Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-02-19

Extensive experiments have been
made on American and Canadian rail-
ways with cedar wood sIeepers. The
Grand Trunk railroad of Canada was
the first to use cedar for this purpose
to any considerable extent. and this
system alone has now some 400 miles Of
permanent way laid on cedar sleepers.
The result is said to be very satisfac-
tory. The wood is practically imper-
ishable, and requires very little treat
ment. 1t is, however, brittle, and de-
railments have shown curious results
in the way of broken sleepers. The
greater proportion of the new sleepers
In use on the Grand Trunk system were
obtained from forests within the Do
minion.
Walking in his sleep, George Klein,
a 6-year-old wonder. opened window
at lis home in Altoona. Pa, on the
night of Oct. u and tumbled to the
| ground, twenty feet, landing almost
at the feet of Patrolman Edward
Staines, who was passing the house.
The lad was so fast asleep that the
jar did not wake him. The thing in
white gave Staines visions of ghosts
for a moment; but he overcame his
fears sufficiently to make an inyestiga-
ton and found the boy breathing and
sleeping peacefully. He then aroused
the parents with some difficulty, and
told them what had happened. The
rather came down for the boy, carried
him upstairs and placed him in bed,
| without disturbing his slumbers.
During the past season remarkable
progress has been made in the cultiva-
ton of a new species of potato in the
department Of Vienne in France. 1t
originated in Uruguay, and is called
the Solanum Commersoni. Amid its
new environment in France, and by
dint of careful cultivation and selec-
ton, it has developed several forms
which promise to become fixed, and to
possess much value as additions to the
food resources of Europe. Among these
forms, all spring from one parent spe-
cies, there are yellow variety, white
variety, red variety, and variety
not specially characterized by color, all
Of which possess distinctive shapes and
qualities. A fact that particularly In
terests botanists and cultivators is that
these varieties have evidently not yet
reached their final settled forms, and
the experiments of Monsieur Laber-
gerie in Vienne are closely watched be-
cause it is thought that they will throw
light upon the unsettled question Of
the general origin Of the potato.
S. 2. Venner calls attention in the
Popular Science Monthly to certain
popular errors concerning the race Of
understood men and women known as
pygmies. Usually travellers have
measured the most diminutive sseci-
mems, and thus an exaggerated idea Of
their smallness has been produced. The
average stature of the pygmies that
have been measured is about feet 8
Inches, but the best authorities in an
thropology say that the real average
'AAAA1t " ceoIuiS 10 u lcSl. ooule SpeCl-
mems are taller than that. The pygmes
have been found in eight or ten differ
emit places in Central Africa, but wher-
ever found they possess certain strik-
ing resemblances. The plant furnish
Ing the covering for their huts is the
same in the widely separated regions
visited by Stanley and Wissmann, and
the shape of the huts, q rough hemi-
sphere, is the same. All the pygmies
are alike characterized by neglect of
agriculture, by the use of poisoned ar
rows, and by the absence of any GEN.
tralized tribal organization.