The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1892-01-07
MISCELLANEOUS.

MISCELLANEOUS.
Two Of the hardest things 10 keep
IN this life are q new diary and sharp
lead pencil -Norristown Herald.
Poor old Lushforth fell down and
broke the trestle Of his nose" Don't
You mean the bridge?" "You might
call it bridge, but rs no water passes
under it thought the other word bet
ter."-1ndianapolis Journal. -~s-~~-
Miss Fitzogre-''Well, good-by, Per
cival. and be good boy!" Percival Ia
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 ]
think of your nose till you're gone!''-
Punch.
Maine has only nineteen cities
within its 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
The following are examples of eight
syllable words in the English Language:
Anthropometamorphosis, antisupernat-
uralism, anticonstitutiona list, anhydro-
phepsiterion, iatromathematician, in
comprehensibility, Standardization,
syncategorematical, unconstitutional
ity, unintelligibility, valetudinarianism
and vicissitudinality.
There are naturalists in this day
and age who believe that horse hairs
will turn to living snakes; til at toads will
live for thousands of years in the cavity
of a rock without food or water; that the
barnacle goose was developed from the
shell-fish of that name, and that the
bird called sora is species of winged
frog.
"A New Jersey truck-farmer who
went to New York a few days ago took
with him fifteen pearls which he had
taken from mussels found in small
fresh water stream near his farm. The
pearls were sold for large sum upon
the opinion of New York expert, who
said they were the finest American
pearls ne mad 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 a PLATFORM, on which is an OBJ
long box of steel The top flies open
and a 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 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 l
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
sufficiently. and when raked off in the
spring the lawn is as neat and clean as
one can wish.
The invention of the hand loom
antedat all authentic history, but I'M
doubtedly originated in either Hindus-
tan, Egypt or China. The Old Tesla
ment, frequently refers to woven fab
RIGS. The lsraelites 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 Caesar, at which time
wooden and linen cloth were manu-
featured at Winchester, to supply the
Roman army.
Clocks, called water-clocks, were
first used in Rome, 1873 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, a Dutchman. about 1856; repeat.
ing clocks and watches invented by one
Barlow, 1876. Till about 1881 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, 600, 900
of passengers and one wounded to
every 10000 in England for the same
term one to every 81, 000.00 of passen-
gers was killed, and one to every sos,
600 was wounded; on the German rail-
though the number of travellers is less
-one to every 100000 of passengers
was killed; in Belgium between the
years 1881 and 1888 one to every 6, $50. :
900 was killed, and one 20 no. 900 pas.
sengers was wounded; in the United
States there was one to 2,sOO,O 900 killed,
and one to 1928, 600 injured.
Prof. Bickmore has good word for
the common house-fly, which, although
a nuisance when it has become old
enough to go about and alight on hu.
man flesh. does valuable service to hu
mainly as a scavenger: There are, he
said, in North America alone over 49,
600 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 typhoid or malarial
nature. The service thus done to man.
kind by the Larvae of the flies could not
we'll be calculated.
Vhere the Language Lacks.
The Listener has been written to bv a
lady at Washington who wishes to know
two queer things. One is why the English
language has no feminine equivalent
for the word ''fellow," used in the sense
of comrade. Sometimes people speak
of a girl as 'jolly good fellow" but
the phrase is abominable, and is depre-
eating to the young woman, though
often it isn't at all meant to be So In
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