The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-05-27
ODDS AND ENDS.

A real estate and trust company In
Lynchburg, Va, composed of colored
men, has declared a dividend of 10 per
cent.
On the west coast of Africa there
are now 200 churches, So, 900 converts,
100000 adherents, $3.50 schools and
10000 pupils. Religious books have
been translated into IS dialects of the
section.
It was while Gibbon was sitting in
the ruinsof Rome, in1764, that he saw
end heard barefooted friars singing in
the temple of Jupiter. The idea came
to him at that hour to write the his
tory of the decline and fall of the en-
pire.
In Paris the horse is behest of fash
ion rather than a source of pleasure
Few French women ride well, and the
Frenchman, as rule. looks upon tbs
animal rs q difficult and dangerous ar.
ticle to navigate, q ship whose rudder
is in the wrong place.
The lace owned by the feminine
members of the Astor family is said TO
be worth at least $500, 600. That which
the late Mrs Astor bequeathcd to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art was val
at from $40, 900 to $4,000.
There are three men i'll the Oregon
State prison, each of whom cut off .
hand to avoid work. They are con-
fined in solitary cells Two others cut
off the ends of their fingers.
Postmaster General Wanamaker
considers the proposal to make eight
consecutive hours labor days work
for postoffice clerks, ETC., impractical
bic. and estimates that the cost of do
ing this would be S3,S7S, 727 a year.
Not less than fifteen parishes, or one
fourth of the state of Louisiana is af.
fected by the present food, and tho
damaged is almost incalculable. In 1881
it is estimated that the loss was 49,
100000. 1t will probably exceed half
that amount this year.
Last year sixty-seven persons in the
Loochoo islands of Japan were bitten
by the poisonous habu snake, twelve
OF whom succumbed and ffty-fve re.
covered. Forty-two of the victims
were males. and twenty-five females,
but the greater proportion of death,
occurred among the females, seven
out of the twenty-five cases ending f.
tally.
As curiosity the sensitive plant
mimosa pudica) is we'll worth cult
waiting in the window garden. The
leaves of this plant are very orna-
mental, and so sensitive that when
touched with the hand they immedi
ately droop and fold up, regaining
their former position, however, within
quarter of an hour or so after. A
breath of wind will also cause the
leaves to act in q similar manner.
Hence its common name.
An example of English as she is
wrote" is found in an interesting Por-
tuguese official document. The lea1et
contains instruction concerning to-
bacco," and is issued by the custom
house authorities. Here is one of its
clauses: "All tobacco the said visit
may find on board, besides what may
have manifested in this transgression,
will be subject to imprisonment and
other penalties the law imposes. F."
One of the most extraordinary of
African trees is that known as the bao-
bab. 1t is almost a forest in itself,
and serves as complete sylvan palace
on the largest scale. Rarely growing
more than seventy feet high, its
branches extend horizontally. support
ed by trunk which has girth great
er, it is believed, than that of any
other known tree. One of these extra
ordinary trees was found on measure
ment to be forty feet in diameter. The
age of another counting the concen-
trio rings, was found to be 5000 years
at the very least.