Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-07-07
STRAY BITS.

the United States.
 The pin factories of England, France, Hol- land and Germany are said to turn out 77 ,OO0 900 pins daily.
 Leprosy is said to be spreading at an alarm ing rate in Russia. Thirty cases have been officially reported in Darvat alone.
 The one story frame cabin in which An drew Johnson served his apprenticeship as tailor is still standing in Columbia, Tenn.
 Miss Leoline Daniels, of Athens, La, while preparing for her wedding, became suddenly ill and died about the hour she was to have been married
 The average expense of the Cornell gradu' ating class of 127 members through the course was S575 year; highest, g., 800, and lowest, $25O.
 Florida promises to become a large pro- ducer of opium. Sixteen plants will produce an ounce, and an aero of peoples will yield s1,000 worth of opium.
 Scientists say there is no plant that does not serve as food for some animal, but the only article used as food from the mineral kingdom is common salt.
 An elm tree growing in the grounds of the Pennsylvania hospital, in Philadelphia, is a scion of the famous tree under which William Penn held the first treaty with the Indians.
 The trustees of Cornell university have de- cided to build one of the largest and finest library buildings in the country. It will cost nearly S250, 900 and is to accommodate 4OO,- 900 volumes.
 Three thousand of Jerseys small sand crabs have been packed in jars and sent to German university, i'll the hope that some may live to get there and adorn its museum of natural history.
 Anglomania in Paris has had one good re- suit. It has developed fashion for walking among women. A constitutional is all the fashion, and the morning walk to the Bois is a brilliant sight to see.
 Some nen's eggs that were accidentally covered up by some men blowing at Peta- luna, Cal, last summer, were matched by the heat of the sun upon the earth, and the noise made by the chicks led to their discovery and raieaSe.
 Dr. Neal Mitchell, of Jacksonville, Fla, left his revolver under the pillow of his room at Rome, and has just had it returned to him by fellow traveller, who, however, kept it year and carried it all around the world with him.
 A worlds wonder is sinking mountain near Talulah Ga It sinks all the time, but so slowly as hardly to be psrceptible, but upon the occurrence of earthquakes any where in the world goes down from one to six feet in a very brief space.
 An authorized representative of the duke of Saxe Meiningen expects to be in New York in the course of & month for the pur- pose of making arrangements for an Ameri- can season of the dukes famous theatrical company next autumn and winter.
 Tho latest western wonder is a soap well near Buffalo Gaps, D. T., whose product is pronounced by Chicago soap man equal to the best made by men, and which sparse res idents thereabout declare to be, with the ad- dition of trife of natural oil, simply gor- geous as an axle grease.
 Moses Williams, of Brooklyn, wrapped a newspaper around s5 900 in greenbacks, and left the parcel on a chair in a New York hotel for three hours. Those who noticed it seemed to think it was an old shirt, and sev- eral persons were quite put out when Moses rushed in and told what it contained.
 A brief description of a Kansas mans chinch bug fence may prove of interest to Wisconsin farmers who fear damage by the pest. He takes strip of flooring and sets it in the ground with the groove up. In the groove be puts candle wicking and saturates it with coal oil. The chinch bug crawls of in disgust when he climbs on this side and gets sniff at it.
 The Philadelphia Press says that the big gest check known to American banking was that for S14, ,296 196, drawn by J. D. Taylor, treasurer of the Pennsylvania railroad, in payment for stock of the Philadelphia, Will mington and Baltimore held in Boston, and further that payment was delayed three weeks to let currency so accumulate as not to derange balances.
 Near Kalamazoo, Mich, the other day, Allen Melimer, Esq, aged SS, was by his own direction buried to the music of brass band and the vocal rendering of choice opera airs; and after the grave was filled the dead mans son danced a lively jig, supposed to be known only to his father, who had always sworn he would dance at his own funeral and is thought by the superstitous to have done it in the body of his son.
 The Atlanta Constitution says the negro is changing in appearance and losing some of the birth marks peculiar to the African race. The new generation is showing the effects of higher culture. Especially is this notice able in the towns where contact with the whites shows its effect. Tho fiat nosed kinky headed negro is passing away and be- coming unknown race All the colored children, no matter how dusky in hue show the change Longer hair, aquiline noses and smaller mouths, with thinner lips, are l the rule.
 Those who have unusually small heads 1 may take comfort from the statement of q London exchange. It says that ''seven" be Ing the average size rg q mans head as meas ured by his hat, lit appears that out of four teen distinguished personages, two Nord 1 Chelmsford and Dean Stanley were below while two more Lord Beaconsfeld and the Prince of Walesl were exactly up to the av craze" Of the others, Dickens, Selbournt and Bright required 71s; Earl Russell, II Lord Macaulay, Gladstone and Thackeray l i3s; Louis Philippe, 7s4, and the archbishop l of York, s full!