The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1900-04-06
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

-1nc department OF agriculture Will
plant 100000 rubber trees in the Ha-
waiian islands.
1t is said that South Africa has en-
tirely knocked out Brazil as Il diamond
exporting country.
Iona island. in the Hudson river,
near New York city, may be selected as
the site for Il new naval magazine.
Flexible shafting has been put to a
new use. 1t is arranged so as to be at
tached to source of motive power for
tree trimming.
Wesleyan university, at Middletown,
Conn.,, may found an annex Tor women
students on the plan now in vogue mt
Harvard and Brown universities.
In the University library at Ithaca,
y. v, there has been placed memorial
tablet to Clifton b. Brown, student
who fell in the charge ut San Juan.
One quarter of the people on the
earth die before the age of &, one-half
before the age of 16. and only l out of
each 100 born lives to the age of Is.
a movement is on foot in Albany to
erect statue to Gen. Philip Sheridan.
1t is rather strange that this warriors
birthplace has not already done him that
honor.
Catholic missionary work has been
resumed OH the suppression of Mahdism
in Omdurman and Khartoum. and schools
for the natives will shortly be erected
in both cities.
The modern kid glove goes through
the hands of 235 workmcn before it is
finished. At least 4O.OOO.OOO pairs were
manufactured in France last year, their
value being $25,O0O,OO0.
When strengthening the curves on
the main line of the Chicago, Burlington
Il Quincy railroad. at Rome. Ia, a gang
of men dug up hone of Il prehistoric
animal Of considerable size.
The largest cargo of breadstuffs ever
put atloat for the Orient was cleared at
Portland. Or. in the Arab, which held
the equivalent of 231.771 bushels of
wheat. valued at $4,000.
The most renowned ruby i'll the
world is in the crown of the Car Of Rus
STA. In shape it resembles Il bishops
inter. and on it's crest is Il cross COM
posed Of six superb diamonds.
There arc 6.730,OOO volumes i'll the
libraries Of the American colleges and
universities. Harvard has ~, 10 vol
umrS Chicago university :SoO,O 600, Column
ba 275,ONO and Cornell 225,0OO.
-Electro-metlical treatment is given
patients by means Of new sofa, which
has batteries and an induction coil con-
tanned in the lower portion. with head
and foot plates to be placed in contact
with the patient.
Owing to the large number Of deaths
caused by enteric fever in South Africa
the British war office is now including
two flannel belts III the outfit of every
man going out. They are excellent safe
guards against the disease.
While holes were being drilled Oh the
Canadian side of Niagara Falls recently
natural gas was struck. The matter will
he investigated further but already 1t is
possible that Il cheap fuel supply may be
found for new industries at Niagara.
In Englewood, Chicago suburb. the
board of education compels pupils who
or more to submit to medical eXamina-
ton by a physician appointed by the
board before being readmitted to school.
Tea can be made for individual cups
by a new cup attachment, having Il
metallic disk to rest on the top of the
cup with a screen basket in the center
in which the tea is placed. Il cap closing
the opening after the hot water is poured
in.
To provide drinking water on locomo-
tiveS a Southern man has designed Il
tank to fit in one side of the large water
tank on the tender. the body of the small
tank being surrounded by the water in
the large tank to keep the drinking wa
ter cool. -~-s
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 siren
nous shouts fail to penetrate even Il few
feet of snow.
-Burrowing animals are driven out of
their holes or suffocated by a Califor-
mans compound, which is formed of sui
rhur, tar and petroleum applied by a
inH. mab Ia ri,1 30
nitrd and inserted in the burrow by a
pair of slender tongS.
To accurately show the location of
4 ship channel in Il harbor new sig
nal system has a series of anchored sta
items carrying audible signals which are
connected by cables with motor on
shore: the latter pulling the cables at in
tervals to give positive signals.
Only short time ago there was not
so much as one tall chimney in the whole
III the Mika,lo's empire, nor did the IA.
ton possess either railway or steamers
l''a! there are cotton mills with al
most 100000 spindles and an army of
skilled operatives 25,OOO strong
-lhe bottoms Of trousers legs can be
turned up neatly and the fronts held in
their natural position by a Russian de-
the. edge of the trousers to support a
series of balls, which grip on the rear
edge Of the leg as it is folded over.
\ traveller tells the New York Tri-
bune of the actual case of Il man whose
father was English, his mother Irish.
who was born under the French flag,
IN Turkish waters, christened by a Rus
san baptized by a Greek sky pilot, mar
RED an American and lives in Cuba.
1t is notorious fact that the aver
age government clerk is the most i'm
provldent person found in any class of
employment. In proportion to the
amount OF pay he receives he has more
debts that he is unable to meet than the
man who gets 30 per cent. less money.
-ltaiys sanitary precautions are i'll
ter!erlng with the jubilee pilgrimage. A
.ralnioad OF 5bl Marseilles pilgrims was
stopped at the frontier and informed
that everyone must be vaccinated before
entering Italy. The pilgrims refused to
submit and were sent back to Marseilles.
James Mennt, now in New York CITY
hospital, Blackwell's island, has the lare-
est head in the world. 1t is 81 1-8 inches
IN circumference, as against % for the
average. Yet he is only 4 feet l inch
ID height. His trunk is built on gigan-
tic lines, but his legs are very short and
thin: anu
-EXcellent results have been obtained
with the use of oil in blast furnaces. If
Is lnterposed between the hot-air stoves
and the tuyeres Of the blast furnace.
me OIL is drawn by the blast into the
furnace. where it increases the temporal
ture and also facilitates the reduction Of
the ore. VA
MOT only is it healthy to yawn. !"
says a French physician. ''but artifc;a,
yawning should be rcsorted to in eases
OF sore throat, buzzing of the ears, ca
tarrh and like trouble" 1t is said 70 he
as encaclous in its way as gargling the
throat, with which process it should be
continued. W
The Ontario government has COM
pleted arrangements for the formation of
forest of almost 5000 square miles in
extent, embracing the district in which
Lakes Iamagami and Lady Evelyn are
situated. The bulk of the reserve is
virgin forest, with the finest white pine
in Canada upon it.
There are &c. 65 students matric1,-
lated in the twenty-one German univer-
sites st s this winter semester, as against
5z,o91 last year: The largest numbers
are at Berlin, 6151; Munich, 4O49, and
IIplnSlc 21Q7 TVn,, nALo.