The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-08-05
Facts Worth Knowing.

When a fine ruby is found in
Burma, a procession of elephants,
grandees and soldiers escort it to
the kings palace.
The trap rocks of New Jersey
and the dolorites of Staten Island
are the strongest stones in the
United States, their crushing re-
sistance being twenty-four thou
sand pounds to the cubic inch.
Natural gas has been decided
by the courts to be mineral, it
having been found by the United
States Circuit Court that the nat
ural gas piped from Shirkstown,
Canada. to Buffalo, n. Y, is not
subject to duty because it is
within the definition of crude
minerals.
Turkey sends out tobacco, the
cereals, nuts, almonds, olives, all
sorts of dried fruits, coffee, mad
der, opium and all enormous
amount of wine, the last-named
article to France to be re-bottled
and exported. A very important
trade is also carried on in fish,
sponges and coral
There are certain varieties of
mountain plants which have a
singular provision of nature for
perpetuating their species. The
duration Of summer in those ele-
waited regions is too short to per-
NIT Of the ripening of seeds, and
the top buds fall off and take root
as would the seeds.
There are few stars whose dis
tanceis even approximately known
to astronomers. Moreover, the
different estimates at the distances
Of these few vary by large amounts.
The nearest known star is alpha"
in the constellation Centaur, not
visible from the northern lands Of
the earth; one Of the next nearest
is little star in the northern con-
stellation of Cygnus, called '61
Cygni.' The latest determination
of the parallax of this star, by Mr..
H. S. Davis Of New York, makes
its distance fifty-three millions of
millions of miles. This is about
eighteen millions of millions miles
less than the distance derived from
Prof. Halls measurement some
ten years ago.
A watch will run on one oiling
from a year to year and half.
Every minute the balance wheel
turns on its axis $50 times and
$1,000 times in an hour Accept
ing a year as the time the ordinary
watch will run with one oiling, an
expert finds that if the driver Of
locomotive was as we'll oiled as
balance wheel of watch it ought
to run sixty miles an hour day and
night for 64S days, or well on to
two years, with one oiling. In
that time it would traverse dis
lance equal to nearly forty times
the circumference Of the earth.
In view of the fact that in reality
few locomotives will run one day
without reoiling, he maintains
that the matchmaker has developed
his art to far greater degree than
the locomotive builder has yet
been able to reach.
Prof. G. Stanley Hall, president
Of Clark University, recently cor
responded with nearly two thous-
and persons with a view of ascer-
tanning what constituted their
greatest fear, and ascertained that
of 29S classes Of objects feared,
thunder and lightning led all the
rest. The Electrical Engineer,
editorially commenting upon this
subject, endeavors to prove the
unreasonableness of this state of
affairs, and says that there is only
an average Of 2O5 deaths from
lightning over the whole of the
United States in year; while in
New York city alone 1900 people
annually meet accidental deaths.
In the same city over two hundred
people are drowned each year,
while one hundred and fifty are
burnt or scalded to death, and five
hundred more meet deaths by falls
Of one kind or another, so that if
statistics prove anything there is
fifty per cent. greater danger of
being kicked by a horse in New
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