Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1893-07-07
MATTERS OF:iNTEREST.

The mosaic copies intlle Vatican o
large pictures by Raphael, Domen
ichlno and others occupied from
twelve to twenty-five years to execute
and required from $4,000 to 2O,OO(
different shades of color.
paste diamonds. are artificial
diamonds made of -,ahat it known as
" French PASTE" mixture of glas.
and oxide OF lead. Real diamonds are
very successfully initiated by the use
OF this material.
The materials of the sculptor com.
prise almost every substance capable
OF being carved, cast or nodded. For
carving, marble, alabaster, bone, ivory
granite, basalt and porphyry have all
been used from time immemor.al.
In the Roman Campagna at the
sepulcher of Metalla, wife of Sulla,
there is an echo that repeats five
times, each being in different key.
1t will also repeat a hexameter line or
another sentence that can be spoken
in two and a-half seconds.
Many good book has been written
In prison. Socrates, Cervantes, Bun
yam, Defoe, Lovelace, Tasso, Beranger,
Raleigh, George Wither and James
Montgomery all continued their liter.
ary labors while suffering from cur.
tailment of liberty.
There are no native kangaroos ex-
cept on the continent of Australia.
That country has about 100000
of them. Over 100000 skins are
shipped to the United Slaies for use
in bootmaking. Each skin will make
about four pairs of ordinary sized
shoes.
Aluminium ia to be used wherever
practicable in the accouterments,
arms and equipments Of the German
army. By its use the weight carried
by infantry soldiers will be a trifle
over tifty-seven pounds, where now it
is slightly more than sixty.eight and a
half pounds.
A farmers taxes in Turkey are
classified thus: Q) One-tenth of all
crops and fruits; (2) 4 per cent Of the
renting value of house and lands; (3)
3 per cent on every trausfer; (4) an
annual tax of 80 pence on every sheen
and 81 pence on every goat. The
taxes are vigorously collected.
The most extensive and celebrated
salt mine in the world is at Wieliezki
nine miles from Cracow, in Galicia, q
province of Austria Hungary. 1t has
been worked continuously for GOO
years. The mass Of salt is calculated
to be 500 miles long. twenty miles
broad and 1.2OO feet thick.
The ant has brain larger in pro-
portion to the size of its body than
any other known being. Writers on
that branch OF Chronology declare tha,
ants are not only endowed with q
high quality of instinct, but that they
display reasoning ability and good
judgment, as we'll as powers of reflec'
ton and calculation.
Rembrant was the founder OF the
Dutch school. He opposed the ideal
in painting and deliberately began the
representation Of nature. The models
he selected were generally ugly, pur
posely chosen, it is said, to show wha,
difficulties he could overcome, but hi
effects of light and shade have never
been surpassed.
The largest use OF plscards on record
was prior to the Paris election in
1889. Gen. Boulanger had 15,OO(
bill-stickers, who put up $4,000 daily
in all 100000. In some places, when
they were torn down after the elec
ton, there were found sixty layers o.
bills alternating with those of Boulan.
gers rival.
An elephant gives perhaps the bes,
instance of disciplined courage to bt
seen in the animal world. They will
submit day after day to have painful
wounds dressed, in obedience to orders
though their intelligence is sufficien,
to understand the peril and far toe
great for a man to trick them into 6
belief that it is nonresident. No ami.
NAL will face danger more readily al
mans bidding.
One of the best known OF the grea,
army of Pacific coast scientists, claims
to have discovered o third principal
motion OF the earth," which is this
Every 20,9O3 years the globe changes
its north and south poles on account
OF the attraction the earth has for its
own magnetism. The sun, too
strongly attracts one of the poles and
repels the other. This being the case,
it only takes the short space of 2O, 1903
years Tor the double attraction to ca.
reen it over to such an extent that it
suddenly "Hops" 80 degrees. The
scientist says that one of these grand
" hops" occurred 5000 years ago, at
the time set down by the geologists as
the glacial epoch"
An ingenious French chemist, Mois.
san by name, has at last succeeded in
what has been a great object with
chemists for II century-the manu-
facture OF real diamonds by chemical
means. He explained his method 10
the French society in aid of the
friends of science and actually pro-
duced artificial and genuine diamonds
before the eyes OF his hearers. They
were very small, however. and he does
not believe that such can be made of
size enough to inject trouble into the