Entries from May 2004 ↓

An interesting discovery has just been made by a contributor to a French periodical, who has apparently a touch of superstition in his character concerning numbers. Whether or no he believes in the mysterious or uncanny influence of number thirteen is not stated, but he points out that the unfortunate President Carnot was throughout his life under the influence, so to say, of the figure seven. He was born in 1837 and entered the Ecole Polytechnique in 1857. He became president of the republic in 1887, in virtue of the seventh article of the constitution. The 17th of May last year he presided at the centenary fetes at the École Polytechnique. He died in the 57th year of his age and in the seventh year of his presidency. In the carriage in which he was seated when assassinated there were, including the driver, etc., seven persons, the crime being committed on a Sunday, the seventh day of the week, by Caserio, and Italian, there being respectively seven letters in these two words. To conclude this list of sevens it is pointed out that M. Carnot’s remains were laid in the tomb in the seventh month of the year and on the seventh day after the murder was committed.

Some curious information in regard to the shower of meteors which occurred in November last, was obtained by observations made at the National Observatory in Washington. The brighter meteors appeared at a height of seventy-five miles above the earth, and were extinguished at a height of fifty-five miles. The average length of their path was twenty-two miles. During the thickest of the shower, they were counted at the rate of three thousand per hour. Their velocity was forty-four miles per second. The thickness of the stream from north to south, was sixty thousand miles; and it is estimated that there was forty thousand meteors to a lineal mile, or one meteor to every nine hundred cubic miles of space. Prof. Newcomb believes that Tuttle’s comet of 1866, which these November meteors follow, is itself simply an agglomeration of meteroids, just dense enough to be visible in the solar rays; and he thinks that the same is true of the other telescopic comets. The November shower next year will begin at 10 o’clock A.M., Washington time, and will, therefore, only be visible on the Pacific Ocean.

The Chicago Interior publishes a letter from Mr. Nichols, of Tecumseh, dated May 18th, and declares him to be “a man of conscience and understanding.” He says:

“Our village and vicinity constitute a scene of special interest just now, on account of an ancient fossil recently brought to light. A few days ago, as some men were cutting a ditch through a piece of low land, some four miles northeast of our village, they came upon some huge bones, which, on further investigation, proved to be the bones of a Mastodon. They were imbedded in a stratum composed mainly of clay and sand, of yellowish complexion, overlaid by about two or two and a half feet of black muck, and having a stratum of very moist and more thoroughly digested vegetable matter underneath. Directly over the principal remains stood an oak tree of some eighteen inches in diameter and having fifty-five concentric circles.

“The skeleton, as a whole, was very imperfect, both as to the number of pieces and in respect to preservation. Some of the parts, however, to wit: vertebra, part of the jaw, a portion of a tusk, several molars, leg bones, etc, were in a very natural state. From the worn state of the teeth it is inferred, very naturally, that the animal was old. The bones also, being much dispersed about over an area of some thirty feet diameter, would seem to indicate that the creature was not inadvertently cast in the mire, but that it had, through weakness, caused by time or disease, laid down upon the ground, died, and been torn to pieces by surviving and devouring wild beasts.

“As to the dimensions of the animal, Professor Winchell, of the University of Michigan, having examined the remains, thinks that it must have stood some twelve or thirteen feet in length. The main tusk, of which a section, about one yard in length, is in tolerable preservation, is ascertained to have been, when entire, about nine and a half feet in length. This conclusion is reached by measuring the matrix in which it reposed, and which, from the clay of which it is mainly composed, is in a remarkable state of preservation. Its diameter in the middle is nearly or quite four inches, and the curve, which was upward, was very gentle and graceful. But, alas, a prodigious weapon to contend with!”

The box of chessmen had been left open all night. That was a great oversight! For everybody knows that the contending chessmen are but too eager to fight their battles over again by mid-night, if a chance is only allowed them.

It was at the Willows,–so called, not because the house is surrounded by willows, but because a little clump of them hangs over the pond close by. It is a pretty place, with its broad lawn in front of the door-way, its winding avenue hidden from the road by high trees. It is a quiet place, too; the sun rests gently on the green lawn, and the drooping leaves of the willows hang heavily over the water.

No one would imagine what violent contests were going on under the still roof, this very night. It was the night of the first of May. The moon came silently out from the shadows; the trees were scarcely stirring. The box of chessmen had been left on the balcony steps by the drawing-room window, and the window, too, that warm night, had been left open. So, one by one, all the chessmen came out to fight over again their evening’s battles.

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“I don’t suppose you have any kleptomaniacs in society in Washington.” said a New York dowager at the capital the other night at dinner, “but we have them in New York. The last great ball I went to with my daughter we wore very handsome seal skin wraps. Arriving at the dressing-room, the checks for them were handed out and my daughter put them between her teeth for a moment while she was adjusting a portion of her dress. She had occasion to speak to me and so dropped the checks on the floor, and we were about to hurry off to the ball room. I was determined, however, not to lose our wraps and so sent for a friend who was one of the reception committee, and we went into the cloak-room, where I identified the seal skin wraps and got fresh checks for them. At the close of the ball, when we went for them, the man in charge told me that Mrs. Blank, one of the ultra-fashionable women of the Four Hundred, had presented the lost checks and insisted upon my seal skin wraps being delivered to her. When she was informed of what had occurred in the matter of issuing new checks and the visit of the member of the reception committee to the cloakroom, she worked herself into a fine frenzy and walked off indignantly.

Upon another occasion, at one of the great weddings, quite a dramatic scene occurred. The bridal presents were all ostentatiously displayed to excite the envy and gratify the curiosity of the guests. A detective in plain clothes was in the room. He saw a well-known beautifully dressed woman go up to the table and begin admiring and commenting on the beauty of everything with great enthusiasm. She picked up a diamond bracelet and adroitly concealed it. The detective kept his eye on her, and as she was leaving the house to get into her carriage he stepped up to her and said: ‘Excuse me, madam, but haven’t you forgotten to leave your wedding present?’ She was equal to the emergency and pulled herself together with that consummate alacrity which amounts to genius in her sex, and said: ‘Oh, yes, so I have. Thank you very much. Very good of you, indeed.’ Then she calmly swept back to the table where the presents were displayed and depositied the bracelet with the box which contained it, the detective’s eye taking it all in with an amused and quizzical expression.”

A man whose mental constitution is seemingly sound in every respect save one has offered a reward of $150 for his name and the place of his former residence.

“I’ve got just $150 in sight, and I’ll give that and my four horses to any man who will tell me who I am and where I came from. I’ll give all I’ve got on earth to know just these two things.”

And the strange part of it is, the man was deeply, desperately in earnest, and he was possessed of his mental faculty save in this unfortunate respect; he could remember neither his name nor where he once lived.

“It’s the only thing I cannot remember,” he said. “If I could only hear my name mentioned I would know all instantly. If you could just mention my name I would remember everything.”

The strangely unfortunate patient sat in Chief Connolly’s office talking to the chief and to Detectives Cason and Looney. He looked vigorous and strong despite a month of confinement in the hospital. He talked with little trouble, and with intelligence upon all subjects save that relating to his name and past. Upon that his mind is a blank.

“Well, this is the strangest case I have ever seen,” said the chief, “and something must be done to identify this man. I am satisfied that he is trying to conceal nothing about himself. The trouble is, he cannot remember, just as he says.” He has been pronounced well for several days. Chief Connolly is determined to find out who the stranger is. He is confident that he is the victim of a diabolical plot, and he intends to prosecute his murderous assailants. He believes that the unfortunate man was robbed of a large sum of money.–Atlanta Constitution.

A scientific examination of the sulfur, which fell in the shower of the Lehigh Valley, the other day, proves it to be the pollen from a species of pine, caught up on the wind and carried from the Jersey forests.

An astonishing discovery in regard to the production of electricity is announced, which, if genuine, will do away with the necessity of burning coal. Dr. Borchers, of Driesburg, Germany, says that he has found that electricity is generated by the conversion of hydrocarbon and carbonic oxide into carbonic acid, and as this is the same thing that takes place in burning coal he accomplishes the same end by chemical means by what he calls the wet process. While a steam engine utilizes about 12 per cent. of the theoretical energy and a gas engine 20 per cent., Dr. Borchers claims that his new process gives no less than 38 per cent.