The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-07-27
Stems of Smterest.

Mr.. Goodfellow writes that toast is
more easily digested than ordinary
bread, insomuch as it contains greater
percentage of hydrocarbon.
Nine-tenths of the stuff used as bay
rum in New York, and other places as
well, is not bay rum at all, but mix
ture of the essential oil of bay with COM
mon rum or alcohol.
Inc Roumanian has, in every walk in
life, a fierce and savage pride which
causes him to abhor the idea of medi-
cine and surgery, and to consider the
loss of a limb as terrible as that of life
itself.
An important discovery of very ex-
tensive iron ore deposits, which are
even supposed to rival the enormous
iron ore mountain at Gellivora, in north
Sweden, has quite recently been made
in Finland by M. Stjeruvall, the geol-
ogist
Olive Thorne Miller tells of jay that
she once tanned, and that repaid her
kindness with every mark of gentle re-
gard. The jay never squawked at her
as he would at others, but whistled gen.
thy and cooingly. He always got as
near her as possible, and did as near
kissing as bird can; that is, he laid his
beak on her cheek.
Bert Q. Hunter, prominent mining
man Of Neihardt, Mon, died recently
from a sixty grain dose of morphine,
taken with suicidal intent. Physicians
worked over him for seventeen hours
without success. Toward the last,
while being jolted on board, slapped
In the face and shaken to keep him
awake, he looked up ruefully and NUT
tered, "Oh, what a difference in the
morning"
The car of Russia knows how to
brace up his military officers to their
duty. A merchant of Charkoff was
murdered by soldiers, and it was shown
that had the officers of the regiment
stationed in the town maintained proper
discipline the murder might have been
prevented. AS a punishment for this they
have been ordered to pay yearly pen
sion of 5000 rubles to the widow of the
murdered man.
"Oh, Tom, the baby is so sweet! To-
day he took off his shoe and threw it in
the fire, and when | told him that he
was bad, bad boy he only said Nah"
Nah, Ell? Well, what do you think
I'm made of-money? That's the second
pair he's lost in week"
"Oh, no, dear; it was the mate of the
one he tore to pieces"
ooh, that's different-isn't he cum
ningW
In very early days, as now, the hair
was sometimes thin and it had to be
eked out in various ways to make be-
lieve that nature had been spendthrift
to all alike. About the first description
extant of woman's hair speaks of plated
locks" known as "Gretchen braids" to
us. To make these braids seem longer,
silk the color of the hair was braided in.
Then they they took to putting the
braids in cases of silk, elongating them
with all sorts of stuff till they looked
like umbrellas in covers. The Chinese
pigtail is modification of this style.
Leaves of trees were used for writing
purposes very early by the Egyptians,
and probably by the Greeks. The Hin
docs continued the use of this material
until within a few centuries. Even at
the present time books of leaves are not
uncommon in the south of India and the
island of Ceylon. The leaves of some
Asiatic trees, from their size and smooth
ness, are admirably adapted for books.
If we may judge from the name "leaf"
being still applied to the paper of books,
we should imagine these leaves to have
been formerly the principal material in
use.
Hosts of unemployed men and others
seeking temporarily to better their con-
dition are hocking to the Delaware pc
ninsula now to pick small fruits for the
markets of Philadelphia and New York.
The fruit growers erect rude sheds in
the open fields, and here the berry pick
ers eat and sleep while the season lasts.
The earnings of berry pickers are con-
siderably above the average pay of farm
hands, Later in the season come the
peach plucks," race of tramps from
all parts of the northern Atlantic slope,
feared by the native farmers and hated
as competitors by the negro farm labor
ers.
The common snake, which bears the
scientific name of Tropidonotus natrix,
is one species of genus (Tropidonotus)
which extends over Europe and North
America, and from northern Asia to
north Australia, there being seventeen
or eighteen Indian species alone. Our
common snake may serve as an example
of the largest family into which serpents
are divided-the family Colubrida-of
which there are upward of 1866 species in
India alone. This family contains most
of the harmless snakes, and it is also il
lustrated by small snake, Coronella
austriaca, which some years ago was
discovered to be an inhabitant of Dorset
shire and Hampshire. The Coronella
feeds exclusively on lizards, slow worms
and small snakes. Though harmless, it
will bite.