The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-01-08
MISCELLANEOUS.

-"P DOR old Lushforth fell down and
broke the trestle of his nose" Don't
you mean the bridge?" "You might
call it bridge, but as no water passes
under it l thoaght the other word bet
ter."-Indianapolis Journal.
Miss Fitzogre-"Well, good-by, Per-
cival, and be good boy!" Percival "a
very good boy, who has just been
specially warned not to make personal
remarks about people in their presence)
-''Good-by. I'll not tell nurse what l
think of your nose till you're GOMEZ
Punch.
Maine has only nineteen cities
within it's borders. Portland is the old
est city and Deering is the Youngest,
having just thrown off town govern
ment. Cape Elizabeth, Brunswick,
Skowhegan, Dexter, Pennington, Cam
den, Carbon and Houlton are thinking
favorably of city government.
There are naturalists in this day
and age who believe that horse hairs
will turn to living snakes; that toads will
live for thousands of years in the cavity
of a rock withcr God or water; that the
barnacle goose ; developed from the
shell-fish of that name. and that the
bird called sora is species of winged
frog.
"A New Jersey truclx-farmer who
went to New York few days ago took
with him fifteen pearls which he had
taken from mussels found in small
fresh water stream near his farm. The
no ri To- In
the opinion of a New York expert, who
said they were the finest American
pearls he had ever seen.
"A new variation of the nickel-in-
the-slot machine is an apparatus by
which you LAY parcel on the SHELF
and have it delivered. The customer
steps on platform, on which is an OBJ
long box of steel The top flies open
and steel shelf comes up on which
the package is laid: the sender affixes a
stamp valued at fifteen cents, and re-
tires, when the box closes Wagons
make hourly collections The stamp
has a coupon attached, which the sender
keeps as a receipt.
Most people, " says an artistic gar
dener rake off the leaves from their
lawns and then to protect them smear
them over with some vile compost. I
can't understand why they prefer the
rank favored stuff to the beautifully
| variegated blanket of leaves nature
provides for that very purpose. What
| is prettier than wide stretch of the
restless, fiuttering things, and no better
protection can be given the grass than
they afford. Enough will decay in the
course of the winter to enrich the soil
suffice ntly, and when raked off in the
spring the lawn is as neat and clean as
one can wish.
The invention of the hand loom
antedates all authentic history but un-
doubtedly originated in either Hindus-
tan, Egypt or China. The Old Testa-
ment, frequently refers to woven fab
RIGS. The Israelites carried with them
the art of weaving when they lef.
Egypt, and Pliny accords the invention
to the Egyptians The loom was prob
ably known in England prior to the
conquest by Cesar, at which time
wooden and linen cloth were manu-
| a
Roman army.
Clocks, called water-clocks, were
first used in Rome, 1853 before Christ;
clocks and dials first set up in churches,
913; clocks made to strike by the
Arabians, SOL; by the Italians, 1900; a
striking clock in Westminster, 1868; the
first portable one made, 1880; none In
England that went tolerably, till that
dated 1910, makers name N. o., now at
Hampton Court palace; clocks with
pendulums, etc., invented by one Fro
mantil, Dutchman, about 1856; repeat
ing clocks and watches invented by one
Barlow, 1875 Till about 1851, neither
clocks nor watches were general.
The proportion of travellers killed
in railroad accidents in France from
1875 to 1880 was one to every "a, 900, 900
of passengers. and one wounded to
every 1000, 600; in England for the same
term one to every $1,000, 900 OF passen-
gers was killed, and one to every sos,
900 was wounded on the German rail-
roads accidents are more frequent al
though the number of travellers is less
| ohO W CNCiy o,VOV'Voo VI PdooChkCTS
was killed; in Belgium between the
years 1881 and 1888 one to every 9, $50,
600 was killed, and one 20 770,O0 pas
sengers was wounded; in the United
States there was one to 2, 800, 900 killed.
and one to 42S 600 injured.
Prof. Bickmore has good word for
the common house-fy, which, although
a nuisance when it has become old
enough to go about and alight on hui
man flesh. does valuable service to hui
manity as a scavenger. There are, he
said, in North America alone over TO-
900 different varieties of flies. The
young ones in their larval state con-
sumo large quantities of decaying veg
etable and animal matter, and it has
been computed that were it not for this
work foul odors and poisonous particles
would so predominant in the air as to
breed disease of a typhoid or malarial
nature. The service thus done to man
kind by the Larvae of the flies could not
well be calculated.
where the Language Lacks.
The Listener has been written to by q
lady at Washington who wishes to know
two queer things. One is why the English