are competed for
priceless possessions by his loyal subjects.
The Tramp law of Connecticut was denounc-
ed in his sermon at Stratford on Sunday morning
by the Rev. Mr.. Hand (Methodist) as the only
one of the State laws he could not obey. He ap-
pealed for pity and charity to the poor and the
outcast wherever found, and advised his people
to ignore the Tramp law and help the needy
under all circumstances.
"A man in Salem, Mass, has invented method
of ventilating railway cars by means of fans re-
volving underneath the car through gearing at
tached to the axles. The air is forced up into
the car through pipes having bell-shaped nova
bic openings above each seat but this air is freed
from dust by first passing through water. 1t is
on trial by the Boston and Lowell Railroad.
Wild fox grapes in the Allegheny Mountains
in West Virginia are made into jelly and sold by
the residents in those poor cabins to the keepers
of the crossroads stores for Is cents pound, the
pay to be Gin trade" The jelly is of two kinds,
one dark blue, the other pale green, and both
are said to surpass the Scotch jams and jellies
that in this country sell for rs cents pound.
"A New Haven boy recently, ''for fun" in
serted advertisement in local paper for
husband A Western farmer answered it, and
the younglman wrote at length, describing him
self as handsome, middle-aged woman, with
long bank account The granger came on last
week to see the woman. He is now after the
young man with a suit for fraud and loss of time
and money.
You cannot get an acre of land in Nebraska
under So an acre to day, and it is certain to in
crease in price. The Roman Catholic Bishop
says that if the wealthy Irish would form a syndi-
cate and purchase lands, even now in Nebraska
Kansas, it would be the safest and most prof.
table investment they could make. There is no
reason, he says, why the land should not increase
in price until it reaches S75 acre.
The business of painting the huge signs upon
fences and barns which assault the eye in all parts
of the country is in the hands of few contractors
in New York and Chicago. One firm in N. Y.
city spend from S10,0 900 to $4,000 year in this
way, paying from one and one-half to two cents
a square foot for the work. The bigger the sign
the better. Many can be found reaching 800 feet
in length and the biggest of all at Newark, Ohio,
is more than 500 feet long and contained only
enc word.