News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-07-02
THE MYSTERIES OF A DAY.
STRANGE AND CURIOUS NOTES OF
THINGS TAKING PLACE ABOUT Us.

| STRANGE AND We
THINGS TAKING PLACE ABOUT US.
Crossing n Rivera Club scandaI-A Lode
Gazing fn-Whnt 10 do with the water
The Telephone Mt Sea, Etc., Etc.
THEY have q curious way OF crossing
the Androscoggin River, at Rumtord,
Me. The man who runs the ferry
has to use very little muscle, for the
river itself works the boat over and
back. The road runs right into the
river. and the boat is SO shoal that the
coach drives directly on it from the road
without wharf or landing of any con-
struetion. On each side of the river is
a high post. A stout hempen cable is
stretched across the river from the tops
of these posts. To this cable the ferry
boat is fastened by ropes at each end.
These ropes run along the large cable in
iron travellers. When one end of the
| boat is turned up stream at a slight
angle the downward current strikes the
rear and drives it across. Rolling off a
log is easy, but no easier than putting
this boat across the Androscoggin.
UNDER the shade of cottonwood trees
in Sante Fe tourist lately saw fifty
Indian boys and girls taking their first
lesson in gymnastic exercises, designed
to make them less awkward in deport-
ment. A bright young American girl
was the instructress, and it was highly
diverting to see the eagerness with which
these untutored children followed her
movements. The boys were as pleased
with their first jackets and trousers as
any Yankee lad on emerging from petit
coats and long curls. Nor were the
Indian girls less proud of their skirts
and their well-ftting shoes. Stockings,
the observer noticed, were likely to come
down, trick which the girls evidently
thought to be characteristic of stockings,
but they got plenty of exercise in pulling
them up into place.
PROFESSOR BELL, of telephone fame,
thinks the ''echo" system of ascertain
ing when ship is approaching an ice
berg or another vessel sufficiently i'm
portant for an article in Science, and,
although old sea dogs gravely shake
their heads, it is said that the device
has been put to a successful test on
rough water. The principle is that any
solid body on the surface of the ocean
will give back an echo to a sound from
the deck of ship not too far distant,
and the navigator, with a bell to make
the sound and telephone to receive the
echo, can easily tell when there is dan
ger of a collision. There is reason to
hope that the invention will prevent
many disasters at sea.
The Silver City Enterprise says:
Skeletons of twenty-five or thirty men
were recently found in a canon near
STEMS Peak, Colorado. Several hundred
cartridge shells and..some small pieces
of blue army uniforms were also found
on the ground. The red bones of Indians
were also found near by, and several
Indian graves are only short distance
from the battlefield. That battle with
Indians was fought there years ago there
can be no question, and that the entire
command of soldiers were massacred is
equally certain, for had the soldiers
been victorious those of their comrades
who were killed would have been buried.
1t is probable that the soldiers were
surprised.
A SCANDAL took place in San Fran
cisco club last week. One of the mem
bers introduced card sharp into the
club. A little game followed later in
the evening. The card sharp success
fully plucked the members friends.
There was some misunderstanding about
the division of the spoils. The member
called the card sharp thief. The card
sharp was sensitive and betrayed his ac-
complete. A committee of the club in
question called upon the member for an
explanation. He explained that it was
a joke. This was not deemed sufficient.
He was compelled to sell some property
to make the losses good, and he was re-
quested to resign, which he did.
A DAY or so ago Officer Morgan was
taking stock of dogs for tax purposes in
Crawford Ward, of Savannah, Ga. He
was seen approaching by a colored
woman who was the proud owner of
pug. Guessing the officers mission she
picked the dog up and thrust it in the
kitchen stove. The fire had gone out
and pug lay quiet. He was so still that
he was forgotten, and when meal time
approached the fire was kindled. 1t
blazed up quickly and PIGGY grew
warm. When, yelping with pain, he
was liberated, he was SO scorched and
burned that he has not been either an
ornament or of use since.
The famous comstock silver lode is
said to be still growing; that is, that the
causes which produced the great vein
are yet in operation, though with dimin-
ished activity. In all the softer ground
where a drift is run movement is seen
toward the closing of it. This move
ment is called by the miners the ''swell-
ing" of the ground, and in some in
stances 1t is almost startling in its
energy. Belts of a peculiar kind of clay
that have been cut by drifts have been
known to rise from the floor until more
than thirty feet have been cut away.
Two YEARS ago several large iron spike
were for some purpose driven into very
old apple tree near Clyde, N. Y, that
for years had been nearly barren. Last
year it was filled with large fine apples,
and now the blossoms are plentiful
enough to warrant a good supply OF
fruit. The owner believes that the
spikes restored to the tree its original
prolific qualities. He is now trying the
experiment on other trees in the
orchard
THE Rothschild family control the
quicksilver supply of the world, with
the exception of new mine Just discov-
cred near Belgrade. There are only
few quicksilver mines known, the two
largest being in Spain and California.
Both are owned by the House of Roths-
child, who only permit supply but
never glut of the market to issue from
their mines, and thus they control an
immense and very profitable monopoly.
THE romance of the youth of Victor
Hugo was his passionate attachment to
Adele Foucher, the young daughter of
neighbor. Her father disproved of
the match, and would not give her a
dowry, and at the same time the young
Hugo was cut off with shilling at
home. They decided to wait, and, each
remaining true, were married when he
was twenty and she eighteen, on cap
ital of $3.50.