DeSoto times. (Hernando, Miss.) 1879-1898, 1890-05-29
OF GENERAL INTEREST.


1000 pieces of wood of different kinds
and colors.
We have the authority of Dickens
for it that not the door-nail but the
cotlin-nail is the deadest piece of iron
mongery known. In some parts of tho
West cigarettes are called coflin-nails.
-Bridgoton, Me-, has at least one alb
sent-minded citizen. He met with an
accident and was confined to the house
for several weeks, but forgot entirely
that he held an accident policy emitting
him to twenty-five dollars week.
AT Small Point, Me. reports a
Boston newspaper, 'the prospectors for
coal are contemplating exploring the
bottom of the sea. A large scow has
been engaged, and on it will be placed
the engine which will drive the electric
dynamo to furnish light for diver,
who is to explore the submarine depths
at Small Point"
"A prisoner in Bohemia recently con-
| structed a watch eight ccntimeters
(three and one-quarter inches) in diam
eter, with no tools or materials except
| two needless a spool of thread, a news
paper and some rye straw, The wheels,
posts and cogs are of rye straw; the
watch runs six hours without winding
and keeps good time.
Living on claim eight miles north
of Rocky Ford, Col, is Emma Aiken and
her three daughters. All three ladies
are widows. The mother is ninety years
of age, the eldest daughter sixty-eight
and the youngest sixty-four. Not man
has ever been employed about the place,
and during their two years residence
they have done all of their own work
and truck gardening.
A middlc-aged woman stepped into
a drug store in WesterViIle, O., one day
recently and purchased five sets of rub
bers for the purpose of making "slings'
for her five boys, She says they are
more useful and less expensive than
shotguns, as her boys can kill birds on
the wing, knock rabbits silly on the run
and pick squirrels from the tops Of the
talest trees in the woods with a single
Shot.
The man who blows out the gas has
a rival. He recently stopped over n ght
at Cadillac Mich. hotel and the smell
of burning cloth prompted search fol
him, After rapping up several guests
this man f'ually pcered out OF the dark
ness of his room and confessed that he
had tied a towel around the electric
light, and the latter had scorched it. &c
tried to blow it out" he said, "but i
wouldn't 90 out"
In Switzerland and other mountain
Gus countries the goat leads long strings
of animals daily to and from the mount
aims, but it is in South Africa that it i!
regularly kept and employed as leade
of nocks of sheep. Should a binding
storm Of rain Or hail drive the silly sheer
before it, or cause them to huddle to
pether in a corner so as to SutfOCate eacl
other, the trained goat will wake then
up, and, by method best known to him
self, will induce them to follow him to
place of safety
1.-Two German engineers propose fap
id transit by means of three continuou
platforms moving along the street sid
by side. The lowest of these platform
is four inches high and moves at uni
form speed of five feet per second. An
ordinary pedestrian can, they state
mount this platform from the groun
without difficulty, and from this he ca
with equal ease step on to second plat
form four inches higher than the frs
and moving twice as fast The passer
ger thus acquires a speed of ten feet pc
second, and stepping on to the thir
platform in tho same way, he is carrie
} at speed of fifteen feet per second,
ten miles per hour to his destination
where he steps off by degrees as he &c
on.