The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1888-10-12
CURIOUS FACTS.

in 1474.
Many Of the interior towns of Oregon
are raising money to import song birds
from Germany.
. Rearing dogs for their skins is practised
IN Manehnria and Mongolia lust as sheep
farming elsewhere.
An instrument of torture. termed o.the
boot" was used in Scotland upon the
Covenanters about 1865.
1t was not an uncommon practice for
the poor in the Middle Ages to sell them
selves into slavery or to become slaves
by debt.
Between Christmas, 1859, and the same
day, 1862, it is estimated that no less
than I'LL slaves were imported into
Jamaica alone.
James II. succeeded to the throne Of
England February &, 1885; abdicated
December y, i6sS; died in exile Sep.
TENDER IS, 1901.
Twenty out of twenty-four sheep be-
longing to Mr.. Edwards, of Guildford
county, Va, were killed the other day
by stroke of lightning.
The Dutch made the first settlement in
what is now the city Of New York in
1913, but the settlement was captured
by the English half century later.
Collegiate DEGREES are coeval with uni
versities. Masters and doctors existed
A. D. $50. Those in law are traced up
to 1l49, in medicine to 1884, in music to
1463.
The first naval screw vessel was the
Archimedes. built for the English navy
in 1910. She was so successful that
comparatively few ocean paddle steamers
were afterward constructed.
A Georgia man has a mule that is
driven to school on week days and to
church on Sundays, and is so intelligent
that if given the reins he will 90 straight
to his destination according TO the day
As late as 1929 there were as many as
5000 persons confined for debt in the
prisons of Massachusetts,, 10, 900 in New
York, 1000 IN Pennsylvania, 5000 in
Maryland, and a like proportion in other
States.
The editor of an Oneida On. Y..)
PAPER was shown a curiosity iE the
shape OF a seven leaf clover. This is the
only one he ever saw, ana it brought to
mind the saying: ''Find a seven and
prepare for Heaver.n
Most of our coffee comes from Brazil.
The grains are in the inside of berry,
the size of a cherry. In Java, after the
grains have been removed, they are placed
in shed, where the wind dries and cures
the plant. When it IS ready for market
the coffee is brought TO the shipping
ports on mules.
A farmer at Adairsville, Ca, while
near a spring the other day, observed a
rattlesnake King at full length, with
head erect, and only a few feet away
was a full grown rabbit, evidently under
the charm Of the snake. The latter was
quickly killed, when the rabbit fell over
and in few moments was dead.
Professor Angelo Motta died recently
at Turin, Italy. He had for years been
at work upon process by which, with
the aid of electricity, he hoped to be
able to convert the human body into
solid metal He had succeeded with the
arm of an infant and with various
smaller animals. His secret died with
him.
In the Mediterranean regions the
steep mountain slopes and hillsides are
terraced for the culture of oranges, lem
ons and olives, and these terraces are
held in place by rough stone walls, laid
up without mortar or cement. Behind
these loose walls, trees, shrubs and vines
are grown with the greatest success,
as they have been for centuries.
A silver crown piece, known as ''the
petition crown" of the reign of Charles
IL, fetched 1918 at a recent sale in
England. At the latest previous sale a
similar coin had broght only SIPS. A
sovereign of Edward vi time brought
1875, fifty shilling piece of the Crom-
well era $500, an Oxford crown 1856. A
penny of Ethelbald brought $3.50, and
other old pennies $50 and $50 each.