The morning call., 1893-04-23
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

EObHOT Gafulia oil MaGriQ mas puDlSneQ
an edition of tile Bible in verse.
Pliny ascribes the invention of the sling
to the PEenicians about b. c. 2000.
In Norway the average length OF life
is greater than in any other country on the
globe.
Throughout the year the average daily
amount OF sunshine is little more than three
hours.
Ouida thinks that the shake hands," as
she terms it, is the most vulgar form of
salutattOn.
A wave quarter of a mile in breadth and
forty feet high is not sensibly felt at
depth OF 90 fathoms.
lady in Toxic, Japan, has made
collection of 1000 teapots, which she intends
exhibiting at the Worlds Fair
One kind of jellyfsh is shaped like a
trumpet and another like a Chinese laut-
ern. capable of contracting and expanding
Itself at Will.
The population of New York State, ac-
cording 10 the official State report, Is more
than One-tenth of the population of the
United States.
Three young Wisconsin boys are in Jail
under the charge of high way robbery. They
followed al old man, and, coming upon him
in a lonely spot, robbed him of all his valu-
ables.
In 1540 Henry II of France interdcted
trimmings, borders, gold lace. gold ard sill
YER cloth and satius. Great lamentations
fem the women ensued and the edict was
modified.
A hog on the ranch of julie Gunter, near
Gainesville, Tex, Is said to be one of the
largest in the world. 1t is a Poland China
hog, and is reported to weigh 1920 pounds.
1t IS % feet inches high and feet inches
long"
An observant statistician makes the
amazing assertion that girls with retrousse
noses marry sooner, and are more fortunate
in catching good husbands than young
ladies whose features are OF the Greek or
Roman type.
McSwlne's Gun is a prodigious cavity in
the cliffs on the coast of County Donegal,
Ireland, into which the tide rushes with such
force as to produce sound like the BOOM
ing OF a cannon, which can be heard twenty
or thirty miles away.
In the manufacture of knives the division
OF labor has been carried To such an extent
that one knife is handled by seventy differ
ent artisans from the moment the blade is
| forged until the instrument is finished and
smoothly wrapped up for market.
We are accustomed to think of metals as
incombustible, but the contrary is the case.
With the exception of the so-ealled noble
meIals-g0ld, silver, platinum and few
! othcrs-all metals burn, or absorb oxygen,
when heated sufficiently in the air.
The Luehsberg is q singular freak of
nature i'll the shape of a diSintegrated and
phosphorescent noun tain, near Alexanders-
bad. Germany. Its glowing appearance is
due TO the peculiar composition of rocks OF
! which it is formed and the effect Of sunlight
| on them.
Among the Samese the curious custom
obtains of reversing the elbow joint of the
left arm as sign of superiority. The chill
| dren OF both sexes are trained TO reverse
their elbow in this graceess and painful
| position at an early age, if their parents
are persons of high grades.
The population OF New York CITY is equal
to the following group: Fall River, Mass. :;
| Cambridge, Mass. Atlanta, Ga; Memphis
| Tenn. Wilmington, Del; Dayton, Ohio !;
Troy. n. y; Grand Rapids, Mich; Read
| ing Pa; Camden, n. j.; Trenton. n. j. :;
Athens, Ga, and Chicago, Ill.
The sponge is an animal II will shrink
| from the hand which tries to seize ii, and If
| viewed under n lens may be seen con-
| stantly drawing in water through the in
| Vulnerable canals which form its digestive
| organs, and having consumed the minute
| animalcule in the fluid, rieeting 1t again
throuSh some other channel.
| =. A dispatch from Kalamazoo. Mich, says
| that from the stomach OF patient who
had Just died at the Michigan asylum
| for the insane there were taken 10 stones
3S nails from ~ to 5R inches long, Is
staples. screws, buttons, one piece of
! glass, several pieces of bar6ed wire besides
| dirt and gravel, the whole weighing q
! ounces"
A ten-ton cutter. constructed of alumni
mum, said to be the first sea-going vessel
made of this metal. is being built at Loire
Tor the Comte de Chabannes La Pallice. 1t
VIII be half the weight OF q vessel of similar
class constructed with a steel frame. Her
| hull will weigh only 2500 kilos, whereas, if
| built OF the ordinary material, it would
| weigh $500 kilos.
A fly will lay four times during the sum-
mer,. about. eighty eggs each time. and
| careful calculations have demonstrated
that the descendants OF single insect may
| rom June l TO the end of September eX-
| coed 100000. We're it not for bats, insect
| eating birds and the innumerable micro
| scOl ic parasites with which TIE fly is
particularly afflicted. there would be no
worse pest in the world than the fly.
Some of tho positions held by American
| women are indeed curious. For instance,
| In Buffalo woman runs street clean I'M
| bureau; in Kansas City woman is the
| head Of the fire department.; Louisville
lady makes special shopping trips to Paris !;
| another in New York makes fiat furnishing
! business; still another in New Hampshire
| Is president of n street railway company
| while Chicago has woman embalmer.
! Accounts from France state that on a re-
/ cent day NJ. Carnot shook hands with 800
| Mayors and ever so many people besides.
| Fortunately for NJ. Garnet, Frenchman's
handshake is not like an Englishman's. 1t
| Is a very light and very ceremonious per-
| formanee, and may be reneated a great
many times before the hand becomes tired.
If the President had to shake hands with
| hosts of energetic and cordial Englishmen,
| he would have no arm left after half an
] hour.
|. According to the "Athenian Oracle"
| when the Christians first discovered
America the devil was sorely afraid of los
| ing his hold upon the people of this country
| on account of the new religion which the
| fathers introduced among tho noble red
men. lie is reported. therefore, to have
told some Indians of his acquaintance that
he had found a way to be revenged upon
the Christians who had invaded his do
main. He therefore declared his intentions
Of teaching them the use of tobacco, TO
which, when they had once tasted, they
should ever after be perpetual slaves.