The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-11-24
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.
Teacher-"Who was the wisest man.:
Tommy Noah"
Teacher-'Noah 2"
Tommy-"Yes He was the only
man who knew enough to come in when
it rained."
"Halcyon days" was a name anciently
given to the seven days before and the
same number after the winter solstice,
when the halcyon, induced by the beauty
of the weather, laid her eggs In nests
built in rocks close to the sea. The hal
cgon belongs to the kingfish family.
The largest churches in Europe will
contain the following numbers: st. Pc
ter's, Rome. $4,000; Milan Cathedral,
$1,000: st. PauTs London, $4,000; st.
Sophia, Constantinople, $4,000; Notrea
Dame, Paris, q, 900; Pisa Cathedral,
13,O00 St Marks, Venice, 1000.
Emerson-"That horsey Mason in re-
ferring to the engagement of Lord Hell
puss and Miss Upton said that she won
by neck"
Swimmers well, you know he met
her at the horse show and she only dress
ed like the rest of them. Joe Miller IN
Daily News.
"For ones wits to go wool-gathering"
is an allusion. to pitiful industry some-
times seen in older countries. InFrance,
Germany and Spain very old people are
employed to gather wool from. bushes IN
sheep pastures where the brambles pluck
it from the fleece as the animals pass too
close to the bush.
ITO give the cold shoulder" is saying
originating in a custom common ID
France and England during the Norman
days. w hen guest mad outStayed his
welcome, instead of the haunch of NUT
ton or venison usually served at dinner
a cold shoulder of mutton was placed be
for him as a hint he had better go.
1t is said there is an authenticated ae-
count OF horse weeping during the
Crimean war. During the advance of
battery one company went down like
chaff, men and animals mingling in awful
confusion A single horse escaped I'M
hurt and was found standing beside the
dead body of its master. Tears were
streaming from its eyes and only by main
force could it be dragged away from the
body of the man it loved.
1t should be noted, by the way, in speak
ing of the popular vote, that Mr.. Bryan
received a much larger vote than the
successful candidate, Mr.. Cleveland, at
the previous election, and more than any
candidate ever received except Mckinley.
The unofficial returns show that he re-
ceived somewhere more than half mill
lion votes than Mr.. Cleveland got in 1892,
and a million more than Mr.. Harrison
New Orleans Times-Democrat.
They didn't miss any votes in Arkansas
this year either One of the ballots taken
out of the box in Arkansas City had writ
ten across the face of ii: Il don't know
how to vote this ballot, but L want to
vote the straight Democratic ticket. Elk
it I'D yourselves" The judges promptly
counted it on the theory that it came
within the meaning of the law, which
provided for the counting Of ballots
(which clearly showed the intention OF
the Washington Post.
"A little boy paying his first visit to the
country was taken to the barn to see some
chickens just Matched. This was his first
introduction to the process of incubation
and he looked with open eyes and mouth
az the fluffy chicks while the Matching
process was being explained to him, af-
for which his mother was startled by his
rushing into the house, exclaiming: ION,
mamma, mammal Come out to the barn
ouick! Uncle John has just set hen
and Matched out ten little Henrys!"
A Detroit minister in q sermon last Sun
day deprecating the existence OF Glasses
in society took occasion to denounce Ian
AraeLaren because tickets for his lecture
in that city cost from $3.50 to 81, with
tho result that "only select few were
nresept. and when it was over they all
steDped out into their carriages and drove
swav. while the poor Scotchmen of the
CITY. whose intellectual appetites had been
v,betted by the announcement OF his APP
naoranee. were forced to remain intel
lcctualy starved"
Prof Brouardel OF Paris, recently re-
lafed an extraordinary story in regard TO
hereditary tendency to suicide. A farm
~ aeaf Etamues hanged himself without
aoUarent cause leaving family Of eleven
eans and four daughters, Ten Of these
eleven children subsequently followed
IN their fathers footsteps, but not until
they had married and had children, all Of
whom likewise hanged themselves. Inc
anIy survivor is a son OF the original sui
eide. and he is now GO years old lie thinks
he has passed the hanging age and ia
coxtexs to live and die in the usssi maA-