Birmingham state herald., 1896-08-04
NUTSHELL FACTS.

The theaters of London will seat 6O,oOo people.
 Most of the canal barges in the south of England are worked by women.
 Insured property to the value of $15o,00 is burned in England every day
 The students in Paris are radical: the students in London mostly conservative.
 During a single flood of the Yangtse- Kiang, in China, 600,00O persons were drowned.
 The Thames of England is 22o miles long. The river of the same name in Can ada is 160.
 The Parisian, when eating his soup, uses the point of the spoon; the Londoner the side
 The Parisian sets the divisor in loop to the right of the dividend; the Londoner to the left.
 The oldest national flag in the world is that of Denmark, which has been in use since the year 1219.
 In France there is law compelling physicians to write their prescriptions in the language of the country.
 Sir William Davenant finished his poem of Gondibert during his confinement by the rebels in Carlsbroke castle
 Except in the Ottoman empire, Persia, Arabia, Siam, China and the interior of African countries, slavery is now ex- tinct.
 From rough calculations lately made it appears that over S60,000 species of an imals have been described by naturalists.
 The lifeboats of the national institu- tion were launched 437 times on British service last year, and they saved 533 lives. Of the foreign born population of the United States the Irish are now only about 20 per cent, whereas in 1850 they were about 40 per cent.
 The tai1ors in Paris make clothes "a PAnglals" Gin English fashion), and the London tailors "a la Franchise" Gin French fashion,.
 The Malay language, spoken in the South Seas, is softer than the Italian, and is said to be totally unlike any other language.
 Near the Caspian Sea there are several "eternal fires,' so-called by the natives, where natural gas issues from the ground and has been on fire for ages. Wicquefort's curious work on "ambas- sadors' is dated from his prison, where he had been confined for state affairs. He softened the rigor of those heavy hours by several historical works. The sultan of Turkey not only has a rigid censorship of the press, but he has ordered that no newspapers be published until the afternoon, so that the censors will not have to forego their morning nap in order to supervise them. De Foe, when imprisoned in Newgate for political pamphlet, began his Re view, a periodical paper, was extended to nine thick volumes in quarto, and 1t has been supposed served as the model of the celebrated papers of Steele. There he also composed his lure Divino." Not an island has risen or sunk from sight in the Pacific ocean in thirty-four years, and geologistS say that nature is resting for future mighty effort. A ge- ivt Is at a | convulsion of nature will sink the whole of New Zealand 50 feet below the surface | of the sea.
 | By shaking the eggs of the common pike double monsters may be produced, | and MT. J. A.,Ryder has given good req | sons for concluding that the double gold | fish of the Japanese, some of which have | two heads, others two tails, were origi- | nally produced in this way and fixed by artificial selection.
 There is an easy, simple way to tell if | diamond is genuine. Make a small dot | on piece of paper with lead pencil | and look at 1t through the diamond If l it shows but single dot the diamond is | genuine. If it shows more than one or | the mark appears scattered it is false, | no matter what 1t cost. A unique law is still in force at Strat- | ford, in Prussian Pommerania. A para graph of the police regulation of 1S4O
  Smoking in the streets or promenades | of this town is positively prohibited, vio- | lators of this law being punished by | fine, or eventually by number of marks | the fine amounts to-"
 Balloon racing is the latest form of pet | ty gambling in Paris. number of toy | balloons are set off at the same each | bearing postcard, having on 1t the um- pire'S address and a request to the find | CT to note the time and place of the bal looms arrival. Bets are paid and the | stakes awarded on the results of the re- | plies received within week. A woman who died recently used to | boast that she had not spoken to a man | for over thirty years, and another was | equally jubilant over the fact that she | had lived twenty-five years in one house without man crossing the threshold. But probably the bitterest man-hater of modern times was an Austrian woman, who, at the time of her death was en- gagged in developing plan for the ex- tinction of the whole male population. A nursery governess in family of af- fiuence must be young lady of consid- erable educational attachments. She must have a good knowledge of English | and French, be able to teach the elemen- | tary rules of arithmetic, writes a good hand, be quick at needlework, and in ad- | dition, be kind and consolidating in dispo- | sitien, and make up her mind to endure all the annoyances, drudgery and flag ging which the charge of the young children impose.
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