Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-09-19
CURIOUS FACTS.

Some insects are in state of maturity
thirty minutes after birth.
The musk of Indian corn is being uscl
for the manufacture of paper.
A Chinese newspaper published in San
Francisco has been sued for libel by an
Indian.
The Columbian River is SO clear at
low water that salmon fishing can only be
successfully conducted at night.
A new mineral has been discovered in
Texas which is said to be seven times
stronger than any other whea made into
wire.
The largest watermelon reported this
season weighed sixty-two pounds, and
was grown near London, Rus& County,
Texas.
In the Philippine Islands canary seed
is ground and made into most palstable
bread which is in common use among the
people there.
People in Japan are called by the fam
lily name first, the individual, or what We
should call Christian, name next, and
hen the honorifc--thus, Smith Peter
Mr."
Probably the rarest stamp in existence
has been sold in London for $50 pounds
sterling. 1t is an American fve-cent
stamp, issued at Brattlcboro, Vt, in
1910.
Lizzie Arnold, of Fenton, Mich,
weighs only eighteen pounds, aud is
twenty seven years of age. She has re-
ceived oyertures from circus managers,
but her parents prefer to keep her at
home.
Wheat is brought from Chicago to
Buffalo, 800 miles, by water, or 500
miles in an air line, for one per cent. per
bushel, and the lighter grains at proper
tionally lower rates.
A statistican has computed that a man
might add $500 to his income by saving
the clippings of his hair every time it is
cut aud having it manufactured into soft
pillows, mattresses, etc, No hair is SO
softas that of human beings
DIR. George H. Cramer, in his descrip-
ton of the Tabasco coal forests, in
Southern Mexico, speaks of district
where an intoxicating liquor can be man
ufactured from palm juice in few hours
at an average cost of ten cents gallon.
The Dolcoath mine in Cornwall, Eng
land, one of the most famous and most
important tin mines in the world, has
been opened to a depth of 2472 feet, and
the main shaft is now being sunk deeper.
At the bottom the temperature is nearly
ninety degrees Fahrenheit.
/ OF the entire human race, 500, 900, 900
are well clothed, that is, they wear gar
ments of some kind; $50, 900, 900 ha-
bitually go naked, and 700, 900, 900 only
cover psrts of the body; 500, 900, 900
live in houses, 700, 900, 900 in huts aud
caves, aud $50, 000,0 900 virtually have
no shelter.
1t was during the three hundred years
between the Norman Conquest and the
death of Edward III. that some twelve
/ hundred monasteries were founded in
England. In the twelfth century it was
as munh the fashion to found a religious
house and endow 1t with paro chial tihes
IS in tho sixteenth it was to found
grammar school.
Tho ancient Firms believed that a mys-
icbiPl laid an egg on the lap of Val
maiRou, who Matched it in his bsom. He
let If fall into the water aud it broke, the
lower portion of the she'll forming the
earth, the upper the sky; the liquid
white became the sun, and the yelk the
moon, while the little fragments of
broken shell were transformed into stars.
The mummiiied corpse of some old vik-
ing who departed this life perhaps a
thousand years ago was dug up recently
in peat bog at Holstebro, Denmark. 1.
was sewed in a deerskin, with sinews,
very neatly. What there was of the old
pagan was well preserved. He seemed,
however, to have lost part of his anatomy,
particularly his nose and part of his
skull, in fight, as vikings were apt to
do, seeing that their life was one long
battle. Such as he is, he will have the
place of honor in the royal museum, that
boasts of few such relics.