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Items of Interest.
' During the year 1900, the racing association of
New York state paid the sum of $98,671 in taxes.
It is announced from London that Louis God
ard will attempt to cross the Atlantic ocean in a
balloon.
The representatives of the steel trust have an
nounced that the "general selling price will soon
he increased."
A tea garden seven years old yields about 700
pounds of tea to the acre. Each plant yields about
four ounces of tea.
It is announced that the president has decided
to enlist an army of 76,000 men. This is 24,00(Vless
than is permitted by the new army law.
Under the Illinois inheritance tax the estate
of the late Silas Cobb of Chicago is required to
pay the state an inheritance tax of $58,972.
Sugar-raisers are turning their attention to
Central Africa. They say that section will be the
chief 'sugar producer of the world inside of fifty
years.
Ten years ago homoeopathic and allopathic
physicians would not mingle. Now many hospitals
have representatives of both schools on their
staffs.
Seven million men were employed in erecting
the Gizeh pyramiu. Two thousand men devoted
three years to bringing a single stone from the
quarry.
- The barber pole has been used as a sign for
nearly 500 years. When first used it told-the pub
lic that the owner was a surgeon as well a3 a
barber.
Dr. Tanner, the fasting expert, says poverty
can be cured just as soon as people learn to hiber
nate in winter like the bear, opossum and 'Other
animals.
A number of philanthropic Parisians have or
ganized and will try to brighten the lives of work
ing girls by sending them to the theatre 'at least
once a week.
The public printer of Minnesota had all the
session laws printed in book form within two days
after the legislature adjourned. This beat: all
previous records.
The district from which a Chinese woman
comes can be told by the style in which she dresses
her hair. Hair dressing is the most important part
of a Chinese woman's toilet.
The servant girl problem is worrying Ger
many as much as the United States. Like their
American cousins German girls prefer factory or
clerk work to housekeeping.
The heels of soldiers' shoes will be tipped with
rubber, it having been demonstrated that sol
diers' can march farther with less discomfort it.
they have rubber shoe heals.
The New York Co-operative society is estab
lishing bakeries, groceries, dry goods stores and
meat markets. The society is made up of mem
bers of various trades unions.
The family of Millset has been blowing the
organ in Hampton Court House, London, since
"William IV.'s time. The other day the organ was
fitted with an hydraulic blower.
Mrs, liachel Foster Avery, corresponding sec
retary of the National Suffrage association, has
announced that she will retire from that position,
which she has held for twenty years.
The Indiana appellate court has decided that
the civil authorities have the right to tax the
Miami Indians who have abandoned tribal rela
tions and exercise the rights of citizenship.
The price of elephants is going up like some
railroad stocks did very recently. Fifty years ago
an East Indian elephant could be bough': for $250.
Today the ruling price is $4,000 per elephant
The Commoner.
Sir Arthur Power Palmer, K. C. B., has just
been appointed commander-in-chief of the British
forces in India. He is the tallest officer in his ma
jesty's service, being 6 feet 4 inches In height.
Londoners want a vehicle less dangerous than
the hansom. Last year 1,400 people wrre injured
and eighteen killed by being thrown out of their
hansoms by reason of the horse falling down.
Two hundred and fifty years ago the Dutch
were masters of the ocean-carrying trade, owning
60 out of every 100 tons. Now they are well to
ward the bottom of the list, owning only Vz tons.
A Cork seed firm recently sent packages of
seed to Irish soldiers serving In the British armies
in South Africa. It is. expected that in a year or
two the Transvaal will be a big bunch of sham
rock. Chicago newspapers announce that the affairs
of the old Third National bank of Chicago, which
failed in 1877, are to be disposed of. For twenty
four years this bank has been in tb hands of a
receiver.
Mrs. May Campbell of Oconee county, South
Carolina, aged 26 years, is a grandmother. She
was married at the age of 11, was the mother of
a daughter at the age of 12, and this daughter is
now a mother.
A West Virginia hunter made the mistake of
carrying his tobacco and cartridges loose in the
same pocket. He tried to smoke, and as a result
it took a surgeon and a dentist six weeks to make
him presentable.
Ocean steamships now have as regular a sche
dule for arriving and departing as railroad trains,
and adhere to it fully as well. A certain rate of
speed is maintained and a late steamer is as rare
as a late train.
Engineers are indebted to the clam for the
idea of using a water jet to drive piles in the sand.
The clam sinks itself in sand Ly throwing a jet of
water beneath itself, thus washing ihe sand to one
side and allowing it to sink.
Bamboo is to the Chinese what iron is to the
American. It is the framework of most of the
houses, the material from which bridges are made,
provides a delicacy for the table, is manufactured
into paper and used in boat-building.
It is announced that Mr. Loomls,. United States
minister .to Venezuela, will, not return to his post
for a time. The administration desires Mr. Loomls
to remain away and for a time there will be a
partial severance of diplomatic relations.
The comic papers have so thoroughly ground
ed the idea that janitors are arrogant and unac
commodating that New York janitors have organ
ized" a league to remove the Impression. They say
it Injures their rightful standing in society.
The manufacturers of plows throughout the
country are engaged in the formation of a trust
which will have a capital stock of $50,000,000. It
is stated that one result of the combination will
be to abolish the long credit to merchants. The
headquarters will be at Chicago.
Edward VII. is reported as considering the
advisability of having the wild boars in Windsor
park killed. The herd was started several .ears
ago by the then Prince of Wales. The boars are
dangerous and have often seriously injured visi-
tors.
The British house . of commons C if eated a
pioposition to provide a university education for
Catholics in Ireland without restrictions violat
ing their religious convictions. Arthur Balfour,
the government leader, took issue with the ma
jority of his party and supported this proposition.
Governor Stanley of Kansas rashly said ho
would give a silver cup to every mother of triplets
during his term of office, fie has already Seen
called upon for fifteen cups and is beginning to
think that he is being buncoed. ? reafter he will
require the affidavits of the parents, the nurse and
the attending physician before sending a cup.
At Dayton, O., recently, a man aged 59. mar
ried a woman aged 22. The bride was the divorced
wife of the bridegroom's son. Two children wero
born of tho former marriage and the result is com
plicated relationship. This bride becomes grand
mother to her children while the groom, who in
natural relationship is the grandfather of these
children, becomes stepfather to his grandchildren.
James Hamilton Lewis, former congressman
from the state of Washington, has for a client
Charles W. Nordstrom of Seattle, who, on seven
occasions, has been sentenced to bo hanged. Nord
strom's case has gone to the state supreme court
of Washington five times and to the United States
supreme court three times. The case is now under
consideration by tho United States supreme court.
Tho New York World Is responsible for the
following: "Senator Hanna slowly climbed tho
stairs In the White house the other day, puffing
at every step. 'Mark,' said Senutor Scott, who was
with him, 'why don't you get tho president to put
an elevator in tho building?' 'Did suggest It to
him,' said Hanna, between gasps, 'but he said ho
noticed I got here just the same without one.' "
Recently a two-year-old girl living near Bay
side, L. I., was lost. One day a farmer discovered
tho little one in a strip of woodland where a largo
Newfoundland dog was standing guard over tho
child. The farmer carried the baby into tho
farm-house, the faithful dog guardian following It
and remaining by its side until it was delivered to
its parents.
A Berlin dispatch to the Chicago Tribune
said: "Tho following will be the scale of customs
duties on imports from countries concluding new
treaties with Germany: Wheat, rye and oats,
5 marks per hundred kilos; maize, 2 marks;
barley malt, 5; other malt, 8 manes; steers,
cows and calves, 5 marks per 100 kilos, living
weight; oxen, 9 marks; sheep, 5 marks;" hogs, 8
marks."
The late George Q. Cannon, president of the
Mormon church, left four widows, thirty-three
children and a number of grand-children to mourn
his demise, cherish his memory and Inherit his
wealth. To each of his widows Mr. Cannon gave
a well equipped home. To each of his thirty-threo
children, he gave an acre of land and $2,000 in
cash. The balance of his estate, estimated to be
worth $800,000, Mr. Cannon set aside for the ben
efit of his entire family. He provided that the
"George Q. Cannon association" should be organ
ized, and that every member of the family from
one generation to another should be provided with
a block of this association stock after the estate
had accumulated for forty years, during which
period it is to remain intact.
Chicago now poses as one of the seaport cities.
t The steamer Northwestern left Chic o on April
24, bound for Liverpool. Referring to the sailing
of this vessel, the Chicago Tribune says: "Should
the new European line prove successful it is as,
sured that other lines will enter the field. The
principal points that will have to be decided by a
practical test are the securing of ca. goes in Eu
rope for the return trip and the expense of navf
gating the ships over the new course. Whether
thj saving in handling charges will offset the
heavy expenses incurred in the navigation of the
new route to the ocean is not yet known. When
th) Northwestern arrived in Chicago on Sunday
the tow bill up the Chicago river amounted to $77.
At the Welland canal the boat will have to pay
two cents a ton for passage. A pilot through the
St. Lawrence will cost another $100. The heaviest
item will be the cost of insurance in the St. Law
rence river passage. On some boats taken down a
year ago the insurance companies charged 4 per
cent of the value of the "vessel. At this rate it
would cost the company's new steamers $7,400 for
insurance between the lakes and the Atlantic. It
is not thought, however, . .at the company, will be
asked to pay this almost prohibitive rate.
MHiLw.rMn
E. W. Jh. ..A
