The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-10-01


THE largest diamond in the world is
soon to be cut at Amsterdam, where n
special workshop is being constructed.
This gem is South African, and weighs
AIS carats, thus being 1875 carats
heavier than the Grand Mogul" be-
longing to the Shah of Persia, and
hitherto the biggest diamond known.
Coal is said to be an almost unknown
luxury to the Chinese of San Francis
co. Their mode of cooking is to have
tan empty oil can serve as O stove, upon
which they place their teakettle or a
cooking pan. They start fire with
two or three small sticks of wood,
which they add to as they bum, and in
this way manage to establish good
degree of heat with but small expend-
iture of fuel.
SHAKESPEARE uses more different
words than any other writer in the En-
glsh language. Writers on the statis-
tics of words inform us that he uses
about $4,000 different words in his
plays and sonnets, while there is no
other writer who uses as many as TO-
900. Some few writer's use 5000 words,
but the majority of writer's do not en-
ploy more than 5000. In CONVERSE
ton, only from 5000 to 5000 different
words are used.
AMERICANS are the third highest in
point of number of the foreigners re-
siding i'll Japan, according to statistics
published IN native paper. The
Chinese stand at the head of the list
with 2,47l residents, followed by the
boring 1877 Although the Americans
are far less numerous there than the
Chinese or English, they occupy more
houses in proportion to their number
than either.
AN interesting estimate of the amount
in weight of one inch of rainfall on one
acre of ground is thus given An acre
or ground contains 6,272,6 inches
square. Rain one inch deep would
give that many square inches; 72o
cubic inches make one cubic foot.
Rain one inch would give $3.50 cubic
feet. A cubic foot of water weighs
62t pounds; 1000 make q ton. This
will give 226,S pounds, or lib tons
and o75 pounds, to the acre, of rain one
inch deep.
PROF. DOUGLAS, after many years OF
research, says China has no such tenn
ing millions as are usually credited to
her. Two hundred and fifty millions
he thinks about the right estimate.
Many of the hill people of China at the
present day, he also tells us, are not
Chinese at all. The Chinese civiliza-
ton and culture are not purely of ma
tive growth; their elements were
brought from Western Asia, perhaps
from the neighborhood of the Aral, by
the Chinese ere they set out for China.
THE pre-eminent ear plug of to-day
is described by the British Medical
Journal as consisting of "a little con-
ical cap of vulcanite, made of flesh
colored material, so that, under ordi-
nary circumstances, it is scarcely no.
ticed." 1t is mentioned as protection
against both wind and noise, and is
recommended to iron workers, blasters,
and artillerymen. But its value as
protection against bad music and bores
seems to have been overlooked.
In regard to the operation for divid-
ing certain fibrous bands in the little
finger so as TO give pianists more free
dom in the use of it, the British Medi-
cal Journal says that in the fourteen
cases of DIR. Forbes, of Philadelphia.
good functional results have been OBJ
tanned, but it suggests that "the effort
necessary to stretch any fibrous band
existing between the fingers is itself
useful as tending to stretch all the
muscles attached to them"
A QUEER way of employing ants is
reported by an English gentleman who
has been travelling through one of the
provinces of China It appears that,
in many parts of the province of Can
ton, the orange trees are infested by
worms: and to rid themselves of these
pests, the natives bring ants into the
orangeries from neighboring hills. The
ants are trapped by holding the mouth
of lard bladder to their nests. They
are then placed among the branches of
the orange trees, where they form colo
MES, and bamboo rods are laid from