Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-10-31
Curious COMBINATIONS


In Cochin China the parties desiring
| the presence of witnesses and the thing
Is done.
| There are something like 10000 public
schools in Japan. The buildings are
! comfortable, and education is com
! pulsory.
| No human head was impressed or
coins until after the death of Alexan-
der the Great. All images before that
| time were Of deities.
| The wives of Siamese noblemen cut
their hair so that it sticks straight nI
! from their heads. The average length
of 1t is about ~ inches.
In Siberia, IL a man is dissatisfied
with the most trifiing acts of his wife,
he tears a cap or veil from her face,
and that constitutes a divorce.
Among the Tartars. if the wife is i'll
treated, she complains to the magia-
trate, who. attended by the principal
people, accompanies her to the house
and pronounces divorce.
There are hundreds OF millionaires in
Russia whose fortunes are in the shape
Of vast domains containing gold and
silver of incalculable value, but which
have never been developed.
The Japanese language is said to con-
tain $4,000 words. 1t is quite impos-
sible for one man to learn the entire
Language, and a well educated japanese
is familiar with only about 10000 words.
The aboriginal population of Aus
tralian Is dying out SO rapidly that 1t
has been proposed to establish reserva-
lions where the remnants can be in
structed in agricultural labor and
cared for.
At Pompeii a mosaic life-size portrait
Of woman. the first antique portrait
in mosaic ever discovered, has been
found. The workmanship is so fine
that il is difficult to discern that it is
not a painting.
The new cigarette making machine is
raising the duce in England. In Liver
pool 1900 girls will be thrown out of
work, and many more in other cities.
The machine rolls from $50 to 500
cigarettes a minute.
North Carolina has 1867 registered
distilleries. their product last year hay-
ing been 620.716 gallons. The moon
shine output for the same period not
scheduled is thought to have been
about the same amount.
Spiders are serious plague in Japan.
They spin their webs on the telegraph
wires, and are so numerous as to cause
serious loss of insulation. Sweeping
the wires does little good, as the
I'll al
Clover sickness, a common disease
that often ruins clover crops. has
caused German scientists to make ex-
periments. They now say that farmers
will soon be able to inocuate their
lands just as human beings may be
treated.
The cent consists of 80 per cent. of
copper and five per cent. tin and zinc.
There are 1000. 000, 900 pennies in circu-
lation throughout the country. and the
Philadelphia mint is turning them out
at the rate of 100000 a month to keep
up the supply.
A rhetorical reporter of the Topeka
Capital wrote of the victim of an ac-
cident that 'as he lay grooming in his
Inconsistencies the rats crept out of
their holes, and, emboldened by his
silence. came closer, until one dared to
bite his hand
The present Royal Crown of Great
Britain was made especially for the
coronation of Queen Victoria. To manu-
faeture it number of old crowns be-
longing to the preceding sovereigrs
were broken up. and the gems ex-
tracted for use in the queens crown.
The closing of the leaves of plants as
the evening comes on was at first sup
posed by botanists to be due to the
difference in the temperature, but on
transplanting the plants into a hot
house it was found that the same
phenomenon occurred, the leaves clos
ing at sunset.
In certain class of Russian schools
the highest reward given is the initial
letter of the empress name. 1t CON
sists of the initial in solid gold. an inch
and a quarter in height, on blue bow.
Should its possessor ever become
governess it will entitle her to a higher
salary than she could otherwise obtain.
Soap has been in use for 5000 years
and is twice mentioned in the Bible A
few years ago a soap boilers shop was
discovered in Pompeii, having been
buried beneath the terrible rain of
ashes that fell upon that city 70 A. D.
The soap found in the shop had not
lost all its efficacy. although it had
been buried 1900 years.
The chief of the Philadelphia
weather bureau. in a paper recently
read by him. showed the wonderfully
large aggregate to which apparently
trivial but continued leaks may
amount. One drop of leakage per sec
ond amounts to five gallons per day.
This may we'll be remembered by CEN
tral stations with leaky piping. paying
for water by meter, and also that APP
parently trivial steam leaks are a loss
not only of water. but of coal, and cleo
trical leaks. of water, coal and labor.
Bret Harte's story, "Tennessee's
Partner is said to have been sug-
gested to the author by the touching
and beautiful friendship which binds
together two old men who have lived
more than 40 years in the mountains
on the route to the Yosemite. They
nave a little gold mine which yields an