The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1900-10-18
The bells Of Picking, seven in num-

in Colorado where it is in operation 81
an acre.
An English curate has been dismiss
cd because he is poor cricket player,
though no fault was found with his
theology.
The skin Of the elephant Charlie Kill
ed in Crystal palace, London, weighed
a ton, lust one-fourth of the weight of
the beast in life.
South Dakota has an aggregate OF
11.500.OOO acres of vacant government
land which is now subject to entry by
qualified applicants.
So useful are toads in gardens that
they are sold in France 10y the dozen
for stocking gardens TO free them from
many injurious insects.
In Paris a journal is published for
theater physicians. Nearly every spe-
cial branch Of medical service now has
its own particular organ.
The republic of Guatemala has inn
posed n tax of $40 a head on all cattle
exported from the country. 1t is in
tended to be prohibitive
The grape crop throughout Baden
and Alsace-Lorraine looks better in
quantity and quality than I'm 1898,
which was the best year since lS6S.
The jellyfsh has no teeth, but uses
himself as If he were a piece of paper
when he is hungry, getting his food
and then wrapping himself about 1t.
A recent issue Of The Pan-American
Atlas. published in Berlin, says there
are $4,000 persons of German birth or
descent in South and Central America
and the Vest Indies.
The New York board Of estimate and
apportionment has authorized the eX-
penditure Of 100000 for the botanical
garden and $4,000 for an addition to
the American Museum of Natural His
tory.
Railway whistles inhict torture on so
many people that Austria has introduce
ed a system of silent signaling to start
and stop the trains Belgium is trying
compressed air whistles instead Of
steam, and Germany experiments with
horns.
A landSlip occurred some time ago
in Sattel. Switzerland. An inn and its
garden and Outbuildings slid down the
hillside a distance Of 30 feet without
being in the least injured. Two stately
elms in the garden were also moved
without injury.
Race horses are like men. When
they have become disabled or inca
pacitated, they often fall from their
high estate. Mansour, the horse that
ran third in the Paris Grand PriX in
1894 and came in only a length behind
Matchbox, which was sold for $4,000,
is now pulling a cab in Paris
Twenty-three per cent Of the pupils
of London schools have defective eye
sight The experts who have made a
report on the subject declare that resi-
dence in crowded districts is injurious
to eyes, as in the city Al per cent are
defective, while in Greenwich the per-
centage is only IS.
The average annual total of water
which falls as rain or snow in the Unit
ed States is 1,407 cubic miles. This
amount of rain would more than twice
I'LL Lake Ontario. To raise this water
to the clouds from which it fell would
require the work Of 5OO,OOO,OOO horses
working ten hours q day throughout
the year
The pablic buildings of the United
States have cost since the foundation
Of the government exclusive of the
buildings in Washington and those en-
ployed by the army and navy S154, 49,
3S4 OF this the sites have cost $22.-
755,167, and there remains So, S43,575
to be expended on these buildings be-
fore they are completed.
There is an idea in India that a lion
cannot be induced to attack royal
Oersonages. At the same time it is a
fact that no scion of royalty ever goes
on O lion hunt without a sufficient
-etinue about him to frlghten all the
lions IN the jungle. Princes are no
more likely to attack the king Of beasts
single handed than peasants are.
The authorities Of Cologne are deter
mined that there shall be no infrac-
lions of the fast driving laws in that
city. One of the provisions Of a recent
ly enacted ordinance limits the speed
of motor vehicles to II kilometers
about 716 niles an hour and requires
that each machine be fitted with an
apparatus preventing a transgression
Of the rule.
Mexico seems anxious to get back
the SOUS and grandsons of her former
citizens who are now citizens Of the
United States living in California, Col
brado, Arizona and New Mexico. In
colonization concession recently made
the government stipulated that all col
onists must be from foreign countries,
with preference for those of Mexican
origin now in the states and territories
above mentioned.
The remarkable number of deaths by
drowning proves that too many per-
sons venture into waters without
knowing how to swim. About so per
cent of those drowned this summer did
not have that knowledge. This is all
the more wonderful when knowledge
of swimming may so easily be had. A
person OF average physique would be
able to swim several hundred feet aft
er dozen lessons. -se.
REV. S. A. DoNAHoE