The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1895-04-17
ITEMS.

Two thousand patents have beea
taken out in this country on the manu-
iacture of paper alone.
James I. of England was a lover of
the classics and very familiar with most
Of she Latin writer's.
Belgium took its pane from the
Belgae, a warlike tribe, which inhab-
tied il before the time Of Christ.
Lablache, the stout basso. was a S
dent of botany, and had quite a coliec-
ton of botanical works.
The largest canal lock in the world
is in the Manchester ship canal. It
stands forty-fye feet high.
Carlyle had a very large library, re-
lating principally to German and French
literature and history.
The Egyptian Soudau has nearly
1000. 600 square miles. 1t is almost
as large as all Europe, excluding Rus
STA.
With population of hardly two aud
a-half millions, Greece has a debt Of
1854. 600, 600, or about SIS per capita.
When the Gulf Stream passes out of
the Gulf of Mexico its temperature is
about seventy degrees.
DR.. Klein, F. R. S., lecturer on
general anatomy and physiology at St.
Bartholomew Hospital. Loadon. de-
livered a lecture on cholera recently.
in which he said that the prevention Of
cholera was beset with less difficulty
than that of some Of the communica-
BILE diseases which in town they had
almost constantly among them.
It is a well-known fact chat the
milkmaids 10 Switzerland who can siog
get better pay than those who cannot
sing The reason is that a tunefal
maid who sings at her work coaxes
oDe-fourth more milk from a cow than
q sougless mixer can extract.
A Paris doctor who has been study
ing the effect of liquors on the voice
states that none of the great singers
have ever been seetotalers. Wine
in moderation. be belives, is useful for
the voice ; but beer chickens it and
makes it CULTURAL, Malibran used to
drink Madeira.
The star6sh kills the oyster by
enveloping it closely in it's arms, then
placing bis mouth to the crevice of the
shell, he iojects a very acrid and
venomous juice within. The poor
oyster, disguised by the poison. opens
bis she'll to admit water aud so rid him
self Of it, and thus falls a prey to the
destroyer.
Recently Prof. Carl Meyers has CON-
ple,ed at the balloon farm at Frankfort
n. Y, the FIRST Of a series of balloon
outfits to be supplied to some sixty YES
sells belonging 60 New York parties for
life-saving purposes 10 case Of ship
wreck, says the Utica Observer. Each
outfit consists of an automatic appa-
ratus generating hydrogen gas uoder
pressure, so controlled BY a s.op-cock
that the ciosiog of this Immediately
stops the generation o. How of gas and
retains it still under pressure. This is
used to rapidly initiate q balloon Of
sufficient size to carry q life line Ashore
from q wrecked vessel by means Of
which a heavier cable may be drawn for
communication or passage of crew or
goods, as now practiccd by the govern
ment life-ssving crews where stations
exist for throwing 8 lioe by the use Of
q mortar. The defects of the mortar
system are that the stations are iufre-
quent Oh the coast. the difficulty great
10 throwing a line against the wind at
so small a mark as a ship and the dis
lance which frequently makes such eff.
forts futile. The balloon system has
the advantage of requiring no special
apparatus 90 shore, while the balloon
simply is drifted toward g line Of coast
by the same wind which blows the ship
ashore, and drops its line when the