The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-08-04
NUBs OF KNOWLEDGE.


year for shaves.
The second city of ths British Empire
In size is Calcutta.
An area of the worlds coal fields Is
500 square miles.
Land in England is 500 times as valu-
able now as 1t was 200 years ago.
This country consumed $4,000 900 pounds
of tea I'm 1897, valued at Sl2,0O0,OO0.
Russia consumes on an average no less
than 100000 tons of liquid fuel year.
Great Britain buys more than 10000
horses in the United States every year.
An electric automobile in France re-
Gently ran 124 miles without recharging.
Liquid fuel is fast taking the place of
coal on the vessels plying in the far
East
At wardbury. Norway. the longest day
lasts from May q to July % without In
terruption.
1t IS estimated that the consumption
of beer In the entire world amounts to
N,OSO, 100000 per annum.
An immense steel rail order has been
awarded to the Carnegie Steel company
for Prussian railroads
In Berlin the pawnshop is a royal and
philanthropic institution. Any profit that
The copper production of the United
States in the year 1898 was the largest
ever recorded in a single year.
1t is estimated that at the beginning
of the new century England will have S2,-
OOO,OOO,OoO tons of coal still unused and
available.
1t has been estimated that English peo-
pie use an average of eight matches each
person per day. and annually over /, ,700,-
O0O,OO0,0O0 are burned.
At Roubaix, one of the Socialist strong
holds of France, the 1l,000 public school
children receive free food and clothing
at the expense of the town.
Electricity has been applied to the man.
ufacture of glass. A pot of glass can be
melted In fifteen minutes that by the
old process would require thirty hours.
During the nine years ended Dec. 81,
1892, the New York bureau gives the
cost 10 labor organizations of strikes,
lockouts and boycotts as $1S96, 1851, or
$2lO,6S506 per year
1t is reported from Washington that
the United States Navy Department has
under consideration the housing of sail
ors while on shore similar to the system
OF European countries.
1t is proposed to import several thou
sand Chinese direct from China to work
on the coffee plantations of southern
Mexico. The crops are suffering owing
to lack of native labor.
Perhaps the only word that is the same
in all languages is the "IIello!" in re-
sponse to the telephone call. Wherever
there is telephone line the word is in
use, and means just what 1t does In Eng
lish.
New York city annually pays $50 in
gold, in one payment, to every blind per
son who has been a year a resident of
the metropolis, and who has not been
an occupant of city institution during
that time
Eighty-four per cent. of the entire
state of Idaho is still public land amount
ing to more than 100000 acres OF this
area 1t has been estimated by the govern
ment Geological Survey that 1000 OJO
acres can be successfully irrigated.
If the reports of the criminal courts
of the state of New York may be taken
as an index it is safe to say that crime
Is on the decrease in the United States.
in 1897 there were 4,523 convictions, as
against only 1867 in 1898. This shows a
decrease of 596, or nearly 20 per cent.
An odd monument was desired by an
elderly maiden lady vino died a few
weeks ago in Athlone, Ireland. She left
fortune of G2I000 to be spent in the
erection of a church. provided that her
body should be converted into ashes and
used in making the mortar for building
the edifice.
At a meeting of middle class women of
Athens. held recently, it was decided 10
ask parliament to impose a heavy tax
on all bachelors over 40 years old. Tho
passage of any such measure is said to
be unlikely, for the Chamber has become
chief n ll-tn
Consequently the tax would hit them
heavily.
The most costly and precious wine in
the world Is that contained in a cask
named the Rose" in the Bremen Town
Hall cellars This Rudesheim, of the
vintage of the year 1868, is of the color
of old ale, and has a wonderful aroma,
though a rather hard taste. 1t is never
sold, but is used exclusively for the sicK
of Bremen.
Whales teeth form the coinage of the
Fiji Islands. They are painted white and
red, the red teeth being worth about 20
times as much as the white. The native
carries his wealth around his neck, the
red and white of his coinage forming a
brilliant contrast to his black skin. A
common and curious sight in the FIJI
Islands is a newly married wife present
ing her husband with dover of whales
teeth.
The Chicago Tribune gives the origin
of the round robin. When citizens OF
| ancient Athens. wished to protest against
the tyranny of their ruler they drew a
circle at the bottom of their manifesto
divided it into equal compartments by
drawing lines from the circumference tc
| the center and signed their names in the
spaces so made so that it was impOssi-
BILE to tell who was the first man to sign
| and, consequently, the leader of the con
spiracy. At the banquets of the old
Romans a list of the guests was made in
the same way. so that no one of them
could feel himself particularly honoret