Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1897 — Current Condensations. [ARTICLE]

Current Condensations.

The otter is the favorite animal pet among the Chinese. The street accidents of London amount to about 3,500 a year—nearly ten a day. Pearls or emeralds in combination with jet can now be worn for mourning in Paris. An umbrella covered with a transparent material has been invented In England, enabling the holder to see where he is going when he holds it before his faee. Tao total exports of iron and steel manufacturers for the first eleven months of the last fiscal year, as compared with the corresponding months for the preceding fiscal year, show an increase of over $8,200,000. Only 11 per cent, of the larger and 5 per cent, of the smaller English gold coins bear an earlier date than 1870. clean appearance of British coins is always a delight to a foreigner. This is true as well of Canadian coins. Man? of the oldest of the Roman bridges, especially those erected for strategic purposes, were built partly of wood and partly of stone, such as that erected by Caesar across the Rhine, and described by him In his commentaries.

There are 1,771 breweries in the United States. Two hundred and eightynine of them are in New York, 251 in Pennsylvania, 174 in Wisconsin, 122 In California and 100 in Illinois. Arkansas, Maine, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Vermont and Wyoming have no breweries. Current Literature gives the amounts of money spent yearly by twenty of the leading libraries in the country. The Boston puollc library leads, with an income of $170,000, and Chicago Is second with $125,000. After these two leaders there is a great gap, and Minneapolis comes third with $55,000. While Frenchmen grumble that they still have to pay taxes in order to make up the war indemnity exacted by Prussia twenty-five years ago, the town of Konlgsberg, in Prussia, has only this year paid the last installment of the loan contracted to the war contribution imposed on it by Napoleon I. It is not generally known except by certain persons whose office it is to learn of such matters, that the immense sum of $9,500,000 is annually expended in charity in the city of New York. That, at least, is the approximate amount, est’mated as closely as circumstances permit or on the part of experts. There are about 5,000 families who are listed “givers” to charity. A popular work on railroading estimates the ordinary load for a ten-ton freight car as follows: Whisky, 60 barrels; salt,7o; lime,7o; flour, 90; eggs, 130 to 160; flour, 200 sacks; cattle, 18 to 20 head; hogs, 50 to 60; sheep, 80 to 100; lumber (green), 6,000 feet; lumber (dry), 10,000; barley, 300 bushels; wheat, 340; apples, 370; corn, 400; potatoes. 430; oats, 680, and bran, 1,000.