The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-07-23
THINGS WORTH KNOWING.

IN FRANCE doors and windows are
taxed IN over 100000 houses, and re-
turns made few years ago showed
that the amount received from such
taxation was just about half as much as
was received from the land tax. Every
railway ticket In France Is taxed and, in
Efact. In that country almost everything of
taxed either by central or local authorities,
or both. Everything that goes into any
city or town In the shape of wine, fruit,
poultry. fish. or any kind Of food or drink
IL taxed as 1t enters. Any person placing
tables. plants. or flowers in front of his
establishment or an awning over doors or
windows Is taxed for SO doing. The town
authorities Of Bonn. in Germany. have de-
creed that every projecting window or bal
cony shall be taxed SO marks, or about
$12.o0 year.
Here is a curious chain of circumstances
with its disastrous link: A plumber occu-
plying basement on upper Broadway. New
York. lighted candle In mid-forenoon and
set it on a box In the middle of the room.
Now. what series Of events could you in,-
agine would cause that candle to set fire to
the ceiling. five feet overhead?
This is what happened The workmen on
the subway. couple Of streets above. had
dug a hole In a big rock and filed 1t with
dynamite. The rock was a long one, and
some rods away was Directly underneath a
big water main. When the blast occurred
this pipe was broken and set great
stream of water up into the air. lne water
ran down hill, flooded the plumbers base
ment set the box at1oat. and lifted the still
lighted candle higher and higher until it
touched the wooden ceiling above and set
it on fire. The same combination of cir
cumstances would not happen again in a
million years
There are albinos in nearly every species
of created things-white negroes, white ele-
plants. white mice and white deer-but up
to a recent date no one had ever seen a
white rhnoceros. says an exchange. 1t is
now reported that these are in existence
in recently explored portion of Africa.
They are almost extinct, and probably not
! more than dozen or so are left. For
/ tunately. they are strictly protected by
| law and. fortunately also, the party tnat
met the animals included the governor of
/ the colony, otherwise the species might
| have been now more nearly extinct than
| ever before. for hunters are not very
scrupulous in such matters.
The rhinOcerOS were moving at slow
| pace toward a jungle and easily allowed
| the observers to approach The party came
| within so yards of the huge quadrupeds,
! which were cropping the grass on the
| plain. The rhinoceroses apparently were
I not at all disturbed. The horsemen dis
mounted and approached yet nearer, stop
ping about twenty rods from the herd.
During minute or two the animals
seemed to pay no attention whatever to
the human beings who were watching
! them. and kept on browsing. Soon they
| began to sniff the air. as If they had dis
I covered something disquieting or disagree
I able. yet curiously enough. they seemed not
| to see the visitors, although the latter
were not hidden. After short time dur
| ing which they showed a sort of vague pre-
occupation, they withdrew, first walking
and finally trotting. Doubtless it is very
seldom that these animals may be seen for
SO long at such short range.
| The white rhinoceroses are as strictly
protected as possible. It Is absolutely for
hidden to hunt them on penalty OF a fine
of $3.50 to $500, or imprisonment, and the
governor himself can not give permission
to XIII them. This is very wise, for even
If there remain as many as ~ white rhi-
noceroses in the world there are certainly
no more.
For centuries 1t has been supposed that
Fathef Noah was, the first shipbul4uer of
the world, and that the ark in which he
saved his family from drowning was the
first vessel that ''plowed the raging main.
This suppostion has been found to be
erroneous, for there exist paintings OF
Egyptian vessels immensely older than the
date 2S4O B. c., usually assigned to the ark
being, indeed, probably between 70 and 81
centuries old. Moreover, there are now in
existence in Egypt boats which were built
These are, however. small craft, about 8;
feet long, or feet wide, and ~ to feet
deep. They were discovered six years age
by the eminent French Psychologist, M. j
de Morgan, in brick vaults near Cairo, and
were probably funeral boats.
They are constructed of three-inch acla
and sycamore planks. dovetailed together
and fastened with trenaiis. They have
floors but no ribs, and though nearly go;
years old, they held together after theil
supports had been removed These BOATS
may be considered side by side with Tho
better known, but much more modern
viking ship. which is now to be seen IN
shed at Christiania. This craft was dis
covered in 1880 in funeral mound, so that
we owe both these existing examples OF OK
tremely ancient ships to the funeral Gus
toms of countries so dissimilar as Egyp
and Norway.
Only a small proportion of the ivory an
| nually exported from the Congo is taken
directly from newly killed animals Thus
during 1899, of the 1885 tusks sold on the
, Antwerp market, $3.50 alone came IRON
freshly killed animals, the remaining q, ~
tusks being what the natives term "deae
ivory" For centuries the aborfgines have
been collecting elephant tusks, which they
| considered as having little intrinsic value
but useful as articles of exchange. Thf
Khartoum merchants were the first to dis
cover these hidden reserves of ivory. Latel
on the Zanzibar trader rushed on to IA
tanga, and thence to the very heart OF TIM
Congo, with the result that the ivory TRADE
soon became the principal industry OF tn
country.