The morning news., 1892-03-17
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

IHk last census shows 3,7l5 towns in the
United States with population OF more than
1000. There are cities with more than 400 900
inhaoitants, q between 100000 and 10000; 80
between $1,000 and 100 600; 66 over %, 900 and
under $4,000; 90 over Is, 600 and under rs OoO and
lSS over 10000 and under 1900.
EXPERIMENTS in instantaneous photography
have proved TO us that the shots not only
spread out, comet-like as they fiy but thew
string out one behind the other to a much
greater distance than they spread Thus with
a cylinder gun, when the first shot of a charge
reaches target that is forty yards away, the
iast shot IS tagging along ten yards behind
wen ,,e Win the chokeoore gun some OF the shot
VIII lag behind eight yards in forty.
TIE pearl-hunters of Borneo and the adjacent
islands have a peculiar superstition. When
they open shells IN search of pearls thew take
every ninth find, whether it be large or ANAL
and put 1t into bottle which is kept corked
with dead mans finger. The pearls in the
phiai are known as seed pearls" or breeding
pearls, and the native Borneose firmly believes
that they will reproduce their kind For every
pearl put into the phial, two grains Of rice are
thrown IN for the pearls to feed" upon Some
whites IN Borneo believe as firmly IN the super
sIitlon as tho natives do, and almost every hut
along the coast has its dead finger" bottle
with from nine to fifty seed pearls and twice
that number OF rice grains carefully and evenly
" ssowea away among them; Prof. Kimmerly
says that nearly every burial place along the
coast has been desecrated by pearl breeders"
IN search Of corks for their bottles
DETAILS are given by the Bosnia papers of
the strange career of a woman named Mila.
who has been sentenced TO death by the district
court of Pazarevao, in Servia, says the London
Stdnddrd This woman has for ten years been
the terror OF Northeastern Servia. In 1881 a
prize of 200 ducats was offered for her capture.
Two years later 800 were offered, and In $50 the
promised reward was increased to !, 900 ducats
She had a band of devoted Haiducks with whom
she committed her rOhherfae ha
ABOUT otherwise than in mans dress with all
her weapons in her belt and rifle on her sbouI-
DER Young, handsome, and perfect marks
woman she was the beau ideal of her band
She had lover named Petrovitch who fell iii
some time ago aud whom she nursed with de-
votion In cave on the Roumanian frontier
her people told her in good time that she was
watched and must fly for safety bur she re-
FUSED TO abandon her sick lover. After the
battle with the gendarmes, two of whom she
Killed, she was captured. In the court she
spoke Tor over an hour In her defense and
when sentence was pronounced listened 10 it
with stolid indifference.
A ]. MERCER, living near Burden, Kan. has
patch Of corn which is the rarest ever grown
The patch is small, but the corn Is kind that
has never been seen In this country before
Last spring Mercer opened q mound on his
farm and In 1t found lot of corn along with
certain prehistoric relics, showing that the
corn had been put in there ages ago II was in
sealed jar and was about peck in quantity
He gave away about naIf of it 10 mis- neighbors
and others who heard of it and wanted a fsy
grains for curiosity; When planting time
came he thought it would be a good IDEA to
plant some OF it, and prepared a patch of
ground near his house and planted about two
quarts OF the seed, It came up aud
II. The ears came well. It has now been
harvested. The ears were about six inches
long and the grains were close together stand
ing up with sharp points. The grains are small,
nnn frlrNN u ofn
grain OF corn. Mercer thinks that this must
undoubtedly be the original corn of This conn
Try from which the present has sprung through
icng and hlgh cultivation. What is remarkable
about 1t Is that the mound from which il was
taken has every evidence of being very old. for
trees we're growing on 1t that could not he less
tnan goo years old The relics found with the
corn are similar TO those found in the mound nf
Illinois and Ohio, and this mound must have
been coexistent with those. which are believed
TO have been over 1000 years old Mercer has
sent samples of his corn to friends In she east
and TO the government officials at Washington
A. ]. sHIDDEL of 81 South Mil street, Lexsng-
ton, Ky, is strong believer in Darwin theory
respecting the evolution Of man and other ami
mels, and as soon as that great scientist heSan
to attract attention he began to st,ldv mn rha
new subject. In 1874 Mr.. Shidden In order "a
test Darwin's theory Of ''iike producing like -
produced pair Of white mice These species
Of mice, Mr.. Shiddell says produced every
thirty days, and from six to twelve each time
He has calculated that one pair will in thirteen
months produce 800, 900 Of mice If mona die
or are destroyed. The pair Mr. Shidden pro
cured produced at first ten young With a Dajr
OF scissors he cut the tails of all the young
and bred again from the latter. This second
produce he also detailed, and so on
with each succeeding generation, the tails
growing shorter until only stub renamed in
the seventh generation. By the time the tenth
generation was reached the tails had all disap-
peared, and he had large number of mice
without even the suggestion of caudaI snnend-
age. Mr.. Shiddell says he killed all the weax
hngs in each generation and bred only from the
best specimens. In this way all disease was ex-
terminated and the mice got 60 be double the
size OF the original pair. From this he argues
that the human race can be rid of disease and
made stronger by judicious mating He in
stanced the good results and greater beauty aud
strength shown by carefully selected and bred
horses, cattle, sheep, dogs and chickens all of
which are well known. Mr. Shiddell saws the
same care and selection will produce
like results throughout the entire do
main of animal life. He fnstanced
all of which have their fountain head in tbs
gallus bauklva, or wild jungle fowl of India a
fowl identically like a red game bantam excent
that it has very small comb and no watties
New breeds were made by the mating birds
with like pecuiarities, and the same continued
until these pecul arities we're intensified and
fixed permanently. Mr.. Shiddell continued his
experiments to the ninety-sixth generation.
covering a period of eight years, by which
time he had bred the tails back on again. the
last generation having tails like the first pair
White mice, Mr. Shiddell says, commence pro-
duclng at 80 days OF age, and he thinks if there
were no cats or other animals to prey on them
in few years they would devour the human
race and all the crops in the world
.--------.--..--------.----------z