The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-11-06
TIMELY TOPICS.

Charles Ar Shove, Chinaman, be-
came tea merchant in Boston thirty
years ago. married an American wife.
grew wealthy, and mixed in cultivated
society. Lately he visited his native
land, and, on returning. says to The Bos-
ton Herald: Every thing in China
seemed almost'as strange to me rs it did
to me when first came to Boston," He
found few social changes, however.
Individual taste, if il leads to devia-
tion from the set forms of society, is
frowned down, and, SO long as this feel
ing is prevalent in China, its people are
slaves to custom, opinion and usage"
With a propitious season next years
wheat crop in the United States will be
a gigantic one. The crops this year and
last have been immense, but the high
prices that have ruled recently have en-
couraged the wheat raisers to largely in
crease their acreage for next year. In
Illinois and Indiana the increase is from
fifty to one hundred per cent, and that
too when Indiana's crop this year was
larger than that of any other State. The
season has been very favorable for seed
ing, and the Western farmers have i'm
proved it, and mean next year to be able
literally to supply the whole world with
bread.
DR.. Fisher, of the imperial German
postoffice, has Just published pamphlet
showing the comparative postal and
telegraph statistics. The letter post of
the whole world for 1873 amounted in
round numbers to 100000 900 letters,
or about 9,250,OOO daily; and the num-
bers have been increasing daily at an
astonishing rate. Thus in Japan the
number of postoffices in 1872 were 1,l59,
and in 1876 it had risen to 3,549. The
number of separate articles which pass
ed through the Japanese post in 1878
was AZ, ,OO0, 900, of which 25, 900, 900 were
letters, 100000 post cards, 9,500,O00
newspapers. Post cards were first
| brought into use only in 1865, and now
they are employed in almost every coun-
try of the world. The parcels post has,
however, not yet got beyond the first
stage of its development. The number
of telegraphic dispatches sent in 1877
amounted for the whole globe to nearly
l30. 100000, on an average of 1853, 900
daily.
A singular fact has been recently re-
ported of the people of the little visited
country of AMMAN, an Independent
though tributary state on the south of
China. The natives of the country of
pure descent have the great toes of each
foot separated from the others like the
thumb on the hand, and can and do use
their toes in much the same manner that
the thumbs are used, though, of course,
to much less extent. In the vicinity
of the seaport of Sargon, where foreign
intercourse has produced an admixture
of races, this typical characteristic of the
Annamese is gradually passing away
but in the northern sectic ms of the king
dom, where the race has remained dis
tinct, it is rarely the case that Il child is
born without flexible toes. That this
popularity is of great antiquity is shown
by the fact that in the Chinese annals OF
the year 2300 B. c.. there is a description
given of the barbarian tribes that were
then to be found upon the borders of
the Chinese empire, and among these one
tribe or race is mentioned as having this
peculiar formation of the big toe.
They have no civil damage act in Ger
many, but even there the necessity OF
some restriction upon the sale of alco-
holic liquorssto such as have not sufli .
cient discretion 10 use them properly
appears to be conceded. In various dis
tricts, by authority of general instruc-
tions proceeding from the government,
the police have prohibited tavern keep
ers from selling or otherwise furnishing
to minors under the age of sixteen, APP
prentices or persons mentally deranged
or weak, any distilled spirituous liquors
of whatever description, and similar
prohibition will apply to sales to con-
tirmed drunkards, whenever the names
of these latter have been given to the
liquor venders with proper caution
Disobedience of these orders will be
punishable by fine and imprisonment
but they are not intended TO apply to the
sale of beer, the consumption of which
has never been found to cause injury to
anybody. The police orders are to b(
posted in a prominent place in every
tavern. This news must make German
liquor sellers in America feel less perse
cuted and forlorn.