Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-07-16
eLEANINes AND GOSSIP.

Leaf and twig diseases are affecting
the coffee crop Of India.
Adulteratcd bran may not be import
ed into Austria-Hungary.
London ambulance has electric
lights. carrying storage batteries.
For those of us of a chauvinistic turn
there is cause for pleasure in the fact
that the area of our country is as
great as the area of all Europe. AZ
Sanitary conditions in Berlin have
so improved in 80 years that the aver-9
age life CT citizen is now nine years
longer than it was then. 1t is now 50.
A new game law in British Columbia
prohibits 1.-The dealing in or Offering to
buy or sell the heads of mountain
sheep, elk, moose or caribou, or the
teeth of elk or wariti."
1t has been suggested by one cynic
that one reason why young white wo-
men of New York like to teach adult
Cinnamon is that the Cinnamon give
them presents of shawls, fans and orr
entail jewelry, while all the young
women would get if they were teach
ing white boys would be flowers and
now and then a picture postcard.
DIR. George NJ Kober of Washington,
has been figuring the amount of dam
age done by the fly in our country. He
reckons the time lost because of sick
ness and the expenses of medical treat
went in diseases caused bv flies, MAIN
ly, of course, typhoid. His conclusion
Is that annual loss to the people of
the United States resulting from flies
is $35000O,000.
People who complain of difficulties in
using the railroad timetables will wish
they were brought up at I<iel, Ger,
where instruction in the use of time
tables is given in the elementary
schools Problems in touring are Civ
en- by the teachers. and the child must
answer how he would go from one
place to another, with full details as
to times of trains and points of con-
nection.
Pecan trees abound in Tallahassee.
Fla. They not only furnish nuts, out of
which a good income is derived by
many persons, but they are valuable as
shade trees as well. And although they
are profitable in this double sense, a
Tallahassee paper has just remarked
the pity is that the trees were not
grated when young with another vari-
ETY. of pecan, which would have made
their product of greater value in the
market. Nse
One of those who seek knowledge
with the aid of the questions and ans
wers'' departments of the newspapers,
has lately sent to one editor a ques-
ton which must be considered of i'm
posing proportions. "Will you please
tell me-" he wrote, chow a student Of
spiritual philosophy may learn the
causes of the influences that are the
destinies that shape our ends? Do we
read hooks and if so what ones, please?
OR how do we find out?"
Fishers on the Thames have long
noticed many dead fish floating on the
river. The head keeper of the Thames
preservation society declares that the
death of the fish is owing solely to the
contamination of the water by petrol
from motor launches. The petrol is
said to poison the fish, and to poison
the insects on which the fish feed.
Some years ago the janitor of a Massa-
chusetts library where a certain kind
of gas generated .by plant in the
building was used for lighting, used to
report the finding Of dead flies about
the rooms in the morning.
An English investigator has asked
the question, when was the musical
baton first used in England?" His an
swer is TT was surely at the Philhar-
monte concerts in 1920, when Spohr
used it, to the great establishment of
the audience" He finds that 1t took
10 or 20 years for the baton to estab-
lish itself as a regular instrument of
orchestral performances, and he notes
that one German conductor who used
it when 1t was practically unknown
succeeded SO well with his orchestra
that people believed the baton must
have magic power.
The English home Office issued last
week a report of experiments upon liv-
ing animals in 1908. In that year there
were 1854 of these experiments In
England and Scotland, 1920 more than
in the previous year. Anesthetics were
used in 1851 experiments, and the re-
port says that sin no case has cut
ting operation more severe than SUPER
fetal vivisection been allowed to be
performed without anesthetics. Most
of the experiments undertaken IN
search of a remedy for cancer were IN
oculations into mice. There Is 2 rec
ord of 40,S7O experiments in connecfion
with the cancer investigations