The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-01-07
CURIOUS FACTS.

900 cubic feet per minute, equal to about
5000, 600 horse power.
According to M. Bertillon's police de-
tectives' photography the ear is the most
important factor in the problem OF
Identification.
1t is said that in the Mesilla Valley in
New Mexico apple-trees bear the second
year after planting, peaches the second
year from tho seed, and grapes the third
year.
The best speed of railway train is
only little more than half the velocity
of the golden eagle, the fight OF which
often attains to the rate of 14O .niles an
hour.
There is specimen of the hairy crab
in the British Museum, London, which,
though not larger than a walnut, ls sad
died by sponge as large as tnree-pound
tomato can.
Anew York vegetarian has become a
strong advocate of meat diet since
learning from chemist that beef, mutton
and pork are merely transformed grass,
vegetables and grain"
The most ancient mode of writing wac
on bricks, tiles, and oyster shells, and on
tables of stone, afterward on plates of
various materials, on ivory, on barks OF
trees, on leaves of trees.
A San Francisco young lady was re-
Gently arrested for "habitually torturlng
piano" She lives over the apartments
occupied by physician, and his COM
plant caused her arrest. s.."
Servius, one OF the seven kings OF
Rome, commanded a great fire of straw
to be kindled in the public place of every
town in Italy to consecrate for repose a
certain day in seedtime or sowing.
A dudish bird that lines its nest with
the down of certain flowers is the lanceo-
late honey eater. The nest is shaped like
hammock suspended from twigs and is
very deep. The ground work is of grass
and wool.
The largest productive farm in the
world lies in the southwest of Louisiana.
It measures 100 miles by twenty-five,
contains more than million and half
acres, and is owned by syndicate of
Northern capitalists.
The President of the First National
Bank in Peterboro, N. H., is in his nine
tieth year and goes to work every day
with as much vim as any of the clerks.
His name is Frederick Livingston and ne
comes of long lived race. ~ ~ ..
The largest horse in the world is now
on exhibition in Montgomery, Ala. He
is six years old, stands twenty-one hands
high and is still growing. He is we'll
formed, is very powerful and weighs
2s4O pounds. He was raised in Canada
and is of the Clydesdale stock.
A Russian named Balaboukha has re-
Gently started on walk which will oc-
cupy about three years. He goes from
Kiew to Constantinople and Jerusalem,
then by the coast which skirts Syria and
Africa, arriving at Morocco; thence he
will tsavel through Spain, France and
Germany to hleW.
A marriage peculiar in the length and
brevity of the high contracting parties
was celebrated in Parkersburg, W. Va,
recently. NJ. V. Collins, forty-six years
old, siS feet and seven inches in height,
was welded to Miss Martha Falnsworth.
The bride is three feet one inch in height
tall enough when standing on chair
to reach. her uege lords shoulders.
The Great Chain at West Point.
One of the most notable events con-
nected with the manufacture of iron dur
ing these years was the making OF the
great iron chain which in 177S was
stretched across the Hudson River at
West Point to prevent the passage of
British vessels. Losing, in his Field
Book of the Revolution, gives a very
interesting account of this work, of
which we can quote only the leading
facts. "The iron of which this chain
was constructed was wrought from ore
of equal parts from the Sterling and Long
mines in Orange County. The chain
was manufactured by Peter Townsend,
of Chester, at the Sterling Iron Works, in
the same county, which we're situated
about twenty-five miles back of West
Point. The chain was completed about
the middle of April, 177S, and on the
list of May it was stretched across the
river and secured. 1t was fixed to huge
blocks on each shore, and under cover
of batteries on both sides of the river. !"
i.It is buoyed up" says DR.. Thacher,
writing in 1880, "by very large logs
about sixteen feet long, pointed at the
ends, to lessen their opposition to the
force of the current at food and ebb
tide. The logs are placed at short dis
:tances from each other, the chain carried
over them, and made fast to each by
staples. There are also a number Of an
chors dropped at proper distances, with
cables made fast to the chain to give it
greater stability" The total weight Of
this chain was one hundred and eighty
tons. Mr.. Losing visited West Point
in 1S4S and saw portion of this chain,
and he tells US that ''there are twelve
links, two clevises, and a portion of a
link remaining, The links are made OF
iron bars, two and a half inches square,
and average in length little over two
feet, a weigh about one hundred pounds
each" Popular Science Monthly.
The Rife That Killed Custer.
Of all my relics there is one that ]
nrizn most hiohlv. and that would not