Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1897-07-14
INTERESTING ITEMS.

ureeks USED copper nails as currency.
Over 1000 series of Greek coins,
issued by independent cities, are known
to exist.
Toledo and Damascus blades were
very popular in the Middle Ages, and
sold for their weight in gold.
In sixteenth century fencing the
sword was held in the right hand and
a dagger in the left to ward off the
blows.
The purchasing power of money in
the days of tho Roman Emperors was
about ten times what it is at present.
Cakes of tea in India, pieces of silk
in China, salt in Abyssinia and Goldfish
in Iceland have all been used as money.
The early English and French kings
took "moneyers" with them on their
travels, who coined money as it was
needed.
The battle ak was originally Celtic
weapon. The ancient Irish carried
axes as the men of other nations car
ried swords.
The first mention of money in the
scriptures was Abraham 8 purchase of
a sepulcher for 400 sheckles of silver
B. c. 1850.
Paper shoes are being fitted on the
German cavalry horses, as they are
lighter and more durable than the
ordinary horseshoe.
With two handed sword Godfrey,
OF BouilloD, at the seige of Antioch,
cut Turk into halves from the shoul.
ders to hips.
There are 9O,4OO postoffices in the
United Kingdom and $4,000 letter
boxes. Savings bank business is trans
acted at II 900 Offices
Knightly lances were from twelve to
twenty feet long, the heads four to
eight inches broad and from twelve to
twenty inches long.
Paper floors are in use in Einsiedein,
Switzerland. tits laid in a pasty m ass,
smoothed, and then pressed. Footsteps
on it are noiseless.
AT 200 feet. only the best Spanish
armor could resist the English arrow.
Many museums have steel corselets
pierced through by an arrow.
In the fourteenth century armor be-
came so heavy that many soldiers only
30 years old were deformed or perma-
nently disabled by its weight.
Half armor was worn in the Cont.
mental armies until the present century.
In exceptional cases body armor is still
worn by special soldiers.
Greater Glasgow is often held up as
model municipality. There is some,
thing in the claim. With population
of 5000 it has only 494 doctors.
Another North Carolina girl has died
from chewing yellow jessamine, and
two little children, who followed suit,
are not expected to recover.
A newly patented lawnmower has
knives, worked on the sampe principle |
as moving machine knives, hung be-
tween the wheels of the mower.
Near Pool, Rowan County, N. G.,
several nuggets have been found re-
Gently, and farmers have discovered |
they were the possessors of gold mines.
In the reign Of Charles l. the British |
postal service carried 100000 letters
annually, in the reign of George II.
5000, 1000, and in 1894 as many as g.,
900000,0 900.
A Greenwood, Me-, farmer found a
sheep and lamb in his pasture the
other day with their noses 80 full of |
porcupine quilts that they were unable
to Craze.
The incessent fogs this spring have
kept the fog bell ON Spring Point,
Portland harbor, ringing so hard that
its vibrations have cracked the lens in
the lighthouse.
The Connecticut Legislature has very
kindly voted $500 to each of the seven.
teen newspaper men who have reported |
the legislative proceedings during the
recent session.
The Roman swords, before Cannae,
B. G. 246, were pointless and sharp on
only one side; after Cannae the short
Spanish sword, for cutting and thrust.
ing, was adopted.
France is doing away with the skirt
dance and there is return to favor of |
the beautiful, stately dances-the
minuet, the gavotte, the pavane and |
the saraband-which lent grace to the
eighteenth century.
The second oldest living alumnus of
Amherst is Rev. Ellis Riggs, D. D., LII.
d., of Constantinople, Turkey, an emf
nent philologist, and translator of the
Bible into the Armenian, Bulgarian
and Turkish languages.