The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1900-07-19
CURRENT TOPICS.

exert q force OF 534 pounds.
A ten-story office building is to be
erected in Birmingham, Ala.
A big portion Of the Georgia fruit
crop is to be canned this year.
The citizens Of Calhoun, Ga, have
subscribed 100000 for a cotton mill.
In Illinois during the last fifteen
years birds have decreased SO per
cent.
The Russian people are only begin
ming to realize the advantages of life
insurance.
Munster, Germany, has a high
school which has been in existence
1,100 years.
London newsboys are now prohibit
ed from yelling forth the contents of
their wares.
New Zealand has now sent nearly
two thousand men to the front in
South Africa.
Public story-tellers still earn a good
livelihood in Japan. In Tokyo 600 of
them ply their trade.
A sign outside a Lombard street
(Philadelphia) restaurant reads:
pigs feet. Walk in"
In China, twelve miles from Lion
Chek, there is a mountain of alum,
which yields 100 tons yearly.
In 1870 there were 5000 Shakers in
the United States. At present they
do not number nor than 100.
The catalogue of the Paris expo
sition contains the names of nearly
10000 exhibitors of all nations.
According to the School Review
only 41.51 per cent. of the pupils in
American high schools are boys.
Louise Chandler Moulton, the poet,
has just sailed for Europe, where she
will spend the summer in travel.
In Kansas it is proposed to start
q magazine which shall be contrib
uted to only by residents of Kansas.
The aging Of timber, which former
~ required long storage, is now COM
pleted by electricity in a few hours.
Twelve dollars and thirty cents is
the annual, allowance of 7,o51 pen
sioners of the state of South Carolina.
Twelve women out of sixteen were
successful candidates at an examina-
ton for sanitary instructors in Lon
don.
The last descendant of John Bunyan
has just died in Lincoln, England.
She was Mrs. T. N. Keyworth, and
was 80 years old.
Lord Roberts has been in the Brit
fish army for forty-nine years, having
started in the service when he was
twenty years old.
The franchises Of nearly 1000 cor
porations in Texas have been revoked
recently because Of their failure to
pay the state taxes.
The British government expects a
drought in India about twice in every
nine years-and a great famine like
the present about twice a century.
In Indiana there are 1902 miles of
telephone and telegraph wires, valued
for taxation at $4,695 $50, and $500
miles of railway, assessed at $~153 $780,
s4s.
Stephen Crane used to do nearly all
his writing very late at night, fire.
quently working until 8 or 8 o'clock
and then sleeping for six or eight
hours.
AS there is very little cold weather
in Mexico, no necessity exists for lay
ing in winter stores of honey, and the
bees 10, therefore, as lazy as a grass
hopper.
There were 1,O57,93 8 acres seeded to
sugar beets in Germany last year.
The yield is about eleven and a quar-
ter tons per acre of beets, containing
IL per cent. of sugar.
Ii Hung Chang maintains at his own
expense a force of 5000 soldiers as a
bodyguard. They are nc part of the
Chinese army and r the best paid
soldiers in the empire.
American lard sells in Singapore
at "a cents a pound in ten-pound cans.
American canned fruits, vegetables
and meats, as well as American bug
giles, are also sold there.
Cups and saucers r never used for
tea anywhere in Russia. The teacup
is an unknown article. The drinking
vessel for tea is the "stakan," a glass
tumbler in a silver holder. No Rus
sian ever drinks milk in his tea.
Brazil has practically a monopoly
of the carbonate or black diamond,
which is used in diamond drills and
for other abrasive purposes. 1t is
found in Cape Colony and some other
places, but is commercially important
only in Brazil.
The number of Mohammedans has
been estimated at 196,5O0, 00O. OF
these 100000 are under the rule of
the Turkish government, 23,000,000 are
ruled by other Musselman sovereigns,
&c. SOC, 900 are subject to African
princes, 100000 900 live in China, and
o 9 1000, 900 are under other rulers. Of
these last about 100000 belong to
India and Beloochistan.
Mrs. Kruger says in an interview
that she has fifty-three relatives in
the field in the Boer war-four sons,
six sons-in-law and forty-three grand
sons.
Twain at the Telephone.
While living at his home at Hartford,
Conn.,, Mark Twain was one morning deep
in the composition of some humorism from
which he expected a good deal, when he was
called to the telephone. He told the servant
to receive the message and bring it to him,
but in a few moments was informed that the
party at the other end of the wire wanted
him. Provoked at the interruption, Mark
went to the telephone, and, after "helloing"
for some time without an answer, he used
some language not generally seen in print,
but which was certainly picturesque. While
thus engaged he heard an answer in aston
ished tones and recognized the voice of an