The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-05-28
CURIOUS FACTS.

When the planet Mars is nearest the
earth it is 100000 miles away.
Certain parts of the hippopotamus's
hide attain thickness of two inches.
The skin is the only part of the hui
man body that is not hardened by age.
Moles can swim with great dexterity,
their broad forepaws acting as paddles.
The longest artificial water course in
the world is the Bengal canal in India,
nine hundred miles; the next is the
Erie, 1868. Each cost nearly $1O,OOO,OOO.
The Danube flows through countries
in which fifty-two languages and dia-
lects are spoken. It bears on it's cur
rent four-fifths of the commerce of
Eastern Europe.
The remains of lake jewellers, such
as have been found at Burton Mere,
In Suffolk, England, and near Glaston-
bury, in Somerset, are supposed by
some to date back as far as 1900 BIC.
| TivOli's famous waterfalls are now
utilized to provide electric power for
lighting Rome. The power is con-
veyed eighteen miles over the wires,
and in the daytime is used to drive the
street cars.
A queer pig story is told by the Lon
don Telegraph. A SOW that had lost
her tail by an accident had a litter of
ten little pigs, but seeing that they all
had tails, placed them in row and bit
off the tails one by one.
The dukedom. the most elevated dig
nifty in the British peerage, was first
introduced by Edward I'LL, who Gre
ated his eldest son, the black prince,
Duke of Cornwall. This title has al
ways been borne by the oldest son of
the sovereign.
In the Baidar Valley, near BaIaclava,
in the Crimea, there stands walnut
tree which must be at least one thou
sand years old. 1t yields annually from
eighty thousand to one hundred thou
sand nuts, and is the property of five
Tartar families, who share it's produce
equally.
1t is mistake to suppose night air
in towns is unhealthy. In most cases
it is purer between ten at night and
six in the morning than any other part
of the twentyfour hours 1t is bene-
fetal to sleep with the window open
four inches from the top, and the door
tightly closed.
Hawaiian huckleberries grow in clus-
tiers on low bushes right on the very
brink Of the birthstone beds, and are so
numerous that bushel may be easily
gathered in half an hour. In appear
ance they somewhat resemble a cram
berry, and the flavor is pleasantly sug-
gestive of grapes.
A seven-acre tract of muck on A.
GOttshalls farm in Harrison township,
near Logansport, Ind, has been burn
ing for more than a year, and even the
recent heavy rains have failed to ex-
tinguish the fire. Holes have been
burned to depth of eight or ten feet.
The tract is perfect honeycomb and
the ground is almost ruined.
The most curious use to which paper
is to be put is that suggested by the
recent patenting of a blotting-paper
towel. 1t is new style of bath towel,
consisting of full suit of heavy blot
ting paper. A person upon stepping
out of his morning tub has only to ar
ray himself in one of these suits, and
in second he will be as dry as a bone
One of the articles of food most
priced by the Chinese on the Pacific
coast is dried-duck. An American in
Contra Costa county, Cal, has started
duck drying business and has mo-
nopoly of the Chinese trade. He buys
hundreds of ducks from hunters, fills
them with salt and hangs them in the
sun for six weeks. They become hard
as sole-leather and will keep indef-
nitely. The Chinese used to import
their dried.duck from China.
Taking liberties with the body, and
making it over after ideals of their
own, is not confined to the Chinese
foot-squeezers of the present time; for,
in a prehistoric skull brought to the
Peabody Museum in 1891 from Central
America, the upper front teeth are
filed away on either side, SO as to leave
a long, pointed cusp in the middle.