The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-07-10

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known, be esteemed record breakers in
this last decade of the nineteenth century.
AS Adam was the first man, all sorts
of ingenious hypothesis have ascribed to
him the first performance of many inter-
esting and, perhaps, highly imaginative
deeds. While he was the first husband
and the first father, lovers no doubt rejoice
to think that he was not the first lover,
since his wife was ready made to hand for
him and he had no choice in the matter,
choice being at the very foundation of af-
lection of that sort.
Scipio Africanus, one of the most famous
of the warriors of ancient Rome. general,
q scholar and a statesman besides, is said
to have been the first clean-shaven Ro-
man.
No wonder he was popular with all
young men; were there no other reason
for it his name would no doubt figure in
history. For in the days of the early Ro-
man civilization the beard was a badge, if
not exactly of servitude. at least of some
thing approaching barbarism. Just as the
attendants in the best regulated places of
public resort today are required to wear
clean-shaven faces, SO the slaves in the
days of ScipiO were commanded to wear
boards, and il had within 4 short time be-
come to that extent o mark of degradation.
The first man to make shot was named
Watts, though there is no evidence that he
was in any way related to the inventor of
the steam engine. The curious part of the
story of the discovery of the method now
in use of making perfectly gobular mis-
siies of lead Is that one evening after hav-
ing spent several hours at social gather
ing where his companions, at least, drank
too much wine, he managed to find his
way home to bed and Immediately fell
into deep sleep, in the course of which
he dreamed that he was again out in the
street with his late comrades, and that it
was raining-not rain drops, but spheres
of molten lead. In the morning he began
to wonder what shape molten lead would
take if dropped through the air, and he
finally climbed to the top of the steeple of
the church of st. Mary. at Redclif, Lon
don, melted ladleful of lead and threw it
to the moat below. When he ran down
and gathered the particles from the bottom
of the moat. which was quite shallow, he
found that his dream had come true. And
hence the shot tower.
The first professional actor to receive
what is generally styled the honor of
knighthood was Augustus Harris, not
only an actor, but the manager of the
Drury Lane theater In London, and often
spoken of as Augustus Druriolanus."
Queen Victoria conferred his title upon
him in the summer of 1891.
The first sea captain TO take whaleback
steamer across the ocean from Duluth
through the lakes to Liverpool was named
Saunders and his vessel was the Charles
W. Wetmore. Captain Saunders made
his first voyage in 1891, and soon after
ward died on his ship in Liverpool from
heart disease, supposed to have been ag-
gravated by his heroic rescue of q cast
away the day before.
The first English owner of race horses
to make entries for American races and so
directly to participate in what Is the most
widely patroniZed sport in this country is
Colonel North, the nitrate king" of Eng
land. He has entered some of his most
famous thoroughbreds for the American
derby, the Queen Isabella and the Sheri-
dan stakes in Chicago in 1898.
The first dscOyerer of the diamond Is
said TO have been a Hindoo named Hakim
FeZ Certain il is that the diamond first
began to be valued in Hindoostan. For
centuries the mines Of GolcOnda were the
only ones known, but in l72S the diamond
mines of Brazil were discovered. and in
1868 the famous South African diamond
mines were opened up for the first time.
The first steel made in the United States
was in 1873, by Samuel Higley, OF Sims
bury, Conn. and John Dewey, of Hebron,
Conn. They got a ten-year patent.
Thimbles, found in the ruins of Hercula-
neum, were introduced by John Setting
into England in 1893.
The first theatrical company to give
plavs in America, so far as known. came
from England in 1852, and landed at York,
Va. playing at Williamsburg. Va, Sep
tember 5, 1852. and giving ''Sterne's Con
I nverzt in New York Saptcrn bar
1888.
The first Rothschild was Mayer Anselm,
a money lender in the Judengasse OF
Frankfort at the beginning of this century.
The father of illustrated journalism in
America was Frederick Gleason, now an
inmate of the Old Mems home. in Boston.