The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1886-11-05
Items Of Interest.

the colony OF MASSACHUSETTS.
The art of sculpture in wood seems
to have been native among the early
Greeks, and carved idols soon took the
place of stones and trunks of trees,
which were at first worshipped as
divine symbols.
Now we are told that graham bread
has had its day. cit is mistake to
suppose that the bran itself is of any
value as nourishment. The fibres of
wood which compose it are of no more
use than chips or shavings."
The biggest cannon that England
has or has ever had has arrived at
Woolwich from Sir William Arm
strongs factory. The new weapon is
110-ton gun, is forty-four feet in
length and 1911 inches in diameter, the
actual weight being ,795 pounds.
An English etEnologist has made an
interesting discovery. Sir Samuel
Baker notes as curious fact that the
negroes never tame elephants or wild
Carthaginians were trained by Arabs
and Carthaginians, but never by
negroes.
Numerous as are bicycles on our
Streets they are much more so every
where in England. The streets of
London, and even the avenues and
paths in Hyde Park, swarm with them.
Iii quite common to see little store
on a bicycle OF tricycle.. The man sits
behind, and propels his store with his
feet.
John Spaulding of Louisville, KY,
owns big mastiff bitch. Not long
since she captured and killed cat, the
mother of three kittens, and then. as if
conscious of having done an evil deed.
gathered the little orphans to her side
and has since tenderly cared for them
and fed them with the faithfulness of a
mother.
California claims a little Venice of
her own. Lake Elsinore-a body of
water seven miles long, three wide and
eighty feet deep-is between Los An
geles and San Diego. A city is growing
up all around it, and steamboats,
make regular trips along the shore,
and people can go from street to street
by water in a charmingly Venetian
manner
A New York oyster dealer figures up
that in the season thirty thousand
bushels of the delicious bivalve are
eaten by New Workers daily, and as
each bushel averages two hundred
oysters, it follows that six millions
are devoured. There being PA days to
the season, the aggregate consumption
is placed at l,464, 100000 oysters.
An interesting experiment was re-
Gently made to test the speed of the
swallows flight. Two hen birds were
taken from their broods in Pavia and
conveyed to Milan, where they were
released at a given moment Both of
them made their way back to their
nests in thirteen minutes, which gives
the speed as S71s miles an hour.
Persons who have a superstitious
dread of Friday will be interested to
learn that this is a thoroughly Friday
year. 1t came in on Friday, and will
have fifty-three Fridays. Four months
OF the year have five Fridays each;
changes of the moon occur five times
on Friday. and the longest and shortest
days are Fridays.
Huber, the great authority on bees,
was blind from his seventeenth year,
and conducted the observations which
gave him the facts through the eyes Of
his wife. He declared that he should
be miserable were he to regain his eve
sight, adding: az should not know to
what extent person in my situation
could be beloved: beside, my wife is
always young. fresh and pretty, which
is no light matter"
The lurifer match was invented by
John Walker, of Stockton-lpon-T Tees
(England) in 1929. Mr.. Walker manu-
featured but few of these matches and
those We're for the use of the people of
his neighborhood. Professor Fardav.
learning of them, procured some and
brought them into public notice Their
useful properties were soon generally
acEnOWip1u ad oOd tbeir r,on1foo+,,ro