Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1873-06-14
CURRENT ITEMS.
Thin men are the greatest eaters.


1872, 800, 600 francs.
The balance of trade against the
/ United States in 1872 was, in round
numbers, $11S, 100000.
The Tower of Babel was seven miles
high. One million workmen were en-
gagged twelve years i'll building it.
The Geneva Arbitration cost the
United States Just $l44,0O0, and
brought in ST., 100000. Not bad in
vestment.
MURDERERs have had a run of very
bad luck in California. Mortimer is
the fifth criminal who has suffered the
penalty of death within few weeks,
and as many more are under sentence of
death.
Lone BRANCH is gradually being
swallowed up by the sea. Ten or tif-
teen feet more of the bluff went last
winter. At this rate it will not take
many more seasons to reach the hotels
and villas.
GREAT BRITAIN depends for one hun
dred million dollars of her State income
on the consumption of Intoxicating
liquors. The large surplus of some
twenty-five million dollars which the
Government has this year is called by
the Examiner the sots' surplus The
entire British revenue for the past year
has been 1888, $500
THERE is a good deal of bitterness h.
tween Paris and the provinces of
France. In the attempt to fix an in
demnity for war sufferings, it was first
proposed to give Paris 100000, 900 and
the provinces l0O, 900, but the pro-
vincial indemnity was finally made 120,-
600. 900. 1t was in some of the provin-
cial towns and villages that by far the
worst ruin of the war fell.
PRESIDENT GRANT, if man of ortli-
nary sensibilities, will find feeling of
awful loneliness creeping over him when
he takes his next ride over the Union
Pacific railroad He will find himself
the only dead-head on the line, the com
pany having recently announced thst the
free pass system has been abolished,
except in the case of the President of
the United States.
THE Emperor of Japan has issued an
edict requiring all officers in the Impc-
rial Government service to wear foreign
clothes. A book has been published
showing by diagrams and descriptions
the cut, quality, and ornamentation of
the various uniforms marking the diff
ferent official grades. AT ordinary re-
ceptions the usual European and Ameri-
can evening dress is to be worn in Ja-
pan.
In Paris, the height OF buildings is
determined by law according to the
width of the streets. Thus the build
ings cannot exceed thirty-eight feet in
height in streets less than twcnty-six
feet wide forty-eight feet i'll streets
from twenty-six to thirty-two feet in
width. For boulevards and streets ex-
ceeding sixty-fve feet in width, the mu-
nicipal authorities have the power to
permit the height to be carried to
maximum of sixty-tive feet, provided
that in no case the building shall have
more than five stories.
Mr.. KRUPP, the German manufac-
turer whose name is now almost as wide
| ly known as that of Count Moltkc, sup
plements his own personal labors with
those of learned men in every branch of
his vast business. His overseers are
practical mechanics, and graduates from
the polytechnic schools of Germany. At
his laboratory are several chemists, one
of whom is one of the most celebrated
analytical chemists in Europe. He also
retains a doctor of laws, who is con-
stantly engaged with the settlement of
contracts and disputed questions of law;
and there are several interpreters in
different languages to converse with the
many foreigners who call at his office
GEORGE SMITH, of London, in his dig
gings into the ancient city of Nineveh,
has unearthcd the recently missing frag-
ments of the old Assyrian record of the
Deluge and, better still, he has found
a library in stone of an Assyrian king.
Thus, after the lapse of thousands of
years, the secrets of the mighty nations
and peoples of the past are coming to
light-as, for instance, in the late dis
coveries in Jerusalem and Cyprus, and
in the buried ruins of the Temple of
Diana and ancient Troy, and now in
these Assyrian treasures. Best of all,
that solid old book the Bible comes ont
of all these tests like gold from the
crucible.
ORIGIN OF POSTAL CARDS. The origin
of postal cards dates from the Franco
Prussian war. The difficulty of soldiers
in securing pens and paper upon which
to write home induced the German au-
thorities to issue bits of pasteboard to
the soldiers for this purpose, and they
were largely availed of, the messages
beinp written in pencil Tbeir usa wac