The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1885-02-26
TIMELY TOPICS,

Two islands that were thrown up by
the great Java earthquake last year have
again sunk out of sight and below the |
deep water line of navigation. The vol
cano Merapi, which started the previous
disturbance, is once more unusually ac-
tive. -
John Bright has figured out the cost
of the wars of Queen Victoria's reign,
and in his speech at liberal demonstra-
ton in Birmingham he announced that
England has sacrificed $3.50, 900, 900 and
6S, 900 lives in war since the coron alton
of her present illustrious sovereign,
nearly forty y-eight years ago.
There are in America at the present
time 10000 locomotives. To keep up
the standard and supply new demands
1900 must be built each year. Locomo-
tives cost on an average $4,000 each,
which would indicate an expenditure of
$12. 10000 this year. There are six
teen locomotive works in the United
States, among which this work and
money will be more or less evenly dis
tributed.
Jenny Lind is described as one of the
most active members of the College of
Music in London. Her duties as
teacher are discharged in the most
thorough and conscientious way, as she
arrives early at her professional post, and
remains often an hour or two beyond
the required time. She is very strict but
at the same time sympathetic with her
scholars, who in return for her devotion
to their interests are said to adore her.
The boundaries of the region known
as the West have been perpetually shift
ing. Within the lifetime of old folks it
commenced along the loot hills of the
Alleghanies A few years later the
limit stood for while on the banks of
the Mississippi To-day the boundary
lies ON the bluffs of the Missouri, in the
neighborhood of Kansas City. Beyond
that point lies the region of tradition.
prophecy, adventure, discovery. enter
prise. heroism-the West
A unique form of entertainment has
just taken place in Vienna where the
Hairdressers' congress was concluded by
the curious spectacle of competitive hair
dressing, performed by twelve ladies'
hairdressers on living models, who were
seated on raised platform, round which
the Vienna public thronged as if the art
of hairdressing were the chief interest OF
the nation. The admiration of the au-
dience was great, especially at the feat
performed by one of the competitors,
who adorned his model with spark of
electric light.
Capitalists have organized company
to build monster artificial lake in the
town of Northfeld, S. l. The lake will
cover / 900 acres of land and hold 49,,
600, 600 gallons OF water It will receive
/! watershed from ten miles of woodland.
Hundreds of brooks and springs will
empty into it. The proprietors propose
to supply drinking water to villages and
cities in New Jersey through large iron
aqueducts that will be laid across Long
Island sound, which at one point is quite
narrow. The dam will be 4.400 feet
long and twelve feet high.
Servants are cheap and plenty in Mex
leo, and you are pretty sure to have sew
eral descendants of the Aztec kings
about the house if you hire one, for it is
the rule that the whole family accom-
pany the father or mother who goes out
to service. Your cook brings her hus
band, her children, and pretty nearly all
her relations, and they are fed from your
table and sleep under your roof. The
husband may be shoemaker, or saloon
keeper, or a hackman, but he lives where
his wife works. There are usually rooms
enough in the ho Use for them all, and the
only food they want is plenty of beans
and what is left from your own table.
A Washington correspondent of the
| Chicago Times says: "a hundred years
ago, President Stiles, of Yale College.
wore a gown of American silk; Mrs.
Garfield has been given an American silk
dress, and Congress has two American
silk flags. These are the chief results
of more than two hundred years of eff
forts, private and public, to domesticate
the silk industry. The plea now made
for silk culture is that feeding the worms
would constitute light and moderately
temunerative employment for American
women and children, to be carried on at
their homes, and if the women of the
Silk Culture association succeeded In &C
complishinH what they aim at they will
provide the farmers wives of the warmer
regions of the country with pin-money."
The scientific commission, which was
recently appointed by the Spanish gov
ernment to investigate the late earth
quakes in Southern Spain, is daily send.
/ ifig reports to Madrid of the result of its
operations Perhaps the most remark
| able phenomenon noted by the commission
is that of the complete obliteration of
the high road leading into Periana. no
certain trace of which can be found for
several miles outside the town. The
road in most places lay between abutting
hills, and in the recent terrific disturb.
| ances of the earth's crust seems to have
been forced downward or engulfed.
Many of the bills themselves were lev
eled beyond recognition, and we'll
known landmarks, whose positions had
remained undisturbed for centuries, were
/ moved distance of thirty yards.
Three performing seals are said to be
seen at the Westminster aquarium in
London. They perform on such musi-
cal instruments as the banjo, guitar,
drum and cvmbals; they smoke, and in
| the comic part of their performance
.. blind member of the trio plays the part
of the needy knife-grinder; while
| orokhor loft 70 rooL cradle OvPrt1rnS