The Holbrook news., 1909-05-28
THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW
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 there are only 17,O0O there at pres ent
 Japan is now competing actively with the United States and Great Brit ain for China's trade in pianos, piano players and organs.
 ''Polygamy is the rule among all the tribes of Southern Nigeria, the reason given by the natives being that it Is impossible for one woman to do all the work of the house." said Capt F. A Steel at the Royal United Service Institution, London, the other day.
 It has been reported to the guard ians at Tuam, County Galway, Ireland, that a man named Nasty, whose age Is alleged to be 120 years, is living at Gallow in a cabin which has become unsafe and an effort Is to be made to induce the hermit to go to the work house
 An eagle has been shot by a keeper on the Tiberton estate, Herefordshire, England. It measures seven feet two inches across the wings and Is two feet ten inches in length. It is of a light brown color, apparently 2 years old and is believed to be one of the white eagle species.
 In considering the speed of steamship it must be remembered that a knot, or nautical mile, is a very diff ferent thing from land mile A mile Is 5,2S0 feet, while a knot Is 6,0S0 feet and fraction. Therefore, when a yes sel makes 23.05 knots an hour, she passes over very nearly 27 land miles.
 Accommodating evidence shows that lightning flashes may have a much more varied structure than was for merly supposed. Photographs by A. Larsen, a Danish photographer, indi- cate that flashes may be made up of small electric discharges, or rushes, of which forty may follow along nearly the same path in half a minute.
 Under the new laws in effect in New York State there are oculists, opd- clans and optometrists. The opticiaI, seems to have lost importance, as the optometrist is one who ascertains and prescribes the character of the lens. 4nC lCNnAASdA OpNASAtAh the lens in accordance with directions from the optometrist and manufec lures spectacles and eyeglasses. The oculist is surgeon who treats the dis eases of the eye.
 During excavations on the Janicu- lum hill in Rome some interesting dis coveries have been made. A chamber with an altar has been brought to light, and on the walls was a tablet commemorating the Emperors Antonius and Commodus. There were also dis covered a small statue of Jupiter. the shaft of a column, a statue of Bacchus in marble, three skeletons placed in a line before the chamber, and a little figure representing Chronos.
 American photograph companies do a big business in China. The most fa- nous Chinese bands and palace singers are engaged to make records. They are brought from all parts of the em- pire to the three record-making centers -Pekin, Shanghai and Hong-Kong. Here the apparatus for making the master records is set up and the re- cording done under the direction of an expert A record popular in the north of China is seldom popular in the south.
 Compelling oysters to produce pearls by placing a foreign substance, such as small pebbles, in their shells, has become an extensive industry, in which the Japanese have especially excelled, | but the Chinese can claim the distinc- tion in the originality of one of the | substances often used by them. This is none other than tiny leaden gods or images, and when the oys:er has form ed the pearl around this nucleus, | process, says Popular Mechanics, which extends over a period of four years, the shell Is opened and the prize removed.
 ''The child is mother to the woman" may be an apt paraphrase to describe the significance of the following incl dent: Perth Amboy (N. J.) matron recently, in honor of a visiting friend, baked an imposing chocolate layer cake. Chocolate frosting covered the entire outside of the cake, which was left on a kitchen table to cool. To the mother, entertaining the friend. her daughter called, explaining her ab- sence: 'Muvver. Tse keenin' up for oo." Presently the mother went to the kitchen. See" said her daughter, exhibiting the cake, taken apart and scraped of all its chocolate, 'rse