The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-06-13
OF GENERAL INTEREST.

To ''cut stick" a euphemism for
running away, is an expression found
not only in English, but also in French,
German, Italian and Spanish. 1t is
supposed to refer to the practice among
travellers of cutting a staff from a
hedge or tree before beginning jour
ney.
-Bella6onna is preparation from
the deadly nightshade, plant familiar
to most persons from beinGAfrequently
seen as an ornamental shrub in the
flower gardens. All parts of the plant
are actively poisonous, and many ia
talities have resulted from the leaves
or berries being incautiously chewed
or eaten by children and other persons.
One finds still all over the older
portions of the south the remains of
fine old family libraries of English
classics. the best editions, well bound
and well kept. These libraries were
once the pride of planters in Maryland,
Virginia, the CarOlinas-the states that
included the best educated southern
ers, men strongly under British tradi-
tions, and lovers of good literature.
Cinnamon is the bark of tree
which is native to Ceylon, South In
dia and many of the East India ISL
ands. During the middle ages it was
highly esteemed as a medicine, and
one instance is on record of pound of
it being sold in Spain A. D. $50 for a
sum nearly equivalent to one hundred
and thirty-six dollars of our money. It
was believed to have the property of
keeping away devils
An interesting feature of some
by the Midland and Glasgow g. South
Scotland railways is a series of nova
BILE partitions by which the car can be
divided into compartments to accom-
modate parties of four. This insures
absolute privacy and in summer the
doors are left open through the car for
ventilation. The cars are handsomely
furnished, are lighted by electricity
and provided with electric bells.
There is something very like
a corner in San Domingo mahogany.
The wood has been getting scarcer
year by year, and it is said that the
only large stock of it in this country is
held by a rich shipbuilding concern.
The price is going up, and contractors
are looking askance at specifications
that call for San Domingo mahogany.
OldDS Oh JuO WOOu IOuu0 III O1Q
ture bring high rates, as such pieces
have the perfection of seasoning, and
are usually as sound as new wood.
There is an amusing anxiety on
the part of publishers to persuade
lecture managers that new lights of
literature are likely to prove success
full in the lecture field, and vice versa.
The success of a literary man makes
him an object of interest to the lecture
manager, though it by no means fol-
lows that novelist of sudden popu-
larity will draw large lecture audi
ences, because novelists that are
known in New York and other large
cities are very little heard of in the
towns to which lecturers go.
"A balloon equipped with self-reg-
istering instruments to measure the
temperature and pressure of the at
mosphere at high attitudes was recent
1y let loose in Berlin, and came down,
with the instruments in good condi-
ton, in Bosnia. The instruments
showed that the balloon had reached
an elevation of ffty-three thousand
eight hundred seventy-two feet, over
ten miles; the thermometer had fallen
to fifty-two degrees below zero, the
lowest it could record Another bal
loon sent up later reached seventy
two thousand feet above the earth, or
thirteen and a half miles.
Coach No. 1872, of the Boston &
Maine Co., is ventilated by new sys-
tenn which does away with the tram
som and yet prevents unpleasant
draughts- The air is taken in through
screens under the hoQd. and in passing
to the rear drops down through the
ceiling. Across the middle of the
double roof is a partition which COM
pels this air to pass down into the car;
after passing this cross section parti-
tion the air passes up again into the
rear half of the roof and out through
the rear hood, taking the foul air with
it. This plan works very successfully,
and number of their new cars are to
be ventilated this way.
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