Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-08-21
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

50 AVh9 vs. uN kSNksA ts
Four licenses of marriage between
whites and negroes have been issued
in Washington in the last six months.
The Equitable Life ia to erect a
s12, 900, 900 building. 1t pays the COM
pany, if it does not the policy holders,
to insure.
According to b. F. Yocum, q promi-
nent railroad man, the railway lines are
losing $25, O00. 900 a month through the
present financial depression.
A passenger of a train in Oklahoma
was fined $50 for drinking from a bot
tie recently. So much for not saying
to the conductor, ''join me-"
Out of total of 1Os members of
Congress whose photos were published
last year only ten wore boards, less
than one bearded man to 10.
Now comes the news that George
Washington's grandfather married his
housekeeper, and so another ''illustrious
ancestor descent''.i is smashed.
Hisgen, so it Is stated, plays the
violin. May be 1t will help his case. 1t
was Bob Taylor who fiddled himself
into the gubernatorial chair of Tennes-
see, and later into the U. S. Senate.
1t is estimated that there are $780,
600, 600 Protestsnts in the world, as
compared with 250, 600, 600 Catholics and
Ito. 900, 600 adherents of the Greek and
Oriental churches.
Mars is signalling the earth again, so
the astronomers say. What is Spiritu.
aiism worth if it cannot get some of
the disembodied messengers who do the
work of gifted mediums to translate
these messages?- Lunenburg Times.
Electricity will be used to cure meat.
so we read. Bacon that takes 20 dsys
to be salted will be finished in 2 days.
Next thing they'll be curing the pig by
the 1000 volt method whilst still alive
and squealing.
Every native born American citizen
has a chance to be President. There
are sixteen men who have the chance
this year. for the Presidents you know
may resign or be killed or die untimely.
as some have done; and then the Vices
come in.
The l42, 600 bacteria that the average
dirty bank note contains are said to be
innocuous. Innocuous means harmless.
We have too few notes to be otherwise.
BY the way. it is stated that although
lepers in the East are driven from
human society and no one will come
near them, the money of the leper is
always taken-nobody refuses his money
because he is leper.
An exchange says that 1--WE have
literally had a flood of gold. The total
production is now at the rate of about
$425, 00O, 900 year. In the last ten
years the worlds gold out put has been
about one-third as large as for the
preceding four hundred years." Well,
either that's l., that is, q false
statement, or else the wrong people
have got our share.
Charles M. Manly, for many years the
chief assistant of Prof. S. P. Langley
in his aeronauticsl work at the Smith
sonian Institute, has constructed the
lightest engine ever built anywhere in
the world. 1t is a steam engine of 81
horsepower and weighs 125 pounds, or
2 lilo pounds to the horsepower. This
engine developed an actualhorse-power
of 81 for many hours at a time.
There are 10.00O, 900 acres of land in
Montana which, if irrigated and cult.
waited, would make four times as much
as all of Japan's tillable soil Yet
Japan has half as large population a,
the United States. True, much of ths
food of Japan comes out of the water
and likewise there comes enough foot
from Virginia fish and oysters to feet
many hundreds of thousands.
| We commonly assume that bleachinI
Is done by the sunlight. but as matte
of fact the chemical action is not tn
effect of either the light or heat rays
but by what scientists term ultra viole
rays, which. are invisible. 1t is curl
Gus fact that these rays are special
fatal to insects. and if such lamp
left in an open room, thousands @
dead insects will be found around il
Possibly this may be the real actio
of the X-ray-killing germs on or unds
the skin, as this method of treatin
skin diseases is very effective.