The morning news., 1897-08-18
ITEMS OF INTEREsT


in Paris, says the Philadelphia Ledger.
The animal had been the pet Of an eccen-
tric old lady. who had it well done and
the leopard became so offensive that the
servant was told TO get rid OF it. She
threw il out OF the window when it land
ed on the head OF a clerk passing through
the street, who was so frightened that he
died at once of apoplexy.
One OF the current magazines has an
elaborate treatise on genius and stature,
in the course of which it is sought to show
that men Of genius are not as a rule of
commanding stature, says the Boston Her
aid. The effort to connect the two is
somewhat labored one however. Some one
once asked Mr. Lincoln how long mans
legs ought 20 be. He said: That is a very
serious question, and have given much
thought to il a great many times. Some
should be longer and some shorter; but 1
want to tell you that a mans legs ought
always to be long enough to reach from
his body to the ground" When this condi-
tion is satisfied, genius ought to develop
itself without further reference to physical
conditions
The human heart is practically a force
pump about six inches in length and four
inches in diameter, says the Philadelphia
Record. II beats seventy times per min
T.
and 2,575,44O, ,OO0-say two thousand five hun
dred and seventy-five millions four hun
dred and forty thousand-times in seventy
years, which is ''man's appointed three
score and ten" At each of these beats it
forces 21a ounces of blood through the sys-
TEN, l75 ounces per minute, 656A pounds
per hour, or 706 tons per day. All the
blood in the body, which is about thirty
pounds, passes through the heart every
three minutes This little organ pumps
every day what is equal to lifting 122 tons
one foot himh or one ton 122 feet high
that is, one ton to the top of a forty-yard
mill chimney. During the seventy years
OF mans life this marvellous little pump,
without a single moments rest, night or
day, discharges the enormous quantity of
1880 tons of human blood.
In Manchuria and all that part of
China adjoining Mongolia there are thou
sands Of farms devoted exclusively to dog
raising, says the London Times. At each
of these establishments several hundred
dogs are kept, which are killed by strang-
ulation when they are eight months old,
usually toward the middle of winter. At
this timetheir skin is covered with very
fine hair, and from these skins are made
winter clothes for the inhabitants of the
celestial empire. The dogs furnishing
these skins are entirely different from the
breed of dogs known here or in Europe,
and their fur is said to be so long haired
and close on account of the extreme cold
of that region. These fur dogs constitute
the only wealth Of this desolate region,
and the only doWry given to the daughters
Of these farmers consists of number of
dogs. The value of a dog is about so cents
and, as il takes eight fur dogs to make
coat, such an article is rather expensive.
Traffic in dog skins is centered in large
cities like Moukden and Foo Chow, where
they are tanned. At the first named place
the amount of dog skins handled last year
represented $5OO.OOO
The first peanut oil factory in the
United States will be established
in Norfolk, Va, at an early date,
says the San Francisco Examiner. The
oil is highly valued in Europe as it is
stated that fully $4,000 worth of pea
nuts are brought into Marseilles annually
for the manufacture of oil, which is used
in toilet soaps and for other purposes.
The peanut flour is quite extensively used
in Europe and made into bread, cakes,
biscuit, etc. 1t is one of the favorite ar
ticles of food, according to consular re-
ports, in hospitals in Germany. The capt.
tai stock of the peanut company is $50 600
and it is operating under the patents of
Mr.. Weatherey, which cover the machin-
cry and methods of decorticating the kerr
mel of the inner skin. According to the
estimates made, says the Atlanta Consti-
tuition, the cost of plant for treating five
tons of peanuts daily is as follows: Ma
chinery. 5000; building. 5000, while the
expenditures, including labor, insurance
and taxes amount to 1897 per day. In a
prospectus isued by the company ii is cal
culat that the receipts from five tons
of peanuts will amount to 235 gallons of
refined oil at 81 per gallon, 175 gallons of
crude oil at 50 cents, $3.50 pounds of -four
and meal at cents and $3.50 pounds of
stock feed al 60 cents per 100 pounds, MAX
ing the total gross receipts $415.9O per
day, which, it is estimated would give
yearly profit on fve-ton factory of $19-
725.
Austria has an imperial pawn shop,
says the London Spectator. 1t was es-
tablished in Vienna in 1907. when there
was great distress among the poor in the
southern part of the empire. 1t was de-
signed as a way to secure to the starving
some means of immediate relief and by
putting the rate of interest as low as
possible and the valuations as fEeh as
possible, and embodying in the system
every advantage that could be given to
those who sought to make loans it was
found to be so effective that it soon gain
ed the imperial sanction, and it was not
long until its managers were made public
officials under the direction of the minis
ter of the interior This is substantially
the status OF the institution at this time
/ The rates are so low that the business
| done on the cheap goods and chattels of
the poor could not possibly make the es-
| adjustment self-sustaining; but people
who have been suddenly reduced in cir
cumstances, or who are temporarily en-
barrassed, keep the margins on the right
side and enable the institution TO keep
open without the aid Of a subsidy. In
the year 1898 a total OF s66,Ol5 articles were
pledged, and OF these SIS $50 were redeem
ed, a remarkable redemption as compar-
ed with the proportions OF the average
pawnshop. The unredeemed pledges were
sold by public suction. and whenever
they brought more than the face OF the
pledge the balance was sent TO tho ac-
count Of tho pledger, TO be refunded any
time within three years.
There are about forty builders in
France who profess 20 make self-propelled
carriages. says the Railroad Gazette. II all
OF these makers could produce thoroughly