The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-11-07
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.


Gold pens are now usually tipped
with iridium. The bits of this metal
are laid in notches at the point of the
pen, then fastened on with huX, being
afterward ground and polished for use.
-Pliny says that the liquor of the
cuttlefish was often used by the Romans
as an ink. 1t was considered superior
to the lampblack preparation, but was
not used so freely on account OF its
much greater cost.
Several species of the rhododen-
drons have the singular popularity of
producing a poisonous honey Chem
lists have repeatedly examined the flow
err but have not detected the poisonous
principle, which appears to be only de-
veloped after the bees have manufac-
tured the juices of the flower into
honey.
"A Mrs. Richard King is the owner
of a landed estate in Texas which oc-
cupieS nearly two thousand square
miles. She employs small army of
men on her property, which is also
congressional district, and her power is
so great among her employees that she
can readily dictate, it is said, who shall
be the next representative from that
district at Washington.
News was brought from Sitka to
Port Townsend recently that the
whaling season Mad been the most un-
successful of recent years. The catch
of the entire fleet so far as reported has
been but twenty-three whales. Four
teen deaths occurred in the fleet, and a
number of sailors who ran away when
near land and have not been heard of
since are supposed to have frozen to
death.
Two Lyons students are travelling
through France with a pousse-pousse,
the form of perambulator used at the
last Paris exhibition. 1t weighs one
hundred pounds and they carry another
one hundred pounds of baggage. One
rides, while the other pushes him for
an hour; then they change about. They
have reached Paris, and will go to Bor-
deauX Marseilles, and back to Lyons.
British museum authorities have no
/ right to exclude persons from their
reading room, according to a recent
London county court decision. They
/ had undertaken to keep out one Of the
eccentric nuisances who plead their
! own cases in English courts, but the
court held that the collections by
statute are free to all studiouS and
! curious persons so long as they observe
! the regulations.
"A cargo of nearly three million feet
of lumber was loaded at Port Town
send, Wash. a week ago for Delagoa
bay, South Africa. 1t was destined
for use in the mines in the interior.
One usually thinks of Africa as having
no scarcity of timber. But it is most
probably the means of cutting it that
are lacking. American lumber finds a
good market in most of the forest Gov
cred islands of the West Indies for the
same reason.
The sea serpent made its latest ap
pearance in Bellingham bay, Wash.
recently, and seventeen residents Of
New Whatcom are ready to make aft
davit that they saw it. They are equal
ly positive with the Wall street man
who saw it, or one, off the Jersey coast
last month. and it is to be assumed either
that there are two or more sea ser
penis, or that it is very rapid swim
mer, or that it knows the route of the
northwest passage.
The Era of Actium,' adopted dur
ing the early days of the Roman EN-
pire, commentaries the great vic
tory gained by Octavus over the
troops of Anthony and Cleopatra
January 1, b. c., 80. 1t was otter
used among the Romans both in
writing and colloquially, just as in
England people speak of events as oc
curing before or after "The Con
quest or as persons in this country
frequently refer to events as having
happened before or after the war"