The herald., 1898-11-23
NOTES OF THE DAY

Rats are playing havoc with the under
ground telephone and telegraph cables in
st. Louis. They have discovered that the
wires are covered with paraffned paper, and
they rather like the taste. To satisfy their
appetites they must gnaw through the lead
casing around the wires. 1t has happened
in number of cases that the rats in gnaw
ing through the lead cables to get at the
creased paper, have barred the copper wires
in such manner as to make it impossible
to establish communication over them.
Every time this happens it costs the COM
pany whose wires are interrupted all the
way from a few dollars to several hundred.
The telephone men are trying to devise some
means of stopping their depredations.
A student of Spanish annals has added an
interesting chapter to- the history OF, prices
by revealing from the archives of the Es-
curiel what it cost to discover the new world.
The stipends of the discoverers, at all events,
did not amount to much. The pay of an
able seaman was only, it seems, ten francs
month while the captain drew only so
francs or about 3 guineas month. AS for
Christopher Columbus himself, his earnings
were at the rate of 1900 francs, or $500 per
annum. Even in Spain salaries have risen
since those days.
According to the opinion of Consul Blom
Of Copenhagen, Denmark offers good mar
ket for American machinery and tools. I'm
til now Germans have controlled the mar
ket. Their prices are trihe lower, but the
American goods are acknowledged to be SUI
perior The demand is for engine lathes,
dril hnr
ing and shaping machines, slotting machines,
boring and turning mills, machines for
making screws, grinding and polishing ma
chimes and American tools of all kinds.
A gristmill at Watertown, Mass, is known
to have been in use as far back as 1875, when
it is believed to have been town institution.
1t is now the property of the Waltham
Savings bank and still continues to grind
corn by means of the upper and neither mill
stones, using water as a motive power. 1t
is soon to be vacated, and as it is probably
the Oldest building of its kind in the United
States the Massachusetts Historical society
is considering the advisability of securing
possession of the ancient structure.
The latest use of glass is instead of gold
as material for stopping decayed teeth.
1t answers splendidly and is far less con
spicuous than the yellow metal. OF course, it
is not ordinary glass, but is prepared by
some new patent process, which renders it
soft and malleable. Glass, too, is being ex-
tensively used fer church bells. 1t can be
toughened SO that there is no risk of its
cracking, and the tone is said to be beyond
anything yet invented, perfect, soft and sono-
rous.
Machines for treating coffee, used in Bra
zil. are made in the United States, but re-
quire improvements III view of local condi-
tions. Thus the coffee driers are very un-
satisfactory and the inventor of IA thorough
ly effective drier would reap fortune in
Brazil. Driers as now made use too high
a temperature and the product is not uni
form. 1t seems the solution Of the problem
would lie in the use of comparatively low
temperatures and of an exhausting pump.
As an example of how story grows it is
related that report recently reached Ot
tawa, Kan, to the effect that the coal miners
at Ransomville had found petritied snake
sixty feet long and nine inches in diameter.
Prof. Yates of Ottawa college hurried to
Ransomville in fear that some other fossil
collector would get ahead of him and found
that the alleged snake was bit OF petritied
root eighteen inches long and half inch
in circumference.
A cycling firm in Cologne has patented a
new bicycle bell in which is concealed kind
OF revolver, which is to serve the double
purpose of frightening away vicious dogs and
cheeky tramps. By merely pressing button
attached to the side of the bell, ten cart
ridges can be fired off in succession. these
giving such a loud report that obnoxious
persons and animals would not think twice
of beating hasty retreat.
The height Of the north pier OF the new
East river bridge at New York, the founda-
tions for which will soon be completed, will
be twenty feet above high water. The tota,
height OF the pieY will bl 1876 feet. On it will
rest the steel towers, which will extend 3l5
feet above the masonry and nearly $50 feet
above the bottom OF the foundation, making
this possibly the highest bridge tower ever
erected in the world.
The ingenuity of the counterfeiters now
appears to be chiefly devoted to the turning
out OF bogus copper and nickel coins, rather
than those of larger denominations. Accord
Ing to the report of the United States treas
urer tor the last fiscal year, no less than
6O, ,265 pieces OF this character were detected
last year, and they circulated chiefly in Bos-
ton. New York and Philadelphia.
II. j. Smith of Philadelphia has started
a movement to erect monument in London
to William Penn for his services in the
cause of individual freedom by asserting. in
face of government prosecution, the right
of British juries to refuse to be directed in
their verdicts by judges, but to give them
according to their own consciences.
Apropos of the agitation of the subject of
cheaper postage between this country and
Great Britain, it is pointed out that the cost
Of first-class ocean passage between this
country and Europe averages about $lOO.
The charge for conveying the same weight
of letters as the passenger weighs is $lS7.
Among the cities in the United States.
San Francisco has the least, and Philadel-
phia has the greatest debt The debt of
San Francisco is $l33,9l7Ol, and of Phila
delphia $56,S72, 1882. In the bonded debt
per capita Boston is the highest, with so7. .33,
while San Francisco is the lowest, being 38
cents.
A bank in New York has largely increased
It's business, particularly among fashionable
by issuing to its depositors gilded
check books with monogram thereon. The
blank checks are printed in gold from ex-
luisitely engraved plates.