Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1894-03-29
Bits Of information.

The first currency used IN this
country was the Indian wampun.
Every gem known to jewellers has
been found in the United States.
Three hundred thousand earth
globes could be stored inside the sun
The greatest university is Oxford.
1t has twenty-one colleges and FIVE
halls.
In 1852 the first coins were minted
in Massachusetts, by machinery sent
from England.
Dissection of the human bodies by
medical students has been practiced
since B. c. 800.
The Baldwin, the favorite apple of
New England, has been in cultivation
more than a century.
Gunpowder was discovered from the
falling of a spark on some materials
mixed in mortar.
The tomb of Mahomet is covered
with diamonds, sapphires and rubies
valued at ten million dollars.
Steamers and sailing vessels under
the British flag number almost $4,000;
under the United States flag 1927.
Napoleon prohibited the use of the
mustache to all the infantry in his
army, except the grenadiers of the
old guard.
The anasthetic, chloroform, was
discovered by Guthrie in 1881 and was
first employed in surgical operations
in 1916.
There is no truth whatever in the
belief that any one falling into the sea
necessarily rises and sinks three times
before drowning.
Nero's eye-glass, through which the
nearsighted tyrant watched the glad
iatorial games, was an emerald cut
into the form Of lens.
The society of Friends was founded
by Geo. Fox, shoemaker of Dayton,
in Leicestershire, and the members in
1850 were styled Quakers.
The Normans who conquered Eng
land shaved the face and back Of the
head, 50 that Harold's spies declared
they were an army of priests.
The banana seeds only in one small
spot on the earth-the Audaman
Islands. Every where else the
banana plant must be raised from
suckers.
The canning of foods is said to date
back to 1904, when Theoretically sealed
boxes were first used, The tendency
is to substitute glass for tin, just now
The spectroscope tells us that the
composition of the sun is nearly the
same as that of the earth We find
in it iron, silver, zinc and other
familiar metals.
Big heads do not always indicate
intellect. A scientist points out that
the Greeks, one of the most intellectual.
of nations, were one of the smallest
headed of races
Byron wrote his celebrated poem OF
the Bride of Abydos' in one night
and without mending his pen. The
pen is yet preserved in the British
Museum.
The fastest swimmer among fishes Il
the dolphin. It's speed varies from
thirty to forty miles an hour, and i
can swim around and around a yesse
sailing at high rate of speed.
The greatest library in the world i
the Bibliotheque National, in Paris
founded by Louis XIV. 1t contain
100000 volumes, 100000 pamphlets
l75,OOO manuscripts, 100000 map
and charts, and 10000 coins an(
medals.
In China a traveller wishing for
passport is compelled to have tn
palm of his hand brushed over witt
fine oil paint; he then presses his han'
on thin damp paper, which retains al
impression of the lines. This is use'
to prevent transference of the passport
as the lines of no two hands are alike
The Blue Grotto, on the island Q
Capri, in the Bay of Naples, Is abso
lutely unrivaled for the vivid splendo
of its colors. Owing to the peculia
nature of the refraction of the sunligh
on its water, wall, roof and sea ar
tinged beautiful ultramarine, whic
shades into a deep violet in tn
furthest recesses Of the cavern.
An amusing story is told OF a yer
devout Catholic who had transgressed
He went to his father confessor an
made known his trangresslon. In
father sternly rebuked him and sal
he must do penance. The peniten
with fearful eye sObbingly replied
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