The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-28
FOREIGN NOTES OF INTEREST.

Associations involving over $20,O0o, ,00O ara nearly concluded for the purchase of the entire tramway system of Vienna by the municipality.
 In some parts of Peru--for example, in the province of Jauja-hens' eggs are cir culated as small coins, 40 to 50 being counted for a dollar
 4Grasshoppers as so great a plague at Hay, New South Wales, that they ob- scure all the street lamps at night, leav- ing the town in total darkness.
 Russian census returns reveal the pres ence of 6lo. coo idolators in a population of 125 66S, 900, among which for every 12 men there are 100 women.
 At Marbufg Professor Ostmann exam ined 7537 school children, and found that 2S.4 per cent. had a defective sense of hearing-the boys 30 per cent. and the girls 26.S.
 Reports gathered show that only Al persons in the whole Japanese empire have amassed fortunes amounting to s25O, 900 or over. The population is about fl, ,O00, ,O00.
 Norway Ireland and Spain have more blind people in proportion to population than any other European country. Spain has 216 per 10000; Norway, POS, and Ire land, Ill.
 Quails are becoming so scarce in Flu rope that France and Germany have joined in prohibiting the killing of the birds, and even the transport of dead quails across their respective territories.
 The baya bird of India spends his spare time catching mammoth firefiies, which he fastens to the side of his nest with moist clay. On a dark night the baya's nest looks like an electric street lamp.
 Before a recruit can be properly said to have joined the British army his name must be entered sixty-two times and the signatures of superior officers twenty nine times in the documents required by the War Office.
 King Alphonso's coronation is to be commemorated by the issue of thirteen new kinds of postage stamps. each of which is to bear the head of one of the thirteen kings of the same name who have ruled over Spain.
 A company is about to open a house. boat hotel at Abbazia, on the Adriatic. This floating hotel will have accommoda- tions for 100 guests. It is also to be sea- worthy, so that the visitor can be treated to trip on the Adriatic from time to time.
 Two of the 400 inscribed clay slabs found | by the German expedition in the center of Babylon are said to be pearls of Ba- bylonian literature" One of them con. tains a great part of the celebrated com | pendulum which explains the Babylonian | cuneiform characters.
 | The speediest long distance delivery ot mail ever accomplished in the world was | that of the consignment which left Syd. | ney, Australia, October 15, for London | England by the American route A dis. | tance of 15,265 miles was covered in thir. 1 ty-one days, a saving of four days over | the Suez Canal route.
 | The largest excavated dock on the con. | tinent, if not in all the world, will doubt, less be the Maasdock at Rotterdam, now | approaching completion. The dock coveri an area of some 150 acres, and will b, | brought to a preliminary depth of IA feet which will afterward be dredged to |; depth of 2S feet, so that there will be suf ficient water to admit the largest steam ships
 A hstener-detector for telephones is tC be adopted in Sweden. The invention i' a simple contrivance with a button push If any one using the instrument fanciei that a third party is "tapping" the wire or listening, he can satisfy himself as tC the truth of his suspicion by pressing the button. for the invention will infallibl! reveal the fact, and he can stop the con Versation.