The Negro world., 1892-09-03
OF GENERAL INTEREST.


every four persons.
-Housek ,epers know "boneless cod
fish, and now member of the United
States fish commission announces that
the boneless shad is in process of evo-
tuition and well advanced toward CON-
pletion. He does not lose his bones in
the same way as the cod, to-wit, after
death, but by careful breeding and cross
ing.
The largest pumping engine ever
made in this country has just been
,Jgaced at the Philadelphia waterworlxs-
Ii weighs nine hundred and fifty thou
sand pounds. is thirty-hve feet high,
and occupies a floor space of thirty by
forty feet Twenty million gallons of
water are pumped every twenty-four
hours.
-Philadelphia has six day nurseries
where working women with children
ranging from three months to eight
years of age can leave them from $50
in the morning until $3.50 at night
Three meals and ample amusements
are given, costing the mother six cents
day. These institutions are support
ed by voluntary contributions. Other
cities have them on much the same
plan.
The Washington state building at
the worlds fair will show TO some ex-
tent the forest resources of the state.
The foundation alone will contain III
logs, some Of them 100 feet long and 4S
inches in diameter at the small end.
The superstructure of the building will
contain, besides heavy timber, fine fin
ished woods, showing the grain and
structure of the woods, and a complete
exhibit of shipbuilding material
Taking the length of the permanent
ways on the surface of the globe at
nearly sixty thousand geographical
miles, with a daily average of ten
trains, it is estimated that the total loss
by wear and tear suffered each day by
the metallic rails of the earth is about
six hundred tons. The six hundred
tons are lost in the form of a fine pow
der, and are carried back TO the earth
in the shape of soluble iron salts.
-Director-General Davis has asked
the state department at Washington to
make public the following ruling re-
gardng the placarding OF goods at the
exposition: Foreign exhibitors in the
Worlds Columbian exposition will be
permitted TO state upon placards at
tached to their exhibits the prices at
which said products will be sold at the
place of manufacture. and also the
prices in bond and out of bond, or ex-
elusive and inclusive of the customs
duties in Chicago"
The disappearance of the Jim Fisk
restaurant recalls TO an old New York
er that there were as cheap restaurants
in New York forty years ago as now.
In the fifties there was famous cheap
restaurant on Chatham square Here
one could buy for 81 cents good slice
of beef with potatoes and tnrnips- For
6k cents more he could have plum pud-
ding with rich sauce. Thus one OBJ
tanned for 12X cents, the old York shil-
ling, wholesome and satisfying meal,
and not always in bad company.
"A late census bulletin states that
there are about 800, 00J more males
than females in the sixty-two and half
millions of population. In the New
England and Middle states there are
As, 600 more females than males. In the
south middle section, including the dis
trict, the females outnumber the males
by some 10000. While in the northern
central section of the country, as far
west as Nebraska, the males are in the
majority by over 500. 900, in the south
central portion this excess reaches only
about 200. 900. In the western section
of the country the predominance of the
males is shown by a majority of over
500. .0O0
Edwin Ellis, some of whose famous
Southdown sheep are to be exhibited
in this country at the coming worlds
fair, is not only great landowner and
an energetic business man, but also a
philanthropist. He has built near his
home in Surrey, England, an expert
mental row of neat cottages for his
tenants, an ideal schoolhouse, and a
club house for the people. and his
daughter has a wood-carving class
among the tenants The club house
has provision for billiards and other
games, prettily decorated social hall
capable of seating five hundred per-
sons, and a library of eight hundred
or more volumes, with numerous peri
odicals-
On the western prairie is found
what is called the compass plant, which
is of great value to travellers. The long
leaves at the base of it's stem are placed,
not Hat, as IN plants generally, but in a
vertically position, and present their
edges north aud south. The peculiar
propensity of the plant Is attributed to
the fact that both surfaces of its leaves
display an equal receptivity for light
(whereas the upper surfaces of the
leaves of most plants are more sensitive
to light than the lower); the leaves thus
assume a vertical position. and point
north and south. Travellers on dark
nights are said to feel the edges of the
leaves to ascertain the point of the COM
pass
A witness in a case recently on trial
in one of the courts in Boston testified
that the defendant was not a drinking
man 'and only took cocktails" Judge
Blank, who presided, is teetotaler.
He noticed among the spectators a we'll
known physician, bon vivant. and at
the recess called him up to the bench
and asked him 10 define cocktail "A
cocktail" responded the doctor. 'is
feather dipped in an emollient which is
applied to dry or irritated throat for
the removal of dryness or irritation"
The learned Judge thanked him, but
the story that the court subsequently
dipped feather in vaseline and touched
hfs rai.ta with II uneler the innrasSi.,,,