The morning news., 1894-10-22
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


| their lives in the venture.
The largest plow in the world is owned
/ by Richard Gird of San Bernardino
| county. Cal This immense sod turner
/ stands eighteen feet high and weighs
/ $1,000 pounds. 1t runs by steam
/ Henry George, the single tax advocate.
| has aged considerably since he tried to
| become mayor of New York. He is still
/ capable, however, of hard, continuous
form.
/ A wholesale dealer In watches says that
/ the open-faced watch is constantly gain
/ ing IN popularity. Nearly half of the
/ movements now produced IN this country
I are sold in open cases, and the proportion
/ is still increasing. This is true of all
/ grades, cheap and costly.
The official statistics of the number of
/ suicides in Paris during 1893 has just been
| issued. The number OF Self-murderS was
923 OF the total 23l drowned themselves,
/ li5 used guns and revolvers, l9S of the
| shots being in the head; II stabbed them
| selves to death, 62 used poisons, asphyx-
/ tation and n threw themselves from high
| buildings. monuments, etc. The remain-
! der are put down in a business-like man
| ner as ''unclasSifled." .-..,-
An engineering journal has collated some
| interesting statistics from the tables of a
| German miners insurance company If
| a man loses both hands he is registered
| as entatltng a 100 per cent. loss In other
| ds he has been deprived of his ability
| to earn a livelihood. The loss of the right
! hand depreciates the value of an individ-
J the loss of the left hand leaves him with
| only 90 or 20 per cent. of his original earn
| ing capacity. The thumb is taken as
| playing part equal to 20 to 80 as a bread
| winner; the first finger of the right hand
| is put at IA to is per cent, that OF the left
| hand at from s to 1875 per cent, and the
| midCle finger of either hand is worth
/ from 10 TO 16 per cent. The value of the
! third finger is put down as from to
| per cent, while that of the little finger
| is estimated at 8 to y per cent These
| values may appear arbitrary, but it is ex-
plaiLed that the apparent inconsistency
! in the rating is occasioned by the differ
| enCe5 in the trades followed by the in
| jured ones.
Now that DR.. Miethe, the scientific Ger
man photographer, has invented a tele-
| scopic camera, long-distance photography .
! that chimera of the darkroom" seems
! absolutely assured, says the st. Louis Re
! public: The objective of this new photo
| graphic wonder consists of a convex lens
! OF considerable length of focus and a con-
! cave lens of much shorter range. These
/ glasses are placed a certain distance apart,
/ depending on the difference of the two
! foci BY the laws of optics, this arrange
! ment projects an inverted image of the
/ object for which it is set a long distance
from the further end of the lenses. The
| apparent size of the object depends, of
/ course. upon the space separating the
/ two lenses, which, again must be set
/ as to make the focus project. The whole
/ apparatus looks very unlike an adjunct
! to Photographic gallery, and is said to
/ bear stronger resemblance to a common
! telescope than it does to a camera. With
| this apparatus Prof. Miethe and his as
sistants have taken fine pictures of por-
/ from distance of nearly three English
miles.
Black licorice is made from the Juice Of
Hcorice plant, mixed with starch to pre-
| vent II from melting in hot weather. The
| licortce plant grows for the most part on
| the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates
| rivers, which flow through immense tree
| less prairies of uncultiyated land. The
| climate of these great plains is variable
| Half the year it is mild and pleasant, but
for three months it is very cold and for
| three months in summer hot winds sweep
across the country, raising the tempera
ture to 1O4 degrees for weeks at a time
The hcorice plant is a shrub about three
feet high, and grows without cultivation
! in situations where it's roots can reach
the water. The usual time of collecting
| is the winter, but roots are dug all the
] year round. At first the root is fun of
water, and must be allowed to dry, pro-
cess which takes nearly year. 1t is
then cut into small pieces, from six inches
| to a foot long. The good and sound pieces
are kept, and the rotten ones are used for
| hreWOod. The licorice is then taken in
native river boats to Bassorah, whence it
is shipped in pressed bales to London.
As the valley of the Euphrates contained
one OF the earliest civilizations in the
world, it is probable that licorice is about
the oldest confection eXtant, and that the
taste, which pleases nearly all children
to-day, was familiar to the little brown
boys and girls of Babylon, and Nineveh
300 years ago.
Few persons who are familiar with EN-
eralds in their cut and mounted state
have any idea of the diffculties expert
enced by those who would traverse that
part of the Andes where lie the celebrated
mines OF MuZo. The scenery is of extra
ordinary beauty, but in two days riding
the traveller is obliged to follow some of
the most dangerous mountain passes, and
10 make ms way over precipiCeS where a
single false step would dash him to de-
Struct1on. The emerald mines lie in a
basin surrounded by high mountains in the
a circle. These a nntxy
the property Of the government of Col
ombia, which rents them to a company
employing hVe or six OVerSeerS and about
400 native workmen. The means used for
working them are very primitive but they
yield every year large amount of pre-
cious stones, which are Immediately
shlpped to Europe. The band of rock con-
tanning the precious crystals is more than
LOCO feet high, formed of iron Very few
emeralds are found in the black stone
but by cutting down the face of the i'm
mense preciptce veins of white stone are
crystalized form of carbonate Of lime
the emeralds are sometimes embedded
and sometimes found in hollow cavities
and the work of cutting down the side of
the rock Is done by natives, mostly with
a crowbar. piece al rock yard wide is
selected, running the whole length of the
mine on the top; this is cut down a few
yards, and then another level Of the same
is begun again at the top, until the whole
breast OF the rock appears to be mon
ster staircase, the broken rubbish hay
ing been thrown down to the bottom of
lne pfeClplCe On the bank opposite to the
spot where the emeralds are taken out a
stream Of water is kept running by means
of sluices in reservoir and as the sluices
are opened every fifteen minutes, the wa
ter is allowed to rush down the rocks with
great force, the torrent clearing away
all the broken stone thrown down by the
miners since the last discharge
Secretary Edge Of the PENNSYLVANIA
state board of agriculture made at
farmers institute recently a statement
on the subject of tuberculosis in cows
WI ich is likely to excite surprise I'm
my practical experience of over fifteen
years. he said, II have not yet found
case Of tubercular consumption in the
human race, which could. by any means,
trace to tuberculosis in the animal At
the same time do not wish to be quoted
as saying that II cannot be so transmitted
but ! Will say that II It is transmissible
the danger Is so slight and the opportunitv
50 seldom ocurs that 1t Is worse than
Ioollsh to get up scare on account of it,
IN our post-mortems, DR. Bridge state
veterinary surgeon, and ! have taken no
| precautions against contracting the dis
ease from the animal, and yet thus far
We nave entirely escaped the danger, If
] Tl1rf