The mirror., 1896-04-23
CURIOUS FACTS.

| Rice is said to be the staple food of
nearly one-half the human race.
Sweden has deaf and dumb corps
of the Salvation Army. But they can
make just as much noise with the bass
drum as anybody else, it is safe to say
The city of Sydney, Australia, has
imposed fine of one pound upon any
person convicted of splitting upon the
floor of public buildings or upon the
street.
The japanese begin building their
houses at the top. The roof is first
built and elevated on skeleton frame.
Then it affords shelter to the wOrkmen
from storms.
The East Indian ship-worm will in
few months destroy any vessel by
eating out the interior of the beams
and planks. They will be left mere
shell that can be shattered by the fist.
The only birds found in Alaska after
grouse, and the Arctic OWL both of
which change their plumage as the
season advances, from dark brown to
white.
A company has been organized to,
promote the application of wood pulp
to textile uses, or for making an ar
This new fabric is said to resemble
white duck very closely.
Parrots are to be put to a practical
use in Germany. They have been in
troduced into the railway stations and
trained to call out the name while the
train stands there, and thus save peo--
pie the trouble of making inquiries.
Women have worn cOrSetS from the
earliest times. The mummy of an
Egyptian princess, who lived 2OOO
years before Christ, was discovered in
1872, and around the waist was con-
trivance closely resembling the mod
ern corset.
A correspondent writes to Nature
that carp are very fond of the Larvae of
mosquitoes, and as this fish thrives in
the only kind of water in which the
Larvae of the mosquitoes can live, he
suggests that these fish might be en-
plOyed to exterminate this pestiferous
insect.
1t is claimed that the perfume of
flowers disappears as soon as the
starch in the petals is exhausted; and
it may, it is said, be restored by placing
the flower in a solution of sugar, when
the formation of starch and the ennis
sion of fragrance will be at once re-
sumed.
The belief that the shallOwer parts
of the bottom of the eastern Atlantic
are parts of submerged continent
once joined to the mainland seems to be
growing. Scientific evidence in sup
port of Plato's story of lost At
lantis has recently multiplied hun
dredfold.
A race with very small hands and
feet is race that has for generations
done very little work and taken very
little exercise. South American ladies
of Spanish blood can give points as re-
CARDS tiny extremities to their Anda-
lusian ancestresses, merely because an
altogether tropical climate compels the
Incidence that semi-tropical climate
favOrs.
Every patriotic heart will feel a gen.
tie thrill at the thought that the old
"Liberty Bell" which now hangs voice
less in independence Hall, Philadel-
phia, may soon be restored to its origi-
nal resonance. This, it is said, will be
accomplished by new process of elec-
trio welding devised by Russian
named Slavianoff, by which bells
cracked to the very crown may be
made as good as new.
Mr.. Whitten states that there are
not less than 100000 lobster-pots of
the value of $1.25 each in that single
branch of the fish industry. He says
that while last years whole lobster
catch in Massachusetts only reached
100000 Holsters, there were 100000
Holsters landed in Portland alone last
month. There are $50 licensed fishing
vessels and more than 5000 unlicensed
craft, of five tons and under, on the
Maine coast.
An ingenious medical application of
the e'put-a-penny-in- -the-slot; system has
been introduced in England, according
to the Lancet "The machine is fig