Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-03-15
TOPICS OF THE TIMES

More than twenty varieties of rice
are known in the Philippines; but tho
this cereal is so important to the ma
tives, not enough of it is produced to
supply their needs, and large quantities
have to be imported annually.
/
A curious find has just been made at
Samrishamn, in Sweden. AT low water
a sailor discovered among the stones.
on the beach of Massagas bay there, a
teaspoon of brass. After cleaning 1t he
found engraved on the inside the pic
ture of a man of-war, with the words
Maine" and $1,000 TONS" The spoon
would therefore appear to have be-
longed to the ill-fated Maine, sunk in
Havana harbor in the spring of 1898,
and it needed four years for the ocean
/ currents to wash this tiny object ashore
| cn the coast of southern Sweden.
A Chicago electrician has discovered
! q method of cutting steel or iron by
means of electricity which bids fair to
prove not only a blessing to iron and
steel workers, but boon to safe bur-
| glars and craftsmen. In an exhibition
| of the process recently given at Mil
waukee the operator ensconced himself
| in a little steel house, placed two pairs
CT blue spectacles to his eyes and after
connecting his carbon point he touched
the steel plate. Persons standing far
back in the basement law lurid flame
shoot up; it was white light and pro-
duced extreme heat. The light we'll
nigh blinded the spectators, but the
operator was well protected and did the
work. Steel plates We're severed at the
rate of foot every five minutes.
The largest fir tree in the state of
Washington has been cut down near
Arlington, In Snohomish county. The
tree was eighteen feet thru at the base
and 200 feet high. One twenty-foot Sec
ton will require two fiat cars to haul it.
Capt. Grossman. of Cologne, Ger
many, the inventor of water shoes has
just completed a l0o-mle walk on the |
surface of the River Danube. He
started from Linz and finished his jour-
rey at Vienna, drawing his wife in n
boat all the way In less than two days.
The shoes are aluminium cylinders,
thirteen feet long and are light enough
to be carried on the shoulders like a |
pair of oars. The wearer propels him.
self by a treading movement. which |
causes four oar-shaped wings to re-
volve.
A Clarion woman during the past I
year has made and sold $500 worth of
bread besides attending to her house
hold duties and caring for her children.
A new ar-shaped submarine tor
pedo boat is attracting the marked att
tention of the navy department. Briefly
speaking 1t is what might be termed a t
one-man submarine boat-that Is, the
vessel is SO small and It's operative
parts are so designed and actuated that
the boat may be propelled, guided, sub
merged and perfectly controlled in /
every way by one person only. This
fact is due to the application to the I
boat of many novel and ingenious au-
action of the boat and leave the opera
tors attention free to lay his course
and to fire the torpedo suspended be-
meath the craft.
A city ordinance providing that min
listers of all denominations shall pay
quarterly license of $50 and that the
attorney of the sinking fund shall gar
nishee their salaries in the event of
payment has been prepared for
presentation to the board of aldermen
of the city of Louisville, KY. The rea-
son given for putting the tax upon
preachers is that of late they have
been trying to butt into politics and at
tempting by advancing unwise theories
to take a hand in the conduct Of mu-
nicipal affairs"
In an ancient burial ground on a New
Mexican rach near Las Vegas have
been found the bones of frame that
could not have been less than twelve
feet in length. The men who opened the
grave say the forearm was four feet
long and that in well preserved jaw
the lower teeth ranged from the size of
hickory nut to that or the largest
walnut in size. The chest of the being
ia reported as having u circumference
of seven feet. Indian legends of a race