The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-04-12
MISCELLANEOUS.

The cabbage is development of q
common seaweed which grows wild on
every coast of Europe.
The primitive drum was a section
o. a hollow tree with piece of skin
tightly tied over the top.
This makes the fourth letter
you've had from your wife this week.
Now, what in creation can she have to
write about?'' Husband (sadly)-
"Money. Ocean.
-Lottie-"Please, Mrs. Slasher, may
see some of your evening dresses?
Mamma told us about them" Mrs.
Certainly, dear Did mamma
like them?' Lottie-'I don't know.
She just said you dressed like Il perfect
heathen."
The California woodpecker is an
insect eater. Yet in view OF the ap
|proach of winter, it prepares'a store of
food of a wholly different character
and arranges this with as much care as
an epicure might devote to the storage
OF his wine in cellar.
in Morte Veritas. mar
RED an heiress, but he always pro-
tested it was marriage of the heart"
''Did he prove it when her father lost
eyerything?'' Eyes. He was found
aAad the next day with note saying
t was heart failure. Judge.
Henry Van Etten in 1860 antici-
t;seted several inventions believed to
( be modern. He described the air gun,
the steam gun, the hydraulic press
and the method of teaching the blind
to read by means of raised letters
whose impression can be perceived by
the fingers.
Lake Titicaca is the most elevated
and one of the largest of the lakes of
South America. 1t forms part of the
boundary between South Peru and Bo-
livia, in the center of an alpine valley,
between two great cordilleras of the
Andes. Titicaca is IL, 900 feet above
the level of the sea.
The most costly of all metals, save
only gallium, which is worth $4,000 an
ounce, is germanium. which is quoted
at 81, 1876 an ounce. Rhodium is worth
S1125 so an ounce; ruthenium, 800 an
ounce; iridium, $3.50 an ounce; os-
MUM, s26 an ounce, and palladium, s24
an ounce. The last is about equal in
value to gold. These metals are of no
great commercial Importance Invent
i've Age.
The surrender of his name by a
young man in Delaware who recently
married widow and is hereafter to be
known by his wife's name, has elected
considerable comment as quite re-
marKable innovation of a custom that
is hoary with age. Though why the
giving up of ones revered family name
should be confined exclusively to one
sex has never been satisfactorily ex-
planned. Minneapolis Times.
Americans know little about the
economies of slow cooking, though the
underlying principle has been applied
in the case of Edward Atkinson's cooker
The Mexican tomalis in their corn
husk coverings keep hot and go on
cooking long after they have left the
fire. The Russians bring with them to
this country the device of enclosing
very hot food in felt-covered vessels
'end permitting the cooking process to
go on without the aid of fuel.
Horses have often been insured and
so, too, have prize cattle and dogs but
the boxing kangaroo at the Westmin-
ster aquarium, in London, is proba bly,
the first of its kind in whose name a
policy has been taken out. While the
directors of that institution offered no
objection to the payment of the pre-
/ MUM for the kangaroo, they abso-
/. lutely declined, as superfiuous ex-
pense, to defray the cost of insurance
upon the lives of the divers who con-
stitute some of the side features of the
show.
The first windmill in Germany was
built at Windsheim. The Augustine
monks at that place desired to build
one such as they had seen in Italy, but
the lord of the manor forbade them,
declaring that the winds belonged to
him. The monks applied to the bishop
of Utrecht, who promptly laid down
the fundamental principle that no one
had any power over the winds of his
diocese but himself. He gave permits
sion to build the mill, and it was
erected in the closing years of the
fourteenth century.
How can you find out whether a
postage stamp has been used or not?
Photograph it. If the postmark has
been obliterated, the blue or green
color will not make any impression on
the plate, while the black traces of the
obliteration will appear with great
| clearness. Even when the stamps have
| been well washed and no trace of the
obliter alton can be seen by the naked
eye or through the microscope, the
photograph will show very clearly the
two concentric circles of the stamp
the date and even the name of the
! locality. Science News.
| THE means adopted by nature for
/ the dissemination of plants are equally
/ varied and curious. The seed-vessels
of some species open with snap that
sends the seeds to a considerable dis
| lance; the seeds of other species are
! provided with wings composed of a
thin membrane, like the maple, oil
downy filaments like the thistle, by
which they are borne away by the
wind Some, like the ordinary burs
are fitted out with hooks by which