News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-08-23
MYSTERIES OF A DAY.
NOTABLE EVENTS THOUGHT
WORTHY OF NEWSPAPER
RECORD.
A Gas WeIl-The Story of Old Hick
DRY A Lot of Gold Leaf-The
American Doctor, &C, &c.

BOSTON swell re-
IN Gently took trip way
MI Y down on Cape Cod.
ESA He had occasion to
e N8~N drive from the station
FL \ to his destination with
/. 3: !: 4. 4: ]: !. !"
I/It@ImOa typical "Cape Cod
Sf5%SSI8[E der" one of those keen
MAFs5s88 ~ SS$$SSs,, but not over brilliant
JbyE( " \S&&A looking sons of the sea-
w. " " coast. The Bostonian
W. Y ~ had noticed as they
W rode along, the bleak
country, with its uninviting fields
and sandy strips of land, and finally
said to his companion: 81 don't see how
You live in this forlorn-looking country.
What do you raise down here, anyway"
"Wall," was the drawing answer, eve
plant schoolhouses and raise men,
IT is told that when Frederick III. of
Germany was in London last Sir Morel
Mackenzie introduced to him q cele-
brated American physician, who exam
ined his throat carefully. 81 suppose, y
said the Emperor, San imperial throat
is very much like that of other throats?"
"Well," answered the American quickly
'we will try and make it SO, at any rate. "
Frederick appreciated the answer, and
shifting his mighty chest, said: ''But
this is all right, is it not2" The doctor
looked him over gravely and replied:
eyes. AS for the rest, you would
make good American The Emperor
enjoyed it all, but the German doctors
were simply dumfounded at the leyity
of the Yankee.
A FAMOUS man heating tiger has just
been captured alive in India. A pit was
dug for trap and baited with bullock.
After two days the beast came around,
and promptly jumped into it. To cap
ture him a second pit was dug near the
first and of the same depth. From this
tunnel was run to the first pit, thin
wall of earth being left between the end
of the tunnel and the pit. A strong
bamboo cage was pushed into this tunnel
from a second pit. A goat was placed
in the cage, and the wall of earth was
broken down. The tiger sprang upon
the goat, the entrance to the cage was
quickly closed, and the beast was fast,
and stayed so until he was safe in Cal
cutta.
PORT Huron, Mich, has a gas we'll
that is six years old The finders did
not know what it was when they struck
it, It was put down for oil, and, as the
| Times says, the objects for which the
work was undertaken not having been
reached, it was abandoned, and by some
! strange phase in this wide-awake com
munity it is being forgotten. The site
of the hole was originally hollow basin.
| 1t is now % mound. The action of the
| gas through those years has forced over
| 500 tons of matter out of the bowels of
| the earth, and is still at work. A power
that might have been utilized in light
! ing and heating our city is thus running
| to waste in building miniature hill.
A Maine fishing schooner recently
| caught on the George Banks, on a hail
but trawl, a queer fish. 1t weighed
seventy five pounds, and describe
as being "about as large as the top of
hogshead and almost as broad as long"
When first taken from the water
it was of bright red color and
marked with silver spots, varying
in size from that of a three-cent
piece to that of silver dol
| lar. After the fish had been out of the
water while the red became purple, ex-
cept on the fins, which ret ined their
N1N1C nue. 1u0 ILLS, buIo0 LII 11uL4DSIS
were small in proportion to the body,
and the tail was short and broad.
| The story of how Gen. Andrew Jack
son got the name of old Hickory is again
going the rounds, and will be new to
some young readers. During the Creek
war he had a bad cold, and his soldiers
made for him q shelter of hickory bark.
The next morning a tipsy soldier, not
knowing, who was under the bark
kicked it over. AS the general, speech
! the soldier yelled, "Hello, Old Hickory!
Come out of your bark and take a
drink" When the soldiers saw Jackson
shaking the bark from his uniform they
gave three cheers for cold Hickory"
and the name stuck.
| The largest dam in the world is to
be built across the upper end of the San
Mateo canon, about four miles west of
the village of San Mateo. The dam
will consist of solid wall of concrete
from hillside to hillside, the measure
ments being 700 feet long, It's feet high, |
TIA feet thick at the base, and 20 feet |
thick at the top. The vast reservoir |
which will be formed by the construc-
ton of this dam will have the enormous
capacity of $4,000, ZOO gallons, and at a
future time will be connected with the |
San Francisco watershed by tunnel
five miles long.
THE recent achievements of amateur
photography show that the dangerous
power of the camera. Out in Des Moines
O detective has made use of it to impli-
cate local druggist, who was suspec-
ted of violating the liquor laws. The
officer succeeded in photographing
number of citizens in the act of drink
ing in the premises-citizens whom
nothing could induce to pose voluntarily
before a camera under such circum-
stances. 1t would be difficult to dis
prove the testimony OF this simple,
silent witness. 1t is worth an army of
spoilers.
A FRENCH journal published for the
purpose giving curious information has
been investigating the story that during
the Reign of Terror Mile. de Sombreuil
was made to drink q glass of human
blood as the price of her life, and asserts
that this honored legend is unture. All
the foundation there could be for it, the
paper says, is that she probably was ask
ed to drink glass of wine to the health
of the republic, aud the hand of the man
WHO gave it to her might have been
dripping with blood.
IT will take 5,76O books of gold leaf to
gild the dome of the Boston State House
Each book contains twenty sheets of
gold leaf, each sheet containing q little
over 81 square inches. The sheets are
so thin that ZOO of them laid one on
the other make but an inch in thickness.
The gold is within carat of pure and
weighs 81 pounds Troy. Each book is
worth seventy cents, so that the gold
leaf alone costs 81, 032. 1t will take
fifteen skilled workman six weeks to do
the job.
In England the proper ratio of doctors
to population is said to be over one to
1000, but by this rule there are l, 943 too
many doctors in London, and while 600
die every year, 1,S00 new ones are turn
ed out. Competition is SO great that in
some parts of the city doctors will see a
patient, prescribe, and supply medicine
for siXpence a visit.
The longest tunnel in the world, it
is believed, and which is now in com
pleted state, is that which drains the
L