The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-08-23
CURIOUS
CONVERSATIONS


a newly discovered cotton tree i n
Mexico promises &c rival in produc-
ton the cotton plant-of the United
States.
a newly invented microscope is
said to magnify the eye of 4 house
fly 50 that it owe an are of 312
feet.
The average cost OF o. per family
in 1890 was s31S-2O. In 1896. the
year OF lowest prices, it fell to s2eG.-
&c: in 1902 it cached the highest
point of the period, being s344.61;
while in 1909 it fell slightly TO s342.-
75l
That telephones at street corners
either on the telephone pole or ar
the same post with the mail box. ma:
be a future convenience of many Gil,
les and towns is asserted. Already
they are in use TO a limited extent,
heyless stations opened by merely
turning the and and which contain
the pay station and a directory being
the equipment. Hollow iron posts al
low the necessary ground wires.
There is in Paris a new school OF
psychology to Investigate such ques-
tons as mind reading, mental sug-
gestton at q distance, clairvoyance,
presentiments, automatic writing.
double personality. etc This school
has for its members medical men al
most entirely.
a strongly radioactive earth con
sistinS chiefly of lanthanum has been
obtained from pitchblende by Giesel.
a German chemist. He finds rha the
behavior of the material is different
from that of radiun, and believes that
he has obtained d new element which
he calls emanium and which he hopes
to separate from i~authanum.
There are some 100000 German set
tiers in Brazil, most OF whom are Bra
lillian subjects. but who send their
children to German schools. which
are maintained for the purpose of
training them in German habits and
a love OF Germany.
England has for many years given
prizes for the destruction of venon-
Gus serpents aI~I dangerous Wild
beasts in India, bat is does not seem
10 diminish the nnual number OF vic
Tins. In 1903 ovG: twenty-three thou
sand persons w=re killed by snake
bites, owe It tho IsarL by tigers anil
almost a thousand by bears, ieopa.ds
and panthe"s, together il total OF over
twenty-five thousand victims.
All evolutionists believe that organ
ic evolution began in the sea. Now
comes NJ. Rene Quinton of the Labo-
ratory of Pathologic Physiology of
the College de France. who asserts
that as the cell itself has persisted in
living organisms, being practically
the same in the human body as in
our earlier marine predecessors. so
the conditions of its life closely re-
produce those of primordial times.
The cell III our own bodie is bathed
in a fluid. that closely resembles sea
water in chemical composition and
that ap~proximates in temperature to
that Of the ocean when life first ap-
peared in it.
The price of food in 1903 was 1915
per cent above its lowest in 1896,
the year of lowest prices. Cost of 1iv-
ing as a whole advanced probably
hour in 1908 increased 1S.S per cent.
dS VIII 1874, Inc yedI VI
lowest wages. Hours of labor in 1903
decreased Al per cent. as compared
with 1890. Weekly earnings adj
vanced 14.9 per cent. in 1905. above
the weekly earnings of 1891. Thirty
four and three-tenths per cent. more
persons were employed in 1905 than
in 1894. and 54.4 per cent. more
money was paid out in wages per
week in 19O3 than in 1904.
RUSSIA AND THE JEW.