Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1886 — CURIOUS FACTS. [ARTICLE]

CURIOUS FACTS.

The total number of Jews in the world is placed at 6,377,602, of whom 300,000 have (heir abiding-place in America. $ ' vb A chalk mound from which smoke and heat issue in several places is Hie latest discovery in the .Santa Ynez Valley, north of the town of Santa Barbara, California. I The walls of Fort Samter are reduced to a mass of ruins, over which twelve guns are still mounted. The Government pays S2OO a month for watchmen, who keep lights burning for the guidance of mariners. . A peculiar black paper of Siam and Burmah, mode from the bark of certain trees, is used very mnch as are slates in Europe and America. The writing upon it may lie rubbed ont by the application of netel leaves, jnst as the slate writing is erased by means of a sponge. The cypress of Santa del Tnle, in the Mexican State of Oaxaca, is said to be the oldest living thing upon the globe, which is a proposition somewhat difficult to prove. Humboldt speaks of it in 1851 as measuring thirty-fonr feet in diameter, 146 feet in circumference, and 280 feet between the two extremes. A wonderful and little-known flower has been on exhibition at the Philadelphia Horticultural Society’s rooms. It is called the moon flower, and blooms in the evening. From a small bud an inch long and an inch and a quarter in diameter comes a beautiful flower four inches in diameter. The development requires less than an hour, and the buds can be seen opening. The recent census in Massachusetts shows that out of about 350 towns 150 lose in population. The gains are in manufacturing centers, the marked loesses in the agricultural districts, and certain compensatory gains in toAvns Avhich AA onld be expected to lose are duo to their being convenient homes for those whose business is in the cities. Nantucket threatens to become depopulated in time. The population of the Island has fallen from 8,064 in 1875 to 3,143 in 1885. To preserve buds of flowers a correspondent of London Garden says: “Gather the buds when nearly ready to open, and seal np the end of the stalk with sealing w»x; wrap the bnd in tissue paper, and put in a tin box perfectly air tight. When the bnd is wanted*to’open, cnt off the sealing-wax, and immerse the stalk in water to which a little saltpetre has been added. I was very skeptical as to the success of this plan when told of it. I have tried it with rosebuds, however, and succeeded perfectly. ”■ A glance at the market quotations in a Mobile paper of March 111 1865, shows that apples, in Confederate currency, were S6O and S7O a bushel ; bacon was $4 a pound, and butter $6 to $8; Shelby coal was S2OO a ton, and Confederate candles Avere $lO a pound ; cofffee was S6O a pound, and calico S2O a yard ; corn meal was sl2 a bushel, cowpeas Aver * sl6, Avhile flour ranged from $1.30 to $2 a pound, and wheat was S3O a bushel. Fresh beef was $2.50 a pound, and fresh pork $2; lard was $3.50 and talloAv $5. Quinine was S2OO an ounce, and morphine $350; onions were S7 ; O a bushel and Irish potatoes S9O ; while salt was $32 a bushel, and whisky was quoted at from $65 to $l5O a gallon, according to quality. Lieutenant Wissman’s report of his exploration of the Kasai River (in Central A frick) is decidedly interesting. 1$ is a noble Jftream, he says, “in some places 3,OCR) yards wide.” It flows into the Congo at a point nearly 400 miles below where Mr. Stanley supposed it did. His progress was repeatedly impeded by the “thousands of hippopotami bathing in the river bed.” At one time he sailed for twenty-four hours at a stretch between two howling mobs of cannibals thronging the river bank on either side. The women seemed even more ferocious than the men. Finally they pat off for him in canoes, beating their breasts and throwing spears. The flght lasted six hours, and hundreds of the natives, women as well as men, were killed before they .abandoned the attack. The entire region traversed, the lieutenant reports, is more thickly populated Ithan any other part of Africa, abounds in vast forests of India-rubber trees and is very rich in ivory.