Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-03-20
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.

AOAO u VAo ILL OOA1AVOOe
TIE long Arctic night is of las days
duration. What q gloomy idea
The last census in this country gave
as relative numbers 983 women to every
1000 men.
A HEALTHY man requires about pint
Of air at breath. He breathes about
1000 times an hour and requires about
ffty-seven hogsheads of air every TWEEN
ty-four hours.
ONE of the modes of punishment in
China is to compel criminal to die of
sleeplessness, by keeping him awake
week; night and day. Ten days is sure
to prove fatal and is terrible agony for
the victim.
HE stages and theaters of the Greeks
and Ecnans were so immense that the
actors, to be heard, were obliged to have
recourse to metallic masks, contrived
with great mouths, to augment the natu-
raj sound of the voice.
IF train of cars should start to-day
and travel toward the sun at the rate Of
sixty miles an hour, and twenty-four
hours day, and 365 days in year, it
would take more than 40 years to reach
the sun. And the sun is our next-door
neighbOr; and our solar system is
little fake of light On the borders Of in
fnity.
In the manufacture of altar of roses at
Gharapore, Hindoostan, the petals of
the flowers are put into clay stills, with
twice their weight of water, and the
produce exposed to the fresh air for
night in open vessels. The altar is
SKINNED from the exposed pans, and
sells at a10 the rupee weight, to make
which 90, 600 roses are required. 1t is
frequently adulterated with sandal-wood
oil.
In the crypt Of the Capucin Church,
Vienna, are buried the dead of the house
of Hapsburg. There are more than
eighty sarcophagi, among them those
of the Emperor Matthias Corvinus, who
died two years before the discovery Of
America; Macmillan, Emperor of Mex
leo; Napoleon IL, and Joseph T. whose
coffin is made OF solid silver. Here also
are the remains Of Francis L., whose
wife, the heroic Maria Theresa, is said
to have visited his tomb daily for thir-
teen years, until she died and was laid
beside him. As a precaution against
premature resurrection, the hearts and
intestines Of the royal corpses are re-
moved and buried far away rom the
Capucin Church.
The Mound Builders were race OF
people very different in their habits and
modes Of life from the Indians who oc-
cupied all the country at the time of the
advent of the whites. They are now re-
garded as a distinct and extinct race.
OF their history very little is known. ex-
cept what can be gathered from the
mounds and walls which they built :
most of these are made Of earth or gravel.
They are usually found overgrown by
living and decaying trees, from which
we have the proof that they have been
abandoned at least 1000 years. We
have proof also that the Mound Builders
worked the copper mines of Lake Su-
perior, lead mines near Lexington, Ky.
and oil wells in Canada and Pennsyl-
vania. The remains of the Mound
Builders are spread over vast extent of
country. They arc found in the sources
Of the Allegheny, in the western parts
of the State of New York, and in nearly
all CT the Western States, including
Michigan and Iowa. They line the
shores of the Gulf of Mexico from Texas
to Florida, whence they extend through
Alabama and Georgia into South Caro-
lima. From all the facts known little
moro can be said than this: That the
valley OF the Mississippi and Atlantic
coast were once densely populated by
sedentary, agricultural and partially
civilized race, quite different from the
modern Indians, though possibly the
progenitors of some of the Indian tribes
that after many centuries Of occupation;
they disappeared from our country at
least 1000, perhaps many thousands, Of
years before the advent &c the Euro
peans.