St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1891-06-20
OF GENERAL INTEREST.

partment report, nuts improve as
readily as fruit by selection and culture
The most common results of cultivation
are thinner shells and increased size.
An enterprising contemporary in
forms its readers that a ton of gold is
worth $602, ,799. 20, but with exasperating
carelessness neglects to inform them
where it may be got.-Chicago Times.
The white mourning of the youth
full Queen of the Netherlands is a re-
vival of an old custom. Some ancient
orders of nuns, corresponding to the
passionate one fer men, used to dress in
white. -
Occasionally the return of the swal-
low or the nightingale may be some
what delayed, but most sea fowls may
be trusted, it is said, as the almanac
itself Were they satellites revolving
around this earth their arrival could
hardly be more surely calculated by ar
astronomer.
"A negress named Caroline Jenkins,
living near Houston, Tex, is veritable
Samson. Four police officers went to
arrest her, when she took them one by
one, threw them out of the house and
locked the doors upon them. She can
break half inch rope with ease by
stretching it from hand to hand.
"A chemical analysis Of the food
cooked by our grandmothers, which
men sigh for once in awhile, would
show it 30 per cent. more dangerous to
the stomach than food prepared in the
modern kitchen. As a matter of fact
American women knew nothing of
cookery up to twenty-five years ago.
-Guttapercha derives its name from
the Malayan words queta. a gum, and
pertcha, cloth, and was introduced to
the civilized world in 1912 by DR.. Mont
gomery, a Scotch surgeon. The first
specimens were taken to London from
Singapore by Jose Almeida, and the
properties of the gum were announced
by Hancock, Wheatstone and Faraday.
Boston Transcript.
The New Jersey philanthropist who
started ''retreat" for homeless men
had warm welcome for the first dozen
tramps who piled in, but when seventy
eight came along in one day and told
him that one hundred and forty more
would arrive on the next, and that he
was expected to trot out his best and do
the right thing, he closed and nailed up
the door.-Detroit Free Press.
"A Wapakoneta, O., dispatch to the
Cincinnati Enquirer says: "There was
born to-day to Mr.. and Mrs. Adam OBJ
erhoizer, of this city, a boy. Mr.. Ober-
hoizer is eighty years OF age. He is the
gentleman who gave his wife S., 600
cash and large oil farm on the day of
their marriage, and for the first time is
father. He came up the street to-day
singing at the top of his voice.
The custom of throwing slipper
after bride is said to come down from
ancient times. Long. before the Chris
tian era defeated chief would take off
his shoes and hand them to the victor to
show that the loser OF the shoes yielded
up all authority over his subjects.
Therefore, when the family of bride
throw slippers after her they mean that
they renounce all authority over her.
81 drink, - remarked a gentleman to
me recently, flour or five cups of coffee
daily. If stop drinking coffee, get a
headache" Another gentleman of my
acquaintance, on the other hand, gets a
racking neuralgia headache every time
that he takes even very small quanti-
ty of coffee, and a Bostonian who be-
came blind, film having formed before
his eyes, found that his sight was re-
stored when he stopped drinking coffee.
Epoch.
The Indian Engineering says that
experiments have been making at the
Rangoon oil refinery with a view of OBJ
tanning a cheap and solid fuel from pc
troleum, and a very good result was
obtained by heating the oil and dissolv-
ing three per cent. common soap. The
product was found hard to ignite, burns
slowly, causes barely any smoke, and
pr oduces great heat. In fact, a clean
and convenient fuel and superior to all
other fuel obtained from mineral oil.
The great seal of the Confederate
States is now in the Office Of the South
Carolina Secretary of State, says the st.
Louis Globe Democrat The seal and
its press are of silver. The handle is
ivory and the seal itself bears like
ness of Washington, modelled after the
equestrian statue in Richmond, a wreath
composed of leaves and flowers OF the
staple crops of the South, an inscrip-
ton, ''The Confederate States of Amer
lea, 20 February, 1862 and the motto,
'tDeo Vindice."
Miss Maggie Respess, girl of fifteen
who lives near Adel, Ca, went to the
spring recently armed with her father
hunting-knife for protection. She found
a bear in her path, and the animal,
rising upon his launches, let fall his big
paws upon the girls shoulders as she
simultaneously buried the knife in his
throat With a convulsive shudder the
bear fell backward. Miss Maggie then
sent another thrust into his heart and
left him for dead and went to bed and
slept for the remainder OF the night.
AT daylight she arose, and, with the
aid of the other children. skinned and
dressed the carcass for market.
A Plant That Gives Out Light.
An unusually fine specimen OF phos-
phorescent fungus was recently found
on some woodwork in damp mine
near Scranton, Pa. It was fan-shaped
and from the tips of its branches suffi'
cient light, it is said, was emitted to
see and read moderate-sized print by,
while the figures on the face OF watch
could be plainly seen. There are sew
eral phosphorescent fungii, but this
snac;es. which possesses the formidable