The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-03-18
Of GENERAL INTEREST.


lean falls had but q mere shadow of
hydraulic canal fell over q foot with
out, however, interfering with the
mills.
When several states are at present
busy voting for state flower Florida
is out after state song. The Teach
ers' association of that state in annual
convention resolved that the state
needs patriotic state song and offered
of this description.
II don't think ever realized just
what it meant about bread being the
staff of life" said Mr.. Gabbylton sun
til one morning; then I saw at the
bakers some loaves OF sandwich bread
that were more than three feet long.
A man could lean on such staff as
that for a week, at least"
The Rochester On. W common
council proposes to make an arrange
ment with the street railroad company
by which it will carry for nominal
sum all policemen and detectives This
is the outcome of the constitutional
amendment prohibiting the issuance
of passes to public officers.
The czarina is making remarkable
progress in Russian. to the great delight
of Nile. Schneider, her teacher. who
also taught her sister, the grand
duchess of Serge, so successfully.
However, not being a very good
French linguist, the empress speaks
German and English with her consort's
encourage. Her majesty is passionately
fond of music, and practices on the
piano several hours day.
One of the absurdities of the appli-
cation of silver to all sorts of things is
its use in trowels for the use of the
conservatory. Silver is no better suited
for trowels than some other and cheap
er non.corroding metals, since the used
trowel, of whatever material, is always
bright. An iron or steel trowel of the
best material and workmanship, costs
one dollar and half, while the silver
trowel cost from eight to twenty times
as much.
With the wholesale making of
butter there has almost disappeared
from the city markets the old-fashioned
print butter, an inverted golden frus-
trum of cone bearing upon its upper
end the imprint of the domestic maker,
COW, a sheaf of wheat, large four
leaved clover, and the like. Butter
now comes in rolls or in tu bs, and it is
only the country housewife that keeps
| the old-fashioned wooden Continuance
for printing butter.
Maj. Thieman had served as an en-
listed man and commissioned officer
continuously for over forty-two years.
He has been in 242 engagements and
was wounded seven times. He served
in the United States, Mexico and
Egypt, and was an acquaintance of and
had letters from Lincoln, Davis and
"StonewaIl'' Jackson. and was in
charge of Fortress Monroe while JEFF
Davis was prisoner there. He died
recently at Valentine, Neb.. in utter
restitution.
Since silver has become SO cheap
thimbles of that metal cost little, and
mems collar buttons may be had as
| low as twenty-five cents, and unless
| deliberately chased rarely cost so much
as fifty cents. The chief argument in
favor of the silver collar button is its
| durability. It is likely to outlast even
| the mother-of-pearl and to be cheaper
! in the end than a succession of bone
buttons. The one drawback to the
metallic button is the fact that it
leaves small black deposit about the
! buttonhole.
Lovers of flowers not rich enough
to buy often have various ways of pro-
longing the life and freshness of the
few they get. Violets may be kept
fresh if kept in fresh water and covered
over night with a tumbler. Most
flowers will retain their freshness for
several days if kept over night in the
open air, ANY one possessed of one of
those delicate French clocks that have
| to be covered with glass dome cannot
do better than to sell or pawn the
clock, usually an object of neither use
nor ornament, buy flowers from time
to time with the proceeds, and use the
| glass dome as a protector for the
flowers at night. 1t will keep them
fresh for days.
AT Banga1ore, in southern India,
granite slabs as large as 60 by 40 feet
and half a foot thick are quarried by
means of wood fires. A narrow line of
fire, about seven feet long, made of dry
logs of light wood, is gradually length
ened and moved forward over an even
surface of solid rock. It is left in posi-
ton until strokes with hammer show
| that the rock in front of the fire has
become detached from the main mass
beneath; the burning wood is then
pushed on a few inches. The rock
keeps splitting about five inches below
the surface. It takes about two hours
and 1.5OO weight of wood to set free
slab measuring 74O feet square. AT
terward the plate is easily cut with
blunt chise1s into strips 81 feet wide.
Quails Seeking Succor.
! frha call Of a mail 1ffraofo1 The a T.