The Van Buren press., 1895-06-15
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.


John Randolph, OF Roanoke, had
squeaking voice that detracted not q
little from the effect of his speeches.
When he became angry, as he general
ly did before he got through a speech.
he fairly shrieked In wrath.
Every railroad company has scrap
pile. When everything that Is valu-
able In It's own form is sifted from the
pile there remain many tons OF iron OF
considerable value as raw material
An inventor of new car coupler urges
railway companies to utilize the scrap
pile to equip their roads with his de-
vice.
ALI except As miles Of the 277 miles
OF the Wabash roadbed between Kan
sas City and st. Louis is ballasted with
burnt clay. To the eyes of the uniniti-
ated the ballast looks like an accumu-
lation of small terra Gotta colored
stones, which CLEAN and glisten in the
sunlight like long ribbon Of ochre.
with the steel rails cutting two silvery
lines through it. 1t makes the hand
soonest, most elastic, durable, tenacious
roadbed.
Il. P. Grady, detective of the Big
Four for the entire system, has just
made up his report for 1894. This
showed that during the year he made
143 arrests, secured conviction In 1T
cases and sent 72 of the number to the
penitentiary for terms of from two to
five years. Most of the cases were for
burglaries committed at stations or
breaking into freight cars and stealing
goods.
Every year the bravest deed done
in saving life in the British dominions
is marked by the award of the STAN
hope gold medal by the Royal Humane
society. 1t was given this year to
William Mugford, of Torquay, who
was caught in sewer where he was at
work with three companions when the
sewer was flooded by sudden thunder
storm, and saved two OF the men by
holding them up by main strength for
seven hours until relief came.
-Kumasi, for Coomassie, is the latest
wrinkle in African spelling, and it is
official The king of the place, who
calls himself king of Ashantee, under
took lately to send ambassadors to
Queen Victoria, but was told by the
foreign office that as England lays
claim to Ashantee herself she cannot
admit his title, that he Is not big
enough king to send ambassadors, and
that the queen would never think OF
receiving the ENJOYS OF king who al
| lows human sacrifices.
-Pasteur is the most distinguished
graduate Of the Paris Ecole Normale,
which has just celebrated its hun
dredth anniversary. In commemora-
ton Of the event tablet Of black
marble has been placed on the wall of
his laboratory in the old Rue d'Ulm,
now Rue Pasteur, inscribed: "Here
stood Pasteur's laboratory. 1857, Fer
mentations. 1860, Spontaneous genera
ton. 1865, Diseases of wines and
beers. 1883, Silkworm distempers. 1881,
Virus and vaccine. 1864-1868, Hydro
phobia remedies" Above is medal
lion with the letters L. P. interlaced.
-Englands four new first-class
cruisers are to be of 11,000 tons dis
placement. They will measure ass
feet on the water line and ABS feet
between perpendiculars, and have a
breadth of 90 feet and a draught OF 25.
The armament will consist Of fifteen
6-inch quick firers, fourteen 12-pound-
ers and twelve 3-pounders. besides
smaller machine guns. They will have
two submerged tubes and one stern
4 tube for torpedoes, and the protective
armor is to be the same as for the
Powerful and Terrible. They will
carry 2,0OO tons of coal and are in
tended to have speed of 20X knots
with natural draught.
-Hanfstaengle's litigation over the
living pictures has come to an end In
the English courts. He is q Munich
art publisher, and complained that his
copyright was infringed by the repre-
sentation of the pictures he owned.
He sued the Empire for initiating the
figures in the paintings with its actors
and lost; he-sued some illustrated
papers for reproducing the Empire
pictures, appealed the case to the
house Of lords, and lost; he finally sued
the Empire for copying the back
grounds of certain pictures, lost the
case for nearly all, but had his claim
allowed for two, Charity" and
Might" and received So damages ant
So. so for every time that these twt
pictures are represented.