The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-03-14
CURIOUS FACTS.

Scraped horn was used for window
lights in the ninth century.
Chambersburg, Penn, has fire COM
pany that was organized 1OS years ago.
Kidderminster, England, became re-
nowned for its carpet manufactures
about 1876.
The University of Pavia, Italy, which
was founded by Charlemagne, is said to
be the oldest in Europe.
Lanterns of scraped horn, glass not
being much known. were invented, it is
said, by King Alfred of England.
Inmates of an institution for the blind
in Louisville, Ky, play baseball, judging
of the whereabouts and direction OF the
ball by the sound only.
Ethiopia is Greek, the first part of the
word meaning to burn, and the latter the
face. Ethiopia. therefore, is the land
where men have burned or dark faces.
Mrs. Margaret Arnold, of New Hol-
land, Ohio, who will be III years of age
on the 4th of next July, is an inveterate
smoker, having used the pipe since her
girlhood.
Out in Indiana man was recently tried
for disturbing a religious meeting whose
offence consisted in reading newspaper
during the service. The Court promptly
acquitted him.
Photographs of the man who stole
fifty-cent piece from the eye of Watson
Sherman's corpse at St. Ignace, Mich,
are being sold for the benefit of Sher-
mans widow.
H. H. Singleton, blind man who lives
near Toccoa, Ca, is able to tell the de-
nomination of banknote or check by
feeling it, and can count money almost
as rapidly as bank clerk.
1t is the custom in Turkey to have one
servant in the house attend to nothing
but the pipes of his master. He keeps
them clean and sweet and thoroughly
rinses them after each smoke.
The dog corps in the French army Is
being carefully trained at Belfort. Large
dogs are chosen. Every day they are
shown soldiers in German uniforms and
taught to fv at them on sight.
An old cabin that was butt by George
Washington and occupied by him while
surveying a part of the Shenandoah Val
lev is still standing in fair state of pre-
servation a few miles from Winches-
ter, Va.
Mr.. and Mrs. J. N. Shepard, who live
in Gadsdcn County, Fla, have nineteen
children, the eldest of whom is twenty
one years old and the youngest six
months. Mrs. Shepard has given birth
to twins on three occasions.
Catherine Woodson, a negro woman
living in Macon, Ca, saw boy thrown
from the back of runaway mule and
tainted. She died soon after, and the
Coroner pronounced her death due to
heart disease, caused by excessive fright.
Spectacles were actually invented
about the year 1880, A. D., and certain
ly they we're made previous to. the year
1911. The man who conferred this great
benefit on suffering humanity was Alex
ander Bpina, a monk of Pisa, who died
in 1918.
Robert Porter, an eccentric citizen of
Stoughton, Mass, aged sixty-fve, has for
twenty-five yeaIs bathed every day in an
open spring on his farm. One morning
last winter he took his customary plunge
when the mercury was fifteen degrees
below zero, and claimed to enjoy it.
There is a curious law in vogue in
Scotland which compels every newly
married couple to plant trees shortly af-
ter the marriage ceremony. The trees
ordered to be planted on wedding days
are the pine and weeping willow. On
natal days the suggestive birch-tree is
selected.
Since 1889 all lighthouses on the
United States coast have been main
tanned by the national Government:
Previous to this light dues were levied
upon commerce. The coast light in
America was established in 1853; and
the first lighthouse on Little Brewster
Island, Boston Harbor, 1715-1G.
An Eastern man named Burdick, who
removed to Kansas several years ago,
found on the open prairie, miles from
any settlement, tax receipt that had
been given to his grandfather in Allie
gany County, n. T., thirty-ive years
ago. His grand 'ather was never in
Kansas and he is puzzled to know how
the paper got there.