St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1893-09-09
FOREIGN GOSSIP.

I'm Chin a traveller wishing for .
passport Is compelled To have the palm
of his hand brushed over with fine Gil
paint; he then presses his hand on thin
damp paper, which retains an impress
sion of the lines. This is used to pre-
vent transferencc of the passport, -
the lines OF no two hands are alike.
A man named Schneider deserted
his wife in Thessingen, Bavaria, came
to America, end here committed biga-
my. Learning. some years later, that
his first wife and died. he returned to
his old home. and is in Jail there. The
report of his wifc's death was merely .
ruse to get him in the clutches Of the
law.
1T Is believed by the engineers and
officials of the enterprise that the Man.
chester ship canal will be opened for
traffic along its entire length, from
Liverpool TO Manchester, by next Feb
ruary or March. II the practical COM
plction is retarded beyond that date It
will likely he by legal rather than en-
gineering difiicultica-N. y. Sun.
A hot-,~atcr fountain is now in
operation in Paris The water that
feeds the fountain passes through a
Coil of copper tubing three hundred
feet long. by dropping a sou in slot.
jets of gas are turned on and ignited.
by this means the water is heated.
For each sou one is entitled to eight
liters. It is expected that this fOun-
tain will he a great assistance to the
poor. and, il successful, others will be
built.
Denial is made in st. Petersburg to
the unfnvorable reports recently pub
lishcd in Great Britain and elsewhere
regarding the prospects of the coming
harvest in Russia. and to the sta fement
that the government would. in cOnse-
quencc. prohibit the export Of rye.
The present condition of the crops, al.
though unsatisfactory in the govern
ments of Podolia. Kicff, and Cherson,
is excellent in practically all other dis
tricts.
japanese gardens are the most
fairylikc Of places. You see in them
tiny trees and towering plants, ponds.
bridges. es.summer-houses. lanterns-here
dwarf pines SIX or eight inches high,
but one hundred and twenty-five years
old: there others one foot high, but
five hundred years old. In the garden
of Yeijugin-withint the temple grounds
there are many peony plants, mostly
old. but ono is one hundred years old,
and is eight feet high-quite tree.
There Is in Spain q river called
Tinto. which has very extraordinary
qualities. Its waters, which are as yell
low as the topaz, harden the sand and
p..rify it in most surprising manner.
II stone falls into the river and rests
upon another they both become per
fectly united and conglutinated in
year. It withers al the plants on its
banks as we'll rs the roots OF trees,
which it dyes of the same hue Is its
water. No fish live in its stream.
There is no doubt that South Africa
is regarded at present as the most prom
Using field for development in the pro-
duction of the precious metals. The
continued extension Of mining opera
tions in the Transvaal. and the more
recent rediscovcry of the ancient gold
fields of Mashonaland and the Mata-
belle country. seem to be drawing
miners and mining-engineers from other
countries in considerable numbers. and
the movement is likely to continue for
some time to come. me.--Engineering and
Mining Journal.
"A story comes from Irkutsl<, the
capital of eastern Siberia, of . dog
seven months old that has suddenly de-
veloped the faculty for making sounds
so like a human voice that a person in
the next room could not tell the differ
cnce. The dog seems to have no COM
prchension of the meaning of the
words he uttcrs. but ne readily repeats
anything that is said to him in shrill,
boyish- h-sounding voice. Some days he
seems to lose the faculty or to be disin-
clined to exercise it. but on others de-
lights to say anything he is told.
Gen. Dodds says in his report on
the Dahomcy campaign that the Lebcl
rife gave entire satisfaction. The car
tridges were in no way affected by the
voyage out or by the climate of Daho-
mey. Smokcless powder and the old
kind were used in the way of expert
ment in several engagements. The
smokelcss powder proved by far the
more satisfactory. The old powder
drew the fire of the enemy instead OF
masking the detachment using it, and
the troops using the smokelcss powder
suffered much less than the others