The hatchet. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1883-19??, 1900-06-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST


French regiments are constant.
ly arriving at.Ilo. They allege
as their reason for leaving the
service that they get no pay.
The electric signal equip
ment Of our army in the Phil
ippines is the most complete of
any ever used in any warfare.
By means of phone and tele-
graph the General can commun-
icate with the most distant
picket in less than fifteen min
uteS.
Thomas Walcott, Of Smyrna,
Neb., owns a copy in Lincoln's
own handwriting of the first
speech made by Lincoln in a
court of law. 1t had been sew
eral times completely rewritten,
and is now so full of corrections
as to be almost illegible.
Tooth and other powders can
be easily distributed from a
newly. designed can, which has
a wheel mounted in the neck,
with its teeth extending below
the lower end and above the
top, causing it to revolve when
drawn over the article on which
the powder is to be deposited.
Some of the underground
railways in London cost as high
as SO, 265, 900 a mile.
Electric mats are in use to
detect burglars. They are so
thin as to be imperceptible
when placed under a carpet,
and when stepped upon they
set alarm bells ringing in var
ious parts of the house.
A pet dog was cloroformed
to death and placed in the
arms of its dead mistress, Miss
Elizabeth Webster, of SYRIA
cuse, N. Y. This was in &C
cordance with the dying wish
of Miss Webster; who had ex-
pressed the desire to have the
dog buried in the same coffin
with her.
An elderly lady in Freeport,
Me-, was trying to ride a bicy-
Gle, under the instructions of
her fourteen year old grand
daughter. "Now let Co." said
the old lady when she thought
she had control of the wheel.
After the machine had pro.
ceeded about six yards it wob-
bled and the lady fell and
plowed up about a yard of the
road with her nose. That put
an end to the days sport. The
bicycle is on the roof of the
woodshed, where it is destined
to remain; the doctors carriage
is at the door; a strangely ia.
miliar odor, suggestive of herbs
and iodoform permeates the
atmosphere; yards of court
plaster find their way into the
darkened chamber; and in her
brief spells of consciousness
the dear old lady is heard to
murmer feebly"Backward, turn
backward, 0, time in your fight,
make me kid again, Just for
tonight;" while the fourteen
year-old darling goes about
ON tip-toe wearing a smile that
would crack a plate.
The noise of a thunderstorm
aroused Miss Mary Maloney
from a deep sleep in a hotel at
Greenwood Lake, N. Y, and
she saw a ball of fire pass close
to her head. 1t struck the foot
of her bedstead and shattered
it into fragments. The terri
fed girl crawled to the hallway
uttered a piercing scream, and
became unconscious. In a few
hours she had entirely recovered
from the shock she had ex
perienced. New York Weekly
Comment: Is it at all astonish.
ing that a thunderstorm should
arouse a young lady from a
sleep, no matter how deep.
Did you ever know a young
woman who, at the first indi-
cation of an approaching thun-
derstorm, did not display all
the symptoms of nervousness,
which gradually increases with
each vivid flash of lightning
and dull, solemn roar of thun.
der, and become what might be