The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-19

bars which will stand as severe tests as the
original bars which supplied the filings
The first American life insurance company,
the Presbyterian Ministers Fund was
established in Philadelphia in 1859 and is
still in good condition, at the age Of 139
years.
The New Zealand old age pensions bill
provides that persons OF good character at
tanning sixty-five, and having resided for
twenty years in the colony, shall be entitled
10 a pension annually.
The British government is the owner of
over 5000 cames. Several thousand are
used in. India to carry stores and equip
ment when companies are changing quar-
tiers by line of march.
The sunflower is cultivated in many Euro
pean countries. In Russia the seeds are
parched and eaten like peanuts in the United
States. The oil is used for illuminat ting, and
often for culinary purposes.
The second parliament of religions ought
to be held at Benares, in 1900, according to
Indian papers, which call attention to the
fact that the city is sacred to 500,00 900
Buddhists and 200,OG0000 Hindus.
Siam has a population variously estimated
from 100000 20 10O0o 600, but the true figures
are probably about 5000 COO It's area which
approXmates 100000 square miles, or nearly
the size of Texas. could easily support
A crockery dealer shipped 325 dishes from
Lansing, Mich, to a missionary at Teheran,
Persia. The goods were seven months in
transit. and were carried eight hundred
lot was broken.
Corsets must not be worn by Russian
young women attending high schools, uni
versities and music and art schools, accord
ing to recent decree of the new minister
of education. They are to be encouraged
to wear the national costume.
One thousand dollars was paid in Boston
for a single sermon. The document is
known as the plymouth Sermon" by Rob
ert Cushman, and only five copies of it are
in existence. The volume which contains
If WAS nrinted in London in 1862
Lake Superior is zoos feet deep, COL feet
of this body being above sea level and 407
below it. The bottom of this great lake is
about 375 feet deeper down than the chan
nels giving admittance to New York har-
Dor. Lake Erie's greatest depth is 210 feet.
Little Chute is a Holland village in Wis
consin. Its chief manufacture is wooden
shoes. The people are as thoroughly Dutch
as their progenitorS. The town is on ground
where Pere Marquette had his winter quar-
ters and where the Dutch priests instructed
the Indians.
A St. Johnsbury, Vt, bank has just re-
ceived for verification an old bank book
that has been laid up since 1867. The first
and only deposit recorded therein is Sc. of
amount to Jan. 1. 1898, as just entered by
the bank officials, is 1886.
The tallest man in Missouri is A. G.
Waite, of Waverly. He is six feet eight
inches out of his boots. He is one of a
family of ten, the tallest of whom was sew
en- feet eight inches His smallest sister is
relatives of the late Chief Justice Waite.
The common soldier in Russia receives 3
rubles per annum-about $2.25 The day ra-
tons consist of two pounds. of suchary,
which is a very coarse kind of bread, made
of cracked rye, baked hard at first, then cut
into small pieces and further dried in a
heated oven, a small quantity of salt and
some soup
Fifty-one years ago well-known Nor
witch Comm merchant deposited So the
first money he ever earned, in the Savings
Bank of New London. Recently he was In
the city and for the first time had the in
terest added to his book. He was some
what surprised to learn that the SO had
grown to $136OS
In East Indian schools mental arithmetic
is a vastly more serious matter than it is
in the schools of this country. Catch ques-
lions are numerous in the Orient, and the
multiplication table is swollen into a noun
tain of difficulty by native teachers. Pupils
of ten years are taught to carry the multi
plication table up to 40 times 40.
The testimony in a contest to annu the
will of a deceased Maryland farmer has
developed the fact that the eccentric old
fellow was in the habit of digging holes on
his farm for the purpose of filing them
might empty the ocean and enable farmers
to plant potatoes on it's dry bottom.
The abandonment of the postoffice at Kas-
kaska, Ill., for want of patronage calls to
mind the fact that this is the oldest town
Sale in 1682-the same year in which Penn
founded Philadelphia. 1t has remained dis
tinctively French to this day, and the mod
ern movement seems to have avoided il.