The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-03-25
OUT OF THE ORDINARY.

The population of London increases by
10000 a year.
Breslau has a paper chimney fifty feet
nigh and perfectly fireproof.
The average cost of a British soldier is
e64 a year. The Swiss soldier costs about
G14 a year.
More than $50, 100000 worth of timber was
destroyed in the recent forest fires in the
State of Washington.
There is a clock in Brussels which has
never been wound up by human hands. 1t
Is kept going by the wind. 4
One-quarter of the people on the earth
die before the age of six, one-half before
the age of sixteen and only one out of each
100 born lives to the age of sixty-five.
Fifteen years ago native Christians could
rarely find employment in India. Now they
are preferred by contractors, because they
do more and better work than the heather.
t 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 into watch
springs, knives and raZOrs.
The Cossacks are almost never mer-
chants. Although they alone maintain near
ly $4,000 fighting men and can muster 12S,GO
in an emergency, there are but 40 of their
own people engaged in business.
According to the Engineer. grindstones
should not be run by gas engines If they run
other tools, as the putting on and throwing
off of the power affects appreciably their
speed, and thus causes the stones to burst.
King Menelik has an army of at least
0 5000 men armed with the best modern
artillery and rifles, and with Russian and
French advisers. Not many years ago this
Abyssinian army totally defeated the
Italians.
The drought this season has cost the
Southwest far more than the disastrous
freeze of last winter, having cut down the
crops greatly, causing sickness, and ad-
vanced the price of coal and many other
necessities.
DR.. f. Apery. of Constantinople a well
known scientist, says that he can clear
ships and warehouses of rats by the use
of carbOnic acid gas, which. being heavier
than air, would sink to the bottom and
Suffocate them.
The queerest church in the world is in
of paper and rendered waterproof by an APP
plication of quicklime with curdled milk
and white of eggs. Over 1000 people may
be seated in its interior.
South American journals declare that
emissaries of the United States are buying
up large tracts of land in Brazil. Peru and
Chill for the purpose of getting a hand
in local political questions, with the ulti-
mate view of annexation.
While holes were being drilled on the
Canadian side of Niagara Falls recently
natural gas was struck. The matter will
be investigated further, but already it is
possible that a cheap fuel supply may be
lOuuu lOT new iuuuSlTIcS DIT V>ldSdTd.
A comparison of New York's share of
the total export trade two decades ago
with its present trade shows a loss of Is per
cent. last year. against a gain of $50 per
cent. for Boston, 66 per cent. for Philadel-
phia and 2O per cent. for Baltimore.
Burrowing animals are driven out of
their holes or suffocated by a Californian's
| compound, which is formed of sulphur, tar
and petroleum applied by a fbrous, infam-
mable material. being isnited and inserted
In the burrow by a pair of slender tongs.
1t is stated on the authority of those
who have undergone the experience, that
people buried in an avalanche hear dis
tinctly every word uttered by those who
are seeking them, while their most strenu-
Gus shouts fail TO penetrate even a few
feet of snow.
Wagon Hill, at Ladysmith, takes its
name from the peculiar formation of a
clump of tress on the top, which so closely
resembles a wagon at a little distance as
to deceive anybody but an expert. The
hill extends for about a mile in length and
is about five hundred feet high.