PESTS OF THE PLAINS.

1895

The Rattlesnake's Sting and the Bite of the Hydrophobia Skunk.

Major Wilcox, a veteran surgeon from Fort Huachuca, told the other day of the red racer snake, a deadly foe of the rattlesnake and who fights the latter on every occasion. He cannot kill the rattler by a poisonous sting, but awaiting an opportunity seizes his victim behind the head and gives it a crushing squeeze in his powerful jaws. This severs the rattlesnake's spinal cord and causes death. The red racer then swallows the rattler, poison and all. Occasionally, when in the field, Major Wilcox treated soldiers for rattlesnake bites and found it easy to overcome the effects of the poison.

One day a private came to him with a wound from a rattlesnake's fangs in his index finger. The major hastily scarified the wound, broke open a rifle cartridge, poured powder over the wound and exploded it. This cauterized the injured part and so effectually dispelled the poison that only one-half the hand was swollen. The patient soon recovered. On another occasion a man cut off a rattlesnake's head, and, desiring to preserve it, packed cotton into the dead snake's mouth. The jaws closed upon the man's fingers, inflicting a wound from which he soon died.

Rancher Leonard, owner of a vast cattle range in New Mexico, in recounting his experiences on the plains, remarked that he feared the hydrophobia skunk far more than he did the rattlesnake. The snake gives warning of his presence; the skunk does not. This variety of skunk is not only vicious, but aggressive, while the rattlesnake seldom attacks unless disturbed. The hydrophobia skunk is probably the only animal, excepting the coyote, west of the Rocky mountains whose bite induces rabies. Besides this and because of its fondness for occupying the tents of frontiersmen at night, the animal is much dreaded.

Occasionally a coyote will "run mad" and bite another, and thus hydrophobia is communicated to large packs of the fleet footed animals and they race over the prairies and mesas, making mad every living creature in their pathway that they happen to bite. One of the amusements of the cowboys is to capture a rattler alive and get the creature drunk. With a forked stick the snake's head is held down, its mouth is forced open and whisky poured down its throat in sufficient quantity to intoxicate it. The snake will then try to coil its body as if to go to sleep. The action of the alcohol makes it "groggy" and the coils won't coil. When a stick is shoved before the snake's nose, it tries to strike, but the head and body wobble from side to side much as does a drunken man in his attempt to reach a lamppost. — San Francisco Chronicle.

A Novel Watch.

1895

A watch has been invented which measures distance by sound. The inventor, a French officer named Thouvenin, has called the instrument a phonotelemeter. To operate it a little button is pressed at the instant of the flash and again at the sound. In the meantime a needle traverses a dial, registering time to the one-tenth part of a second. The rest is a mere matter of calculation.


Trivia

The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops, but the kind of men that the country turns out. — Emerson.

The Wax Chandlers' company of London was incorporated in 1483.

Hats were first made in England by Flemings about 1510.

Shoes and Gloves.

1895

As a rule, that old fashioned word "tidy" is reserved rigidly for commendation of a housegirl or housewife in the lowlier walks of life. Your fine lady would scorn to be called "tidy," why, no one can exactly say. But she is in no danger of earning the appellation so long as it is the fashion to wear dirt white gloves with the handsomest street toilets.

A woman can never be pronounced faultlessly attired if there is anything amiss with her shoes or her gloves. A rusty shoe peeping from under a hem of glistening satin or chick crepon stamps its wearer, in the eyes of spectators, as a lopsided woman. But a rusty shoe may be cautiously concealed by care and attention, a soiled glove never. — New York Mail and Express.

New at the Business.

1895

Scene in a dry goods store which has lately added a cigar department:

Salesman (transferred from linen stock, to customer, an old smoker, — Ah, good morning, sir! What can I show you today? Here are some lovely Henry Clay perfectos — from the same house, sir, that sends us the Clay worsteds, which you will find at the cloth counter.

(Customer looks surprised.)

"Yes, sir, and just look at this pretty bunch of imported Manila cheroots! We have them in all shades and sizes, sir. And the ribbon around this bunch exactly matches your four-in-hand."

(Customer glares.)

"Or perhaps you would like this sweet meerschaum pipe? It is warranted not to change color or show smoke marks."

(Customer gets red in the face.)

"Chewing tobacco, sir? Yes, sir. Will you have a yard or two yards?"

(Customer explodes into violent language and salesman faints.) — Buffalo Express.

A Bit of Human Nature.

1895

"Did you see that, mister?" said an elevated railroad guard to a man who stood with him on the rear platform of the first car the other night.

"Yes."

"Well, then," added the guard, "you saw my three little children. They were kneeling at a trunk in front of the window of that house we passed. Over them stood their mother. She was about sending them to bed, but before they go she teaches 'em to pray for me, and she brings 'em there so I can see 'em.

"And," he added, with a manly attempt to keep his voice from trembling, "she has told me what she tells 'em to say."

"What is it?"

"I hope you won't think me childish, sir; but, as I guess you are a married man and a father, you may care to hear it. You see, it's this way: The kids go to bed at 9. That's about the time my train goes by the house. So just then she brings them up to the trunk in their nightgowns and makes 'em kneel down, with their hands clasped on their faces. And then they pray that papa will be good and kind and keep sober and bring home all his money, and" — The big guard's voice trembled.

"I'm rough, tough and all that," he at length continued, "but I love my wife, and I love my children. They are the only ones on earth that keep me straight.

"Bleeck-e-e-er! Good night, sir." And the train proceeded, leaving at least one man with tears in his eyes. — New York Recorder.

Color In the Home.

1895

The modern scientific decorator assures us that while yellows are all right for a hall or vestibule they should not be used in rooms where one reads or works. The reason assigned is that yellow does not absorb light, but is a strong reflector, and those reflected rays are trying to the eyes, but, more than that, are distinct brain disturbers. For the library or workroom the most soothing or satisfactory tint is coffee.

The influence of color upon temperament and physical condition being an accepted fact it follows in natural sequence that the treatment of living rooms is of real importance. Undoubtedly some natures respond quicker to these influences than others, but any one planning a change in furnishings will do well to give the matter some attention.


Teeth of Man and Animals.

A horse has 40 teeth, and a mare only 36, wanting the tusks, or so called "wolf teeth." The ox and sheep family have 32, each lacking the eight incisors of the upper jaw. The hog has 44 teeth, and the dog 42. Where the dental formula is perfect in all varieties of the human species it is found to show 32 teeth. — St. Louis Republic.

The Metal of the Standards.

1895

There are no products of human skill on which a greater degree of care is expended than the standards of weight and measure in use among the civilized nations of the globe. Two things in particular have to be considered — accuracy and durability. Nature does not furnish any single metal or mineral which exactly answers the requirements for a standard of measure or weight that shall be, as nearly as possible, unalterable.

The best substance yet produced for this purpose is an alloy of 90 per cent of platinum, with 10 per cent of iridium. This is called iridio-platinum, and it is the substance of which the new metric standards prepared by the international committee of weights and measures are composed.

It is hard, it is less affected by heat than any pure metal, it is practically nonoxidizable, or not subject to rust, and it can be finely engraved. In fact, the lines on the standard meters are hardly visible to the naked eye, yet they are smooth, even, sharp and accurate.

If our civilization should ever be lost, and relics of it should be discovered in some brighter age in the remote future, there is nothing which would bear higher testimony to its character than these standard measures of iridio-platinum, for the production and preservation of which the science of our day has done its very best. — Youth's Companion.

MRS. BROWNING'S SONNETS.

1895

Edmund Gosse Tells an Interesting Story of How They Were Named.

Edmund Gosse tells in his late essay on Mrs. Browning's sonnets how her volume of "Sonnets From the Portuguese" was christened, as follows: "During the months of their brief courtship, closing, as all the world knows, in the clandestine flight and romantic wedding of Sept. 12, 1846, neither poet showed any verses to the other. Mr. Browning in particular had not the smallest notion that the circumstances of their betrothal had led Miss Barrett into any artistic expression of feeling:

"Their custom was, Mr. Browning said, to write alone and not to show each other what they had written. This was a rule which he sometimes broke through, but she never. He had the habit of working in a down stairs room, where their meals were spread, while Mrs. Browning studied in a room on the floor above. One day, early in 1847, their breakfast being over, Mrs. Browning went up stairs, while her husband stood at the window watching the street till the table should be cleared. He was presently aware of some one behind him, although the servant was gone. It was Mrs. Browning, who held him by the shoulder to prevent his turning to look at her and at the same time pushed a packet of papers into the pocket of his coat. She told him to read that, and to tear it up if he did not like it, and then she fled to her own room.

"Mr. Browning settled himself at the table and unfolded the parcel. It contained the series of sonnets which have now become so illustrious. As he read his emotion and delight may he conceived. Before he had finished it was impossible for him to restrain himself, and, regardless of his promise, he rushed up stairs and stormed that guarded citadel. He was early conscious that these were treasures not to be kept from the world. 'I dared not reserve to myself,' he said, 'the finest sonnets written in any language since Shakespeare's.'

"When it was determined to publish the sonnets in the volumes of 1850, the question of a title arose. The name which was ultimately chosen, 'Sonnets From the Portuguese,' was invented by Mr. Browning as an ingenious device to veil the true authorship, and yet to suggest kinship with that beautiful lyric called 'Caterina to Camoens,' in which so similar a passion had been expressed. Long before he ever heard of these poems Mr. Browning called his wife his 'own little Portuguese,' and so, when she proposed 'Sonnets Translated From the Bosnian,' he, catching at the happy thought of 'translated,' replied: 'No, not Bosnian — that means nothing — but from the Portuguese. They are Caterina's sonnets.' And so, in half a joke. half a conceit, the famous title was invented."

Eating to Live.

1895

Dr. Pavy, perhaps the most eminent authority upon diet, says that the average man in a state of absolute rest can live on 16 ounces of food a day. A man doing ordinary light work can live on 23 ounces, and a man doing laborious work needs from 26¾ to 30 ounces.

This is food absolutely free from water, and it must be remembered that everything we eat contains more or less water, so that from 48 to 60 ounces of ordinary food are necessary to the work in which a man is engaged.

Sir Lyon Playfair, another great authority, gives the following as all that is necessary for a healthy man to eat in a week: Three pounds of meat, with one pound of fat; two ordinary loaves of bread, one ounce of salt and five pints of milk, or, for the meat, five or six pounds of oatmeal may be substituted. This sounds like starvation diet, but Sir Lyon Playfair generally knows what he's talking about. — Lancet.

Made Her Warm.

1895

When measles once ran riot in a girls' boarding school, the physician in charge had great difficulty in persuading his skittish patients to remain in bed and so induce the perspiration absolutely necessary to recovery. Every means was tried, but to no avail. The girls found it impossible not to just hop out from the blankets in order to run in and tell their next door neighbors that it was decided to trim the new hat with heliotrope, or that it was true that Cousin Fred was actually engaged, all of which seriously retarded recovery. It looked for a time indeed as though funerals might become epidemic as well as measles.

Finally the psychology teacher hit upon a scheme that seemed likely to work. It consisted in the few well girls stationing themselves in turn at the bed of each invalid and criticising her most unmercifully. The success of the plan was simply phenomenal. After but a few brief moments of such treatment the patient broke out into a profuse and violent perspiration. Recovery soon followed, the doctors were overwhelmed at this fresh proof of the influence of mind over matter, and the psychology teacher was a proud and happy pedagogue. — New York Sun.

HEREDITARY NEEDLES.

1895

A Case That May Arouse Some Apprehension In the Rearing of Families.

Needles have never been supposed to be hereditary, but a recent case reported by a physician of eminence offers undoubted evidence to the contrary. A lady accidentally ran a needle into her foot 80 years ago, and it lay apparently dormant in her system for so many years that its existence was almost forgotten.

In 1878 she was married, and a year after the birth of her infant daughter the needle made its appearance in the infant's shoulder. There could be no doubt that it was the original needle by which the mother had been attacked in 1860, for it was of a peculiar and now obsolete pattern, and the mother distinctly remembered that needles of that pattern were in use at the time of her attack.

There could be no doubt that the infant inherited the needle from her mother, and that henceforth physicians will expect to find a natural tendency to needles in the tissues.

As it is asserted that people have died from needles, although there are very few such cases on record, the insurance companies will doubtless add to the questions which they put to candidates for insurance, "Did your father or mother ever swallow needles, and, if so, how many, and Of what kind — sewing, darning or carpet?" — Spare Moments.

THE SIZE OF THE UNIVERSE.

1895

Miles Are Too Insignificant to Be Used In Its Computation.

While it is interesting to know the distance of some of the stars in miles, when stated in that way the numbers are so large that they frequently convey very indistinct conceptions to the mind. For this reason it is customary to estimate stars' distances in "light years." A light year is the distance that light, moving at the rate of 186,300 miles per second, travels in one year. This amounts in round numbers to 5,880,000,000,000 miles. The distance of Alpha Centaur is 4.35 light years, that of Sirius, the dog star, is almost exactly twice as great, or 8.6 light years. In other words, light requires 8.6 years to come to us from Sirius. And these are among the very nearest of the stars. Some whose parallaxes have been rather estimated than measured appeared to be situated at a distance which light could not traverse in less than one or two centuries. The great still Arcturus, for instance, has, according to Dr. Elkin, a parallax of only eighteen-thousandths of a second. Its distance must, in that case, be about 181 light years, or more than a thousand million million miles. And if its distance is so great, then, since light varies inversely as the square of the distance from its source, it can be shown that Arcturus must actually give forth 5,000 or 6,000 times as much light as the sun yields.

Yet Arcturus is evidently much nearer than the vast majority of the stars are. Not one in a million is known to have a parallax large enough even to be intelligently guessed at. There may be stars whose light requires thousands instead of hundreds of years to cross the space separating them from us.

We thus see that only a few points on the nearer shores of the starry universe lie within reach of our measurements — here and there a jutting headland, while behind stretches the vast expanse over which the hundreds of millions of stars known to exist are scattered. — Garrett P. Serviss in Chautauquan.

New Fire Proof Safe Installed

New York, 1895

Jamaica Brevities.

The Jamaica public schools will close for the summer vacation on Friday, June 28th.

A new fire proof safe for keeping the town maps was placed in the town clerk's office on Wednesday.

William Wright, superintendent of streets, has been appointed truant officer by the board of education.


Children's Lawn Party.

A children's lawn party was held at the residence of Alfred H. Beers at Jamaica Friday. afternoon, the object being to give financial aid to a mission in Brooklyn. Under a tent an entertainment was given, consisting of songs and recitations by Lillie Scott, Irma Jarvis, Carrie Pottinger, Nellie Jones, Bessie Beers and Grace Jones.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 8.

Police Court Business.

New York, 1895

Thomas Kehoe was brought before Justice Hendrickson on a charge of being drunk and disorderly, and sentence was suspended.

Annie J. Bronson, of Ozone Park, who was arrested on Fulton street, Jamaica, on Monday afternoon, was arraigned before Justice Hendrickson on Tuesday on a charge of intoxication and disorderly conduct. She was sent to the county jail for thirty days.

Curtis Degrasse, residing on the Merrick road, Jamaica, who was arrested for stealing a bicycle from Joseph Baylis was arraigned before Justice Hendrickson on Friday and sentenced to the state industrial school at Rochester. An older brother, Foster Degrasse, is in the same institution.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 8.