News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-08-08

specimens of the alligator tribe running
about on the floor as lively as crickets.
| After considerable trouble and some
snarling and biting they were picked up
and placed in one of the bathrooms.
A SAN Francisco newspaper offered
| $500 to the one who would correctly
guess the number of types in a jar ex-
! hibited in the exposition there. Two
men were successful, naming the correct
number, "a, 200. How they came to hit
ON that number is interesting. One of
them once guessed the number of shot
in q jar about the same size as the one
containing the type. There were %, 900.
| He thought there were one-third as
many tpye as shot, and so divided 3d.
/ 600 by three, and he said, ''added lit
tie to make it even." The other man
saw a crowd around the jar, and felt in
his pocket for a pencil with which to
write number. He couldn't find one,
and moved on; but afterward, feeling
strongly impelled to make guess, felt
again for pencil, and found an old lot
terry ticket, on which was the number
"a, 200. He borrowed a pencil, put
down the number, and won 800.
CHIEF CLERK BAKER, of the Superin-
tendent of Prisons Office at Albany, N.
Y, recently exhibited unique tobacco
box. 1t was made of sheet copper and
tin by convict in Sing Sing, the exc
cution of the work being something ex-
traordinary The box is octagenal in
shape. It has the appearance of open
ing through the centre, the bottom being
exposed by pressing ON this button, q
sharp needle comes out of its centre.
The opening is on the top of the
box, the hinges being set at two
of the angles, and the cover dips
when it is opened. The whole thing
is very ingenious.
MILLIONS of sand flies precipitated
themselves upon Dubuque, Iowa, on a
recent evening. So vast was their num-
Der that people were compelled to aban-
don the streets, and men at work in the
morning newspaper and telegraph Of !
fees were compelled to close doors and
windows to escape the torment. ''Along
the levee," it is stated, ''the buildings
were covered so thickly with them that
nothing could be seen but writhing
mass of insect life. The stencil from
their bodies was unbearable, and the |
health authorities had several wagons
employed removing the offensive mass"
A RECENT close inspection of the
comet discovered by Mr.. Barnard, of .
Lick Observatory, in September last,
shows that its body is evidently becom-
ing disinteg1ated and the fragments are
to be seen streaming behind the comet
in the form of tail, directed not from,
but toward, the sun. The comet, which
is los, 100000 miles from the earth, is
still fairly bright, and were it not for
the fragments which are seen to follow
it, would seem to be in perfectly normal
condition.
SAMUEL l.. FARMER, of Henderson,
Jefferson County, n. Y, has invented
boat which, he claims, can be rowed
faster than any now in use. Only one
oar is used, which is thrust through the
middle of the boat, somewhat after the
fashion of centre board. The boat is
by working the oar backward
and forward. The leverage obtained is
enormous and the inventor says that
small boy in his boat can beat profess
sional oarsman in shell.
PEOPLE run away with the idea that
athletics, wrestlers, are per-
feet Hercules, and cannot know disease.
IT'S a mistake. They undergo very uni
versally at times severe tests of muscu-
lar exertion, and as q result of these eff
forts, combined with their irregular
manner of living, are usually short lived
men, dying of phthisis and heart dis
ease.
GENERAL BATES, retired English of
icer of means, ON tour through Wash
ngton Territory a few days ago, sat
Town to dinner at hotel in Seattle.
He was surprised to recognize in the
waiter who took his order his own son,
who ran away from home to scalp In
lians seven years ago.