Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1905 — FACTS IN FEW LINES [ARTICLE]

FACTS IN FEW LINES

The per capita drink bill of the United States Is increasing. The 26,000 cabs in London are nearly ail owned by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot. u

A boy in Madison, Ind., recently took poison because he thought that he was too modest to make a success in life.

At the government station Lulea, in Sweden, experiments are being made to secure varieties of plants not likely to be injured by frost. A Bulgarian physician says that the putrefactive organisms in sour milk are not only not harmful, but a “very great benefit to health.” Rider Haggard recently said he had seen people herded together in England under conditions to which Kaffirs or wild African tribes would not submit. It may be some comfort .to those who fear that we are destroying all our forests to learn that the world’s forest area at present is estimated at 2,500.000,000 acros. In the village Meavy, Dartmoor, England, is an old oak which was flourishing in the reign of King John and Is still standing, though supported by stout props. The last revolution in Uruguay was one of the most successful pulled off in South America for some years. The government paid the insurgents SIOO,OOOijto quit fooling. The Vienna Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is selling donkeys at remarkably low prices to replace the dogs generally used for drawing tradesmen’s carts. The Dutch government has introduced a bill providing for the compulsory insurance of Dutch sailors against the risks and accidents of their calling, especially in the North sea. A general movement is on foot at New York to increase the wages of washerwomen to $1.50 a day and car fare. Now the women get $1.25 for a day’s work away from home. The amount of money advanced to Irish tenants for the purchase of their lands under the various acts of parliament passed since 1886 is, according to a parliamentary paper, $128,8G6,015. An interesting document is In the possession of the town of Royalston, Vt. It is the record of conveyance of the lands of the town by the original proprietors under the grant made to them by the governor of New York in 1771.

The Indian rhinoceros is slowly becoming extinct. There are only four specimens In the zoos of the continent, and the rhinoceroses in the jungles are becoming so rare that one is but seldom seen even by the most ardent hunter.

According to a lecture given by the Very Rev. Dr. Coffey of Maynooth in a County Roscommon Roman Catholic church, there are now more than 2G,000 licensed drinking places in Ireland, or one for every 170 members of the population.

In the last five years New South Wales has received $208,111,872.23 for her wool clip, or only $2,965,946.82 less than during the previous five years, though the sheep then numbered 238,107,648 in the aggregate against only 173,396,044 for the last five years. Recent excavations in Egypt have revealed a bond, dated A. D. 100, apprenticing a slave for two years to the “semiograpb” to be taught to read and write shorthand or “the signs that your son Dionysios knows,” the teacher receiving in all 120 drachmas, about $23. A few years ago such a thing as a thrashing machine was unknown in Canada, and even a fanning mill was considered a luxury. Those were the days of flails, reaping hooks, homemade pitchforks, three cornered harrows and plows with wooden moldboards. Thrashing machines have now been brought to great perfection, and many of the most modern of them are in use.

Argentina has the greatest number of sheep of any country, but derives relatively the least benefit from them. This is due in part to the quality not having yet been sufficiently refined, in past to negligence in the care of the sheep and, lastly, to the prevalence of scab, the curing of which has not been made obligatory. In Australia curing this disease was made compulsory thirty years ago. In 1901 the population of England and Wales a square mile was 558. In 1900 the population of the United States was 21.4 a square mile, so England Is eofhparatively crowded. Yet In Lincolnshire a widow had to travel thirty-nine miles on her husband’s death. Thus: For a doctor’s certificate, 7 miles; to register the death, 5 miles; return home, 9 miles; to the grave and back, 18 miles; total, 39 miles. Some interesting experiments in blasting tree butts with gelllgnite, a safety explosive, have recently been carried out at Lord Leigh’s Stoneleigh Abbey estate, near Kennilworth, England. The usual boring was made and filled with the explosive. An electric detonator was used, which enabled the operator to retire under cover at a safe distance. The butts operated were of various sizes and fcpgpies, but in each case the method was found to give satisfactory results. It is also claimed to combine efficiency with economy. The Socialist party is gaining strength In Japan. Its principal demands are abolition of armies and navies, abolition of caste, nationalization of railways, canals, etc.; free and equal education, municipalization of gas, water, trams and other civic monopolies; public ownership of land near cities, a labor bureau, prohibition of child labor, of unsuitable women’s work, of night work for girls and youths and of Sunday labor, an eight hour day, no capital punishment, employers’ liability, no house of peers, freedom of speech and of the press.