Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-07-16
FOREIGN GOSSlP.

Among ali classes of people in
Great Britain there is widespread be-
lief that the common white pigeon is
the herald of death. Thus. a white
pigeon alighting on chimney or flying
against window betokens the death
of some occupant of the house. On
account of this curious belief English
housewives can not be persuaded to use
pigeon feathers about their beds.
Abiding to the enormous amount
of coal handled at Port Said for the use
of 4, coo steamships that pass through
the Suez canal every year. a Butfa-
lonian writes: AN army of Ara bS come
off on each coal barge. and the rapldItv
with which the dirty work is done can
be realized when / tell you that this
shin took on board 1.004 tons of 2.240
pounds each in four and three-quarter
hours, all handled by 'rnan-power.
A somewhat unusual catch was
made recently in some salmon nets in
Scotland. The fishermen, on eXamin-
ing the nets at ebb tide, found about
score of crows in one of the pockets.
At low water the nets are left high and
dry, and the crows, feeding on the
sands, must have been attracted by
something inside the nets. Once inside,
thew were unable to find the exit again,
and were drowned when the sea rose.
The managers of the principal rail-
road lines in Russia have at last adopted
the ssround-trip' system. Travellers
purchasing return ticket to any point
on the roads running from st. Peters
burg, Moscow, the large cities on the
Volga and the ports of the Black sea,
will have to pay thirty per cent less
than the usual rates. The passenger
steamers on the Volga have declared
| their intention to make a similar reduc-
| ton.
The agent general for the Cape OF
| Good Hope is officially informed that
/ the results of the recent census, eX-
pressed in thousands, are as follows:
| European or white, $4,000; aboriginal
| (blacks). S4S. 900; all other colored races,
800, 900: total, 1924, 900. Total census
| of 1875, 72O, 900 exclusive of the Tran
| skei districts, the population of which
| in 1874 was 100000 and which now
numbers 10000 Europeans and 476,OO0
natives): increase, S04, 000
| There are now in Moscow $4,000
persons waiting to be transported to ST.
| IBERIA: s. 900 are cOnvictS, the others are
| their wives or children who volunteered
| to follow them into exile. This num-
| Der has accumulated since the new
year. They will be transported in par
| ties of 800 to 500 at time, in such man.
| ner that, together with the new con-
victs that may arrive for transportation
during the summer, they will reach
their destinations by the middle of Sep
| TENDER.
| The establishment of a distillery
upon the river Treweryn turns out to
have been great benefit to the fish.
The mixture of barley and hot water,
| writes a correspondent of the London
Field which the distillery disgorges at
regular intervals, has decidedly i'm
proved the size and quality of the fish.
| The same correspondent says that in
| the Dee Don, and other rivers in Scot
land, the same change is effected upon
the salmon through tho presence of
| distilleries.
Thieves in India have hit upon a
novel way to conceal valuables of small
size, such as diamonds and jewelry. a
heavy lead bullet is allowed to slide
down the throat short distance, and
is there kept in position for half an
| hour at a time. In the course of a year
a pouch is formed, into which articles
not larger than an inch and half in
diameter may be kept for days without
interfering with speech or breath. In
the Calcutta jail there are now twenty
prisoners who have these peculiar
throat pouches.
"A writer in a paper called Land
and Water relates that while in a
house in Jamaica, suddenly a moving
mass dropped from the cedar root above
on the table near where he was stand
ing, which he found, on examination,
to be the body of a female scorpion
from which ran away in every di-
rection thirty-eight young scorpions,
about one-fourth of an inch in length.
The mother scorpion lay dying, and
soon ended her feeble struggle
as the whole of her back had beer
eaten out by her own offspring, leaving
but the thin outer shell. She had chung
to the shingles until, death approach
ing, she had dropped, to expire in {
few moments, and thus gave up hel
life for her young.