The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-07-31
NUBS OF KNOWLEDGE.

The number of immigrants from South
ern Italy during the last fiscal year was
G5,GG9, of whom 20,O52 were females.
The poorhouses in forty-hve Kansas
counties are empty. and in thirty-seven
counties there is not case on the
criminal docket.
The trip from St. Petersburg to the
eastern boundary of the Russian empire
can now be made partly by rail, partly
with cemels, for about $1GO.
Kansas City has established an insti-
tute particularly for substitute teachers,
in order that they may be kept up to the
modern methods of teaching.
The construction of a cigar box may
seem to be a very simple matter to the
novice, but the box posses through 10
different processes before it is ready to
receive the cigars.
At Munich there is a hospital which is
entirely supported by the sale of old
steel pens and nibs collected from all
parts Of Germany. They are made iuto
watch springs, knives and razors.
Within the past eight years there has
been a gain of Sc per cent. in the enroll
ment of the secondary schools of the
United States rate of increase said TO
be five times that Of the increase in pop
ulation.
A new Atlantic steamship service be-
tween Glasgow and New York will go into
operation in the autumn. The promoters
of the line are the Logan company Of
British shipowners of Liverpool and
Rankin & GilmOur of Glasgow.
1t is stated that Captain Pastorio. of
the Italian headquarters staff has disCov-
cred a means of rendering acetylene gas
non-explosive. The Italian war office, It
is said, has decided to buy the patent,
the secret of which is closely guarded.
A negro community In Alabama, con-
tanning about 400 negroes and but two
white persons is about to be incOrpOr-
ated. The negroes propose to have
strict negro town and negro government.
All the officials will he negroes. 1t will
doubtless be the only municipality Of
the kind IN the United States.
There are in the hands of the people Of
India today more copies of the Bible
than of any other book. An influential
Hindu newspaper testiiles that scarcely
an educated man can be found in India
who has not read it, and adds that it g
impossible for Hindu not to feel n
profound respect for the Bible.
The most northern newspaper in the
world is published at Hammerstein, Rus
sia. The editorial work is done in a
small wooden house rooted with turf.
The paper is called the NOrdkap, and is
published weekly. The news is frequent
ly fortnight old before it reaches the
subscribers. Most subscriptions are paid
in fish.
a missionary in Colombia relates the
following incident to give some idea of
| the life Of the children in that republic:
"A boy dressed in natures garb came in
| to the consuls office one day wishing to
| sell the consul something. The consul
| told him to go home and get some clothes
| and then come back, promising him a
| purchase. The boy returned after some
| time wearing a hat and pair of shoes
While the map of Egypt shows more
/ than 100000 square miles, an area seven
| times as great as New England, the prac-
| tical Egypt-that which produces crops
and sustains lfe-is barely as large as
| the states Of Vermont and Rhode Island
taken together. This, says ex-Consul
| General Pcnheld, is the ribbon-lke strip
| of alluvial land bordering on the Nile,
| few miles wide on each side, and mcasur-
| ing not more than l0,5O0 square miles.
| An immense storage reservoir at the first
! cataract will, when built, rescue from the
| desert an area twice the size of Rhode
| Island. Mr.. Pcnhed regards this en-
| terprisc, which will cost England $500, 900
| n year for thirty years, as exploitation
| In the truCst sense.
| Lloyds Register OF Shipping gives the
| entire fleet of the world as 2S lS0 steam
ers and sailing vessels, with a total ton
| mage Of 1858 52S, Of which 80 per cent
| are British. The Americans come next
| with 800 vessels, with a total tonnage
| Of 2 ,3S7 Norway has 2,52S vessels, with
| a tonnage Of only 1854, 230. Germany has
| l676 vessels, with a tonnage of p ass, 1884,
| I'm which are included her particularly
| large ships. Sweden has LAOS vessels.