The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-01-10
OUT OF THE ORDINARY.


A debt of cents which hiss been owed by
o philadelphia woman for forty years has
just been paid.
The metal in q fve-cent nickel piece is
worth about half . cent. and Is cents will
purchase copper enough to make two dol
lars worth of cents.
A hundred and twenty-seven years ago
England seized the first eight bales of cot
ton raised in the South and declared Its
production should cease.
Fathom IL from the old Aryan root fat. 70
extend. and denotes the distance from tip
to tip when the arms of an average-sized
man are fully extended.
Quill toothpicks came fret of all from
France. The largest factory in the world
Is near Paris. where there is an annual
product of twenty million quilts
There are 169 confederate battle flags in
the collection of war relics ss Washington.
Of these. twenty-eight separate regimental
colors were captured after Picketts charge
ct Gettysburg.
In olden times, when every part of the
body had lite price. the beard was valued at
20 shlllings-a large sum for the time
while the loss Of leg WAS only estimated
&C ~ shiIlingA
"A peculiar mineral hss been found in
Montana. When taken from the ground 1t
has much the appearance of iron-ore. but
upon beirR exposed to the air it takes fire
and consumes itself.
The Japanese believe in serpents eight
hundred feet long and large enough 20
swaiiow an elephant; foxes with eight
ten heads attached to one body, the flesh OF
which 10 cure for boils.
At q recent family reunion in Missouri
two unusually fat babies were proudly ex-
hibited by their fond parents. The oldest,
aged i've years; weighs 10! pounds. and the
youngest. aged two and one-half years.
weighs ninety-three pounda
A recent English invention 10 q buoy
ant llfe-saving seat for ships. 1t is in
tended for a deck seat. the upper and
lower parts being made of buoy ant mate
rial, 80 that IL thrown into the water, the
apparatus will support several people COM
fortably.
A remarkable family of eight old women
10 living In the same house at Vexo.
Sweden. Three are widows and five
are old MAZDA Their ages aggregate with
in year or two of seven hundred years,
each OF the women being nearly ninety
years of age.
A clothing company of Taunton, Mass.
has received an order for o pair of trowsers
71lA inches waist, 20 inside seam. thigh "a.
knee, 81. bottom "a, for man who weighs
600 and he Is only twenty years old at that
1t will take three yards double width cloth
to do the work.
chamois. as many people suppose. but are
the flesh sides of sheep-skins. The skins
are soaked in lime water and in q solution
OF sulphuric acid, fish oil is poured over
them and they are carefully washed in
solution Of potash.
The Manx cat 10 not the only tailless va
riety. In the Crimea Is found another kind
of cat which has no tail. The domesticated
Malay cat has tail that 10 only about one
half the usual length. and very often it Is
tied by nature In q sort of knot which can
not be Strengthened out
To distinguish eenuine butter from
oleomargarine the following test is recon-
mended: Draw knife through o piece of
the questioned butter and separate the
parts thus divided. If IL ever saw the in
dations in the track of the knife.
The rspidity with which insects travel
is astonishing. The common house-fly
makes SIX hundred strokes per second w hen
in the act of ordinary flight. that number
OF strokes causing an advance movement
say that this can be increased seven-fold.
If o well could be dug to the depth of
forty six miles the density of the air at the
bottom would be as great az that of quick
silver. By the same law q cubic inch of
air taken four thousand miles above the
to fill sphere 1000. OO0, 900 miles in diane
ter.
In the group Of the great rivers the st.
Lawrence is the most remarkable. 1t con-
stitutes by far the largest body of fresh
water in the world. Including lakes and
streams. the st. Lawrence covers about
$4,000 square miles; the aggregate. il Is esti-
mated. represents not less than nine thou
sand solid miles of water.
In Dikoa, in Ademouah. in Logone and
elsew here. small cotton strips are the regu-
lar currency. In Bagirari these strips are
so small that from 20 to $50 of them wouId
have to be pieced together to make shirt.
In Darfoor, the gray, coarse shirting cir
culates as money. and In Tout, in Upper
Egypt, this material 10 dyed dark or blue,
and then cut into pieces of three yards
length.
A father will cell his daughter amonRs
Unyamwazi. Africa for one up to ten cows.
A Lomall asks of o poor wooer from ten TO
twenty horses. of q wealthy one from one
hundred upward. together with fifty cam
els and three hundred sheep. On the other
hand. in Uganda. four oxen are sufficient
to buy the most perfectly formed village
belle, provided six needles and box of
cartridges are thrown in.
The late Colonel Burnaby says that when
q Turcoman belle 10 TO be settled in life the
whole tribe turns out. and the young lady,
beng allowed the choice of horses, gallops
away from her suitors. She avoids those
she dislikes and seeks to throw herself in
the way of the object of her affections. The
moment she 10 caught she becomes the wife
OF her captor who, dispensing with further