CLIPPINGS FOR THE CURIOUS. * At present more than 600,000 livos are insured in the United States alone. Cloves have been brought into the European market for more than 2,000 years. The word toad expresses in several of the languages of Europe its habit of swelling. Newfoundland dogs have been kopt by the city, in Paris, to savo human life in the Seine. By a law pass :d recently, a pencil written note is just as valid as though written in ink. The food of the Greenland whale is u small crustaceous animal not so large a* a common shrimp. Mutilations, especally of the first phalanges of the left hand, are practiced by the Australians. Nearly as many reams of paper, in tho United St-tos, are made into collars as are nsed to write upon. Tho bridge of boats on which Xerxes crossed the Hellespont wss fastened by cablos made of ptpyrus. Savages not only express satisfaction by smiling, but by gestures derived from the pleasure of eating. Transfusing blood from a living ani mal to an unhealthy one has been prac ticed for three hundred years. Two lowa children who have pink eyes can hardly sec in tho daylight, but can pick up a pin in the darkest night. Tho equatorial telescope constructed for tho observatory at Vienna is the largest refracting telescope yet made. An ape produces an exact octavo of musical sound, ascending and descend ing the ecales by tones and half-tones. In several yeam the sickness of pneu monia has increased slightly in Septem ber, decreased in October and increased again with the Indian summer. Fanny, an ancient carp in the pond at Fontaineblcan, has just died. Shu is said to have been hatched in tho time of Francis 1., and had become gray. Negro soldiers standing at drill bring tho m'ddle linger tips an inch or two nearer the knoe than white men can do, and some touch the knee-pan. Mask sheep, found in tho Arctic re gions, are said to have a whine some what like the snorting of a walrus, entirely unlike tho bleating of a sheep. In Greenland a nurnago contract is easily broken. A husband has only to leave tho house in av for several days for tho wife to I*l, /Crstand, pack np her goods, and leave. Legislation has designated a variety of periods after which burial grounds may be used over again. In Frankfort thirty years, Loipnie fifteen, Milan and Stuttgart ten, are prescribed. New York's Growth. A New York correspondent writing of the city's rapid growth says: Thirty years ago the total valuation was under 9500,000,000. At that time we had no Central park. Y'orkvilln was out of town and Harlem far away. There is no doubt that much of the increase in real estate value is dnc to Central park The para itself has cost np to the pres ent time, interest on the original out lay incl"dcd, about 846,000,000. The cost of tho land was $6,666,000. If the same land were now cut up in building lots it would probably bring nearly 8200,000,000. A plat that was sold in 1852, just before the park was laid ont, for 83,000, is held to-day at 81,250,(XX). The same rate of increase has not, of coarse, been maintained all through only in the best neighborhoods. The threo upper wards, comprising the part of the city above tho lower lino of tho park, were valued thirty years ago at abont 850,000,000. None of the land was then improved. Tho value of the same section is now cutimated at 8310,- 000,000. As a large part of tho land is still vacant, there is room for a further increase of value that can t>o reckoned only by millions. It is not at all un likely that at the end of another twenty years tho total wealth of Now York will run np to $2,000,000 000. Alligator Fishing. The nnnsual drought In Florida has had the effect of drying up Sibley lake to such an extent as to leave only a few alueb spots here and there, and in these alligators sought refuge in large num bers, digging huge burrows into the ground. This has furnished great sport to the nettlers in the neighborhood, who have gone in crowds to these spots, and fished with fine success for the enor mous reptiles. The manner of catch ing them hat been to thrust long rods with books at the end into one of the cavernous barrows and stir up the occu pants. One of the alligators would snap av the rod, a jerh would fso ten the hook into the eoft part of the lower jaw, and it would then be easy to draw the animal out and kill it with hatchsts. It is not every year that such fishing can be enjoyed, even in Florida. A Western man, an ex-Oongrcssman, thinks that the buffalo could be domes ticated a ad that it would make much better Jlrpef than tho flesh of |he ox. TIIE FA "WILY 1H)( TOIt. Eat simple food at regular hours. According to a French medical jour nal whooping congli has been success fully treated by Dr. Baroty, of Nice, by turpentine vapor. Mechanical vibration is said to be of nse in coring neuralgia. A tapping over tho fifth nerve changes tho state of irritation and produces ease. A medical journal gives tho following simple roraody for relieving hiccough : Inflate the lungs as fully as possible and thus press firmly on tho agitated diaphragm. In a few seconds the spas modic action of tho muscles will cease. By using syrup or molasses for mus tard plasters, they will keep soft and lloxible, and not dry up and become hard, as when mixed with water. A thin paper or fine cloth should como between tho plaster and the skin. Tho strength of tho plaster is varied by tho addition of more or loss flonr. Canned grape jnice makes a refresh ing driuk with water and a little sngar; stew the gra]>os and strain throngh a colander, not pressing hard enongh to send throngh any of the pnlp. Add a little sugar, boil as long as senm rises, skim carefully and pour hot into glass cans. It will keep perfectly well, is a very desirable addition to the house keeper's store, and is especially service able as a drink for the sick. Hon the Japanese Cover Their Floors, In Japan, however, tho floors are uni versally hidden by tho tataiui or bedded mats. Those aro of regulation size throughout the empire, and in building a house the rooms aro divided off so as to hold a certain number of these units of floor measure. A tat ami is exactly five feet nine inches long, threo feet wide, and two and one-half inches thick, or in round numbers and Japan ese measure, 6x3x2. The only diffcr c-noo between the mats that cover the imperial floor and those of thocottagers is that tho former aro larger in size and covered with a gayor border. In ordi nary houses thus border is black or in digo blue. In the p.iace it is white. Even the throno of that defunct official, tho tycoon, as well as tho place of emi nence of tbo mikado, whom he imi tated, was only a square, padded mat, a few inches higher than common, and e.lgod with variegated colors. A Japanese floor Wing so substan tially covered, need be only of cheap,' unplaued wood, laid without mortices. ■ This floor is two and a half inches below the grooved sills in which the doors, or rather partitions, slide. Hinges are used only on gates. Into this huge pan, so to speak, which tho floor makes tho mats are laid and fit snugly together, lying with their surface level with the sills or grooves. The mats arc tho ■household property of the tenants, as ! landlords rent the houses unca*peted, i as wo do. In case of a fire, people pull up these expensive ornaments and run ; A collection of tatami usually roqnires the first outlay of a Japanese couple to ward housekeeping. Often these x-j qniaitely clean and soft mats aro the chief, if not tho only articlo of furniture i in certain rooms. Tbo Chinese for centuries have used chairs and lounges, but the Japanese eschew these luxuries, using the floor and its covering for ceremony and the occasions of eating, drinking and sleeping. The tatami serve for tables, bedsteads cbaiis and lonnging purposes. In palace and in hut, alike guiltless of sitting machinery, has grown np that 1 elaborate system of etiquette and cere monial, renowned over the world. Only by the generals in the field were fold ing camp-chairs nsed. In tbo monas tery the abbot sat in state or for rt flac tion, in the arm-chair. The Japanese have the word "koshi kake" (boek roster), but there is no general word nor equivalent for oar simple word "chair" Most of the obsequious and exaggerated politeness of these Oriental islanders may be thus mechanically accounted for. If tho superior is no higher than the floor the inferior must bow low in deed. To salute properly, indoors, one must turn his bead into a temporary tack-hammor and p >und vigorously on the floor. These tatami last nearly a lifetime, as they are trodden on not with boots, but only with socks. Every traveler in Japan is charmed with these soft, clean, dnrablo mats. Every gentleman, native or foreign, removes his shoes, clogs or i sandals before he impriute them. Block ing feet is the rale indoors, and the na tive socks are more thickly soled than ours. The custom of wearing boots is rapidly driving the "civilized " natives to banish tatami and lay down carpets. An English lady traveler recently speaks of these mats ae being " soft as Axminister carpetsthough her state ment that they are "as expensive as Brussels carpet" is an exaggeration. There being by the lest census over 7,000,000 bouses in Japan, and each house averaging at a low computation thirty tatami*, there are over 210,- 000,000 of these mats, or (a area 420,- 000,000 square yards. They are the very emblems of silence and cleanli ness, end fashion may tome day de mand that the tatami find a place in onr booses, churches and hospitals. • • ..vi/rjf 4 * w '* SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. A eolation of blue vitriol in need to j preserve timber from dry rot. Lamp black more completely absorbs light than any ot'ier substance. A young barnaclo boa three legs, a single oye and a digestive apparatus. A copper wire one-tenth of an inoh 1 thick can support 300 pounds weight. A school-room should oontain from 800 to 400 feet of cubic air to each pupil. A German physician asserts that rail way employes aro liable to affection* of the spinal cord. Tho average candlo power of Now i York illuminating gas, as taken from j the last statement of tho six ga~, com- I panics, was 23.84. The acliirus, a kind of flat fish in tho ; East and West Indies, has no air blad der, and conseqncntly remains always at the bottom of the sea. Finding tho arteries empty after death gavo rise to the idea that they conveyed only air. Hence their name. It was this belief wliieh Harvey overthrew in J 1820. There is in tho Paris Electrical ex-j hibition an induction coil capable of giving a spark forty-two inches long , and piercing a block of gloss six inches thick. Common charcoal, when freshly j burnt and in fine powder, has the prop erty of taking away the color of com mon vinegar and of several other liquids. Darwin says that a lady subject to | nervons headaches finds in the morning after one'thit patches of her hair aro white. In a few days the hair recovers j its color. The peculiarcoior imparted to silver i spoons used in eating eggs and fish, and the blacking of white lead paint in stable.?, is solely owing to the formation of metallic sulphides. Ilone-black is nsed in manufacturing blacking, which is generally prepared by mixing four parts bone-black with one of sulphuric acid, ndding four parts of syrup and a little water. 1 In order to hear distinctly an echo of ; one syllable, the observer must be sixty feet from the surface which reflects tho sound. For echo of moro than one the I distance must bo over one hnndrcd feet. If two thermometers exposed l eqnally to tho sun—be covered, one with white, the other with black cloib, tho instrument under the black cloth will indicate a higher tcmperatnrc than the other. The Two Kinds of Able Men. There are still people who think that nothing is of much account unless it j brings in hard cash. A Tribune cor- I respondent met one of these a short | time ago, as he was inquiring his way ; to the famous school of philosophy, ' held every summer at Concord. He was a sunburned farmer working in a field near tho road. j "Do yon belong down there?" said he to the correspondent, pointing to the place where tho school was held. " No," was tho reply, "I am no phil osopher." " Queer lot, they aro," continued the farmer. "I wonder how much the whole lot could earn, put 'em right down to good solid work. But I guess they've got their bread and batter ready provided, and I don't suppose they have to find out how much they are really worth." We have known better informed men than this old farmer who held in con siderable contempt the gentler voca tions, and were disposed to say, with the cobbler of old, "There is noth ing like leather." Men have their leather. It may be Greok; it may bo metaphysics; it may be popcorn; but whatever it is, thero is nothing like it for them. There are two kinds of valuable per sons. Those who make life possible, and those who make life worth having. The sunburnt farmer belongs to the indispensablea who make life possible. Business men, manufacturers, mer chants, mechanics, sll who do, and all who direct the world's daily work, be long to the same class. But oh, sufi burnt farmer, who made yonr farmer's almanac that hangs in the fireplace by its loop of tape so considerately sop plied by the publisher ? Aud farmer, who invented your clock, price one dollar and fifty oents ? Who found out how to make your boy's ac cordion, and who composed tho book o instructions with one hundred of the best pieces of music, that came with the instrument without extra charge? Who pointed the beauteous picture of "Emma," and who made the grand ehromo of Washington crossing the Delaware that hangs on yonr wails ? And who will preach yonr ssnaon next Sunday morning ? and bow would yon get through the Bnnday afternoon without yonr denominational weekly to dose over ? The people who provide these things could not earn much money hoeing corn; bnt they belong to the [ class who make it worth while for corn I to be hoed. They make life worth having.— JTrntth't Companion. ' r I PEARLS OF THOUGHT. Frugality is founded on the principle that all riches have limits. No ashes are lighter than incense,and few things burn out sooner. Unbecoming forwardness oftener pro j ceeds from ignorance than impudence. We seldom find people ungrateful as • long as wo are in a condition to render ■ them services. Old men's oyos aro like old men's memories; they are strongest for things a long way off. Tho fortunate circumstances of our life aro generally fonnd to be of our own producing. The generality of men have, like | plants, latent qualities, which chance brings to light. The most miserable pettifogging in the world iB that of a man in the court of his own conscience. Everything without tolls the indi vidual that he is nothing; everything within persuades him that he is overy ' thing. J Bo courteous with all, bnt intimate with few; and let those few be well 1 tried before you give them your con II ! donee. Truth can hardly be expected to adapt herself to tho crooked policy and wily sinuosities of worldly affairs, for truth, like light, travels only in straight lines. Cunning is not best, nor the worst of ' other qualities. It floats between vir- ' tne and vice. Thero is scarce any ex- ' ! igency whore its place may not, and ; i perhaps ought not, to be supplied by ! ! prudence. Down in the World. It may also l>e said, writes tho New | York correspondent of the Buffalo Courier, that New York swarms with j men who, onco well up tho serial lad der, if not actually at the top, tumbled clear into the mud at the bottom, and are stilt lying there, with no prospect of ever again getting np. .Such men are ; to bo seen in tho streets every day, and j any ono making a tour of the cheap j lodging houses in Chatham street and the Bowery would probably find a good j many of them. In some cases the fall ia the result of misfortune, but in most it is rinsed by fault. A special cose came to my attention a few days ago. A shabbily dressed man, with tho general looks of a tramp, passed inn in the street. In glancing at hia. face, I thought it was familiar. As he slouched along the sidewalk, I noticed that he looked into the gutters and bent his head over ash barrels and boxes—a tramp beyond donbt, A fall look at him took me back twenty-five years. Long before tho war the same figure was a familiar one on Broadway. Ho was one of the dandies then, and his natty dress and curling hair that hung thick to tho shoulders made him an object of attention on the promenade. He followed no business, but his fam ily—thoatri.al and operatic people— were pretty well off, and he had all tho spending money he wanted. And now —well, now he is a tramp, picking crusts out of the ash-boxes, sleeping in the station-houses, or possibly in tho parks, and as miserable a creature, this one-time dandy of Broadway, as it ia posaiblo for man to be. And there are scores, if not hundreds, of just such examples in the streeta every day. Other places bare a fair share of the same class, no doubt, bnt New York has the largest variety and can show speci mens of every degree, from tho scape grace aon of the merchant prince all the way down. The Granitic* of Spain. Grandee is the name of tho highest rank of the Spanish nobility. The gran dees—Grandea do Espanta -were orig inally the descendants of the great feud atories, or landlords, mostly of Gothic blood, who held immediately from the erown; but from the time of tho Em peror-King Charles V. it bocamo the practice of the Spanish sovereigns to elevate new men to the rank of grandees, just as in England men were raised to the peerage as a reward for great achievements, and sometimes only to please their favorites. This occasioned an immediate distinction between the old and tho new ordor of grandees, which waa marked by the former ad dresaing each other in the second per son singular—" thou " —without regard to age or ofllcial station, while they ad dressed, on all oooationa, the new nobil ity by the title of " Your Exoellenoy " with studied punctiliousness. The collective body of the grandees is called La Graodexa, corresponding to the peerage in Great Britain, bnt they have no political power, and retain only some trifling privileges at court, such as keep ing their hats on in the king's presence and having military honors paid to them by tho guard at the royal palace. The estimated yield of wheat in California this year ia 26,000,000 : bushels. Last year it was 47,000,000 , bushels. * "Itis a fine morning," aa tho Jodge remarked when he mulcted the prisoner 'at the bar to the tune of 120 and coats, l TOPICS OP THE BAY, Records show that the longest drought which this country has ever struggled through was in the year 1782, when for 123 days in succession, ending Septem- i ber 1, no rain fell over a considerable part of what was at tbe time settled ter- J ritory. The saltan of Turkey is so morbidly j afraid of assassination that be ventures out doors but very little, and foreign j diplomats aro troubled abont gaining j necessary access. The Spanish ambss-1 sador had to wait forty days for an in- j terview, and the American minister over a month. Tho first official Sunday-school con-! kus in tho United States is now being taken by the government. Circulars \ containing questions are sent to every j superintendent. These cover the nam-1 her of teachers and children, the ages , of scholars, tho number, value and , character of books in libraries, the property owned, the money collected, and tho increase in attendance since , 1870. The United Htatcn consul-general to Iloumania writes that 991,000,000 bosh els of wheat were exported from that country in 1880, and also remarks that the implements used in harvesting this immense crop are exceedingly primitive, the plow in general use being simply an iron-tipped tree branch, while grain is still cnt with a sickle. He thinks that manufacturers of American farm ma chinery would find a good sale for their wares in llournania, and advises them to send agents there at once. Of Indian railroad laborers, a Mexi can letter to tbe Chicago 77m* rajs that they toil unceasingly, lint accomplish little. On shoveling, it would take six of them to equal one white man. It is a new kind of work for the Italian, and strains his weakest part. The muscles of the arms are not developed. An In dian is strong in his back and legs, and when it comes to carrrrnga heavy load, a white competitor is nowhere. Diffi culty has been experienced in familiar ising the Indians with the wheelbarrow. Mormon missionaries will be apt to give Ohio a wide berth hereafter. One evening recently two of these worthies undertook to lecture at a small town named Green Hill, located in the coal regions of that Htate and mostly peopled by foreigners, but when they appeared they were set upon by the inhabitants and egged out of town. 80 excellent was the aim of the indignant citizens that the prophets were said to resemble anything but saints. The revelations of Joe Smith and his successors aro not exactly the doctrines that will be re ceived or tolerated in a civilized com munity. The Salvation army is having a rougher < anu>aign "in England than it had Decently in a public in Walworth, a suburb of London, a woman in the procession, having darted from the ranks to seize a pipe from the lips of a spectator with the exclamation, " that's your devil,'" found herself knocked to the ground with what is described as a terrific blow in the mouth. Other members of the army who went to her assistance were similarly treated. Such occurrences arc not especially adapted to inculcat ing the gospel of peace. It seems that Charles Hewlett, whom the Illoomington mob took out of jai] and hanged for killing the keeper, had previously offended the people of the place by fooling them. He went there two years ago, wearing good clothes and showing gentlemanly manners, and qnickly became a social favorite. He declared that he had no knowledge of who he was nor any recollection of his past life, being unable to even recall his real name. This intellectual pe- ' cnliarity won him grest sympathy, 1 particularly from the women, and the physicians discussed his case in a public meeting. Then the fact came out that he had long been a professional crimi nal, and several thefts sent him to prison for trial. Some curious statistics have been published of the cremation fnrnaoe erected at Goths in the autumn of 1878. Thus far it has been in use fifty-seven times—once in 1878, seventeen times in 1879, and sixteen times in 1880. For the present veer, np to August 17, only, the number has been twenty-three. Of the total of fifty-sevon cases, only one came from Berlin, one from Breslau, seven from Dresden, one from Frank fort-on-the-Main, one from Hanover, one from ('srlarhua, two from Leipsir, three from Munich, one from Vienna, one from Paris, and one from Weimar. Ootha alone contributed twenty-three. Only ten cases were women. Of the forty-seven men, ton belonged to learned professions, four to the army, and four to the nobility. There were ten physi cians. It hi not witbtut surprise that the American people who for months have read so rnu -h about the distress of the British working people will be told that they have deposited this yeer in the government saving* bank* about #ll,- ; 000,000 more (ban they did in the year ••nding March Si, 1880, The number of I depositor* in England ie one to thirteen; in Hcotland, one to fifteen; in Ireland, , one to sixty-five. There ia an increase ;of capital even in the Irish Havings tanks. In that country the total amount on deposit is about #7,780,000; the names of atant 10,000 new depositors were added; the proportion to populn i tion is one in sixty-fire, as oompared to > one in serenty-four in 1879, Every I county in Ireland contributed its quota, j Even those scheduled distressed exhibit ' an increase over the previous year, ___ The wonderful progress made in l China has taen emphasized of late by the Iter. Griffith John, a long time mis sionary of the London Missionary ' society, who has leen visiting in this country. Forty years sgo it was a crime for a foreigner to ham tho Chinese language, or for a Chinese to teach it to him ; and though the Nanking treaty was made in 1812, when Mr. John went to China, twenty-five years ago, there were only five places in the vast empire in which a foreigner might dwell. The great interior was still closed, as none might go further than could be reached in twelve hours from a treaty port. The whole empire is now open. Thirteen out of tho eighteen provinces have been actually occupied by missionaries and their families, the gospel has been preached in nearly all tho principal cities and towns, and the Bible and many forms of Christian literature are ! circulated everywhere. The emperor of Japan has been mak ing qmte lately an official tour through his realms, and on the occasion of his arrival at a village, Otsnmura by name, he was presented with three large carp for hie special eating, which fish the chronicler of the imperial travels de clares to have be* n three feet each in length. Tho wonderful things the Jap anese do with their fish we can scarcely understand. It seems as if carp are among the most ancient of Japanese fish, and have l>oen preserved by them from time immemorial. Some reoent travel ers tell marvelous stories as to the age and size of the ciprinoides, which are kept in holy precincts. It looks as if the carp to-day, since it has received its impulse in the I'm ted States, will make the circuit of the world- Future biolo gists will not have to speculate, as does Mr. Wallace, on the migration of ani mals, deducing their movements from many different sources, for the man of to day, like Noah of old, carries his dnmb friends along with him. Re cently it was noted that some of the carp raised in the government fish ponds by the United States fish com mission had been carried to Ecuador. The result has been perfectly success ful. Though the land journey over the mountains extended for many days, and the small fish had been carried in tin vessels on the backs of porters, the little carp were placed in the best pos sible condition by an enterprising South American gentleman in a pleasant pond in the very bet rt of the Andes. Rabies In (irnnany. Jenny June, the well-known writer on fashions and kindred topics, in a recent letter from Roan, Germany, says : Fashion seems of muoh less im portance here than in the city of London or New York. There are things that take the lead of it even among the women of the upper classes, while few the lower it does not exist at aIL Children are of enormous importance ia Belgium and Germany, and their oars occupies not only the mother, but the entire family, especially the female part t of it. Moreover, the Belgian and Gorman haus-frau is pre-eminently the house wife, and though she is not ' averse to fine clothes gives no time to them which ought by right to be de voted to husband and children. It ought to be of enormous importance a to care well for children everyrhere; I but the important duty is often sally J neglected. Children are in numerous J instances committed to the oars of ear- I vanta, sod their parents see them only I at infrequent intervals. The mother J who spends all her time in a round of 1 amusements, consenting only to see her jfl child onoe a day, and sometimes not hi ■ weeks, cannot wonder when the child I grows np if there is that lack of sffee- H tion and reepect that children should manifest to parents. And worse thaa ■ this—habits are contracted, unknown to ■ the parents, that work evil and only evil continually. If the faahicnabtsfl woman oomplains that the care of herS 1 children is a great trouble, and so putafl the doty upon another, she is sowing ■ deep grief for after yean. It vouidß benefit hnmac<