The Opelousas courier., 1892-05-21
SELECT SIFTINGS.
Envelopes were first used in 1889.

envelopes were HIsI useu III iOo''
Anesthesia was discovered in 1914.
The Franciscans arrived in England in
1924.
The first horse railroad was built in
l626-27.
A Catasauqua (Penn.) man roasts and
eats cats as his only meal.
Thirteen tons of postage stamps are
said to have been sold in New York City
last year.
Condensed milk forms an important
item in the supplies of the average winter
resort hotel.
The first telegraphic instrument was
successfully operated by S. F. B. Morse,
the inventor, in 1885, though the utility
was not demonstrated to the world until
1912.
A penman of Vienna, Austria, once
wrote 400 Hebrew letters on a single
grain Of wheat. At another time he
wrote a Hebrew prayer on the edge Of a
visiting card.
Almost any place in the Sahara desert
one can find glass sticks or tubes from
one to three feet in length, caused by
lightning striking the pure sand and in
stantly converting it into that fragile
substance.
The La Plata was discovered by Juan
Diaz de Soils in 1916, who took pos
session of the country for the row of
Spain. Buenos Ayres was founded by
Don Pedro de Mendoza, who became
governor in 1886.
It is recorded that in the time of King
William II. there occurred in England a
wonderful shower of stars, which
tsseemed to fall like rain from heaven.
An eyewitness seeing where an a~erolite
fell, cast water upon it, which was raised
in steam with a great noise of boiling"
The first woman chemist in Paris,
France, has just taken her frst-class de-
gree. She will have to serve three year,
as an assistant before practieing in her
own name. She is a native of France
which is unusual, as nearly all students
of medicine and pharmacy in Paris are
foreigners.
Figures furnished concerning the salt
product of the United States make tns
production during the year 1891 10, 229,
691 barrels. About four-tenths of this
is from Michigan, four-tenths from New
York, not quite one-tenth from Kansas
and the remainder from Ohio, West Vir
ginia, Louisiana, Utah, Nevada ant
Texas.
Oae of the earliest accounts Of star
showers is that which relates how, in
472, the sky at Constantinople, Turkey,
appeared to. be alive with flying stars and
rleteors. In some Eastern annals We are
told that in October, 1902, ttthe stars
appeared like waves upon the sky. They
few about like grasshoppers, AMI were
dispersed from left to right"
The ssNational Guard !" was first or
ganizei in Paris, France, In 1889 by the
revolutionary Committee of Safety.
There were As, 900 in Paris, 300, 900 in
France, and the whole were under La.
foyette and carried the t~rieolor flag. Ii
1745 they were defeated and broken NJ
by Napoleon, were r~eorganizel by hin
in 1914, dissolved by Charles x. in 1927
again reorganized in 1880, and again il
1881. They fell away from Louis Phil
lippe in 1848, were remodelled in 1852
served against the Germans in the wal 0
1901, and in the latter year a part o
them took a share in the Comnunis
struggle.
Of late years steps have been taken Il
prevent the destruction of forests by fir
in certain districts of India. This car,
has had one curious result. Cover ant
water, which vanished with the timber
have again become common, and Their
has consequently been a large increase il
the number of wild deer. In one sens
it is fortunate that the deer have grow
in numbers with the tigers, for the latte
have preyed upon them instead of upon
cattle and human beings. When, how
ever, they shall have scared away th,
deer, or have become tired of venison
they will probably proWl around village
and play havoc with battle, besides kill
ing their maa or two.
-zu-
a Famous Slses.