The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-09-08
NOTES OF INTEREST.


In Italy bread and sugar cost about
thrice what they do in England.
The German army includes more
than 10000 military musicians.
The greatest customers the Peoria
distillers have are the Japanese.
Something very similar to the tele-
phone was used in China 1000 years ago.
1t will surprise many to learn that
ear diseases wer studied some S4OO years
ago.
The Argentine republic imported ma
chinery last year to the value Of $S,OOO,-
600.
An apparatus has been devised for
automatically photographing people as
they enter shops and other places.
Madrid has at present Sc daily pa
pers and 1913 weeklies. Two of the daily
papers have circulations of over 100, 900
copies.
There are lightweight silk plants in
Pennsylvania. and the output of silk rib
bon in the state has been doubled in three
years.
The average duration of yellow fever
is a week. but in graver cases the attack
may, be precipitate and prove speedily
fatal.
There is in the far West Il little in
sect called the "tule gnat," which is re-
markable for it's almost total lack of
weight.
While Liverpool has greatly increased
i'll Importance as shipping port, 1t has
for years steadily declined as ship
building center.
belgium has the largest amount of
railroad in comparison with its total
area. the amount being 32.2 miles to each
square mile of area.
All mechanical powers, the screw,
lever. pulley. inclined plane. wedge,
wheel and axle, were known to the an
clients and used in everyday life.
Whales from 300 to 400 years old are
sometimes met with. The age is ascer.
tanned by the size and number of the
whalebone, which increases yearly.
"A summer street car has been de-
signed which has windows on the sides
for use in stormy weather, the window
frame being pivoted on the roof supports.
Ecuador produces nearly one-third Of
the entire cacao used in the world. The
total is estimated at $4,000 tons. The
average crop of Ecuador is about % 900
tons.
The finest looking people of Europe
are said to be the Tziganes, or gypsies,
Of Hungary. Physically they are splen.
did specimens Of men and women, aud
are rarely i'll.
-Mormonsm has taken refuge in
Switzerland. Recently-published statis-
tics apprise us that there are no fewer
than 100 Mormoms scattered about the
Swiss republic.
A new way of blasting rock is to
place a cartridge of water in a shot hole
and convert it into steam instantly by
electricity. This method is especially ap-
picable in coal mines.
-Anaesthetics were known in the days
of Homer and the Chinese 1000 years ago
had 4 preparation Of hemp known as
una yo' to deaden pain-something SINH
lar to our modern cocaine.
Commentators Bodia. all Italian
statiStician has computed from railroad
returns of passengers that the foreign
ers who visit Italy spend BOG, 900, 600
francs a year in the country.
A New Orleans man is said to have
invented Il susar-cane planter, in the
form of wagon, that with three men
and four mules will do the work hereto
fore done by nine men and nine mules.
DIR. Laborde French physician, in
a brochure on the subject, declares that,
unless measures are taken at once to pre-
vent it, the French working class in a
few years will become habltual drunk
ards.
After the convict has served out his
term in the Maine penitentiary, and has
donned the suit Of clothes given him by
the state, he is required to sit for his
photograph, and it is kept for future ref
erence.
The spider that seeks out pebble
and anchors her web with it clearly
makes use of tool. The pebble is anal
uyous to the iron anchor used by man.
Spiders have been seen to use nails for
anchors.
The free distribution in San Fran
cisco of antitoXin to sufferers from diph-
liberia who could not afford to pay for it
has resulted, us elsewhere, in halvlng the
death rate from that disease, reducing it
to I'LL per cent.
The Liverpool corporation is about to
invest Il quarter of a million pounds ($1,-
2:NOOO) to provide electricity for street
railway and other traction, lighting and
all other purposes for which steam has
hitherto been used.
1T is stated that the Welsh tinplate
trade is in better condition at the pres
ent time than it has been for several
years, and that upward of 400 mills, or
double the number seven or eight years
ago, are IN operation.
In West Africa the natives hiss when
they are astOnished; in the New He
brides when they see anything beautiful.
The Basutos applaud popular orator in
the assemblies by kissing at him. The
japanese, again, show their reverence by
hiss.
The wealthy Russians are said to be
extremely profitable to hotel and shop
keepers in the lands in which they travel.
Swiss authority insists that 200 Rus
SLAMS will spend more in month than
1000 English men and women for the
same period of time.
-Housekeepers in Berlin are facing
what seems to be a crisis in the servant
question. Recently the ''dienstmaed-
chem have been seized with a fever for
going into factories and dressmaking es-
Establishments, and now those who are lef..
forming a labor union.
w. H. Farr of Osborne county, Has,
though weighing but 1875 pounds, is a
prodigy of strength. Recently, on Il
wager of $50, he carried $50 pounds Of
Hour on his back three miles without set
ting it down or resting, and then offered
to carry it back over the same route
The famous stepping stones at Boil
ton abbey, England, are picturesque, but
like those of other rural and romantic
streams. they have been the cause of
endless Inconvenience and not few
ugly mishaps. The Duke of Devonshire
has recently erected footbridge over
the river just below the stepping stones.
Over 100 volumes of the Rebellion
Records have been published by the gov
eminent at a cost Of $2,6OO,OO0. a pub
lie library in a town near Boston has
Il 1Uil SET, ana the lDrarlan says Ill his
report: When Henry 3. Pierce was
alive he used to look at some of them
once in Il while. but now there is only
one man in town who ever calls for any
Of the set
Many clocks with weights and wheels
were in use in England during Chaucer's
time, and most of the inconsistencies Of the
Fourteenth century possessed clocks,
though these were used to show the as
Economical movements, as well as the
passage Of hours. Throughout the Fiji
tccnth century clocks were made most
ly by armorers and blacksmiths, as they
were constructed of iron and steel.