Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1892-08-27
NUMBER 4l.
OF GENERAL INTEREST.


-Iiousekeepers know "boneless cod.
fish," and now member of the United
States fish commission announces that
the boneless shad is in process Of evo-
luton and well advanced toward com.
pletion. lie does not lose his bones in
the same way as the cod, to-wit, after
death, but by careful breeding and cross
ing.
The largest pumping engine ever
made in this country has just been
placed at the Philadelphia waterworks.
1t weighs nine hundred and fifty thou.
sand pounds, is thirty-fve feet high,
and occupies floor space of thirty by
forty feet Twenty million gallons OF
water are pumped every twenty four
hours
Philadelphia has six day nurseries
where working women with children
ranging from three months to eight
years Of age can leave them from $3.50
in the morning until $3.50 at nigh.
Three meals and ample amusements
are given, costing the mother six cents
a day. These institutions are support
ed by voluntary contributions. Other
cities have them on much the same
plan.
The Washington state building at
the worlds fair will show to dbme e1-
tent the forest resources of the state.
The foundation alone will contain III
logs, some of them 1870 feet long and 4S
inches in diameter at the small end
The superstructure of the building will
contain, besides heavy timber, fine fin
ished woods, showing the grain and
structure of the woods, and complete
exhibit Of shipbuiIding material.
Taking the length of the permanent
ways on the surface of the globe at
nearly sixty thousand geographical
miles, with daily average of ten
trains, it is estimated that the total loss
by wear and tear suffered each day by
the metallic rails of the earth is about
six hundred tons The six hundred
tons are lost in the form of a fine pow
der, and are carried back TO the earth
in the shape of soluble iron salts.
-Dircctor-General Davis has asked
the state department at Washington to
make public the following ruling re-
garding the placarding Of goods at the
exposition: Foreign exhibitors in the
Worlds Columbian exposition will be
permitted to state upon placards at
tached to their exhibits the prices at
which said products will be sold at the
place of manufacture, and also the
prices in bond and out of bond, or cx-
elusive and inclusive of the customs
duties in Chicago"
The disappearance of the Jim Fisk
restaurant recalls to an old New York
CT that there were as cheap restaurants
in New York forty years ago as now.
In the fftics there was famous cheap
restaurant on Chatham square. Here
one could buy for 64 cents good slice
of beef with potatoes and turnips For
6l4 cents more he could have plum pud-
ding with rich sauce. Thus one OBJ
tanned for 1214 cents, the old York shil-
ling, wholesome .apd satisfying meal,
and not always Mad company.
A late census bulletin states that
there are about. 1900, 900 more males
than females in the sixty-two and half
millions of population. In the New
England and Middle states there are
45, 900 more females than males. In the
south middle section, including the dis
trict, the females outnumbcr the males
by some 10000. While in the northern
central section of the country, as far
west as Nebraska, the males are in the
majority by over 100000, in the south
central portion this excess reaches only
about 200, OO0 In the western section
of the country the predominance of the
males is shown by a majority Of over
100000.
Edwin Ellis, some of whose famoh
Southdown sheep are to be exhibited
in this country at the coming worlds
fair, is not only great landowner and
an energetic business man, but also Y
phianthropist. He has built near HE
home in Surrey, England, an experi-
mental row of neat cottages for his
tenants, an ideal schoolhouse, and
club house for the people, and his
daughter has wood-carving class
among the tenants The club house
has provision for billiards and other
games, prettily decorated social hall
capable of seating five hundred per-
sons, and a library of eight hundred
or more volumes, with numerous peri
odicals.
On the western prairie is found
what is called the compass plant, which
is of great value to travellers. The long
leaves at the base of it's stem are placed,
not fiat, as in plants generally, but in a
vertically position, and present their
edges north and south. The peculiar
propensity of the plant is attributed to
the fact that both surfaces of its leaves
display an equal receptivity for light
(whereas the upper surfaces of The
leaves of most plants are more sensitive
to light than the lower); the leaves thus
assume 4 vertical position, and point
north and south. Travellers ON dark
nights arc said to feel the edges of the
leaves to ascertain the point OF the COM
pass.
"A witness in case recently on trial
in one Of the courts in Boston testified
that the defendant was not drinking
man ''and only took cocktails" Judgt
Blank, who presided, is teetotaler.
He noticed among the spectators a well
known physician bon vivant, and at
the recess called him up to the bench
and asked him to define a cocktail. "A
cocktail" responded the doctor, sis
feather dipped in an emollient which is
applied to a dry or irritated throat for
the removal of dryness or irritation"
The learned judge thanked him, but
the story that the court subsequently
dipped feather in vaselne and touched
his palate with it under the impression
that he was taking a cocktail is proba-
bly, a lawyers yarn.
|
For Ordinary SEMI DresA.
The question Is often asked: How
| many dresses well-dressed woman
should have? This, of course, depends
largely on wheIe she lives, and how he
lives For ordinary semi-dress wear