Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1904 — FACTS IN FEW LINES [ARTICLE]

FACTS IN FEW LINES

Letter boxes with electric bells In them as letter thief telltales are shortly to appear In Paris. In the course of a murder trial at Cape Town recently the defendant, an aged Malay trader, admitted that he had twenty-seven wives. ..The value of the diamonds in the United States Is estimated to be $500,000,000. Of this amount $170,1)00,000 worth are owned by residents of New York. London claims during the past year to have had fewer murders and fewer burglaries than In previous years. There has also been no case of murder In which there was failure to bring the perpetrator to book. Warned by the great destruction of literary treasures In the Turin fire, the Italian minister of public instruction has ordered that in the new national library at Florence all important manuscripts shall be placed In a special room. Russia bought from the United States In 1903 nearly $20,000,000 worth of goods, which is double the average of previous years, and sold the United States nearly $11,000,000 worth, which Is an Increase of 50 per cent over previous years. The Cuban government has ceased negotiations with a Chicago contractor for the raising of the Maine, blown up six years ago In the harbor of Havana. The contractor failed to sign a contract or furnish a guarantee that he would do the work. New Orleans reports the best building prospects ever known In that city. Plans are definitely adopted for structures which will cost more than $6,000,000, the largest single undertaking being a hotel which will represent the investment of about $1,000,000. As a means of defense for women in case of attack from a ruffian a stiletto hatpin is about to be placed on the European market. It is made of fftae steel that will bend but not break, has a fine, hardened point and a handle with which to grasp it as a weapon. John Shumaker, aged seventy years, of Newcastle, l’a., is held to he the oldest active fireman in the United States. He has been a fireman since he was fourteen years of age and has always maintained a deep interest in the business of fighting the-flames. French tobacco raisers in 1900 and 1901 received $166 and $l7O per ton, while for foreign tobacco the administration paid $270 per ton in 1900 and $262 in 1901. In 1898 $340, or exactly double the price of home raised tobacco, was paid for the foreign article. Lloyd's returns show that during 11X13 the total addition to the steam tonnage of the United Kingdom was 1,008,756 tons gross and of sailing tonnage 34,595. About 93.5 per cent of the tonnage consists of new vessels nearly all built in the United Kingdom. The police department of New York has issued orders that a stenographer shall be sent to take in full all speeches made in public by known anarchists. The reports will be filed in the department records and will be used if necessary in prosecutions that may be commenced.

Considerable attention has been paid during late years to the buoying and lighting of the upper St. Lawrence until today a good, clear channel with fourteen feet of water at any season is clearly marked all the way from Kingston to Montreal. Modern gas buoys burning acetylene gas light the channel at all needed points. The number of suicides in Berlin is alarmingly on the increase. In 1900 the number was 434; in 1901 it was 525; in 1902, 5G4, and in 1903, G6l. Whereas the population in this time has increased only 3Mj per cent the rate of increase in suicides is 38 per cent. In 1900 there were 23 suicides to every 100,000 of population. In 1903 the number was 31. England is the best customer France has in the wood market. That country also buys woods of Sweden, Norway, Russia and Finland. The country of purchase depends very largely upon price. The countries above mentioned which sell the most cheaply get the business of England, whose ships are in every port ready to load with any kind of freight for a return trip. International balloon ascents, both manned and unmanned, were made in November and December, 1903, in many European countries, the British islands excepted, and kite observations were also made at the Blue Hill observatory in this country. The highest altitudes attained were: Trappes, near Paris, 16,000 and 14,800 meters, and Itteville, near Paris, 11,200 and 10,800 meters. At Zurich the balloons reached 13,000 and 17,000 meters. According to a Philadelphia physician, in a generation or two the Japs will average the same stature as Europeans. It Is only their legs that are short, he says, and this comes from their habit of sitting in cramped position on the floor. Western customs arc being adopted, and he thinks the little brown men will soon lengthen out. Of course some of his brother physicians poohpooh this notion. They point out that chairs are almost unknown among Hindoos, who on the whole are rather long legged. In 1875 it was communicated to the British government that the Khedive Ismail Pasha, being in desperate need of money, was willing to sell his 170,002 shares of stock in the Suez Canal company at a fair price. Disraeli was then premier, and he didn’t hesitate a minute. England paid $20,000,000 for the khedive’s holdings, or at the tate of $113.60 per share. Since then the dividends on Its purchase have aggregated $24,000,000, and today the shares are selling at S7OO each. This shows a profit on the transaction of $103,000,000. *