The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-11-20
FOREIGN GOSSIP.

FOREIGN GOSSIP.
The most extensive system Of CO.
nails in the world is in the great plain
of China, which is fairly scanned with
canals.
The Chinese pen from time I'm.
memorial has been q brush made Of
some soft hair and used to paint the
curiously formed letters of the Chinese
alphabet.
-Autheutio dates In China begin
with the year B. c. 2a77; the lively
imagipations of the early historians.
however, carry back Chinese chronol-
oRy for many hundreds of thousands
of years
Smoothing irons were first used IN
France and are supposed to have been
French invention, being introduced
in the sixteenth century, After the
introduction of starch, linens were first
made smooth by pressure. being
starched and placed between two
boards- This being found not to give
the best results, resort was next had
to pressure with a cold fat iron, and
finally the iron was heated to impars
the polish now considered SO indis-
pensible.
Madagascar names are not so terri
bic as they look, says DIR. Isaac Tay-
lor, author of Words and Places" their
apparent length is due to several
words being written in one. Antana-
narivo. the capital, Is made up of An,
at tana, place, and arivo. thousand.
and means AT the place of thousand
huts." An. or Am, in all Malagasy
names, means at, Nosi is an island. Be
is big, Marc many. Bohi a hill, Keli
blue. The longest name in the island is
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, mean
ing lat the hill of Andriamandroso the
chief who conquered Imerina-"
When Prince Alexander of Bat
tenberg was kidnapped. NJ. Hitrovo,
the Russian am bassador at Bucharest,
said to the French ambassador: ~ do
not understand the scruples of tho
diplomacy of to-day. 1t is q misfor-
tune that diplomats are not allowed
free hand any longer, as in the If
teenth century, when everything was
perInitted-the ponia I'd or poison"
Afterward, according to the Vossische
Zeitung, when the Asiatic department
of the Russian government wished to
get rid of Prince Ferdinand, half a
million francs were sent to NJ. Hitrovo,
who also furnished the explosives to
blow the prince up on the railroad
from Rustchuk to Varna in 1888. Stam-
buloff saved the princes life ON both
occasions.
Experiments in crossing rivers have
recently been made by the Austrian
cavalry with water-tight haversacks
filed with straw. Four of these were
formed into a sort of raft. held to-
gether by three sabers; on these Eve
men got astride. the foremost steering
with a pole, and the horses were led,
swimming. 1t took eight minutes TO
prepare, eight minutes more to cross q
river six hundred and fifty feet wide |
and twelve feet deep, and two minutes |
to resaddle on the opposite hank. SO
the five men were ready for action on |
the other side in eighteen minutes |
after the order to cross was given. |
DchtS WcEc diSO mauc with tic udNtT- |
sacks, stiffened by iron bars or cavalry |
sa bers, in which twelve or fourteen
armed men were ferried across
Herman Merivsle's Moby Dick has
again come to life. The |
Hsnda Isler. on its way |
from New Zealand TO Sydney, timber /
laden, was recently attacked by two /
large whales. They first headed for !,
the bows, but changed their course
and made for the ships broadsidei
one passed under, scraping the keel;
the other struck amidships and was
badly hurt, sinking without rising
4 gain after IL had struck. while he
sea around was dyed with blood The
brigautine, which is of two bundled
and sixty tons burthen and vas
loaded with a million feet Of lumter.
was racked from stem to stern, ind
began TO make water rapidly: the dick
Ioad had 10 be thrown overheard, snd
Il was only By working hard at Pie
pumps for ten DAYS that the crew SIC
,eeded in reaching port Severity
years ago the wbaler Essex was sent
10 the bottom Of the Pacific BY q
whale, the crew getting TO VALPARAISO
n the boats