Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1910 — THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW [ARTICLE]

THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW

Thb greater part of Holland is eight feet below the level of the sea. A single salt works in Brazil covers an area of ‘almost twenty-four square miles. Texas last year produced more oil by 2,400,000 barrels than the entire country produced in 1875. A Massachusetts man worth >lo,ooo*000 is discovered to have hidden it all but >500,000 from taxation, i jfi Rotterdam, with a population of 40(?,000, fires are. so scarce that the city has practically no fire department. An automatic timS signal sent out from the Hamburg observatory by telephone to all instruments connected with the system of that city'has been heard as far as Copenhagen and Paris. An enterprising American undertook tp_ establish a trade in burglar-proof safes in the Malaga (southern) district of Spain. There was nothing doing, for burglars are unknown in that part of Spain. King Edward recently received four first prizes fdr his exhibits at the Smithfield cattle show. His majesty is a tenant farmer, not a landlord, and pays a large sum every year in rent and taxes for his holdings. In an address before the American Civic Association, Herbert M. Wilson, chief engineer in the United States geological survey, places the annual damage and Waste by smoke in the United States at >500,000,000 in the large cities alone, or about >6 to each man, woman and child of the population. One may read in a guide book of Venice, compiled for the benefit of strangers, this notice: /’When visiting this palace strangers should show themselves especially generous in their tips, as the prince who occupies this palace has no other means of support than to share in the money given to his domestics.”—Le Cri de Paris. At twenty-four William Pitt was chancellor bf the exchequer, Ruskin had written his "Modern Painters,” in five volumes, which established his reputation as England’s greatest art critic; Sheridan had produced “The Rivals,” Byron published the first canto of “Chllde Harold,” and Rossini produced his most popular opera, “The Barber of Seville.” In Devonshire any person bitten by a viper is advised to kill the creature at once and rub the wound with its fat. This practice has, to some extent, .survived in this the flesh of the rattlesnake is accounted to be the best cure for its own bite, but as a rule the leading superstition in the United States is of the efficacy of numerous potions of whisky as an antidote for snake bite. The Chicago Record-Herald says: Plans are in contemplation for giving the University of Chicago the finest physical laboratory in the United States, if not in the world. It is said that before all the plans are consummated the plant will have cost >1,000,000. All of the money is to be furnished by Martin Ryerson, president of the board of trustees of the university, who also was the donor of ths present Ryerson laboratory at the university.” If an aeroplane flies faster than the prevailing wind it can, of course, make landings or headway as necessary or desired, but so long as the aeroplane is slower than the blowing wind it is more or less not under control and can not be brought down just anywhere. It is believed that when motors can be relied on for thirty-five miles an hour they not only can meet the wind almost every day in the year, but can rise from land or water at almost any open place.—New York Press. Colonizers of all races seem to be careful savers of their earnings in the countries tp which they emigrate. In recent years there has been a considerable migration of East Indian coolies to the Island of Trinidad, 2,393 having landed there last year. There was a return to Calcutta of 726, carrying with them >86,000 in money, besides a large quantity of jewels, in which the coolies invest their savings. In the year there were also remittances' to India of about >17,000.—-New York Press. Few people, I fear, nowadays, read Marla Edgeworth; it is a pity. She is one of the finest novelists that ever adorned English literature. It was her tales, it must always be remembered, that inspired Sir Walter Scott to the composition of the "Waverley Novels." He cried aloud and everywhere his admiration for her and his indebtedness to her. Her writings have, however, a high value as historical pictures, altogether apart from their merits as literature; and of all her novefl her best is “Castle Rackrent.”—T. P. O’Connor, in T. P.’s Weekly, London. The introduction of tungsten lamps is doing much to advance the use of electricity on farms. It is possible for the farmer with a small plant, driven either by a gasoline engine or by damming a small stream, to obtkln sufficient current to light his house and barn with this economical type of incandescent lamp. The use of electricity on the farm, by the way, is growing and, as pointed out by the Electrical World, farmers will in time come to consider electricity a necessity. Then it will be found profitable to establish central generating stations for farming districts to take the place of the small individual plants now being installed.