The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-05-29
STRAY BITS.

Over one hundred colored men now con-
troI newspapers in the United States.
Lacquer is made from the juice of tree
the KLus Vernici fera-Which grows lux.
uriantly in Japan
The Oldest college dormitory in the United
States is that known as south middle at
Yale. 1t was erected in 1852.
The Russian crown and other ornaments
known as 1.-The crown Jewels" are valued
at 81, 100000. The crown itself is worth
SC, 100000.
The government telegraph service of
Great Britain transmits, it is said, on the
average 1,538,270 words a day to newspa-
pers alone
A cedar stump on a farm in Oregon
measures twenty feet in diameter. A pho
tograph was taken of it showing thirty
men and five horses standing on the top.
The directors of the Provincial Bank Of
ireland have issued a decree that no clerk
in their employ receiving less than ESQ a
year shall be allowed to marry. A similar
rule is in force in some of the principal
London banks.
A mineral oil of beautiful pink color
has been discovered near Bowling Green,
Ky. The oil is odOrless when cold, but
when heated it emits an odor not unlike
that of altar of roses. 1t burns slowly, with
q rose colored fame.
The cane recently presented to President
Harrison by Col. A. L. Snowden, minister
to Greece, was made from the oaken yoke
that held the bell on Independence hall in
1776. The gold cap on the end of the stick
is inscribed with a brief history, of it.
A share company, with a considerable
working capital, has been foated in Eng
land to work patent for what is called
the sterilization" of milk-that is, the
destruction of the bacteria, through which
certain diseases, notably typhoid fever, are
spread.
The biggest edible oysters in the world
are found at Port Lincoln, in South Aus
tralia. They are sometimes more than a
foot across the shell, and the oyster fits the
shell so well he does not leave much mar
gin. 1t is also said that their flavor and
delicacy are proverbiaL.
A new Atlantic cable is spoken of, to ex-
tend from Claw Bay, in Ireland, to Greenly
Island, in the straits of Belle Isle. The
comparative shortness of the cable, 300
1niles-is used as an argument in favor Of
the scheme, although longer telegraph lines
will be required than for any of the Eng
lsh-American cables.
Opticians and oculists say that belfry
and steeple clocks are absolutely useless to
at least a third of those for whose benefit
they are set up. In many instances such
defect of the eyes is unsupported in chill
dren, and probably hundreds Of children
earn at school reputation for stupidity
when not the intellect but the eye is at
FAULT.
A New York canoeist recently started on
the longest canoe voyage ever undertaken.
He set out from the Statue of Liberty, in
New York harbor, and will end his voyage,
after 1000 miles of padding, at the mouth
of the Columbia river, Fort Candy, Wash.
He carries with him bottle of water from
the Atlantic ocean, which he will empty
into the Pacific in October next.
The Rev. J. W Sproull, of Pittsburg,
who is in Egypt, writes of the great Mos
lem university at Cairo, founded in 975,
which, with its 10000 pupils and $40 pro-
fessors, is said to be the largest in the
world. The pupils have no benches or
chairs, but study, eat and sleep on blan-
ket or straw mat The Koran is the only
book used for grammar, law, philosophy
and theology. The professors receive no
salary, but are supported by private in
struction, by copying books and by presents
from rich scholars.