Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-07-23
SELECT SIFTlNGS.

There is a house in Connecticut town
on which there has been a 500 mortgage
for eighty-one years, and the annual in
terest on it has been regularly paid.
The absence of blood in the liver as
the supposed property of a coward, orig
mated, says DR.. Bucknill, in the old
theory of the circulation of the blood.
1t was common practice for the an
cient Romans to recline at length while
reading, and even writ ng, the tablet be-
ing placed against one knee, which was
raised up as support for the purpose.
A quaint phrase which a correspondent
Of the critic has found in Pennsylvania
and Virginia is ''gimber- jawed." On
seeing portrait of George Eliot Penn.
I sylvania lady exclaimed: "How CLIMBER
iawed she wasp
A pc aliar fFaalz.of nature Is presented
in tie result that attended the experiment
Of stocking Lake Ontario with shad seven
years ago. Millions of them were
hatched, but they were dwarfs. None
Of them grew to over seven inches long
and they are not fit to eat.
1t has been estimated that coca is used
by 10, 600, 600 of the human race, bet,l
nut by 100, 200, 0)0, chiccory by 40, 000,-
600, coffee by 100, 600, 900; 300, 600, 900
eat or smoke hashish, 500, 600, 900 use
opium, 500, 900, 900 use tea and all tie
known people of the cart are addicted
to the use of tobacco.
In some of the houses of the rich
among the ancient Romans there was a
small chapel or apartment where the
statues of the Lares, Or guardian spirits
of the household, as well as other sancti
fed or delfed persoaages, were wor-
shipped. In the houses of the ma jority Of
the people, however, the usual situation
for the images Of the ! es was over or
beside the hearth in the great hall, or
Utrium of the house.
The religious dances of the ancients
consisted for the most part of slow and
stately movements around the altar, with
out any violence of gesture or attempt at
gymnAstic dexterty, and more in the
nature of a ceremonial accompanied by
music than what is implied by our word
dance; consequently, among the Greeks
and Romans free-born citizens of both
sexes and all ranks, even the highest,
took part in these exhibitions without
any disparagemont TO the gravity of their
characters or dignity of position.
Man is not the only animal that com,
mts saicide. Herrings and other fish
have sought death by rushing ashore in
myriads; regiments of ants, by deliber
at ly marching into streams; swarms of
rats, by migrating into the face of their
deadly foes, and even butterflies, by fly
Ing in immense clouds straight out to
sea- 1t would b, interesting to learl the
causes of the apparent wholesale and
deliberate self-destruction. Is the act
purely conscious one, or are the creatures
! victims of disease--mental or physical2
If Zulu girl or woman violates the
laws of morality her parents take her to
preeipics and throw her and her child
over. They sometimes tie their daughter
on the ground and break an alt-hill over
her and leave her in the hot sun to die
Of thirst and be eaten by the ants. This
is something fearful. The African ant is
a formidable insect. With the power of
| Life and death in the hands of these
savages, what horrible tortures they de-
wise! The death is so slow and the pain
so intense that it is said the unfortunate
victims die raving mad.