The National tribune., 1889-10-03

paper denying that big sharks at least are
dangerous. He says to talk Of a two-ton man
eating shark Is nonsense. Sharks frequently
weigh a. much a. Is tons, but q man-eating
shark never exceeds 1900 pounds. They are
the slowest fish that swim the seas. The
reason given for this Is the enormous weight
of their livers. The liver Of 15-ton shark
win sometimes weigh as much a. two tons.
"No one," says the fisherman, "need have any
fear of them, or anything else that carries
liver that weighs one-sixth Of its body" Never
theless, If any of as should happen TO fall into
the sea in the immediate vicinity Of shark
as long as passenger-eoach, with teeth like
cross-cut saw, we would probably be too much
frightened TO reflect that he had to haul along
q two-ton liver in following our agile move
ments. We would probably be thinking moro
about the size of his mouth and the dimensions
of his appetite for fresh meat.
THE Boston Globe is no more accurate in lit
erary matters than when it attempts to discuss
pensions. Last Sunday II began an editorial:
"The woods were Gods first temples" says
the poet.
What VIM Cullen Bryant really wrote in bis
beautiful Forest Hymn" was
The groves were Gods first temples
Ere man had learned to hew the architrRve.
A LINcHPIN is a rolling-pin when the wagon
moves.
IN the china closet an ounce Of holdfast
saves pounds Of crystal cement.
SOME men make two bites at cherry, but the
man who bites the dust never takes but one.
THE now powder is noiseIess and smokeless,
but it smells bad enough to make up for both.
SINCE the abolition of the rod in the public
schools the licking seems to be done at the
stamp windows of the postoffices.
WHEN George Washington said he could not
tell a lie he was so young that he did not know
what he really could do.
THOUGH \ man may be only fourth-class
Postmaster it does not follow for an instant
that he should be anything but q frst-claas
official.
Two glasses Of iced beer in Paris killed Ira
Paine, the famous American msrksman. Yet
they say that drinking in Europe does not
have the bad effects that it does in this country.
THE daughter of once famous baseball
player has been arrested in New York for beg
ging. Fortune seems just as capricious with
bass ballists as with commoner folks, such as
Senators, Governors and millionaires.
Mrs. RAY HAMILTON announces that she Is
going to totally change her life, forsake her
old associations, and refrain entirely from the
use of alcohol and morphia. As she has been
sentenced to two years imprisonment nothing
bat pardon by the Governor or escape from
the penitentiary will prevent her from carry
ing out her good intentions.
VEGETARTANs will be discouraged by the news
from japan. That has, for centuries been one
of the most strictly vegetarian Of the civilized
countries of the world. A large majority OF
the people are Buddhists, whose religion forbids
them to eat the flesh Of any animal but they
make an exception in favor Of fish, which, with
rico, constitutes their main food. Since COM
ing into friendly relations with Western ns-
tious, the japanese have conceived the idea
that the greater size, strength and intel
lectual energy Of Americans and Europeans
are due to their liberal use of meat in their
diet. Consequently they are rapidly becoming
fiesh-eaters, and recent statistics show that
where there were only 10000 cattle slaughtered
in japan in 1879 more than POO, 600 were killed
in 1888. The fulfllment of the theosophic
dream Of a day when butcher shop shall be
as rare a sight in the civilized world as tor
ture chamber is to-day seems to be indefinitely
postponed.