Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1895 — Odds and Ends. [ARTICLE]

Odds and Ends.

Kansas bas 166,617 farms, having an acreage of 30,214,456. The barley fields of Illinois yielded in ! 1890, 1,197,506 bushels. Washington, including real and personal property, is valued at $123,810,693. A Maine firm is preparing to manufacture horseless carriages commercially. The slaughter of elephants in Africa goes on at the rate of 65,000 a year. Most of the land in the Republic of Mexico is held in almost feudal tenure by 7000 families. The biggest ferryboat in the world is said to be the Soluno, plying between San Francisco and Oakland. The Humane Society of Pittsburg has decided that young girls must cease selling papers on the streets. A number of women of Cincinnati have provided, sand heaps for the poor children of the city to play on. There are five “tasters" in the sultan’s kitchen at Constantinople. They taste every dish before it is placed before the royal master. It is said that moths will not attack j green fabrics. Arsenic is used in dyeing green, and the moths are wise enough t > \ sliun that deadly drug. One of the most striking of the experiments in a recent lecture before the Royal Institute of Great Britain showed a frozen soap bubble floating on liquid air. It is the belief of oyster catchers that oysters are peculiarly sensitive to sudden jars. Ihe careful oysterman never chops wood on board lest be kill the oysters, and he dreads a thunder storm.

With a population of about thirty millions, England gets along with thirty-two judges of the first class, while Indiana, with a population of about four millions, has 178 judges altogether. Missouri furnishes the government cavalry horses at from .*45 to *75 each. In some of the Pacific States a horse can be bought for *2 or *3, and is considered to be worth less than a good sheep-dog. The Chinese believe that when telegraphy was introduced in their country foreigners cut out the tongues of children and suspended them ou the insulators to transmit the message from pole to pole. The fact appears that there is a very marked differenoe in the way temperature is borne by the eyes when it is below 2000 degrees Fahrenheit and when above that heat, t p to such a degree a man can look at tht metal in a furnace with comparative ease, but before it reaches 3000 degrees he is compelled to wear colored glasses. The latest English religious novelty is a smoking service. The following invitation has been widely circulated in Whitechapel: ‘Tf you want a smoke free, come next Sunday afternoon at three o’clock to Christ Church Hall. A free cup of tea if you like. Tobacco gratis.” In the cities of Japan there is a large class of women who muke their living by furnishing amusement to ennuied patrons. They are well educated, can converse, recite poetry, tell stories, sing songs, play the guitar and dance for the entertainment of those who send for them. London saloon-keepers must not supply liquor to police officers unless by authority of a superior officer. A woman was sum-, moned recently before the police court for serving at the same time a sergeant and a constable while on duty, and pleaded that the sergeant gave the needed permission. In the event of a wreck at sea, instinct in some marvelous way seems to warn animals of their peril. The confusion among the crew and passengers spreads like wildfire to the live stock, und even the rats come screaming on deck, evidently fully conscious that their lives are in jeopardy. Queen Victoria’s word in the matter of titles is absolute law. Were she to address a bystander inadvertently as “duke," a duke he would remain, unless she revoked the honor. There are several cases on record in which titles were conferred by a sudden impulse of the sovereign in a colloquial moment—titles which are extant to this day. A story comes from Louth, New South Wales, of an extraordinary adventure of a little boy about two years of age who wandered from his home and was lost in the bush. He was tracked thirty miles and over a rabbit-proof fence before lie was found. He spent five cold nights in the bush without food or water, and when discovered was still walking, though much exhausted.