Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-04-08
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
\ queer elephant yarn is told by the
| captain Of a trading steamboat ON
one occasion ho bad on board 4 cargo
| of forty elephants. The vcssel was
| anchored in Il perfectly smooth sea off
! the coast OF Zanzibar, but 10 the great
| surprise Of the passengers the steam
| er began To roll. Then il was re-
| vcaled that the elephants had. i'll
| some Way, found that by sWaying to
| and fro all together a rocking motion
/ was produced that seemed To please
| them Intensely The attendants hur-
| ried down into their hold, and, after
\ great deal of shouting and thump-
| ing, managed 10 stop the dangerous
amusement.
An Englishman in Shanghai was
twitting the eldest son OF DR.. Sun
Yat-se about hts fathers cosmopol-
| itanism. Nobody knows for certain
where your father was born, he said
Canton claims him and SO does Hon
| olnlu. Before the revolution he had not
been mere in China for many years
The English port of Hong Kong was
the nearest he ever approached. /
don't see how your father can call
himself a chinaman. and, in fact.
don't know what to call him."
Part of what YOU say is true. an
$Wered the son of the famous patriot.
| For fifteen years my father was a
man without country. hut now" and
the hoy smiled proudly "A country
has been made for him"
For several weeks one of the public
stree; lamps at Greenfield, near Eal-
ing. was found alight every day. al
! though the lamplighter eXtinguished
tie light each morning. Suspecting
tfftt sotte Soffthftl mp wfth mfSchieff@
OTIS nropensities was at work the
lamplighter set himself to capture the
| cuprit who was giving him so much
trouble. While waiting in hiding to
pounee upon the offender he was
| amazed to see the lamp apparently
| light itself Investigation revealed the
fact that tomtit Rad built a snug
| nest in corner of the lamp. aud was
| in The habit of hopping on to the ring
| attached to the chain of the incandes-
cent bypass. thus turning on the
| light.-London Times.
An Australian correspondent sends
| Electrical Engineering the following:
| Not long ago, somewhere in New
| Zealand. a firm ordered 4 number of
| house service alternating current me-
| tiers. 1t happened that the inside of
! ore of these contained loose piece of
| cast iron, which caused a fairly loud
| humming noise when the current was
| passed through the meter. The firm
| who had received it returned it to the
| wholesale house from whence it came.
| accompanied by a letter, which was
| dictated and evidently signed in hur-
/ ry, as it read thus: We return you
herewith one of the six meters recent
| ~ supplied, as this meter makes a
| dreadful noise and huns considerably.
| We think this must be due to the la
| mentati6ns of the iron core"
Thirty years ago the principal sup
1 ply of quinine came from the western
coast of South America, although a
ismali amount was obtained from India
/ and Ceylon. The average quinine con-
! tents of the cinchona bark is from ,
t to 8 per cent. Retter methods OF hanGl-
| ing the bark, however. have resulted
/ in recent years of yields of from % to
II per cent. In Amsterdam monthly
sales Of quinine are held. Java. which,
! was scarcely in the market ct first,
/ now sends from thirtN-five to seventy
! tens of quinine sulphate each month
| TO the Dutch market. These enormous
| increases in production have lowered
| the price considerably. - Harper s
| Weekly.
From Germany comes the sugscs-
| ton that. in order that the worllmen
can know at a glance what each pipe
| contains all large industrial establish
| ments adopt a uniform system of col
ors for the various pipes eff their
! buildings. The German engineers rec
commended painting water pipes green,
gas pipes yellow, air pipes blue, vaeu-
UNI pipes gray pipes for I've rose for
eil brown, and fer acids rose with red
stripes; and indicating with arrows
| the direction Of flow. II such a plan
were generally adopted ii would doubt
less save much confusion and prevent
serious accidents The same color sys-
TEN would be useful in making me-
chanieal draWinss.--Youihs Compan-
ion.
Ask your arithmetic teacher at
school to double the number Of his pu-
| pils aud ., multiply TINS sum ny ., adti
to it the number of pupils absent on
that day, multiply the result by 10,
add to il the number of his own aunts,
and then tell You his answer. From
this answer subtract $50 and the re-
mainder will be the correct number ol
his pupils present and absent and the
number of his aunts as we'll. For ex-
ample: Surprising the number of pr-
pills is 6, doubled equals u, plus
equals 10 multiplied by 5 equals Is
plus equals rs. multiplied by 10 equals
7SG, plus 8 equals 7S3. Substracting ~
from 7ss leaves 633. Therefore you ear
safely announce to your teacher thar
| he has 6 pupils. 8 absent pupils and
aunts-Christan Herald.