Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1890-10-10
CURIOUS FACTS

Plate glass for mirrors was first made
in London by Venetian artists in 1870.
A single orange tree in Florida has
been known to bear 5000 oranges in o
year.
The first city organized was New York,
when in 1863 she received her charter
as New Amersterdam.
A buyer for New York wholesale
house is said to earn $50, 900 by his
skill in forecasting the dry goods market.
Natives in the Soudan are obliged to
remain in the water most of the time, in
order to secure relief from the intense
heat.
Among the nobility of medieval
times, ladies took their "constitutiona"
in carriages called whirlicotes; the moth
er of Richard II. SO took her rides
abroad
The largest reservoir Or artificial tank
in the world is the great tank of Dhetar,
twenty miles southeast of Udaipur, in
India. 1t covers an area of twenty-one
square miles.
A wonderful tree is the camanba tree,
that grows in Brazil. Every part of it,
from its roots to its leaves, is put to
some good use, and altogether it fur
nishes food, light, lumber, fences and
medicine for the Brazilians.
There are more ducks in the Chinese
Empire, says an authority, than in all
the world outside of it. They are kept
by the Celestials on every farm, on the
public and private roads, on streets Of
cities, and on all the lakes, ponds, riv-
ers. streams and brooks in the country.
A queer old woman at Albany, n.
Y, recently changed her mind about
making bank deposit because the tel
Ter wouldn't promise to return to her
the identical coins which she intended
depositing. She had made list of the
dates, so that there "would be no mis-
take"
The origin of the word "chum" is be-
ing considered with some interest in
PATHOLOGICAL circles. The word origi-
nally was "chamber-fellow," from the
custom Of calling students who shared
sleeping rooms together at college "cham-
ber-fellows." This was shortened into
"chum."
During all ages the strange fashion OF
mutiating and adorning the human ear
has been practiced, aud has been in
vogue all over the world. 1t has espec-
tally enjoyed great favor among the
Orientals, and by Persiaus and Baby
lonians, Lydians and Calthagcnians the
earring was worn as commonly by men as
by women.
Shakespeare, who is considered rather
wonderful than learned, had vocabu
lary of Is, 900 words; Milton had one Of
about 5000 words. The average learned
man has a vocabulary considerably
smaller than Millions. The average
man who is not learned, can get along
with 2OOO or 1000, and the man who
doesn't do much of anything can get
along with about 1000 words.
Senator Hawley possesses, in hand
some binding George Washington's own
copy of the statutes Of the first Congress, 4
which met in New York in 1889. The
book is printed by Francis Childs and
John Swaine, of Philadelphia, printers
of the United States. 1t has a large, +
handsome page, Dut the paper mas
changed color with curious irregularitY
in the hundred years of its existence.
The "harvest moon" is so called from
the fact that in the early autumn days
when grain and fruit are being taken
from the fields, there is scarcely any
darkness intervening between the close
of day and the beginning of night. The
moon rises early and gives brilliant
light, by means of which the harvesters
work until late at night to secure the
crops. The harvest moon has long been
q favorite theme with the poets.