The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-11-16
OF GENERAL INTEREST.

]
IRELAND is wasting island. The
population there, according to the
British register, is decreasing at the
rate of sixty thousand per annum.
Engine $40, of the Union Pacific
road, has record of having run 1. 140,-
625 miles. It has been in use for
twenty-five years and was one of the
first locomotives used west of the Mis-
souri, river.
I'm the town Of Orizaba, Mexico,
there are three papers, the names Of
which signify THE Rat" ''The Cat"
and ''The Beetle" 1t is noticed that
1.-The Cat" is all the time trying to
catch ''The Rat"
"A blast of six thousand pounds of
powder was recently set of in quarry
on Telegraph Hill, San Francisco. 1t
shook the earth for miles around and
dislodged from thirty thousand to fifty
thousand tons of rock.
The value of coins to collectors
does not depend on their age. Roman
tribute pennies, dated before Christ,
are not worth more than 81, while a
would sell close to 1000.
"A barber in the wilds of Jersey
had such crowd in his shop on Sun
day mornings that he saw fit to resort
to the long-headed business move of
putting free pool table in the rear of
his place to prevent his rival from
securing any of his custom. Puck.
The other day a Boston man re-
ceived letter, ON the envelope of
which were the words, BLOOD!
Blood! Bloodr' in big red letters.
Thinking that it contained a threat to
kill him, he gave it unopened to the pO-
lice. When they opened it, they found
it was harmless appeal from Saliva
ton Army crank.
A Sylvania GA boy dug up some
artichokes to pickle, and among them
was a cooter or tarrapin egg, which he
dropped into the brine along with the
artichokes. A few days afterward he
took out a handful of roots and dropped
one on the floor. It broke open and
out crawled young cooter. The boy
firmly believes that one of the arti-
chokes had a young terrapin it it.
"A Washington Territory young
man applied for the leadership of the
Port Blakeley school. He sent his
application and supposed letter of
recommendation in the same envelope.
By mistake, however, he inclosed a
letter from a young lady, containing
charges and threats very damaging to
the would-be pedagogue's reputation.
The school trustees wrote and told
him that his recommendation was not
of the right kind.
An Alabama lawyer closed an
argument the other day thus: eff
your Honor please, and gentleman of
the jury, do not desire to initiate
against the majesty of the law, nor to
contravene the avoirdupOis of the evil
dence. If you strip this thing of its
multitudinous wrappings, break the
cement and let the cohesion take place,
you will find out there is nothing in
this case but an inroad by way of an
invasion into DR.. Watson's apothecary
shop"
The woody, melon-shaped fruit of
he sand-box tree of the West Indies
is made into a neat box by saving off
the top and scooping out the seeds,
and is used in-Barbadoes for holding
sand. When, however, the fruit is al
| lowed to ripen on the tree, it bursts
explosively, scattering the seeds over
the ground. An experimenting natur-
alist recently sought to preserve a
specimen of the fruit by drying care
! E. hr,% cd vy4n
lence as to destroy the box containing
| it.
| An English antiquarian has been
delving among old newspaper files and
has discovered what he says is the
| first commercial advertisement ever
printed in a newspaper. It appeared
in the MercuFtus PoLiticus of London,
dated September 80, 1858. It runs as
| follows: ''That excellent and by all
Physicians approved, China Drink.
| called by all the Chineans Tcha, by
other Nations Tay, alias Tee, is sold
at the Sultanese Head COphee House,
| in Sweeting's Rents, by the Royal Ex-
| change, London"
"A retailer in The Shoe and Leather
Reporter thus explains a trick of the
trade: 81 sell shoe that costs me
81 at the original price, and use it as
q leader Then I mark my S1.25
shoes at $3.50, the 81 at $3.50, the
81. % at 81 and the 81. so goods at s..
| SeeP A customer wants to look at my
low-priced grades; 1 show them, and
bring out all my principal lines.
Likely as not persuade him or her to
pay So and this secures me fair
profit. No, don't sell many at 81,
and even if did, the less economical
buyers make it up to me by giving me
| n hnndnnrno rrnfit On the hatfar ahnes ,,