Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 140, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1910 — THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW [ARTICLE]

THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW

Lake Superior drains 85,000 square miles of land. The cultivated hyacinth la a native of Persia and Asia Minor. King Edward’s stable of race horses earned 1100,720 for him last year. A single cocoon frequently will yield more than two miles of silk. Seven-eighths of the beef consumed in Great Britain is home produced. Sewing on buttons is not a wifely duty in Japan—-there are no -buttons. Every day the railroads of New York move 85 per cent of the population of the city. The work of compiling a magnetic survey of Africa has been practically completed. Wireless telegraph apparatus is used in Spain to detect the approach of thunder storms. The world’s production of corn has reached the enormous figure of 90,000,000 tons a year. Moving picture shows at present form the most sought for amusement by all classes in Siam. Aden makes 10,000,000 cigarettes a year at a very low cost of production. Wages are 16 cents a day. All the large match factories of Germany have pooled their issues under an agreement binding until 1920. In the United States the percentage of railroads which are not engaged in carriage of -the malls is very small Ireland’s wheat yield is 37% bushels an acre, which is nearly five bushels an acre better than that of Great Britain. The first bituminous coal mined in the United States was found near Richmond, Va., early in the eighteenth century. Last month Adelina Patti celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of her first appearance oit the operatic stage at the age of 17. Representative William B. McKinley, of Illinois, owns more miles of interurban railways than any other man in the world. Cherry eounty, Nebraska, has elected Miss Gertrude Johnson, county treasurer., She has been deputy tressurer for many years. For hundreds of years the people of Saxony have used stoves made of fire brick covered with glazed tiles, which retain and gradually radiate the heat for hours after the fire has gone out. Children of the public schools in the Province of Ontario are to have much cheaper school books, to be supplied by the. provisional government under a five-year contract, from August 1, 1909. Conservatively, the value of United States holdings in British Columbia mills and -timber to-day, at present valuation, Is ,placed at, say, a little less than 6100,000,000. The investment in actual cash might be about hall that sum. One theatrical manager in New York reserves a box in his house for clergymen and their families one night every week. The rates are shaded, but just how much is known only to the manager and his treasurer and to the clergyman. In the borough of Manhattan apP rox i ma -tely 9,000 passenger elevators and 12,000 freight elevators are engaged in the dally transportation of 6,500,000 people. In the six years, 1903-1908, more than 4,000 of these machines were Installed. Miss Theodora J. Franksen, of Chicago, a student at the University of Chicago, who has been totally blind since she was 8 years old, was recently elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, an academic honor conferred for high scholarship. The German workman of to-day lives well, and is the best patron of the market halls. Insisting on having fruits and vegetables with his meals, and enjoying frequent outings with his family. In the Chemnitz district the wages of textile workers have steadily risen. Americans have discovered a deposit of whiting in the state of Campeche, Mexico, which the Mexican Herald says Is to be mined and shipped for refining to Mobile, Ala., where a factory has -been erected. American imports of unmanufactured chalk amount to about 125,000 tons a year, mainly from England and Germany. After hearing a French menu Dr. Johnson said to Boswell: “Sir, my brain Is obfuscated with the perusal of this hetergeneous conglomeration of English 111-spelt and a foreign tongue. Bld the rascal bring me a dish of hog’s puddings, a slice or two from the upper cut of a well roasted sirloin and two apple dumplings.” It is probable taat the population of the earth has doubled since 1800, says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. No one knows within ten million of what It is In 1909, -but no doubt the figures just published by B. L Putnam Weale are as good as any other. He .gives a grand total of 1,685,000,000. Of these only about a third, or 546,000,000, are white, with 85,000,000 in North America and 453,000,000 in Europe. An Illinois farmer presents the country with an almost cobless corn. The new corn is described as having each kerne! growing on a parent stem Instead of adhering to a cob. The Illinois grower says that he eliminated the cob by taking the tip of each ear, and setting on the very top kernels, and shortly expects to evolve a perfectly cobless corn. The State Agricultural college is looking after the experiment—National Magazine.