The morning call., 1893-09-20
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The first street railroad was laid in New
York in 1882.
In Sweden an appetizer is made of the
common fennel.
The Chinese lore came from China TO
Europe about 1889.
In 100 the first public library was
opened in New York.
Egypt has 3,45O.00 date palms produc-
ing $4,000 tons of fruit.
The latest ocean steamship suggestion
is submarine trolley.
In 3. c. 2600 the Empress Lee-Ling-Chi
first manufactured silk.
Paris fruit-dealers color their green wares
to make them appear ripe.
The Dead Sea loses every day by evapo-
ration several million tons of water.
Sea signals were invented and put into
operation during the reign of James Ii.
The longest animal known to exist is
the roeQual, which averages 100 feet in
length
The United States has lower percent
age of blind people than any other couu-
try in the world.
Medieval doctors considered chips from
the gallOws on which somebody had been
hanged a good remedy for ague.
1t was the vogue at one time IN Venice to
gid the rolls OF bread and the oysters on
the supper table. The candles were also
coated with gold
The mite mentioned in the Gospel in
connection with the widows contribution
10 the treasury was Greek copper coin
weighing eighteen grams.
Numismatists say that no human head
was Impressed on coins until after the
death OF Alexander the Great. All images
before that were of deities.
The first horse railroad was made in
1879 Now. every country town has its
sireetcar Inc, and even COnstantinople
and Jerusalem have such facilities.
The hand with spalulated and knottv
fingers belongs TO the practical and me-
chanical scientist. Vanban, Arago. Her
schel aud stevenson had such hands.
Giotto'S greatest advance in painting
was the rejection of the greenish- black
color the Byzantine painters employed for
the human figure and substituting The
color of nature for the face and hands.
Branford, Conn. has a curiosity in tie
the person OF man who can see like an
owl. 1n the daytime his vision is poor. but
in the night he has no difficulty In dis
tingGishing objects. 1t is said that prior
to his birth his mother became frightened
of an owl.
In several cantons of Switzerland the
custom prevails of holding wrestling
matches and other exhibitions of physical
strength at their choral, gymnaS,ic and
rife festivals. The champion taking part
10 these athletic sports belong to the most
diverse ranks in the social scale
The pine-tree shilling was named after
the pine tree it bore as its device. 1t was
coined in Massachusetts in the latter half
of the seventeenth century, and was only
one OF a series of coins all called pine tree
money. Tie shilling was sometimes called
the Boston shilling Or the Bay shilling
A plaster reproduction of the fishing
house which lzaak Walton built on the
banks of the River Dove, in England, has
been erected among the trees on the shore
on the north lagoon, at the Worlds Fair.
"Piscatoribus sacrum" is the inscription
over the doorway, and this is followed by
the date 1874.
Counterfeiting was as profitable in an
cient as in modern times, and far more
common. 1t is considered by experts I'M
possible to detect an ancient counterfeit
from a genuine coin. Counterfeitng an
cient coins in modern times has become a
regular profession, and most of the coun-
terfets are better executed than the
originals.