The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-07-26
CURIOUS FACTS.
Tho nnolents slept on skins.

The arcients slept on skins.
Wedding rings were used by ths
ancients.
King Alfred compiled the Saxon com
mon law.
London was first lighted in 1414 with
private lanterns.
Copper money first made its appearance
in England in 1909.
The largest and most important city OF
South America is Rio Janeiro.
The first coach in England was built In
1866, for the Earl of Rutland
Rude carriages were known in France
A. D. 1547, in England in 1855.
A new candle has been brought out
which extinguishes itself in an hour.
The granting of licenses as a mode OF
levying money was introduced into Eng
land by Richard l., about 1880.
The plant from which licorice is made
is found on the shores of Lake Erie and
farther west. 1t is called glycyrrhiza.
The fleece of ten goats and the work
of several men for half year are required
to make a cashmere shawl yard and
half square.
The University of Edinburg, which has
risen to great fame, is among the earliest
institutions of its kind in the world, being
founded in 1881.
The idea that fish food was brain food
had a run of ten years before any one
asked why Esguimaux, who eat the most
fish, had no mental smartness.
1t is said that the word canopy comes
from konop, gnat or mosquito, and that
the first canopies were neither more nor
less than curtains to shut out these
Troublesome iasects.
Isaac Keim, of Reading, Penn, has tie
fur of the largest fox ever killed on the
Blue Mountains. The length, with tail,
is over four feet. The fur shows that the
animal was a cross between the red and
gray foxes.
A remarkable story of canine intelli-
gence comes from Orrville, Ga. A dog
in that village has been trained to play
the piano, and can, on direction, drum
out any one of half dozen tunes with
his right paw.
It has been discovered that the grave
of William Penn is in a sadly neglected
condition. There is not even mound
above it, and only fimsy slab of stone
stuck In the ground at the head or foot,
no one can tell which.
An Arab rule for selecting a good horse
is to measure him from the tip of the
nose to the top of the withers, and from
the latter point to the root of the tail.
The longer the first measurement is in
proportion to the latter the better the
horse.
A North German custom and super
stition is, that if the master of the house
dies, a person must 60 to the beehive,
knock ans repeat these words; "The
master is dead, the master is dead" else
the bees will fly away. This supersti-
ton also prevails in England, Lithuania
and in France.
The Raleigh tavern ct Williamsburg,
Va, was the cradle of liberty in Virginia,
as Faneuil. Hall was in Massachusetts,.
It was there the patriots Of the Virginia
House of Burgesses met when Governor
Dunmore, dissolved that house in 1774,
and there they appointed delegates to the
first Continental Congress.
Suspenders were first known as gallow-
ses, and right here the first light is thrown
on the subject. Hanging criminals was
probably known before suspenders were
invented, but when they were brought to
public notice it was doubtless considered
a rare joke to call the articles on which
trousers were hung by the same name as
that on which Sweepstakes were hanged.
The similarity in the uses OF the gailows
and the gallowses suggested the name,
but the likeness ends there.