Show IN THE ODD CORNEE QUEER AND CURIOUS THINGS AND EVENTS clergyman at a col ie in new york write while fast adeep hunting kal ebaid imbedded la a tree melancholia in the cold starlight on the barren beach where the stones the rent sea tresses clave I 1 heard the long hiss of the backward wave down the steep shingle and the hoi low speech 01 cavern lips nor other breach of ancient silence none was with me save thoughts that were neither glad nor sweet nor brave but restless comrades each the foe of each and I 1 beheld the waters in their might writhe as a dragon by some great spell curbed and foiled and one lone sail and over me the everlasting taciturnity the august inhospitable inhuman night glittering magnificently unperturbed william watson in the critic writing sermon while atleed one of the most remarkable and aling stories of somnambulism is that which recently came to light in con with a young clergyman at a training college in new york who was found to be in the habit of writing his sermons while fast asleep the young man would get out of bed secure pa per and compose and write his eer mons on finishing a page he would read it out when a word displeased him he would write a correction with great exactness these tic sermons were well composed and correctly written curious to ascertain whether the young man made use of his eyes the principal of the college put a card under his chin tp prevent him seeing the paper but he still con tinned to write not yet satisfied whether or not he could distinguish different objects placed before him the principal took away the piece of paper on which he wrote and substituted several other kinds at different times of various colors he always perceived the change because the pieces of paper were of different sizes when a piece exactly like uis own was substituted be used it and wrote his corrections on the places corresponding to those of his own paper it was by this means that portions of his nocturnal alons were obtained his most aston ish production was a piece of music written with great exactitude he used a cane for a ruler the clefs the flats and the sharps were all in their right places the notes were all made as circles and those requiring it were at ter wards blackened with ink ohp words were all written below but onee they were in such very large characters that they did not come directly below their proper notes and perceiving this he erased them all and wrote them over again A nice lace to lire the useful household magazine good housekeeping is responsible for the following imagine keeping a snake in the house to fill a cat s duties that Is what they do in manila says an american woman who has just re turned from spending a year in the philippines with her journalist bus band the first night f spent in our own home was hot and smothering so I 1 lay wide awake hoping tor a breeze suddenly I 1 heard a strange noise over head manila houses are built to bamboo and are about as substantial as a bandbox so one hears every rustle I 1 had listened to the scamper of a rat overhead then came a queer noise like a stealthy slide the rat gave a shriek of agony I 1 could hear the lash of the snake s tall and a terrible scrim mage all over the thin floor they seemed to be rolling over each other and the snake was swallowing the rat I 1 hearte it as distinctly as if I 1 could see it I 1 shrieked louder than the rat had done and in a moment chin boy in our establishment was in my room to see what had happened be tore I 1 left manila I 1 grew as accustomed to finding a house snake on my floor as it it had been a cat the house pests of the drive an am woman to distraction lizards are everywhere you find them in 5 our bed in the dishes in the pantry cling ing to your gowns or in your bureau drawers some are no bigger than the chameleons we used to pet others are a toot long ants of every size and sort simply inhabit every thing you own every good house keeper in manila keeps the feet of her dining table standing in pots of oil it you did not take that precaution one would be eating ants in every dish arved knife in a tree D W fenner a it peebles 0 has a hunting knife of antique workmanship which came into his possession in a novel manner while he was engaged in sawing tim her at one of his adams county mills the saw suddenly ran against an ob in a huge thirty foot log on ackling the log from the saw and in the cause of the trouble it was found that the saw had run a hunting knife seven and halt inches in length which was braly imbedded in the middle of the tog the point of the knife was found to rest within to ir inches of the heart it the tree and was about five feet above the ground the handle of the knife which was of bone or deer horn was pointing upward at an angle of about 45 degrees in a position which that it had probably been stuck in the tree by a passing hunter many ago three inches of solid oak beyond the end of the handle dver growths representing years were counted from the point at which the knife first entered the tree to outside edge fram the point el the knife to the outer edge of tb tree was a distance ot eight inches show ing that the tree had increased its dl ameter sixteen inches in the years that the knife had been imbedded in its body the knife was well preserved from rust it seems to have been made by hand as it lacks the finish of modem blades man with a strange gift there is a veritable human magnet at alto pass whose power of mind over inanimate matter seems truly miraculous his name is mr viggo lerche he arrived there several weeks ago from copenhagen denmark on a visit to his uncle mr beasen one evening at mr jessen s home mr lerche took an iron poker three feet long and very heavy stood it against the wall at an angle of about 45 degrees sat down a few feet distant folded his hands looked steadily at the poker for about one minute when it began to shake and then rose to a perpendicular position after standing still a minute the poker moved toward mr lerche in short jumps this is only one illustration of mr lerche s wonderful power he discovered bs power accidentally several years ago while a student in a copenhagen col lege he was sitting on a bench in a park after school hours brooding over some trouble he had had with his small round stick lying at his feet when suddenly the stick began to roll and tumble mr lercie says he was nonplused by the phenomenon and has ever since regarded his own power with a feeling of awe he dares not experiment on human beings for in so doing he once threw a friend in den mark into a slumber from which he was with great difficulty aroused A pigeon ranch twelve thousand flying pigeons are the main part of a pigeon ranch situated on the outskirts of los angeles california the pigeons live in three large tiers of coops or houses and in numerous smaller ones the lar est of the houses contains 3 coop aalde and outside the other two build ings are made up of 2 and 1000 coops respectively A remarkable tact in connection with this place is that the pigeons never leave the ranch and it is seldom that one ever gets beyond the large wire fence that surrounds the place they are fed on assorted grain and screenings at a cost et about eight dollars per day there are timatea to be about 12 flying pig eons on the ranch there are also a large number of young birds or squabs which are still in the nests these squabs are killed tor the market before they are old enough to fly As soon as they are able to fly they get thin each day the keeper goes through the nests and secures enough squabs to fill the market orders tor the next day these birds are killed by disjointing their necks and after being dresek are delivered this Is a profit able industry that requires very little care the strand heron neat in malue wood there are three known heron colo nies in new england one of them Is on the plantation just to the north of gebec sebec lake maine on a point of land reaching out into the pond is a growth of tall silver birches and there are at least nests in the tops of these trees the trees are tall without limbs tor forty feet or more from the ground it Is a well known tact that herons never b gilld a nest in a tree with lamba much less than forty feet from the earth these nests are constructed from small sticks some up to an inch in diameter the nest is at least two feet across and the eggs are a trifle smaller than a hen s egg and of a pale blue color the old birds go long dis on their foraging trips in some cases forty and fifty miles the birda of this species about moosehead Moose head lake and around the ponds miles to the south all make their way to his par nicular colony at night standing on the point one can see the birds corn ing from all directions during the period in which they feed their young the congo under the ocean on the coast of africa opposite the mouth of the river congo and contina ous with the course of that river lies a submerged valley the existence and shape of which have been ascertained by means of soundings made by the british admiralty this valley through v aich the congo probably flowed at a time when the western coast of africa was more elevated than it Is at present is miles in length extending to the edge of the platform of submerged land which borders the continent its sides are steep precipitous and well defered indicating that they are formed of solid rocks other submerged river va leys are found on the western coast of europe and lar phenomena exist in various parts of the world where the edge of conti bents have sunk remarkable mentory apat an extraordinary apat was performed the other day at naples by M a professor of rhetoric in presence ot a large audience which was mainly composed of aatos authors and jour without hesitation and with hardly a pause he repeated from mem ory the fifteen thousand three hundred and fifty lines that are in the divine comedy of dante it was eight clock in the evening when he began to recite and he did not stop until a quarter past two in the following afternoon the sk therefore occupied him 1 minutes which was at the rate of lines an hour during all this time he recited unceasingly ex capt at rare intervals when he stopped for a minute or two to sip a little brandy and water the feat was the result of a wager there are 11 hotels in in which there are on an average guests it is always easier to reconcile ourselves to that which Is against our principles if no expense to us Is in holved in it indianapolis new |