The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1890-12-03

an order that their boots must be |
blacked by the freshmen. The latter +,
collected the footgear and smeared the
leather generously with green paint.
A lawsuit begun 200 years ago has
lust been decided by the imperial
courts in Leipsic. 1t was between the
city of Lubbock and Mecklenburg, and
concerned the possession of lands on
the river Trave.
A fine dog in Dyer county, Tenn,
worked it's way into a hollow stump,
and when in could not get out. When
found, twenty-three days after its dis
appearance, the poor creature was
alive and conscious.
The Liverpool Mercury complains
that the German commercial traveller
is running John Bull a severe race
everywhere. but particularly in Rus
sia, where German machinery is sup
planting the English.
The Russian government proposes to
substitute soldiers from the railway
battalions for the original engineers
and firemen on the strategical railways.
The men will be instructed in the rudi-
ments of mechanics and engineering.
An Athens, Ga, man has given to
the University Museum the skin of a
rattlesnake killed at Sapelo last sum-
mer. The rattler was ten feet long.
and at the largest part of the body
measured ten inches in circumference.
There is. family in Armstrong
| county, Pennsylvania-fathe mother
| and four children-whose combined
weight is 1, 800 pounds, an average of
PIG pounds. One of the girls weighs
305 pounds and is only eleven years
old.
BARRIERS report that hair-dyeing is
going out of style. Many ''tonsorial
parlors' do not keep the dyes. Gray
threads in young mans head. espe-
cially if his occupation can be con-
strued to be intellectual, are considered
distingue.
The death rate in Austria in 1889
was lower than it has been for ten
years. The total number of deaths
was 646,787, being at the rate of 1926
per mile; the number of births was
1913, $50, or S,449 fewer than in 1888.
Among the children born there were
1,O64 boys to 1000 girls.
Mackinaw Island, Mich, has some
queer people. Enias Pelotte is eighty
six years old, was born on the island
and has never seen a locomotive or
railroad car. Rosa Louisignaw is also
eighty-six years old and for sixty years
never left the island, breaking her
record last year.
An Idaho bank on which there was a
run piled upon the counter what was
supposed to be $4,000 in gold. This
stopped the run and brought in depos-
itors, and when the trouble was over
the gold was taken down. The pack
ages contained iron washers cut to the
thickness and size of 500 gold pieces.
The fastest bird on the wing is the
swift, which has been known to attain
a speed of 200 miles an hour. 1t feeds
exclusively on insects, which it capt
ures while flying. The speed of the
swallow, which comes next to that of
the swift, is usually fifty miles an
hour, but sometimes goes as high as
ninety miles.
| More than five thousand stonemasons
in Berlin are without work or money
The builders say that the stoppage of
their trade, from which this state of
affairs has resulted, is due to the re-
Gently increased agitation of the social
democracy. Every one is afraid to
contract for new buildings for fear of
strike for higher wages on the part
of the workingmen as soon as the work
is under way.
A Lapeer, Mich, man took home
| two bottles of beer, and instead of
drinking the stuff put the bottles down
on the woodpile. BY some sort of
hocus pocus one of the bottles got into
the stove. and the explosion that fol-
| lowed wrecked the stove and scared
the man out of years growth. The
man promptly drank the contents of
the other bottle and went out to buy a
new stove.
All watches are said to be compasses,
and the matter is explained in this way:
Point the hour hand to the sun and the
south is exactly half way between the
hour and the figure XII on the watch.
For instance, suppose it is 4 o'clock.
Point the hand Indicating to the sun
and ii on the watch is exactly south.
hand indicating 8 to the sun, and the
figure x on the watch is due south.
This is good thing for woodmen and
hunters to remember.
Krupp. the maker of great guns, has
just given to the emperor and the
crown prince cannon each. The
emperor's present is elaborately deco
rated with military designs, and is
considered by Krupp to be the finest
bit of workmanship ever turned out
from his foundry. Although supposed
to be but miniature coast gun, it
weighs 1000 pounds. The crown
prince, the emperor has said. will be
taught to load and fire his new cannon
within two or three years.
Robert Louis Stevenson cannot make
up his mind to go home to Scotland to
settle his affairs and get his books. He
seems determined to stay in Samoa un-
til time for that hearty and healthy
epitaph he has written for himself:
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie;
Glad did live, and gladly die,
And laid me down with will
This be the verse, ye grave, for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea-