The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-05-22
CURIOUS FACTS.
The ancients slept on skins.

The ancients slept on skins.
W ling rings were used by
ancients.
King Alfred compiled the Saxon Cd
mon law.
London was first lighted in 1414 W
private lanterns.
Copper money first made its appearatf
in England in 1909.
The largest and most important city
South America is Rio Janeiro.
The first coach in England was built
1865, for the Earl of Rutland,
Rude carriages were known in Fran
A. D. 1547, in England in 1865. u
A new candle has been brought d
which extinguishes itself in an hour.
The granting of licenses as mode
levying money was introduced into En-
land by Richard l., about 1880.
The plant from which licorice is NAL
is found on the shores of Lake Erie al
farther west. 1t is called glycyrrhiza.i
The fleece of ten goats and the woi
of several men for half year are requir}
to make a cashmere shawl yard and
half square. re
The University of Edinburg, which y
risen to great fame, is among the earlid
institutions of its kind in the world, ,bei1
founded in 1881. ..
The idea that fish food was brain fol
had q run of ten years before any d
asked why Esquimaux, who eat the md
fish, had no mental smartness.
1t is said that the word canopy con'
from konop, gnat or mosquito, and I'd
the first canopies were neither more NJ
less than curtains to shut out thd
troublesome insects. i
Isaac Keim, of Reading, Penn, has 4
fur of the largest fox ever, killed on Il
Blue Mountains. The length, with tai
is over four feet. The fur shows that.tl
animal was cross between the red Al
gray foxes.
A remarkable story of canine intel
gence comes from Orrville, Ga. AID!
in that village has been trained to pl|
the piano, and can, on direction, dry
out any one of half dozen tunes va
his right paw.
It has been discovered that the gra|
of William Penn is in sadly neglect
condition. There is not even mouI
above it, and only flimsy slab of sto
stuck in the ground at the head or fog
no one can tell which.
An Arab rule for selecting good hoi
is to measure him from the tip Of Z
nose to the top of the withers, and fro
the latter point to the root of the ta
The longer the first measurement is
proportion to he,latter the better g
horse.
A North German custom and supt
stition is, that if ths master of the hou
dies, person must go to the bee-hiy
knock and repeat faese words: s'Tl
master is dead, the master is dead, el
the bees will fly away. This supers'
ton also prevails in England, Lithuan
and in France. IA
The Raleigh tavern at Williamsbur
Va, was the cradle of liberty in Virgin
as Faneul Hall was in Massachusetts
1t was there the patriots Of the VirgiI
House of Burgesses met when Govern
Dunmore, dissolved that house in 177
and there they appointed delegates to t
fist Continental Congress.
Suspenders were first known as gallo
ses, and right here the first light is throy
on the subject. Hanging criminals v
probably known before suspenders we
invented, but when they were brought
public notice it was doubtless consider
a rare joke to call the articles on viii
trousers were hung by the same name
that on which sheep-steelers were hange
The similarity in the uses of the gallo
and the gallowses suggested the na
but the likeness ends there.