Huntsville gazette., 1893-01-14
OF GENERAL INTEREST.

"A correspondent of the New York
Sun, of late date, says print these four
lines without punctuation and no one
would believe them, yet rightly punctu-
ated they are true:
Every lady in every land
Has twenty nails on each hand
Five and twenty on hands and feet
This Is true without deceit"
The business OF coal mining for
commercial purposes has entirely grown
up during the last fifty or sixty years.
1t was known before the revolution
that coal existed in Pennsylvania. So
early as 1769, one Obadiah Gore, a black
smith in the Wyoming valley, used coal
found lying on the surface of the
ground.
An eminent authority has it that
the death rate of the world is calcu-
lated to be 67 per minute, 4,030 per
hour, 90, 720 per day. while the rate of
births, slightly exceeding the death
rate is calculated to be 20 per minute,
4,1OO per hour, 100, 800 per day, SO, 742,-
900 year. The estimated increase per
annum is therefore little over1, 500, 00o
Whiting, plaster of Paris, barytes,
silica and white clay are the commonest
paint. adulterants. A recent lecturer
showed a number OF boards painted
with three coats of these materials that
had been ground in oil. In each case
the grain of the wood could readily be
seen, while one coat of white lead was
sufficient to practically cover the grain.
I'm Concord the total precipitation
of rain and snow during the Il months
of the present year was 36.7S inches,
being so more than during the corre-
spending months of last year, and one
quarter of an inch less than the aver
age during the 35 years. The snowfall
in November was nine inches, exceed
ing the total amount of last winter up
to January Is.
The new publications issued from
the press of the United States during
1891 amounted to $500, of which only
1.1O4 survived at the beginning of 1892
The total number of American period
icals of all sorts, including newspapers,
is now 20, 115. Some of them are pretty
cheap stuff, but as whole they indi-
cate that the people of this country are
the hungriest readers on earth.
"A rather amusing, but possibly
practical invention, is that which in
closes a railroad switch in an iron cage.
The switchman who is to throw the
switch from the main line to siding
must enter this cage, and throwing the
switch locks him in. The door can be
unlocked only when the switch is
thrown back, and thus says the in
yentor, if the switchman derails train
he is there in the cage to answer for it.
Soon after the attack on Schenecta-
dy (1690) the government of Massachu-
sets addressed circular letter to all
the colonies as far south as Maryland,
inviting them to send commissioners to
New York to agree upon some plan of
operations for the defense of the whole.
Delegates from Massachusetts, Connect
icut and New York met in the city of
New York in May, 1890, and the cam
paign against Canada was planned.
This was the first colonial congress.
The Indian government is going to
clrtail, possibly abolish, the trial by
jury. 1t has been found uusuitab BILE to
eastern conditions, and has been but
little practiced. Out of 1853, 600 cases in
the Bengal presidency last year there
were only 2S5 trials by jury. The Pail
Mall Gazette defends the government
in its course, and publishes much in
tended to prove that the abolition of
trial by jury is in no sense a piece of
malevolent despotism, as it has been
represented Of late years there has
been great increase of crime in Ben
gal. Murder and gang robbery are
more prevalent than several years back,
and it is interesting to note, too, that
lynch law is frequently practiced
The head cooks Of Paris have found
ed Culinary academy, on the lines, it's
founders say, of the ''other famous
Academy of France" Its purpose is to
conserve and foster the fine art of the
kitchen. 1t has thirty immortals, and
is presided over by the chef of one of
the most famous of Partisan restaur-
ants The members meet once month
and discuss their art at great length,
compare notes, invent new dishes and
condemn some old ones as barbarous-
At recent meeting the president de-
plored and protested against the decline
and fall of taste-using the word in it's
aesthetic sense-in eating. He main
tanned that the race of gourmets is dy-
ing out The age is too utilitarian.
Formerly three hours was the proper
duration of well-ordered dinner Now
everything is hurry, and all sense of
the artistic is being killed
New Jersey Oysters.
An ostraculturist at Claypit creek,
N. j., says that the creek oysters are
not surpassed anywhere. In this he is
confirmed by noted epieures, who have
tasted the oyster along the whole east
ern coast. The Shrewsbury oysters
have had the call in the New York mar
kets for several years, and it might
seem strange that the creek, being only
sort of estuary of the Shrewsbury,
should produce better oysters than
those grown in that river; but such is
the fact The fresh waters coming
from the springs and surface of the