The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1889-06-21
STRAY BITS.

American yellow pine is a great favorite
for wooden pavements in Berlin.
In England check reins are now entirely
out of use, being forbidden by law.
The dog tax of France gives the state an
annual revenue OF about 81 ,500,0 900.
Qulnlne is estimated to have added two
years at least to the life Of civilized man
John l.. Sullivan in ten years has boxed
before audiences that paid nearly s6OO,0 to
SEQ him.
The deepest coal pit in the world is said to
be the st. Andre, in the Charleroi, Belgium,
district
The Mormons of Utah and Idaho are emf
grating in large numbers to British North
America.
Florida has sl2,OO0OOO invested in the
orange business and the sales this year were
a fourth Of that big sum.
An Orlando Fla, policeman shot and
wounded dog, when the CANNES compan-
ion pitched into the officer and drove him to
flight
The roadway Of the recently completed
Washington bridge over Harlem river, New
York city, is 15l feet above the river level.
The total length Of the bridge and its ap-
proaches is 1880 feet.
Baron Liebig, the German chemist says
that "as much -four as can lie on the point of
a table knife contains as much nutritive con-
stituents as eight quarts of the best and most
nutritious beer that is maden
A fragment Of a meteor which recently fell
in Chicago was analysed and found to con-
tain 70 per cent. of iron, 81 of nickel, 2 of
manganese and small quantities of aluminium,
cobalt, tin, copper, arsenic, etc.
In consequence Of the decline in the supply
of gum arabic the postofilce department has
been Obliged to abandon its use as a sealer of
letter envelopes. In lieu of gum arabic
foul tasting compound has been substituted.
At the funeral of the late Mrs. Henry HofF-
man at Sassamansville, Berks county, Pa,
there were used up at the funeral feast 200
pies, seventy-fve loaves of bread, sixty dozen
rolls and cakes, n calf and a large quantity Of
ham.
The largest passenger terminus In London,
Liverpool street, is to be enlarged, at cost
for land alone Of s3,250O00. The extension
will enable the number of trains to be in
creased from the present figure, 700, to 1000
daily.
Fort Keogh, NJ. T., has the widest range of
temperature Of any place on earth. Last
summer the thermometer ranged from 100
degs. to 100 degs. above, while recently it
marked 65 degs. below zero-a total range of
105 degs.
The extraordinary growth of Volapuk in
popularity is evidenced by the fact that it's
adherents are now supporting thirty-two
monthly journals, while twice as many news
papers devote departments to the UNIVERSAL
tongue.
The fruit growers of California, finding
that peach stones make an excellent fuel are
now selling them at the rate of SO ton. A
sack Of stones will weigh about eighty pounds,
and is said to last as long an equal number
Of pounds of coal and give an even greater
heat.
Progress is again to be recorded in the mat
ter of powerful war ships The Italian iron
clad Ruggiero di Laurea, which has just been
tried for speed, reaching 17.6 knots, carries
four of the largest guns yet brought into
practice, ITO tons. Her sister ship Andrea
Doria, will soon be ready.
Henry Whitney, tramp, the top of whose
skull was lately knocked off by Nickel Plate
locomotive is lying in the Erie county aims
house with "naked BRAIN and may live
The denuded brain, the physical workings of
which can be plainly seen, is kept from ex-
posure by an artificial covering.
So widespread has inebriety become among
children in Austria that it is no strange thing
to see drunken boys and girls enter the
school houses. The evil has become so great
that the Vienna school board has invoked the
power of the government to prohibit the
sale of intoxicants to boys and girls under 10
years.
The average speed of rapid witness is
generally quoted at $50 words per minute
Most of the Irish witnesses in the Parnell
trial reached 200, and one woman attained
the speed of go Baron Douse, an Irish
Judge, is said to have delivered his opinion
In trial recently at the rate of 260 words
per minute.
The official figures of the United States
census in 1890 were 8, ,929, ,326 of which num-
ber 695, 655 were slaves. a short time after
these figures appeared Capt. G.. INLAY, Vir-
ginian, published an article in which he
placed the population in 1890 at q, 900, 900,
and was therefore supposed by his friends to
be visionary
1t is no longer from mining but from agri,
culture that California gathers wealth The
estimated value of her fruit crop in 1889 is
S240C0,0O0; that Of her wheat crop, s52, ,OOO,-
900. From barley she is expected to derive
a gross return Of $500, 900; from dairy prod
ucts and vegetables, s1l,250,O0O, and from
WINE, Sf,OOO,UOU.
Agame of poker lasting eighteen hours was
played in Glenwood Springs, Colo, the other
day. 1t began with an ante of $3.50, rising
gradually till several times there were from
$4,000 to $4,000 on the board at a time Al
the come in a pair of kings were once worth
over 81 100, One man made blind good OIL
pair of fours for $500.
Half a million dollars are TO be expended
| giving better terminal facilities to the New
| York end Of the East river bridge As New
York seems likely TO be disappointed in it.
demand for greater rapid transit facilities il
the direction of the upper end of the island
Brooklyn anticipates an immigration of ag
| grieved New Workers.
| Elastic side boots began about 1912 and th,
elastics were made in England. Boots anC
shoes were sewn up to the year 1890. Thel
nails were introduced. 1t was about tn
middle of the last century that high heels be
gan TO be worn. Makers of heels were ther
| introduced into the shoemaker's trade Ever
now there are 400 heel makers in Paris.