Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-02-27
RECENT lNvENTloNs.

A "sAFErY BICYCLE" for women has been
invented
AN Englishman has invented machine
for making illuminated theater posters
A SWISS has invented a musical box which
initiates the human voice and also the trili
of birds.
A FRENcHMAN has brought out an Inven-
tion whereby anybody can play pIanu
without previous training, by means OF a
crank and other de evlces.
A NEW electric invention is electric-lghted
spectacles for surgical examination. The
rim shuts out other light and a strong beam
falls Oh the spot under examination
TIE occupation Of the hand shearer Of
sheep is gone. A brother Of LORD Wolseley
has invented machine which will shear l4O
sheep IN eight hours, and again hands have
70 give way 70 machinery.
A BRooKLYS man has invented torpedo
that after being set afloat either on or below
the surface Of the water will 'dive' on meet
ing an obstruction. IL will travel for two
miles at rate Of speed equal TO ten miles an
hour, and will soon be given test by naval
officers.
WILLIAM PERKINS, of Owensborough, KY,
Is blind and ingenious. The result of his
afdiction and his genius is q writing ma
chine for the blind, which the boy has just
perfected 1t is said that San Francisco
firm has paid him 5000 for the right 10
manufacture and sell the machine in the
United States.
POINTS ON FAMOUS POEMS.
GRAY's immortal "Elegy" occupied him
for seven years.
BRYANT wrote "Thanatopsisn IN the shade
Nf md ola GHf;v fov-
theme.
Quaintest English ballads. "John Gilpin's
Ride" when he was under one of those
terrible fts OF depression 50 common to
HIM.
GENERAL LYLE wrote hIs beautiful COM
position, Antony and Cleopatra" which
begins. II am dying. Egypt, dying" on the
night before his death. He had premoni-
tion that he was going to die the next day.
THE noted poem, 1.-The Falls of Niagara, -
was written by its author, J. u. G. Brain
erd, the editor of small paper IN Connect
cut, in fifteen minutes. He wrote 1t under
pressure in response to cali for ''more
copy"
'sAFTER THE BALL" the little poem which
made the name of Nora Perry known in the
world of letters, was jotted down on the
back of an old letter. with no idea Of the
popularity it was to achieve In the pages of
noted magazine.
Pos first thought Of "The Bellsp when
walking the streets of Baltimore on a win
ter's night He rang the bell Of a lawyers
house Ia stranger TO hIm), walked into the
gentleman's library, shut himself up and
the next morning presented the lawyer with
copy of his celebrated poem.
-.
Rookh,n spent so many months in reading
up Greek and Persian works that he be-
came an accomplished Oriental scholar. and
people found it difficult to believe that its
scenes were not penned on the spot instead
Of in retired dwelling IN Derbyshlre.
old CRIMES" that familiar ssIittle felic-
ity in verse; which caught the popular
fancy as far back as 1923, was a sudden in.
splratlon OF the late judge Albert @.
Greene, OF Providence. r. l., who found the
qrst verse in collection Of old English bal
lads. and, enjoying its humoF, built up the
remainder OF the poem in the same conceit.
Ii is now definitely settled that the TO
mantle incidents narrated in Hhittier's
barbara Fritchie'' had little foundation N
TACT. but that the story chiefly emanated
from tue fertile brain OF the popular novel
isL Mrs f D. n. Snuthworfh, is not gen.
orally known. That such was the case,
however, we have Mr. Whittier's own as,
surance.
THE verses which lifted Brete Harte into
notice were carelcssly written, aud thrown
into drawer Of his editorial desk in San
Francisco as unworthy Of publication. One
day, IA search OF copy for the magazine
ne was then editing, be found the forgotten
lines which, IS The Heather Chinee, y made
one Of the most remarkable hits in American
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