The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-07-08
CURIOUS FAGrss::,

1t costs s33 to patent carpet design.
1t is said that the slot machine is over
$50 years old.
The ordinary watch gives. 1d6, ,f44,.
600 ticks during the year,.
At Eddy, New Mexico, a. stratum, o!
salt has been struck which; is forty feet
thick.
The name Nebraska was first applied
to the river. In the Indihn, language it
means shallow water.
A Reading Penn.) man. hss, Jest re-
ceived letter mailed to him by his SOL
dier brother twenty seven years,agoA
+ An Atchison (Ksn.( girl who, is about
to be married has annouaced, that she
will pay the expensea. of the Wedding
tour.
Buddha is worshipcd in, Paris 10 vari-
Gus private temples, the; derotees being
chiefly japanese, but. mauytof them are
Frenchmen and a few :Englishmen-
A boy of ten end a, girl Of twelve in
one of the public schools at Portland,
Me-, are subjects-of a good deal Of curl
osity, as both bald, as billiard balls.
At North Adams, Mass =, the, other day
q couple who were :upitediin marriage 10
church before.the. regular service went
at once into the chojrsaa assisted in the
singing.
The nur,ber:of lives lost by accident
and disease in. the. construction Of the
Panama Canal is conjectural. Many
writers sgree: that It is something like
10000.
A ieweler has invented devise for
use ia sleeping cars that promises to be.
coma popular. 1t is a ladder composed
Of tubes of LEATHER, that provide easy
acaess to- upper berths.
Alaska was discovered by Vitus Behr-
ing as late as 1741, and became and re-.
NAMED Russian territory by right Of
discovery until it passed to the United
States by purchase in 1867.
Oceania or Oceanica comprises all the
islands and archipelagos in the Pacific
Ocean, and is often divided into four
great divisions named Malaysia, Micone-
sia, Australasia and Polynesia.
Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Of New
York City, is said to have paid S12, 900
for her new team of carriage horses.
They were boug ght in Paris and are deEai-
range Percherona, half bloods, and are
beautifully matched.
There is curiosity near Cordele, Ca,
in the shape of pine tree. It begins
from the ground as two separate and
well-developed trees, and continues so
for q distance of fourteen feet, when
they JOIN and 60 upward as one.
Henry Wagner, an old German gar
dcner, was digging in his garden at Du'
buque, Iowa, when he turned up the
rus:-incrusted blade of an ancient sword.
Near the hllt could be made out a scroll
iuclosing the date 1880. The sword is
thought to be relic of the early French
explorers who first visited the valley OF
the Mississippi.
The state bed of the last King of Po-
land was made of Smyrna gold braid,
embroidered in turquoises, with verses
from the Koran. Its supports were OF
silver gilt, beautifully chased and pro:
fusely set with enaraeled and jeweled
medallions. It had been taken from the
Turkish camp before Vienna, and the
standard Of Mahomet had stood under it.
Plans for the irrigation, both in upps,
and lower Egypt, during the periods Of
low water in the Nile, include the build,
ing Of high bargago across the river
at the first cataract. Great opposition
has been excited against this proposition,
as it involves the submersion Of the
beautiful island OF Philos and It's mag.
nifcent monuments for several months
each year. .'