Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-10-04
Odd Items of Interest


| average is 3lS car rides a year for each
inhabitant of New York City.
| The five largest office buildings in New
York contain 1000 miles of telephone wire
and almost 10000 telephones.
Five Chinese government schools are
teaching railway engineering and a sixth
probably will establish course.
| When busting or cleaning the new tung-
stem lamps the lamp should be burning to
| prevent accidents to the delicate fla
ment.
The average person does not experiences
any sensation from an electrical current
until the pressure reaches about thirtv-
| five volts.
| The largest electric sign in the south
advertises the city of Montgomery, Ala.
The sign is IS by s. feet and contains
about $500 lights.
Since Manchuria was converted into q
province its expenditure has increased
rapidly. Its balance sheet last year was
six million taels on the wrong side.
The submarine cables of the world cover
a total of 27S,20S miles, distributed among
2,N53 cables. Three-fourths of this total
| mileage is owned by private companies.
Rio de Janeiro, with a population of
| 0,OOO spent more money for public i'm
provements last year than any city in
| the United States excepting New York.
There has been much dispute as to
whether whales can utter any sounds A
writer in Kosmos says that he and forty
other persons who witnessed the throw
ing of a harpoon at a whale off the Bra
lillian coast heard a. distinct groan when
the animal expired.
Public watering troughs for horses were
condemned as disseminators of disease by
| the state veterinarian of Missouri DIR. +,
| D. Luckey, and by Or. Schoenleben, of
Kansas. at the session of the Interstate
Association of Live Stock Sanitary Board
| in Chicago.
Mrs. Wyman, aged seventy, of Pitts
| field. Mass, recently broke all records in
| her pie-making career She made seven
ty-two pies of nine different varieties as
follows: Custard. apple, cocoanut. prune,
| raisin, squash, chocolate, BURBERRY and
lemon. Mrs. Wyman did the work alone
and had it finished by noon.
A woman in Worcester. Mass, was sur
prised at receiving extra large bills for
gas used the last two months and on in
vestigating the matter found that her new
maid was keeping a teakettle singing on
the gas stove all day long. In answer to
her query as to the reason the maid in
formed her that she felt more like work
| ing while the kettle was singing. The
maid now works without accompaniment.
| A shell which will hit two marks will be
| tested this fall The solid steel head of
l.. .rl,
plosive which is detonated on impact
Back of this is the shrapnel chamber
containing 120 bullets and a charge of
high explosive. The shrapnel portion can
be timed to explode above a body of
troops. leaving the solid head of the shell
! to pass on and strike elsewhere.
| Henry Savage Landor the English ex-
plorer, who will soon make an attempt
to reach the south pole, is of the opinion
that Lieutenant Shackleton failed through
having cumbersome and unnecessarily
large expedition. Mr. Landor's theory Is
that small caravan of trusted and har-
Idly men, lightly equipped, as in his expedi-
lions through Asia and Africa, is best.
| Mr. Landor's activity in aeronautic inves-
legations gives color to the rumor that
an arship will be used by him in his ex
| petition.
He was aNritizen of Aberdeen, Scotland
who had gone to spend few days in Lon
| don with his son. After their first greet
| ings at the station, the young fellow re-
marked: "Fcyther. you are not lookn
weel. Is there anything the matter?"
The old man replied: AYE lad, l have
had quite an accident" What was that.
feyther?'' 'IMon," he said, ION this
journey frae bonnie Scotland l lost my
luggage" Dear. dear that's too bad: 90
did it happen?" "Awecl." replied the Abb
erdonian. ''the cork cam out
In oden times thumscrcws were used to
torture prisoners into confession, and
thus gain from them secrets that only in
tense bodily pain would bring forth, but
| this. with many other fiendish means of
torture, was left behind by advancing
civilization. Now, however, it has made
its appearance again, but, as a means of
self-inflicted torture. says Popular Me-
chanics. 1t is the newest aid-to-beauty
fad of Europe, and its mission is to
squeeze the tips of the fingers until they
change from fat and pudgy to long and
tapering.
LIONS are Salu TO walk ABOUT the pdldCo
of Emperor Menelik of Ably ssinia and in
jure no one. and are docile at the least
sign from their master. A Russian visitor
demanded of Menelik how it was that his
gentle pets respected such and such
visitor. ''They have SCENT replned the
emperor 'They know the smell of an
ambassador. They know they must not
cause trouble between me and the foreign
powers. They are diplomatic lions" The
queen added "They once devoured be-
fore me an Italian consul. 1t was after
ward found that he had not his letters Of
credence He was not in order, and l ex-
cused the lions"
Negotiations were recently concluded
whereby European syndicate takes con-
troll of the sixteen best gem mines in Cey-
lon. These mines, up to the present. have
been under the management of natives
and have a romantic fame running back
through many centuries. Moonstones,
cats eyes, rubies and sapphires are
among the stones found in the island.
The ruby, however, can not compare with
the rich, deep-colored stones found In
Burma, but the sapphire, it is stated Is
found there in shades of color unknown