The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1909-01-13
FACTS IN FEW LINES

80 to 100 days.
The first balloon was made by 4
French priest in 1920.
A 1000 foot pier is under construc-
ton at Minster-on-the-Sea, England.
There are about a quarter of a mil
lion more men than women in Aus
tralia.
In some provinces of British India
rubber is displacing tea as the princi-
pal product.
There are neither bachelors nor old
maids in China, where celibacy is
deemed unnatural and vicious.
Saxony has probably more factories
In proportion to its area than any 9th
er country. The present number is o.
7O7.
There are twenty monasteries on
Athos, the holy mountain, the largest
being a Russian n with 1900 monks
in 1t.
Mexico is destined to become a prom
inent factor as a producer of refined
petroleum. New wells are being con-
stantly discovered.
London did not have an adequate
water supply till 1906. Two-thirds of
it comes from the Thames. the rest
from artesian wells.
It is reported that a student of the
Electro-Technical Institute of St. Pc
tersburg named Freudinberg has In
vented an apparatus for exploding
mines by wireless t~elegraphy.
During a storm at Stoke-on-Trent
England, a young woman had a mar
row escape. Her spectacles were struck
by lightning. The frames were split
and the lenses broken. The wearer
escaped injury.
The Chinese method Of relieving one
pain with another Is going out Of
vogue, and there Is a large sale of pat
ent medicines. Sedatives are judged
and valued by what they do in the
shortest possible time.
Coal ashes are being washed into
spaces in Pennsylvania mines from
which the coal has been removed. AS
the water recedes they form a solid
mass strong enough to hold up the
earth and prevent cave-ins.
Incredible as it seems, Cleveland, one
Of the great cities Of the country, was
not incorporated as a village until 1914
and had then a population Of not more
than 800 people, though its location
made it prominent in a small way.
First place among the universities
Of the world in matter of mere num-
bers, up to last year held by that Of
Berlin, has now been won by the Uni
yersity of Paris, which had q student
body of 1860 in last summers semes-
ter.
Sorcery now and then figures in
twentieth century life. The Paris civil
court has just dismissed a suit brought
against Professor Raymond and DR..
Menard, tw' well known physicians
by a coachman. who charged them with
sorcery.
The monograph is suggested by a
French photographer as a means of
timing when a clock cannot be watch
ed. He has fitted his machine with a
cylinder counting from l to 240, with
intervals Of one second between the
numbers.
Largest of all guns carried by Brit
ish warships is the twelve inch, but
since the Brazilian ships now building
in England are to be fitted with 1875
inch guns it has been decided to con.
duct experiments with the large weap-
on for the British navy.
At a meeting of the London Zoolog-
ical society the secretary pointed out
that the young CRATES have relatively
much shorter necks than their parents,
the neck In the former being not long
er than the fore legs, which 1t largely
exceeds in length in the latter.
The Interurban railway Of Winona,
Ind, Is the only electric line in the
country which is not In operation on
Sunday. The officials, moreover, with
the exception of two, serve without
pay, and the profits Of the road are
entirely devoted to the support of a
technical school at Indianapolis.
There Is Mt Lincoln Center, Me-, a
shoe factory unique In that one man
erected the building. developed the
water power, constructed the water
wheel and gearing and invented and
built the machinery. This same man
now serves as owner. agent, salesman.
bookkeeper. foreman and "help."
Switzerland is suffering from a
plague of leeches, which are killing the
fish in the lakes and rivers by thou
sands. In the upper course of the
Rhine, in the Aar. the lakes of
Neufchatel and Constance, where the
plague is most acute, thousands of
dead fish are seen floating on the wa.
ter.
\ ew years ago it was considered
an extraordinary and wonderful feat
for a ship to cross the Atlantic inside
a week. Now 1t is done in a trihe over
four days. When Chicago erected the
Masonic temple, containing twenty
two stories, we thought the limit had
h0~n ~ool,~l To- NJ, vat. 49,.