Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-09-23
Odd Items of Interest

is about twenty miles an hour.
Salt, petroleum, matches, playing
cards are state monoDOlie5 IN Greece.
There are now over $1,000 men en-
pIoyed in Government dockyards In
England.
At one time among the Greeks the
wearing of broechcs indicated slavery.
Whooping cough kills more children
under five years OF age than scarlet fe-
Vcr.
Deaths from nydrophobia in Europe
average only small fraction over one
a year
Dragon flies can catch insects when
flying at the rate of forty or fifty miles
ar hour.
Grog as served in the British navy
consists of a mixture of three parts
water and enc part rum.
DIR. Mary Walker, in an address the
other day at Utica. N. Y. said there
was only me cause for tuberculosis,
ard that was tobacco smoke.
An ingenious machine recently pa
tented by an Iowaa takes piece of
wire, cuts it the right length, bends it
and fasters it around hose to hold a
coupling.
An electric glue heater has been put
melted glue at a temperature of $50 d.
gi'ees for several hours after the cur
rent has been shut off.
A Maryland railroad is experiment.
ing with lighting trains with natural
gas, which is compressed in storage
tanks under each car in sufficient
quantity to last through it's run.
The latest improved life preserver is
hollow belt Of rubber to which is
attached a cylinder filled with liquid
carbon dioxidc. On turning a tap the
llGuefed gas escapes into the belt, vol
atilizes, and initiates it to it's fullest ca
pacity, 27A quarts, which makes it
superior to any cork belt.
a conductor ard a brakeman on a
Montana railroad differ as to the prop
er pronunciation of the name EureIa
Passengers are often startled upon ar
rival at this station to hear the con-
ductor yell, You're a liar. You're a
liar!' Aud then from the brakeman at
the other end of the car, You really
| are. You really are.'
Il. II. Kruttschnitt, son of julius
kruttSchnitt director of operation of
the Hartman lines, has gone to work
| as assistant roadmaster of one of the
divisions of the Shasta route" He
intends taking the students course of
| the Southern Pacific. This course COW
| ers forty-two weeks and includes a
strenuous period of brak;lg on freight
| trains.
AT court of justice in Australia
| much frequented by Chinese a newly
appointed crier was ordered by the
judge to summon a witness to the
stand. Call for All Song" was the
| command. The crier was puzzled for q
moment. He glanced shyly at the
Judge, but found him quite grave Then
he turned to the spectators, Gentle
men," he asked, would any of you IA
vor his lordship with a song''
A powerful new automatic gun has
been invented the projectiles of which
it is said will pierce half-inch Besse-
mer steel at one thousand yards The
gun carries a 9-mulimeter cartridge.
taking five of these, which, the invcn-
tor says, can he fired in three seconds
by the recol shoulder action. The re-
ceiver is five inches long, much small
er than any other automatic gun. 1t
| is really Calling gun for the pocket
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Gait does not
OvereStimate the lords of creation She
was speaking recently of another
prominent woman who is somewhat
lukeWarm in the suffrage cause. THE
trouble with Mrs. Blank" said Mrs.
Gait, lis that she fairly worships her
husband She thinks that he is abso-
| lutely perfect. Why, the woman actu-
ally believes that the parrot taught
him to swear"
The family relations of vertobrates
have long interested biologists. Is man
to trace his ancestry to sea worm or
| to a crab? Professor Godrick, of OK
| ford, claims as the trunk of the family
| tree a ''primitive wormike form" rejec-
ting the limulus Oling crab as being a
| too highly specialized form. DIR. Patton,
of the United States, and DR.. GaskelI,
| of England. on the other hand, see in
| the king crab the Adam of their race.
Tastes differ" remarks the Baltimore
| Sun. ''If one has the liberty of select
ing his ancestors, some of us undoubt-
edIv prefer the octopus"
| Poor Car" With these words a
writer in the Oestreichischen Mach
richten begins an article in the I'm
masking of the Russian Emperor"
| "Once upon a time he says, 'he was
| in japan with the crown prince of
| Greece, while making a tour of East
ern Asia. A young Japanese fanatic
| struck him on the head with cudgel
and since that time his mental powers
have been impaired. He can follow no
written or oral discourse which lasts
| lOrger than a few minutes, and for
| that reason it is an easy matter for
| these who surround him to deceive the
ruler of all the Russias."
| There is an amusing story. writes a
correspondent, being told in French
| circles about President Fallieras. A
short time ago, it appears, the presi-
dent visited his native town of Loupil-
] lion, and there ran across. one or two
OF his B6yhood companions, whom he
had not seen for number of years
He asked one of them what he had
been doing, to which the old man re-