Birmingham age-herald., 1895-06-30
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

In the last five years the popula tion or France has decreased.
 The horse, of all animals. is the quick
 est to succumb to cold.
 Of the twenty-seven royal families of
 Europe, two-thirds are of German origin.
 The Empress Elizabeth of Russia was
 one of the stoutest women of her time. Milton was quiet and reserved in con- versation, but thoroughly refined and
 well-bred.
 Dante was solitary in his habits and. by his austerty chilled most of those
 whom he met.
 Mrs. Siddons was large, with very
 striking features. and an air of great personal dignity.
 The income of the English National
 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
 Children last year was f59977
 man had five out of six purses re-
 turned to him which he dropped in New
 York the other day to test public honesty. In an Indian grave near Rochester Wis, undoubtedly of considerable an
 tiqubty. have been found number of copper buckles and ornaments. To call a man a German spy is in France a sure way of securing his arrest and it is said to be the only form of cal
 umny for Which there is no legal redress The colossal bronze statue of the late Marshall MacMahOn which is destined to adorn the market square of Magenta, has been successfully cast at Pricetta. near Milan.
 West, the painter showed his talent at
 very carly age He made sketches in
 charcoal before he was 10 and some of his early work displays great ease in
 the use of the ci-ayon.
 The Indian manufactures were confined to making of canoes, the building Of
 lodges, the weaving of baskets and coarse fabrieks and the making of rude weapons and images.
 The children of Mexican Indian princes were carefully educated by the Span
 iards, and several viceroys of Mexico
 were descended from the Montezumas and bore their name.
 Goldsmith's fame was grafted upon boyhood of wholly unrecognized capabil- ities. Never was so dull boy was
 the report of the relative who first under took to teach him his letters new invention has been designed 10 prevent collisions at sea. At a recent test the force from electromagnetic coils
 stationed on board vessel successfully
 influenced a chemically prepared com-
 pass stationed some six miles away causing it to set up an instantaneous peal of bells
 "Kathleen Mavourneen" was written by Mrs. Crawford, an Irish lady, whose
 songs ninety years ago were in high re- pute. The music was by Crouch, an
 
 poverty begged his way into concert given by Titiens, that he might hear his
 own composition fitly sung. Among the curiosfties of tropical plants are the pearls. found occasionally in the cocoanut palm of the Philippine islands-pearls, which, like those of the ocean. are composed of carbonate of
 lime. The bamboo. too. yields another precious product in the shape of true
 opals, which are found in it's joints.
 The ''eohippus, whose skeleton is one
 of the treasures of the American Museum
 of Natural History, is the original four toed horse. It was hardly larger than a fox, but a fanciful English scientist says 1t possessed all the characteristics of the full-grown horse, including the space for the bit at the end of the lower jaw" It EIas been said of Swift in his best
 days that ''he displayed either the blast Ing lightning Of satire or the lambert or
 meteor-like caTtcature of frolicsome hu- nor" And yet this vigorous disputant was deemed fit subject for a fools cap at school Afterward, at the Dublin university, "he was by scholars esteemed a blockhead."
 As a boy Walter Scott gave few indi- cations of his coming greatness, and was described by one of his early preceptors as .fthe boy that has the thickest skull in the school" Afterward, at Ednburg
 university. the future "Wzzard" was
 
 professors. Ounce he is, and dunce he will remain"
 From the annual tables on emigration and immigration, corroborated from oth- CT sources, the principal of the British statistical department of the board of trade draws the conclusion that as to the whole movement of foreigners into and out of the United Kingdom, the foreign population of the kingdom is unchanged, or is of slightly reduced numbers. At the Bordeaux exhibition the special feature will be the largest bottle ever
 made. It will be 115 feet high. and di- vided into stories, in the lowest of which there will be a restaurant. A winding staircase will lead up the neck to kiosque taking the place of a cork, where there will be room for thirty-five persons at a time to sit and look over the exhibition grounds and the city. A house indifferent to thermal varia- tions has long been the dream of hygi- enists. Such a building has now been erected at the foot of the great snow mountains of Chamounix. This remark able dwelling place is built on a tubular framework, with circulation of water. and forming heat radiator of wide sur face in winter, a radiator of cold in sum-
 mer. and, at the same time, water con duit.
 French doctor wants to introduce his patent process for preserving the re- mains of the dead. It is neither em- balmlng them nor yet mummifying them though the bodies must be embalmed be- fore the doctors new process can be ap- piled. His novel idea is to clectroplate the whole body, and thus preserve to pos terity the noble lineaments of those
 whose estates cut up sufficiently well 10 allow the expense.
 Douglas Jerroid wrote Black Eyed Su- san when he was 21, and contributed to Punch the immensely popular "Caudle lectures not long afterward But at years of age young Jerrold had heen |. scarcely able to read; and it was not until
 he was apprenticed to printer, after serving for some time as a midshipman at sea. that he showed either desire CT
 capacity for intellectual improvement. Echmier and Swiss cheese and ham SondWiohes at Roan