Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1915 — SCRAPS [ARTICLE]

SCRAPS

Glass windows were first used in private houses in England in 1180. The distance from which vultures and eagles spy their prey is almost incredible. It is said that no one can breathe at a greater height than seven miles Jtom the earth. Half the important European land battles ’of the last three centuries have taken place in Belgium. The consumption of fuel oil in Chile has increased since 1904 from 5,000 tons to more than 230,000 tons last year. The jinricksha is the man-Jropell-ed vehicle of therfar east. It is being superseded by a vehicle known as the cyclericksha. Salubite, a new explosive, is fifty times more powerful than dynamite, and is much safer, for it will explode only by means of the percussion cap. It has been found that wireless telegraph waves are propagated along the surface of the earth with a velocity slightly inferior to that of light. Linen has proven valuable for the covering of aeroplane Wings, The fabric is coated with casein, which strengthens the material and makes it smooth. . : . The mountains of Porto Rico are so magnetic that they attract surveyors’ plumb line. It has been found that some old surveys are. incorrect by a half a mile or more. A Sheffield firm has received from Holland a contract for the manufacture of 50,000 army pocket knives, to be made to the pattern of those hitherto imported from Germany. The cultivation of a sunflower as a crop is extensive in the south of Russia. The plant furnishes oil in its seed, fodder for cattle in its leaves and a large quantity of potash is manufactured from it. In a motion picture theater in a Maryland town, patrons are admitted at a lower price to a room behind the screen, where they can see the pictures as well, although the reading matter is reversed. Mistletoe thrives on the western coasts of America to an extent not approached in the east. In many places this parasite growth is responsible, directly or indirectly, for a considerable loss of timber. ■* The government of India has appointed an expert to make an exhaustive study of the white ants of that country, which completely destroy all books with which they come in contact if not detected in time.

In the province of Ontario there are, including kindergartens, night schools, high schools, collegiate, institutes and continuation classes, 6,94 2 public schools—all free—the yearly attendance of pupils being 500,000. Grape seeds, for which hitherto no use has been known, have been found to contain an oil which is especially valuable in the manufacture of soaps, and a South American refinery is making preparations to produce it on a large scale. At Japanese auctions each bidder writes his name and bid on a slip of paper, which he puts in a box provided for the purpose. W.hen the bidding is over, the box is opened and the goods declared the property of tlie highest bidder. One of the evils of war is the lowering of the national physique. In the generation after the FrancoGerman war there was an appreciable decrease in the stature of Frenchmen through the large number of young men of good physique who were killed. Frank T. Palmer of Skowhegan, Me., is using for a weather vane a plow which has been used on the farm for many years. The plow is placed on top of the m..yola of his barn, and so balanced tnat it determines the direction of the wind with accuracy. ' The streets of Milan are watered from the electric tram cars. On these watering ears reservoirs have 1 been adapted to the platforms, and these reservoirs are emptied as the car runs, by means of perforated tubes placed fan-shape at the front and back of the car. There is no pauperism in Servia, in the sense in which it is understood in the west. The poorest people have some,sort of freehold property. There are a few poor people in Belgrade, but neither their poverty nor their number has required an institution like a workhouse. v By the accepted Baltic and Black sea canal scheme it is proposed to canalize the Dnieper and the Dwina, the former flowing into the Black sea at KherSbn and the latter into the Gulf of Lavonia and the Baltic sea at Riga. The sources of the two rivers at. the divide would be connected by artificial waterways. The length of the canal would be 1,540 miles. The new Egyptian flag consists of three white crescents with their backs

to the staff, each with a five-pointed white star between the horns on a red field. This flag was the personal standard of khedive, and now takes the place of the former national flag, which/was distinguished from the Turkish by having a star of five instead of six points. A new field of usefulness has been found for the much ridiculed skunk in the fact that it is a vigorous enemy of the full grown range caterpillars. Birds are of no service whatever in destroying these large caterpillars, but skunks devour quantities of them, and this is another reason why these little creatures should receive more consideration than they now do. f ■ “By the side of a young French cavalry officer who had been hit in a fight oh the Aisne we found the body of a pretty girl,” said Sergeant Payne, of the British army, who is at Bristol, England, wounded: “Both were dead. When the young man joined his regiment the girl left a convent school and attached herself to the Red Cross*. Hearing that her sweetheart had not returned from a charge in which his regiment was engaged, she went out with the ambulance men to look for him. Going in advance she found him, and w'hile attending to his w ounds was killed'. They were buried side Jjy side.” William 11. Venn, parole officer of the governor of Michigan, believes that the paroled convict is as honest as the average man. Some years ago he and a human judge established a fund from which money might be loaned to paroled or discharged prisoners until they could find work and get on their feet. Since loans have been made to 557 ex-convicts to the amount of $7,542.83, and ot this sum, all but $987.65 has been paid back. Of the amount not paid $416.08 was loaned to men who later broke their parole, and it is believed that they wmuld have paid back the greater part of this but for the danger of disclosing their whereabouts. Still, breaking one’s parole is not altogether a recommendation for honesty.— Indianapolis News.