San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-10-29
OF GENERAL INTEREST.

srurrowa II each pair should nave
twenty-four young in year and all
live, would in ten years number 275,'
ZIG, 9s3, Cos birds. The bird matches five
or six broods in a year, and produces
from four to six young in brood.
Sixty years ago Joseph elliott waa
q working jeweler in birmingham.
One day he accidentally split one OF
his fine steel tools, and, being suddenly
required to sign a receipt. and not find
ing q pen handy, he used the split tool
as a substitute. This happy incident
led to the idea of making pens of
metal.
The notion that the Sahara is alto
gether barren and worthless waste
Is wide of the truth. In 1892 there
were 100000 sheep in the Algerian
Sahara aIone, besides 1000, 600 goats
and 26O, 900 camels. On the GASES there
are 1, 500, 900 date palms, giving dates
worth $1,000 G01 year. So even the
desert is worth keeping under control.
Light, single railroads on which
large wheelbarrows run are beginning
TO be used on French farms. The rails
are fastened to small iron cross pieces,
the ends joined b., fish plates, and can
be easily nu' in place and removed.
The trucks car be drawn by horses or
men and are balanced by a heavy
crow bar, held by the man who pushes
them.
la 1o04 only nine deaths occurred
out of a population of II, 900 persons
who tenanted Pentonville prison, Lon
don. As of these nine deaths probably
not one was due to TIE prison environ
ment, it is thus seen shat the modern
prison is really the tyre of the healthy
home. Life there proceeds with a reg
ularity as regards fool. exercise, rest
anu other conditions OF health which
cannot be initiated outside of prison
walls.
I'm a room over BenSon's saloon, in
Bessemer, Ala, recent John Under
wood, a miner, had f" ling out with
Mary Pratt, with WHOM he was drink
ing. During the course of the quarrel
Underwood pulled a pistol end shot
the woman square in the. monk at
short range and theT lied, thinking
she was dead. When the woman was
raised from the floor a few minutes
afterward she calmly spit the pistol
ball out of her mouth. Beyond the
loss of a few front teeth, which the
ball struck in passing, she was not
much hurt.
According to Troy fisherman the
latest triumph of yankee inventive
genius is an India rubber fishworm. II
is said to be remarkably good imita-
ton of the common earthworm, is in
aestrHctible and in actual use proves
as alluring to the fishes as the genuine
article The old fishermen will be
quick to see its advantages One can
equip himself for days sport without
over whole garden in search
for bait. A handful of India rubber
worms will last him through the sea.
son, and there viii be no necessity for
pulling up the line every few minutes
to see if the smaii-s-y nibblers have
left the hook bare.
Pure, fresh cold water is one of the
most valuable disinfectants, inasmuch
as it is a powerful absorbent Every
sick room should have large vessel Of
clear water, frequently renewed,
placed near the bed, or even beneath
it This not only absorss much of the
hurtful vapor. but by its evaporation it
softens and tempers the atmosphere,
doing away with the dryness which is
SO trying and depressing to an invalid,
or even to persons in health, for that
matter. 1t has frequently been shown,
by actual experiment, that troubled
sleep and threatened insomnia, are
corrected by so simple thing as plac-
ing an open bowl of water near the SUI
ferer'S head