The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1895-10-25
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

W. {. nANNAtOhU, - Published.
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
-SFrench railroad company has Or
deret clocks to be placed on the outside
of every locomotive.
A Scotchmans brain has an average
weight of 81 ounces and an English
mans half an ounce less.
Prom the Thirteenth TO the Seven
teenth century blue coat in England
was the sign of Il SERVANT - q r
In 1869 there We're III London only
900 miles of underground wires. awhcreas
there are now $4,000 miles.
See, birds outnumber the land birds,
because their food never, fails, not be-
cause they areamore prolific, The full
mar-petrel lays but seRes egg, yet it, is
believed o@be the most numerous birCsin
the world.
--Alphonso VIII. of leon and CASTLE
was The Good from his great personal
piety. The same title Was borne hy Sew
sral other kings, among them John H.,
King of France; Rene. King of Naples,
and William H.. of the SicilieS. 1JT!l
Solomon was called by the Hebrews
of his time The White King from the
color of the robes he wore The allusion
made i'll the New Testament to the lily
of the field, white flower, in connsc-
ton with Solomon, is thus m,,de clearer
Louis |. Of France was The Stanl-
merer, because Of defect in his speech.
Mlthael H., Emperor of the Feast, had
similar defect, which gave him the same
deSiSnalon. 1t is said he could not
speak until he had stamped his feet.
-fhilippe ii. of France was Surn;,med
Augustus. not because he bore any re-
SSembllhte to the Roman Emperor, hut
because he was born in August. The
same surname WAS bestowed on SiSiS-
mund II. Of Poland for the same reason
-, Shoes We're hlackened as early us the
seems 7" have been lampbl,ck mixed
with rancid oil: for in an old romance
y man ~ elected FROM Il company of
polite persons because he had just
hacked his shoes, and they could not
stand the SMELL, : q ea3. . - a.
There has Just heen placed on exhi.s
hitiion. in the third Egyptian room, Brit.
1Sh museum. an unrolieel specimen of the
embalmet sacred crocodile. The mummy
measures over Is feet in length, and is
beautifully preserved. The eyes. as with
human numnlles. appear to have been
removed: previous sembalning but the
are still intact. ~ ' A
The ZoolosiclI society i ondon, have
added recently among other numerous
specimens the following TO thrir collec-
ton: One Australian frilled lizard, one
whitt-necked Stork. two long -nosed croc-
"i'leS. one white horned lizard. two noisy
frogs, two Robin island snakes one De
ihlllipS meadow startling three South
American rat snakes and two triaugula,-
spotted pigeons
Emile Rey. the best known of modern
Alpine guides, was recently Killed in de-
Spending the Aiguille dc Geant on Mont
hlanc He was guiding an Englishmun.
and they had passed the difficult part of
the rocks and taken off the rope that
bound them to each other, when Key
dropped to slightly inclined plateau COW
cred with pebbles. His foot slipped and
he fell to the glacier below.
The House of Commons is protected
from fog by the following method. which
Is both ingenious and expensive. The air
pumped i'll from the river terrace is.
erS of cotton wool, which retain all inn
purltles leaving the air i'll a state. of
great purity. The layers of cotton wool
are SlN inches i'll thickness, and occupy
an area of 500 Suuare feet. : a. =.
In a proclamation just issued by Mai.
Won lSS1nann, the new governor of Ger
man East Africa, he declares that, his
tw" main objects are to open up the col
"ny fur the benefit of the mother country
and to further the spread of civiliza ton
among the native population. The gov
ern"r says. moreover. that he proposes to
employ the armed forces at his disposal
IN protecting the work of civilization. -
In the reign Of Louis XIV. IL solemn
e'i'ct was passed i'll France to the follow
ana white paint, perfumes. essences. arti-.
neal teeth, false hair, cotton wool. iron
corsetS: hoops shoes with high heels, or
raise hips, should seek to entice into the
bonds OF marriage any male subject of
His Majesty. shall be prosecuted for
Wltchcraft, and declared incapable of
matrimony.
defects in development of !, the body
of English city children are more. COM
mon among boys than girls, according
t" DR. Warmers report to the British as,
sot,ltlon. the proportion being 81 of boys
+" Us of girls. Girls skulls. however.
are more apt to be abnormally small.
especially in the neighborhood of large
buildings. Thirty-six per cent. Of the
boys and 10 per cent. of the girls were
dull. Defective skulls are much more.
frequent among Irish children than
among any of the other ma tionalities3
found in English towns
Oxygen is no longer a single element,
but the admixtnre Of two distinct gases,
So at least says E. G. Baly.of University,
college to the Royal society in !, prelimi,
nary note of his experiments. IF oxygen
be submitted to the silent electric dis.
charge the gas collecting at the mega
tive pole differs in density from oxygen =
before electrihcation and the density il
greater or less according as short or long
sparks are used. The Inference is that
oxygen contains two gases of dissimila1
molecules which are separated by the
electric discharge. : - =;
-Tunnelng through the Sinplon will
begin early next year. There will be
two parallel tunnels. each $4,000 feet
or about 121A miles long. 81 feet aoart
and connected at intervals of -225 feet.
They will be 10000 feetslongcr than thee
Mount Cents tunnels. but viii be 1900
feet lower than the two others. which
will diminish the working expenses 1t
Is expected that the work will be COM
pleted IN FIVE years and half. three
years less time. that is, than was re-
quirrd for the St. Gothard Tie est
mated cost is S11,OOOOOO. =.
A modification of the decimal system
for the division Of time and angles is
proposed by NJ. de Sarrant0n III The.
Revue Scientifiques. The, hour must he
retained aszthes unit of time because it is
universally accepted and it is hopeless
ever. is divided into Zoo minutes md each,
minute into 100 seconds. The news1niil-
utes would be 36 seconds long, three
tifths of the old minutes, and the new
seconds little over One-third as long
as tn" present seconds. Time wo1ilf
then b" expressed in decimals; thus,
S.}:4S would read 8 hours 33 new min
utes IA new seconds. For angular meas,
ur"incl'tS he proposes dividing the circle
into 40 degrees instead of 500, with,
the same subdivision into 100 minutes
of 100 seconds as for the hour
Exporting Cat Skins.
There are $1,000 skins of house ca Is
exported from the United States every
year. These skins come from all parts
OF the country, Il Wholesaler seldom re-
celvlng Il consignment Of flrs from q
country correspondent that does not i'll
Guide II number of cat skins: When the