Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1893-08-17
SHORT BITS.
Interesting Reading Culled from Various
Sources.

Interesting Reading Culled from Various
Sources.
"Kick the Printer is the rather start
ling sign exhibited at an office near the
Brooklyn bridge. But it isn't an in-
junction, it is only statement. The
printers name is Kick.
A Brooklyn florist has four or five
chameleons in one of his windows. They
are from South America and seem to
have suffered no change in their removal
to cooler climate. They lie upon the
leaves of his palms and other tropical
plants, and are occasionally found to
alter their color little, though general
ly it is only from one shade of green to
another.
A man who writes for the story papers
and who endeavors to give his characters
life, says that he finds some difficulty in
doing SO; that not unfrequently names
that he had invented and that had seemed
wholly strange to him, he had found
later in the er-of-fact type of the d.
rectory.
The vitality of the small horsef1y after
the snake that has undergone the same
process. He does not use his wings, if the
beheading has been done neatly, 80 as
not to injure him otherwise, but walks
about, stopping now and then for ''dry
wash" rubbing his legs together and
cleaning his wings. If touched he will
slide off. If blown upon he will cling
tightly to avoid being carried away.
This performance he will continue for a
quarter of an hour or more.
The son of New England clergyman,
himself a man of 60 years, says: "There
was more rum and more drunkenne So
when | was a boy than there is now,
when there is so much wine and beer.
But among good families there was no
more drunkenness than there is to-day.
My good old father used to take his glass
of toddy every morning, never more
than one glass, and would always offer
it to bis children If they were in the
room. But they never thought of taking
it, any more than if it had been jalap or
tobacco. 1t wasn't matter of morals;
merely matter of TASTE"
A paradise fish in tank in show
window in New Y ork is surrounded by
hundred or SO of the young, that appear
as mere bubbles darting here and there.
If finger be held near the surface the
fish snaps at it viciously; if the fry sink
to the bottom it will take them in its
mouth and lift them to the weeds at the
top. "That's great fish," said the
owner. "It's an excellent parent, and
takes as much care of the little fellows
as creatures of more alleged intelli-
gence. We had to take away the mate
and put it into separate tank because
it was eating the young ones. No it
isn't she. This is the father. The
mother is over there by herself"
Mount Kineo, which rises precipitous-
~ 700 feet out of Moosehead Lake, in
Maine, is wholly composed of hornstone,
and is the largest mass of that mineral
in the known world. There is no true
flint in the United States, but hornstone
so closely re 'embles it that it takes an
expert to tell the difference. This rock
supplied arrow heads to Indians hun
dreds and thousands of miles away. The
discovery of these arrow heads in the
Mississippi Valley has led to the belief
that system of commercial exchange
must have existed among the red men In
former centuries. According to an In
dian tradition the mountain is the BODY
of a monster moose that was slain by q
giant.
Mineral water syphons commonly in
use are subjected when full to a pressure
Of about $50 pounds per square inch. The
best Of them are made in Germany and
tested up to 200 pounds per square inch,
but the most careful makers of mineral
waters test their syphon bottles up to
300 pounds per square inch. The glass,
after having been placed in ice-cold
water, is suddenly plunged into boiling
water. The loss from breakage in the |
testing process is very great. A syphon
bottle has been known to keep pure and |
sweet for seven years a small quantity |
of mineral water accidentally left un-
used. The accidental test of water aud |
bottle was thought highly satisfactory.
The elm tree beetle, a greedy black |
worm, is doing great mischief to the |
stately old elms, with which the streets |
of all antique Connecticut towns are
shaded. 1t has been especially destruc-
tive in Hartford, Meriden, Bridgeport |
and Norwalk. The trees literally are |
pitted with them in certain localities, |
which look as if they were strung with
almost innumerable little black beads. |
The worms speedily strip the trees of |
their leaves, which turn yellow and often |
fall in showers. Many handsome elms