The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-05-14
CURIOUS FACTS.
No bird of prey has the gift of song.

No bird of prey has the gift of song.
Whales are never found in the Gulf
stream.
Female frogs have no voice; only the
males can sing.
A flea's mouth is placed exactly be-
tween it's fore legs.
The highest mountain in Europe is .
Mount Blanc, 1872 feet.
All birds that live on seeds are fur
nished with strong gizzards.
Wild birds do not sing more than
eight or ten weeks in the year.
There are more muscles in the tail
of a rat than in a human hand.
Greenland was so called because in
summer it's hills were covered with
beautiful green moss.
A Turkish turban of the largest size
contains from ten to twenty yards of
the finest and softest muslin.
TO be perfectly proportional it is
claimed that a man should weigh
twenty eight pounds to every foot of
his height.
The deepest we'll on our Atlantic
Coast is said to be that at the silk
works near Northampton, Mass; Depth.
300 feet.
The leaders of flock of migrating
wild geese become tired sooner than
the others, and are frequently relieved
by their fellows.
AS speaking-tubes do not work on
English war-ships, owing to the rat
Ting of the machinery, the admiralty
will try telephones.
The letters in the various alphabets
of the world vary from twelve to 2O2
in number. The Sandwich Islanders
alphabet has twelve, the Tartarian, POP.
Gurlt, in a German paper, reports
during five years one death in 29O9
cases Of an2sthesia from chloroform.
and one death in 6OO4 cases where ether
was employed.
In France, hospitals for infectious.
diseases are furnished with telephones,
so that the sick may converse with
their friends without danger of COM
municating disease.
1t is stated that workers in the acid
rooms of sulphite pulp-works soon no.
tice that their boards and hair become
very black, and remain so for several
weeks. At the same time they are apt
to become bald.
New York World figures that $780,
OOO,O 900 of the new United States 500
bonds would weigh twenty-thr tons,
and placed one on top of the other
would make pile 1888 feet, or three
fifths of mile high.
Slate pencils are now manufactured
of bone. They are not likely, however,
to meet with approval Of the small
boy, as they are unbreakable, and, still
worse, noiseless. The peculiar and
delightfully."- shrill, musical screech of
the old-fashioned slate pencil is natur-
ally great source of amusement to the
young.
The Cuban rebels have adopted a
novel way of setting fire to sugar-cane
fields. A small piece of phosphorus
coated with wax is fastened to
snakes tail and the creature let loose
to make it's way among the cane. The
sun melts the wax and ignites the
phosphorus and the business is done.
Military protection or other efforts
are claimed to be unavailing in the
face of such formidable foe.
The camphor-tree of China and
Japan is large evergreen, not unlike
a linden, with white flower and red
berry. The gum is taken from chips
out of the root or base, which yield
five per cent. or more of it. The Jap
anese government owns large forests
of camphor-trees, able to keep up the
average supply of the gum for twenty
five years, and young plantations are
growing up. These are under the Jap
anese Forestry Department. Hitherto
the gum has only been taken from
trees seventy to eighty years old, but
it is proposed to operate on younger
ones in the future.
The queer little Italian republic of
San Marino, with its thirty-three
square miles of territory and it's popu-
lation of six thousand, lies up in the
eastern spurs of the Appennine
mountains. It is governed by grand