Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-04-02

"Robbing Peter to pay Paul. is said tC
have originated in an act of the church
! government of England in 1850. At that
time the cathedral of St. Paul in London
being out of repair, and no funds available,
a portion of the income of Westminster
which was consecrated to st. Peter, was
diverted to the repair of St. Paul's.
The cotton mill which it was proposed
to build at Concord, n. c., TO be operated
exclusively by negro labor, is to be a real.
| ity. Subscriptions of about So, 900 have
been secured largely from thrifty mem.
| bers OF the negro race, and the work of
construction will begin at once. The man.
ager, William Coleman, and all the officers
OF the company except one are negroes
Swift as bird'' is no longer an uncer-
tain phrase. The speed of a flock of ducks
was ascertained with mathematical exact
ness near the Blue Hill observatory re-
Gently and was found to be AIS miles an
hour. The observers CHANGED TO be meas.
uring clouds by triangulation when the
flock passed across their base line and a
record was made on the spot. The birds
were 95S feet above the line of observation.
Paper underclothing is much used in
Japan. The garments are cut out of large
sheets of finely crisped japanese paper, the
pieces sewed together and the buttOnholes
strengthened with calico or linen. The fab
ric is strong, even when wet, flexible and
extremely light. A fact to be considered
is that every Jap takes a hot bath at least
once day. His paper clothes are so cheap
that new ones can be afforded frequently.
Interesting results of an investigation of
the effects produced by railroad train on
the air through which it moves were pre-
scented at a recent meeting of the ST. Louis
academy of science. 1t appears that mo-
ton is communicated to the atmosphere
many feet away, so that large amount of
air is dragged along with the train. A pc
cullar danger arises near a swift-running
train from the tendency of the moving air
to topple person over and at the same
time to communicate motion of rotation
to the body, which may cause it to roll I'M
der the train.
IL is announced that an automatic tele-
phone exchange has been invented, which
will do away with the "helo girls" and
that number of leading capitalists of
Washington have formed a company for
the purpose of controlling the manufacture
and sale of the device. The mechanism is
very complicated to describe, though COM
paratively simple in construction. 1t works
on the principle of the electric
call box familiar to the district messenger
systems. Each automatic switch board ac
commodities 100 subscribers. There are
Alternating currents and when the line Is
In use no one can break in, so that COM |
are rendered strictly private.
The coolest region on earth is the coun- |
try around WerchOjansk, in Siberia, SAYS
Promethesus where the thermometer some |
times falls below 6S degrees Centigrade be-
low zero 900 degrees Fahrenheit below |
zero). The average temperature of Janua-
ry is 40 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
notwithstanding this rough climate, more
than 1000 people inhabit that region. AS
the air is generally calm and dry in winter,
the cold is not felt very much. The vari-
atoms of the temperature within twenty
four hours are very great in summer; in
May, for instance, the thermometer will
sometimes rise to IS degrees Fahrenheit
during the day and fall to freezing point
at night.