The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1898-01-05
\ THE ROANOKE TIMES. WEDNESDAY JANUARY d y
FACTS IN A FEW LINES.

Kansas City has u university up stairs
Snd college i'll basement.
Out of every 100 ships passing
through tho Suez canal 81 are British.
Compressed air is to DO tho motive
power of wooden mill Mt Almonte,
Ont.
If n we'll could DO dug to depth of
46 miles, tho air at the bottom would
DO as dense as quicksilver.
Exports of the United States to Co.
lombia increased from SO, 1000 in
1894 to $3,3S3, 900 in 1896.
Alaska has seacoast of &c, 900 miles,
exceeding that of the remainder of the
United States nearly az times.
A Massachusetts, man 72 years old
was recently sent for two years to the
penitentiary for stealing three hens.
The silver peso of Cuba is equal to
921a cents of United States money, and
the gold doubloon is equal to $5.O17.
Tho Amazon has / 100 branches or
tributaries. Its principal tributary is
the Maranon, navigablo for 1868 miles.
Out of every 100 young men called
out for military service in Italy in 1895
SO were excused for physical unfitness
or other reasons.
Tho United States now buy from
Venezuela annually about $4,000, 900
worth of products and sell to her only
1000, 600 worth.
France enjoys tho largest share of the
commerce of Colombia. This is owing
doubtless to the large French OUTLAWS
for the Panama canal.
There are only three negro telegraph
operators i'll this country, but they are
all first class. Somehow black people do
not take kindly to electricity.
"Closed OH account of sickness till
Monday. I am not expected to live,''
was tho notice found recently on the
door of Il small laundry in Utica, N Y.
Newfoundland is remarkable for its
lakes and pools. They are of all sizes,
shapes and depths, from tiny pools to
immense sheets of water over so miles
i'll length.
1t will surprise some people to know
that during the, busiest time on tho At
lantlc cable, between 10 and IL O'Clock
III the forenoon, an average of 900 mes
sages pass each way every day.
Travellers in Sweden report that the
street cars i'll that country seldom stop
for passengers. Both men and women
jump on and off while they are moving,
and accidents are scarcely ever heard of.
Birmingham, England, turns out
every week 300, 600, 600 cut nails, 100,
900, 900 buttons, 4, 200 miles of wire of
different sizes, 8 tons of hairpins, 500
tons of nuts and 90, 600 pairs of spec
tacles.
a runaway team i'll Gloucester the
other day ran into IL big telegraph pole
breaking the neck of one of the horses
The Shock of the collision set off the fire
alarm box OH the pole and called out
the department.
Plants growing near the sea have
thicker leaves than those growing in
land Apparently the sea salt is the
cause Of this phenomenon, as plants
cultivated i'll artificially sailed soil
yield thicker leaves.
Not long ago professor of tho Uni
versity of Chicago advertised in a morn
ing paper for information concerning
heXadactylous, or six fingered people.
He received 1870 answers from six tocd
or fingered people.
The cod fisheries of Newfoundland
have been followed for nearly 400 years.
They greatly exceed those of any other
country i'll the world. Tho average ex-
port of cod is about $50, 600 hundred
weight per annum.
st. Georges Bay, Newfoundland, con
tains All immense coaltield fully 20 miles
i'll length and 10 i'll breadth. 1t has been
estimated that if the output were to
reach 250, 600 tons per annum the coal
bed would not be exhausted in cen
fury.
AT the present time there are about
40 lighthouses and beacons erected and
maintained by the Newfoundland gov
ernmcnt. There are also fog signals and
bell buoys at the most dangerous points
round the coast. These warnings cost
about $40, 600 II year.
y perfect skeleton of the extinct Irish
elk has been discovered at Bcllalough,
III the isle of Man. 1t was found in IA
standing position ten feet beneath the
surface. The Irish elk was tho contem-
porary i'll Britain of the mammoth and
of the woolly rhinoccros.
Sir Algernon West declares in The
Nineteenth Century that $50, 900 per-
sons land i'll England every year at the
channel ports All their luggage is ex-
amincd by Il large staff of customs Off
GERS, with the result that no duty is col
lcctcd worth speaking of.
Tin mining i'll East Cornwall is re-
ported to be virtually an extinct indus