Fred Fearnot's Day, or The Great Reunion at Avon
NEWS OF THE DAY
A new machine, called the stentotype, has been invented, which enables the shorthand writer to get from four hundred to six hundred words a minute upon paper in an absolutely correct and accurate form. The basis of operating the machine is phonetic spelling. It is but a shorthand typewriter. While the work done is virtually the same as done by shorthand, it has the advantage of being recorded in plain English characters.
When R. D. Simpkins, of the Central House, Nevada City, Cal., attempted to drive a wild boar off his place on the Washington road, he reckoned without the ferocity of these animals when they do not have their own way. As Simpkins approached the animal and he did not retreat the farmer struck at the boar with his shovel. The boar caught hold of Simpkins's clothing and in attempting to thrust him away the boar caught Simpkins by the hand.
Richard von Konopke, Polish knight, whose family has been a member of the Polish nobility since the twelfth century, having concluded a short course in farming and animal husbandry at the State farm, came to Minneapolis to inspect farm machinery and to attend the Minnesota Implement Dealers' Association. His father is an owner of large tracts in Galicia and is interested in the cultivation of lands by the modern machinery methods. The visitor was amazed at the manner in which theory is put into practice at the school.
The new postal money order law was signed by President Wilson the other day, and will go into effect as soon as rules can be prepared for the operation of the plan. The new system provides for the issuance of postal money orders payable at any money order office, even though drawn on a specified office. The Postoffice Department says it will "greatly increase the volume of postal money order business and prove a great help to the business public, giving, as it does, to the postal money order the virtues and convenience of a bank draft." It will take months to organize the new plan, which is to be a universal money order system.
A man walked into one of the leading cafes in Middletown, N. Y., and asked the bartender to give him change for a three-dollar bill. The latter started to count out the change, then stopped and thought a moment. "G'wan there's no such thing as a three-dollar bill," he remarked. The man who wanted the change insisted that there was, and the bartender bet him $10 there was not. Thereupon the visitor produced a three-dollar bill. It was a bill issued January 1, 1852, by the Bank of North America of Seymour, Conn., which the man had found in the siding of a house to which he was making repairs. The old banknote was signed by F. Atwater, Cashier, and G. F. Dewitt, Treasurer.
The American consul at Zanzibar reports that Magadi (spelled "Maggadi" on British official maps), lying southwest of Nairobi, in the southern part of British East Africa, is an almost inexhaustible source of soda. As the deposits are removed they are replaced through soda springs from which crystals of soda are constantly forming A 95-mile railway has recently been built to connect this lake with the Uganda Railway, and a factory for preparing the soda is to be built at the lake. It is estimated that 160,000 tons of the worked product will pass over the railway to the sea. The soda deposits cover 30 square miles.
Bob Groom, pitcher of the Washington American League team, has signed with the St. Louis Federals. He told friends that aside from the fact that terms offered by Mordecai Brown, manager of the local outlaws, were very attractive, he wished to play near home for family reasons. He lives at Belelville, Ill., just across the river from St. Louis, Mo. This makes five major league players the St. Louis Federals are known to have signed. Edgar Willett of Detroit, Mordecai Brown himself, Al Bridwell, and Ward Miller are the other stars, and in addition Brown considers Catcher Harry Chapman of the Atlanta champions of the Southern League the same as a major leaguer. Brown expects to get George Tyler of the Boston Braves and says that when his list is ready for announcement he will show enough old heads to balance a team of first-class youngsters.
In 1837 a seal skin fetched from $2 to $3 in 1890, while in 1890 the price reached the $40 mark, $17 to $30; while in 1909 the price reached the 440 mark. The prices on seal garments, however, have indicated a fictitious value, due to the heavy duty entailed by London shipments, and fur dealers have had to demand and exorbitant figure for an article which is a home product and should, and could have been, bought for much less. So that naturally this signal recognition by the United States Government of the commanding position held by St. Louis in the fur markets of the world cannot fail to have its effect on the fur business in this country as will as in time reduce the price to the consumer. At the present time St. Louis is the largest primary fur market in the world, and it is estimated that three-fourths of all the furs trapped on the North American Continent are shipped to St. Louis houses to be sold. The books published by the United States Government on this interesting subject can be obtained free by writing the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Fisheries, and will afford enjoyable and instructive reading. Dealing as they do with the purchase of Alaska by the United States from Russia, and comprising a veritable natural history of the fur bearing seal, as well as setting forth the economics of the sealing industry, these books cannot fail to be a source of real instruction to any good American Citizen.
