The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-02-10
OUT OF THE ORDINARY.

OUT OF THE ORDINARY.
A genuine Stradivarius violin is worth
whatever the person owning it may ask
AT $1,000 it would not be deemed extrava-
CANT.
American exports of corn have averaged
la, 100000 bushels a year since 1895, an in
crease of 254 per cent. over the preceding
five years.
Lord Curzon calculates that the famine
has cost about $50, 900 lives in India, though
a much smaller number died directly of
starvation.
The Swiss census has just been declared.
and shows that there are 1872, 551 inhabi-
tants in Switzerland. In 1850 the population
was 1900, 116.
The Penobscot tribe of Indians, which
numbered 25 in 1880. is now about 400
strong. Maine appropriates annually $1,000
for their benefit.
The c~ostliest theater ticket was the first
New York, in 1850. 1t brought $3.50 and was
bought as an advertisement.
Arizona newspapers declare that deer,
antelope and mountain sheep will soon be
eXtlnguiShed there unless immediate steps
are taken for their preservation.
The editor OF Burke's Peerage, London,
says that he receives more inquiries about
questions of precedence from the United
States than he does from England.
OIiDTtlidS were not KNOWN In t1lS cOun-
try until a year or so before the revolu-
tfonary war, and 1t was more thar a
century thereafter that they came into gen.
eral use.
of the Andes in South America Is richer
in gold than the Klondike country and
gold can be taken with much less work and
p%rivation.
longevity of the horse. When left in the
wild state he lives to be thirty-six to forty
years old. The domestic horse is old at
twenty years.
Montana, Colorado and Arizona were
ahead of California last year in the aggre-
gate production of metals. The aggregate
of. Montana alone was $50, 00, 600, and of
Colorado. 100000.
Vicksburg, Miss, reports a recent fall of
10. % inches of rain i'm thirty-six hours. The
fall in twenty-four hours was 1903 inches,
which was the heaviest since the beginning
of the Weather Bureau records there in
September, 1872.
The Missouri Statehouse does not display
a national nag and does not own one. A
resolution authorizing the purchase of one
has been referred to the House committee
on federal relations. The belief in Jefferson
City is that the committee will pigeonhole
it.
The official report, just issued, shows
that during 1900 the number of pilgrims TO
Lourdes was 6OS,oeo,. among whom were
four cardinals and thirty archbishOps and
bishops. OF water from the grotto los, 600
bottles were dispatched TO all quarters of
the globe.
The abandoned farms of Massachusetts,
are fast being taken up. Three wears ago
there were 800 thus classed in the State. A
recent enumeration shows there are now
but 1856. All the rest have been sold to per-
sons who desired them for cultivation or
for summer homes.
The Kent County Savings Bank, located
in Grand Rapids. Mich, will i'm future be
conducted on the pro1t-sharing plan, ac-
cording to announcement just made. Each
employe is to become a member of the
firm and a 3 per cent. fund of all earnings
is to be divided yearly.
The remarkable longevity of the Society
Of Friends in Great Britain has been fully
sustained during the last year, the average
age at death in the United Kingdom. from
one TO 100 years, being sixty-one years,
seven months and seven days. Two women
members died over 100 years old.
Sir Robert Ball has been telling a youth
full audience in England that every hun
dred years the sun loses five miles of its
diameter. To allay anxiety, however, he
mentioned that the diameter of the sun is
$4,000 miles, and that 10000 years hence the
diameter would still be S5S, 900 miles.
Further excavations in the Forum at
Rome reveal the fact that the Christian
basilica recently unearthed on the Pala-
tine was the residence of the popes in the
eighth century. The following Inscription
has been discovered: Johannes VII, Ser
vus Del" John VII was Pope from 7O5 to
7OS A. d.
1t Is against the national laws 10 carry
gasoline on public ferryboats, and W.. X.
Vanderbilt, jr., whenever he wishes to
take a spin on Long island must hire a
special ferryboat to take him across from
New York. A bill is now pending in Con-
gress permitting automobiles to be carried
on the ferries.
Cattlemen in South Dakota are generally
agreed that it is time to abandon the pres
ent method of branding cattle as cruel. In
New Zealand they nave a composition
which is used to make an easily distin-
guishable mark. 1t is applied with a cold
iron, destroying the hair or hide, but not
causing pain to the animal.
Sistersville, w. Va, which is I'm a rich oil
and gas country, got its name from the
fact that an apparently valueless tract of
800 acres was given to seven sisters and
consequently called Sisters farm" A lit
tie prospecting showed the land to be i'm
mensely valuable, and a growing town of
some thousands Of Inhabitants now occu-
The Roman roads were built on the Tel
ford plan. with a substratum Of heavy
blocks of the stone most abundant I'm the
neighborhood, covered with a layer of
smaller stones or gravel. They were high
est in the middle, with a trench on each
side to carry off the water. and no trees
or shrubs were allowed to grow within 100
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