The Seattle Republican., 1900-12-07
Of
INTEREST
Pooled and Picked Up by Our
Man About Town.
A General Observation of Men and
Things-Facts and Figures About
Nations and Their Customs
Uncle Sans Great Commercial
Increase.

Paris has sixty wholesale firms
that deal exclusively in mushrooms.
Great Britain makes 8O0,0OO,00O
yards of linen year.
The Turkish people believe that
the sun retires at night for prayer
and religious recreation.
1t is said that an OK can carry on
a days journey 200 pounds, camel
400 and a man 80.
England has two new members Of
the house of commons who are mar
ried to American women.
According to a geolgist the sand
on the African desert varies in depth
from thirty to forty feet
Statistics declare that twenty mil
lion tons Of coal are brought into
London every year and consumed.
The ribs of tobacco leaves are now
being converted into pulp from
which paper is made.
The mineral output of Canada for
the year 1899 is placed at $47, ,000,-
600, of which S21 900 was cold.
A couple in Elizabeth, Pa, who
have been married sixty years now
have 227 descendants.
In Michigan compressed air mo-
tors are rapidly supplanting the use
of mules in the various mines of the
state.
According. to a dispatch from
British India, that government has
just expended $12,5OO,OOO on new
guns for its army.
Spain has one million women who
work in the fields as day laborers
and 350,000 women registered as
day servants None Of them earn
little more than their daily bread
Easton, Pennsylvania, has a wo-
man who was recently fined $50.25
for uttering seventy-fve oaths or 81
cents for each oath by the police
judge.
1t is now reported that there were
900 "cow punchers" hailing from
Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado
among the Canadian volunteers who
fought in South Africa.
Twenty years ago Toronto, Cana
da, began the erection Of a city hall,
which was to cost but 100000. The
hall is by no means near completed
as yet, and it has cost $2,345,O0O.
The tanners of this country are
using electricity in their business al
most exclusively, and this is -espec-
ialy done where electricity can be
successfully reached
Consumption seems to be the fatal
disease of Norway, and physicians
declare that not less than 1000 in
habitants of that country die an
nually from its ravages.
Titled Canadians have now reach
ed the fatal number of thirteen,
which is made up Of seven peers and
six baronets. Of non-hereditary
knights Canada boasts of thirty-two.
London has suffered considerably
for the past year from an ostrich
plume famine, which has been caus-
ed by the war in South Africa. 1t is
said over $4,000,000 worth of feath-
ers are sold yearly in London.
Juvenile smoking in Australia
seems to be encouraged rather than
forbidden, and smoking rooms are
built in connection with various
school houses, where the young ur-
chins can 90 out and smoke at
pleasure.
There are eight states in this
Union of states which have uniform
ly voted for Republican presidents
since 1860, viz: Maine, New Hamp-
shire, Vermont, Massachusetts,
Minnesota, Rhode Island, Pennsyl-
vania and Iowa.
A cave has been discovered in JEFF
ferson county, Indiana, which it is
thought will rival the famous un-
derground passage of Kentucky. Its
aperture was accidentally discover
ed and expert geologiSts are now ex-
ploring the underground cavern.
A German syndicate has just pur-
chased a large strip of land in the
mountains Of Eastern Kentucky,
on which they estimate there is at
present standing 100000 varieties
of the finest specimens of oak trees.
These are to be judiciously converted
into lumber.
Queen Victoria has a private rail
way station at Osborne, her country
home, and no one, not even mem
bers of the family, are allowed to use
the station but her. The royal yacht
is connected with the station, and
from this she can either enter her
yacht or her railway coach.