The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1901-08-13
FACTS IN FEW LINES

tors.
The crop bulletin for Manitoba shows
that 100000 acres have been sown
with wheat. The conditions are favor
able.
Labor In the south IL In great de
mand. and the negroes are better paid
than they have ever been IN their lives
before.
While the United States is spending
St74.O65. go a year for literature OF all
kinds, It Is drinking Si,2iO, l0l,5 13
worth Of alcoholic liquors.
British farmers and dalrymen are to-
day milking 100000 COWS and produc-
ing annually In their darics f32 .00O,O0O
worth of milk, butter and cheese.
An automobile company has been
awarded the contract for carrying the
mails between the Pan-American expo
sltlon grounds and the Buffalo postof-
flce
demonstrating with policemen cab
drivers and street ear conductors Is
serious 0flcnsc In Austria. ns all those
personagcs are rated as public officers.
to insult whom means Imprisonment
and fine.
II may surprise some to hear that
Florida stands tenth as fish produc-
ing state. II has coast line including
islands. OF $500 miles. The annual
catch is about 3G.OO0,OOO pounds with a
total value 10 the fishermen Of about
100000.
Belgian capital TO the amount Of i2G.-
DOC. 900 has found Investment In Rus
Sian enterprise. That means an amount
OF "a per head IN Belgium. France,
though largely interested In Russian
loans. etc. reaches the amount of only
ga, 100000.
The wholesale mineral water manu-
facturers Of Liverpool and district have
increased the price OF their beverage
threepence per dozen owing TO the In
creased cost OF sugar, and the retailers
have put on halfpenny per bottle to
the consumer.
An interesting feature OF the expense
bill incurred by New York's committee
of fifteen is that devoted to losses In
gambling houses. Detectives who 20
after evidence travel In pairs and play
the pungcrs' game. Very seldom do
the detectives win.
New rules have been adopted by the
big transatlantic steamship lines re-
garding the admission OF visitors 10 de
parting vessels. The great crush is
partly responsible for the change Wis
ltors must hereafter procure passes
from the booking offices.
The churches Of the borough Of Man
haitian. New York city, will send about
10000 boys and girls and mothers TO
the country this summer. OF the vari-
Gus churches the Episcopal sends 10y
far the greatest number Of children
Trinity alone sending 1000.
A correspondent has discovered n
number Of oddly named persons in
Georgia counties. Among these names
we have Sorrowful Williams, Increase
UNiliINt AAtafll Va 1NAlhiilN tAAN'A "Niif -
Salvation White, Happiness Johnson.
Purity Scott and Paradise Lee.
Mr.. Baldwin has shipped so balloons
to Tromso for use In the north pole ex-
petition. These balloons are not In
tended TO carry passengers, but each
will have ten message buoys attached
which will be liberated automatically,
thus recording the route northward.
At the Buffalo exposition Is exhibit
ell the smallest steam railroad In the
world. The rails are a foot apart, each
Of the ten cars holds two passengers,
the line Is a mile long, and the engineer
sits on the tender for there IS just
room enough In the cab for his feet.
A Philadelphia firm OF auctloneers re-
Gently offered at one OF their sales Rob
lnson CrusOe's musket 1t was n fine
old lintlock. II was In the possession
OF a grandnlcce OF Alexander Selkirk
and its pedigree is much more unclOud
ed than Is usually the case with objects
Of this kind.
The women OF Canea, In Crete, have
| formed n society 10 oppose the lux
| uriousness Of dress. The members of
the society wear only the simplest Of
| costumes and anathematlze jewelry
and ornaments. The Cretan govern
ment is to be pettoned TO introduce
a bill to make the wearing Of extraya-
CANT clothes penal.
A dispatch from Angouleme, France
reports that an invasion Of locusts has
taken place throughout the department
Of the Charente, more especially In
the canton Of Bouillac, where they are
so numerous and so voracious as to
constitute a verltable scourge. Enor.
nous fields OF beans and beets have
been devastated In few hours.
e. A. Martel, the French explorer OF
caverns, whose discoveries under
ground have attracted much attention
reports that he has found In the de
I partment of Hautes Alpes n cavity In
| the form Of q natural well" whose
| depth exceeds that OF any other known
He has sounded 1t TO the depth Of about
1927 feet, but the actual bottom has
not been reached.
Phenix, A. T., the center Of Salt
river valley. was a few years ago a
sagebrush desert. It has now 25,0OC
inhabitants, with an assessed property
valuation of S10,OOO,OO0. All this is
due to water, which, brought in canals
from streams fed mainly from the Sar
Francisco and other Arizona reserves
has turned the desert into fertile val
ley covered with ranches and dotted
with small towns.
Statistics of the country relating tc
physicians indicate the possibility II
not the actually Of overcrowding In
the medical profession. 1t was found
In the census year that there was ont
registered physician to every $50 peo
pie In the United States. That the
number is In excess Of the need is EVIL
L n IL No.. ~