The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1908-12-31
SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY


immigration into Canada from JAN
uary to August, 1908, declined 46 per
cent, compared with the same period
last year.
Exhaustive tests have proved the
new torpedo nets of the navy able to
withstand the attacks of torpedOes fired
at the highest speed yer reached.
Some hospital physicians are urging
that horsefesh be more freely used as
being not only cheaper than beef, but
more tender and digestible. If dried
and reduced to a powder 1t becomes
almost tasteless.
The Hon. w. S. Fielding, Canadian
minister of finance, raises and spends
$1OO,OOOOOO a year on a $1,000 sal
airy. Mr.. Fielding is the only promi-
nent member left of the old cabinet
that gathered about Sir Wilfrid Laurier
in 1885, having held his position twelve
years.
Lead, when reduced to very low
temperature in liquid air, is said to act
much as steel at ordinary temperatures.
1t will serve as a helical spring, for
example. Just as iron is soft and in
elastic at a high red color, so lead is
dull and soft at ordinary temperatures,
for it is then already well on its way
to be melted.
Robins bust of Whistler is almost
ready. The sculptor is to have $1,000
for his work. The bust has given the
utmost satisfaction in Paris so much
SO that a replica is to be subscribed for
New York. Whistler was an American,
but he once, on oath, in court of JUS
tice, declared that he was born in st.
Petersburg.
A curious disease which has done
much damage to the tea crops Of north
est India is known as "red rust" An
account of the species of alga (Cepa-
leuros virescens), which causes it, is
given by G. NJ Hutchinson in the Me-
moirs of the Agricultural Department
of India. 1t attacks the leaves and
stems of the tea plant, forming yellow
patches. 1t is propagated by two kinds
of spores, one carried by water and the
other by air.
Francis Cation, who is now sc years
old, studied surgery in the old days
before chloroform was used, and says
Of the Birmingham hospital: "The cries
of the poor fellows who were operated
on were very characteristic; in fact,
each class Of operation seemed to evoke
some peculiar form of them. All this
was terrible, but only at first. 1t SEEM
ed after a while as though the cries
were somehow disconnected with the
operation, upon which the whole atten-
ton became fixed"
At luncheon given by the Lord
Mayor of Manchester Dean Weldon sat
next to Beerbohm Tree. "Well, Mr..
Tree, what have you been doing to-
day?" he asked. II went for long
motor ride this morning and lost
bet" replied the famous actor. Gin
deed" said the dean, land may ask
what the bet WASP" 81 MADE bet that
we would pass through 400 different
odors and we only encountered $685."
"Ah," replied DR.. Weldon promptly,
''you missed the odor of sanctity."-
Mainly About People.
An interesting experiment has been
made by a Mr. Simpson of Port Eliza
beth, Cape Colony, in order to prove
that there is room for a new industry
in South Africa. Mr.. Simpson has be-
come impressed with the fact that pa
per might be cheaply manufactured
from the aloe, and to support his the
DRY he has made large sheet of paper.
He had no machinery, and therefore
the paper is somewhat loose grained.
But it is strong and of sufficiently good
quality to suggest that Mr.. Simpson is
right in his contention.
The number Of cremations in Great
Britain in 1906 was 732, an increase
of 1873 as compared with the previous
year. In 1907 there were 705. The
number Of crematories is thirteen, of
which six are municipal. Cremation in
Great Britain is almost wholly confined
to nersons of some intellectual distinc-
ton. The average citizen is still held
in the letters of custom. Many persons
live in fear of being buried alive, and
make provision in their wills that a
doctor shall divide main artery or
thrust a knife through the heart.
Women in the province of Shima, on
the southern coast of Japan, are the
sterner sex. They do most of the field
work and are also employed as divers.
They enter the water at all seasons ex-
cept during the coolest months of the
winter. They remain under water some
times for more than a minute, and
bring up shellfish and tengusa, a kind
of seaweed. which they place in a small
net carried by each diver at the girdle
These women divers are extremely
hardy. but as theirs is trying life ,
the constant exposure causes them to
age quickly.
DR.. G. w. Andrews of the geological
department Of the British Museum has
started on scientific expedition to
Christmas island, in the Indian ocean,
Ten wears ago the island was unin-
habited. Since then it has been opened
ND. owing to its guano deposits, and
there are now number Of persons
there. The object of the present visit is
to ascartain what effect the agency of