Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1893 — SOMEWHAT CURIOUS. [ARTICLE]

SOMEWHAT CURIOUS.

The salaries paid to persons in the civil service of the United States -amount to 190,000,000 annually. This ’amount pays~tfie wages 67180,00(1 persons. The average is SSOO per year. The largest petrified snake claimed to have been unearthed some time ago in Colorado turns out to be a fossilized palm tree, which grew in that State before the climate had changed. It has been estimated that a bell of common size, whose sounds would penetrates distance of three to five miles on shore, could, if submerged in the sea, be beard over sixty’miles. Since work has commenced on the World’s, Fair grounds, in Chicago, ten men have been killed outright, eight have died from wounds received while in service and 610 have been injured. Diamonds so small that 1,500 of them weigh but a carat have been cut in Holland. The artificial stones recently produced in England by an electrical process are also about this size. In the Yosemite valley the “Father of the Forest,” a fallen tree 300 feet long and several centuries old, has been hollowed out so that for a distance of sixty yards a"man can walk upright inside it. All the courting is done by the woman in the Ukraine, Russia. When a woman discovers a man she would like to marry, she visits him at his house and tries to charm him If he does not like her lie leaves her, and lives elsewhere until she deserts ‘his home.

The Cave of the Winds, right under the falls of Niagara, is a truly wonderful spot. Wild and weird sounds re-echo from rock to rock, terrific gusts of wind swirl through the narrow openings, and ever and anon one is almost blinded by the driven spray. Nine ty-1 wo thou sand el ectric lamps will be needed to illuminate the Chicago exhibition. .The. contractors expect that something like 12,000,000 feet of insulated wire will be needed to effect the distribution of the current. This will keep the manufacturers busy. The most curious palace in the world is the Alhambth, in Spain. It was originally a fortress, so great in extent as to be capable of holding 40,000 men. It was begun in 1248 and finished in 1314. It contains numerous halls and courts, all decorated in the highest style of Moorish art. —__ -' . • . The complete statistics show that the production of beet sugar in the United States has more than doubled during the past year, although there has been no increase in the number of factories. The total production of the six factories was 27,083,322 pounds, against a total of 12,004,838 pounds last year. Experiments in growing sugar beets have been tried in a number of the Western States, and the success has been so great that the number of factories will be increased.