Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-12-30
Odd Items Of Interest

London now has 1850 branch post
offices. .l
The wheat exports of this country
are declining because the home con-
sumption is rapidly increasing.
A good many people are mean
enough to wish that j. p Morgan
could have their experience when he
tries to telephone over one of his new
lines.
Senator Claude Hodspeth of FL Paso,
Tex, will Introduce a bill in the Texas
Legislature imposing fine upon bach
elors.
England could put quite fighting
force af1oat if she used only the OFF,
GERS OF the navy. There are 109,21O of
them.
Children of the public schools in the
province of Ontario are to have much
cheaper school books, to be supplied
by the provisional government under
five-year contract, from August l.,
1909
The technical committee of the Brit
ish automobile club has been asked
to make an exhaustive examination
of automobile horns and see what
type is the most useful and which
should be adopted for general use.
The natural resources of Formosa
include exceedingly valuable forests,
gold. coal and sulphur mines. The
most highly developed Industries are
sugar, rice, tea, camphor, opium and
salt, the last three being government
mOnOpOlies.
In the borough of Manhattan APP
proximately 5000 passenger elevators
and 10000 freight elevators are engag-
ed in the daily transportation of g.
100000 people. In the six years. 1903
1908, more than 1000 of these ma
chimes were installed.
An inmate of one of the big prisons
recently copied one of Shakespeare's
number as a contribution to the pris-
on paper. 1t got through all right,
but the editor evidently didn't like it
very well, as it was not given good
position.
Schools are being established in
every part of the Chinese empire and
are being put in charge of educated
Chinese who have studied in Japan,
Europe or this country. Popular edu-
cation is a strong feature of the new
movement in China for the general
betterment of the country.
The father of President DiaZ of
Mexico was an inn-keeper, and DR..
Diaz is half Italian and half Spanish.
His rise to fame was as rapid as it
was remarkable, and although he is
Of auto q
democratic among his fellow-country-
men and very popular. Mexico owes
her railway and educational systems
almost entirely to his genius.
Cork metai' is now being put for
ward as a substitute for aluminium in
the construction of airshins, and is
said to be 40 per cent lighter. In APP
pearance it resembles the alloy known
as magnalium. The surface presents
a lusterless, whitish gray color. both
sheets and bars showing the scoring
and scratches SO frequently found on
badly rolled or drawn aluminium.
The old brownstone fronts of resi-
denceS and apartment houses in Man
haitian are sometimes cleansed, but
the brick and whitestone fronts which
supplanted the brownstone fad are
susceptible of being renewed in APP
pearance by white paint, and this
counts for the singular appearance
of Madison avenue, where, of late,
MANY of the fronts have been whiten-
ed, while others remain dingy. Until
within the last 10 or Is years no own
err of a house in New York city ever
thought of having his house painted
on the outside.-New York World.