The St. Johns herald., 1890-08-28
OF GENERAL INTEREST. !,

"A Hope (Me.) physician has lived for eighty years on strict bread-and- milk diet, never having occasion to try his own prescriptions.
 A farmer of Templeton, San Luis Obispo County, Cal, pulled a beet the other day that weighed one hundred and fifty-four pounds. It wa- seven feet long.
 About A. D. 745 books were first bound up into leaves, and two hundred years after they were multiplied by printing. The Chinese furnish books to each other for next to nothing.
 Tt is well-known that whales can 1 remain long time under water, but l exact data as to the time have been l rather lacking. In his northern trav- els Dr. Kuckenthal, of Jena, recently observed that a harpooned white whale continued under water forty-fve min utes.
 Recent observations of the waters of Great Salt lake prove conclusively that the statements made that no form of animal or plant life exists in the lake are erroneous. No fish or other large form of animal life has been discovered, but the presence of vegetable organisms in the lake may be considered a fact from the abundance of animal exist enceS.
 The testimony of medical experts has lately been discredited in England by reason of the diametrical views taken by distinguished physicians and sur geons when testifying in murder trials. It is said that lone point only is de- termined by this evidence, and that is that the physicians have no clearly de- fined and fixed scientific basis on which to found their opinions" ,,.~
 In Bowling Green, Ky, there is s very sagacious dog. The other morning a horse was left standing hitched to a buggy, and while it's owner was in an adjacent place of business the animal took fright and ran away. He was go- ing at a breakneck speed, when the dog saw him, jumped the fence, headed the horse, grabbed the line in his mouth and held him fast until the owner of the beast came up and relieved him. a
 Tt is a little singular, with all our mutual benefit societies, that a mutual dowry society was never established. Imagine the effect upon the matrimonial market of thousand young women de- voting ten cents a week, fixed per centage to be given to those who are married within the year. The anxious and aimless could not then become drug in the market. Something of this kind is in vogue in Europe, where it is stipulated that beneficiary must have been member of the society for five years before reaping dot
 In Algeria every girl born of native parents is tattooed on her fore head between the eyebrows and Just at the root of the nose with a cross formed of several straight lines of small stars running close to- gether. These tattoo marks are dark blue color. Algerian women are also considerably tattooed on the backs of their hands, their forearms and chests, as well as on their shoulders, their wrists being especially adorned with drawings representing bracelets and flowers strung together. As a rule, women are the operators, and it is prin- cipally on children between the ages of seven and eight that they have to ex- ercise their art. They use sometimes needle, but more frequently a Barbary fig-tree thorn. They employ kohl as coloring substance. It is kind of fine powder made from sulphur of antimony, which is also in great request by the Algerian women for the purpose of :ace- painting.