St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-09-12
GLEA NINGS.

The so-called antique oak is ordi-
nary American oak sawed in a pecu-
liar way and stained to look like the
old English oak.
Towns of Sudbury and Wayland,
Mass, jointly celebrated the 25Oth
anniversary of their incorpOra ton
last week Wednesday.
A watermelon farm at Adams Park
Ga, which consists of 800 acres, and
produces 400 carloads of melons, is
said to be the largest watermelon
patch in the world
The widow of President James K
Polk celebrated her Seth birthday at
Nashville, Tenn, last Thursday
Her mental vigor is remarkable and
her memory is singularly accurate.
The Keeper of the Great Seal" of
the United States is George Bartle.
He has been in the government ser
vice for forty-three years, having
been appointed a clerk in the state
department by Daniel Webster.
A Manchester couple were married
at the New Hampshire state fair re-
Gently, and took a balloon ascen-
sion The marriage was performed
by the speaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives before 10000 people.
A sea turtle ten feet long, five feet
wide and weighing 1000 pounds,
South Harwick, Cape Cod. This
monster is estimated to be fully 200
years old. AS it stands the distance
between its fore flippers is over ten
feet.
DIR. Oliver Wendell Holmes quietly
celebrated his SOth birthday at his
summer residence, Beverly farms,
Aug. %. Hereceived many kilograms
and letters of congratulation, beauti-
full floral and other gifts, and many
visitors felicitated him on the occa-
sion.
The scaffold on which John Brown
was hanged on December 2, 1859,
has just been taken from Charleston,
West Virginia, to Washington. At
ter the execution the county authori-
ties of Virginia sold the lumber of
the scaffOld to a carpenter, who made
house porch with it. The porch
has now been taken down and the
wood has been placed in its original
shape of a scaffold.
A South Carolina farmer proposes
to make syrup of the juice of the wa
termelon. He has made experiments
and thinks that melon syrup is an
Improvement upon cane syrup. A
Kansas farmer goes to the other ex-
IRENE and claims that for vinegar
the melon surpasses the apple. He
planted 20 acres to melons and sold
the seeds for $500. From the melons
he manufactured 1000 barrels of
vinegar, valued at $40 barrel.
A unique tower to mark a suppos-
ed site of the lost city, Norembega,
which plays SO large a part in the
myths and legends of early New Eng
land, will soon be completed at the
junction of Stony Brook and the
Charles river in Waltham, Mass.
The tower is built by Prof E. N
Horsford of Cambridge, Mass, who
has located the lost city to his own
satisfaction. NOrembega has been
generally supposed to have been in
Maine near the Penobscot
Senator Stanford, of California, is
an earnest advocate of an Alaskan
railroad to enter the Eastern Cont
nent across Behring sea. He has
said a good deal more about it in
Europe than in this country, and
has aroused much enthusiasm in ia
vor of it. Numerous journals in Cali
fornia support the scheme. From
New York to Petersburg by rail, from
Petersburg to Point Rindetts, will
soon be familiar sounds. Possibly
the project will have taken practical
shape before the close of this century.
Chicago now has 5000 miles of
electric wires under her pavements
The system works perfectly and the
cost of the maintenance of an under
ground line is only per cent of what
1T would cost to keep up the same
line were it strung on poles. The
5000 miles of underground wire is
carried In ITO miles of two and three
inch pipe. Chicago is the only city
which has absolutely every rod of
electric light wire under ground, but
1T is probable that other cities will
adopt the new system as fast as they
can.