The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-03
OUT OF THE ORDINARY.

OUT OF THE ORDINARY.
In St. Louis there is enough vacant and
unused land to make a strip 125 feet wide
and nearly 900 miles long
Most of the shoes worn in japan are made
of straw or wood. In the entire country
there is but one factory where leather
shoes are made.
The eye of the vulture is so constructed
that it is high-power telescope enabling
the bird to see objects at an almost in
credible distance.
In Germany. to prevent poison being OBJ
tanned for evil purposes, none is allowed to
be sold without a written order or certif-
cate from a physician.
Pitcairn island now contains 120 inhabi-
tantS, the descendants of the Well-knoWn
English mutineers and Tahtian women.
Only forty of the inhabitants are men.
Holy Hill. in Wisconsin, is a Roman
CATHOLIC shrine, which is visited by about
$4,000 pilgrims every year, many of whom
say that they are cured of their ailments.
The Christian Endeavorers of Alameda
county, California, have started a crusade
against the riding of bicycles on Sunday and
are circulating pledges throughout the coun-
try
The London Echo gives a list of large
landowners in Australia. One of them has
620 900 acres, another 1900 00U, third $780,
O00 while the Union Bank owns no fewer
than 10000 acres.
The Japanese are now getting used to
windows had to be smeared with streaks of
white paint to keep passengers from poking
their heads through it,
A German paper calls attention to the ex-
traordinary fact that at Aachen alone 800
tons of steel wire are used up annually in
the manufacture of needles-4,500 000, 900 in
number, valued at $1,5O0000.
An ordinance being enforced in Newbern
N. c., prohibits any one proprietors and
employees included, from going in or out of
a place of business between Saturday mid
night and Sunday midnight.
License fees on ,436 occupations amount
to 81, 800, 600 a year in st. Louis This en-
ables light taxation ON the land, and va
cant land is assessed Is per cent. lower than
the occupied land, thus helping the real
estate spectators.
Paper threatens to supersede rubber in
the making Of telegraph wire. The inter-
Tor cable is lead-covered, and thin spirals
OF paper are wound around each interior
wire. The cost is said to be one-fftenth Of
rubber insulated cable.
1t is a remarkable fact that Burmah diff
fers from almost all other Oriental coun-
tries in the freedom accorded to its women.
They stand in every way almost an
equality with men. Girls share equally with
boys in all inheritance.
The traveller in China will notice that the
women do not wear their hair in queues.
The reason for this is that it is a general be-
lief that the women will not go to paradise:
The yellow men declare that their wives and
daughters have no souls.
The French used the bicycle in 1871, dur
ing the siege of Belfort, for carrying dis
patches. The wheel adopted at that time
was, OF course the ordinary, or nigh
wheel. This was the earliest introduction
of the cycle in the army.
The Arabic used in the Koran differs as
much from the Arabic used in ordinary con-
from the Italian The Koran Arabic is that
of the literary classes; the colloquial Arabic
that of the common people.
A physician has declared that if only
twenty minutes day was spent in physical
exercise as an adjunct to mental education,
most people might live to seventy without
a days illness, and perhaps prolong their
lives to one hundred years.
An East End of London clergyman, who
sent out invitations to q jubilee banquet
among the poor of his parish and received
seventy acceptances, on announcing that he
would have no beer lost tifty-three of his
guests and was besides guyed by the news
papers.
The supposed grave of Eve is visited by
over forty thousand pilgrims in each year.
1t is to be seen at Jeddah, in a cemetery
outside the city walls. The tomb is fifty
cubits long and twelve wide. The Arabs
entertain a belief that Eve was the tallest
woman who ever lived.
Bathrooms in public schools are novelty
that Boston will introduce in its new build
ings. The latest structure OF an educational
nature in that city is to cost $35O,OO0 and
will be fitted with toilet, dressing and bath
rooms for both sexes, with eleven shower
baths and foot baths as well.
One of the Duke of Aumale's executors
says, in a letter to the French institute,
that the collections of Chantilly, which the
duke bequeathed to the nation, are APP
praised at 100000; the library contains
thirteen thousand rare volumes and 5000 of
less value, and is worth 100000.
Heat holidays have been established by
law in the public schools of Switzerland.
Recognizing the well-xnown fact that the
brain cannot work properly when the heat
is excessive, the children are dismissed
from their tasks whenever the thermom-
eter goes above certain point.
The moon revolves from one point in the
heavens to the hess, same point in twenty,seXen
1t does not describe q circle, but an ellipsiS;
and its distance from the earth is 240 900
miles. The point of its most remote distance
is termed apogeum. and its nearest peri
geum.
The Rhind manuscript, deciphered some
thirty years ago, hieratic papyrus now in
the British Museum, written by an Egyptian
priest, Abmes, about 100 B. c., is the old
est ineligible mathematical work extant.
Another and older roll on mathematical
subject exists, but has not yet been de-
ciphered.
Charles Moore, seventy-eight years old,
and his wife have arrived at Annapolis, Nd,
after drive of two thousand miles from
Denver, which they left on May Is. Mr..
Moore desired to show his children that he
was not too old to enjoy such a trip. lie
and his wife camped out along the way and
prepared their own meals
In the sixteenth century there was a
curious law in England whereby street
hawkers were forbidden to sell plums and
apples for the reason that servants and
apprentices were unable to resist the sight
Of them, and were consequently tempted
to steal their employers money in order to
enjoy the costly delicacies.
An Alabama farmer discovered recently
that one of his COWS was not giving as
much milk as formerly, and he set out to
watch her. After she had lain down in her
stall he discovered four pigs out of litter
of six sitting under her enjoying an even
ing meal. The porl1ers are getting fat and
sleek, while the COW has fallen off consider
ably.