Show SINGULAR FACTS I A Mass of Information Condensed Into Brief Space Who would believe that any one could make money out of cigar ends Yet the business of gathering them is so lucrative that the Russian Philanthropic society has organized a regular system in St Petersburg Peters-burg of collecting these trifles and disposIng dispos-Ing of them for the benefit of the poor Upward of 1000 was realized in the month of July As towhat is the ultimate desti nation of this refuse matter it would be hazardous decide Mono and Irecions Things Two million nickel threecent pieces still skinning The pennyweight was the exact weight of the old British slyer penny The cost making alOO3 Bank of Eng land note is less than a penny Dried fish was formerly and is i still to some extent a medium of exchange in iceland ice-land o Apples were worth from one to two shillings shil-lings each in the reign of Henry VII Germanium is a chemical substance but it is worth sxty times its weight in gold The trcusuty silver stock weighs 11000 net tons and to carry it would require 1000 freight cars carrying eleven tons each or 3200 cars carrying five tons each or 550J twohorse wagons carrying two tons each Astronomical XoYeltits The moon is said to move 3333 feet per second Rigel I the magnificent star of the first magnitude in the constellation of Orion has recently been discovered by astronomers astrono-mers to be one of tho most distant stars in the celestial vault The natives of Madagascar formerly followed fol-lowed the moon in determining time but since the influx of missionaries the Queen issued an edict that the Christian year should be followed But in commencing the year the first day was set some time In October or November Algol the variable star in Persons has long been in mystery Its light remains constant for two and a half days It then begins to fade and in less than four hours diminishes to an insignificant star remaining remain-ing thus for about twenty minutes when it regains its former brilliancy It has long been suspected that a dark body revolved about Algol and which coming between us and that star intercepts more or less of its light Human Statistics Two thousand four hundred and ninety five students at Harvard Four thousand two hundred and thirty seven American residents in Paris Fourteen school children per 1000 population popu-lation in Russia One hundred and ninetyseven schoolchildren school-children per 1000 population in this country coun-try Mr Gladstones library contains 20000 volumes Queen Victorias chief cook receives 3500 a year The average marryIng ago of a Frenchman French-man is thirty years To every 1000 males in London there are 1123 females 4 s4 > A man is obliged to breathe seven hogsheads hogs-heads of air in a day The population of the United States increases in-creases by 1000000 persons yearly The smallest parish in England is Wilcot Oxon contains seven persons Within the last thirtythree years 160000 I couples Have we are told been united at Manchester cathedral I There are reported to be 20000 Canadians who are drawing pensions from the United States S government The Keoley institute in Indiana has a child only five years of age who is a confirmed con-firmed morphine eater An English socialist economist declares that old age is a more important element among the causes of pauperism than either thriftlessness or drink It is encouraging to know that the number num-ber of marriages in Boston during the past year show an excess of over three hundred over the figures of preceding year Paris has increased in population about 7 percent during the last five years In 1SSG it had 22 < jO945 inhabitants Now it has 2422909 Great Britain has more women workers than any other country in proportion to population 12 per cent of the industrial classes aro women Animals The musk antelope can send forth such a powerful ordor of musk that even at the distance of 100 yards ho can smother his I enemy to death Camels are the only working cattle used in a certain part of the Ural districts some large farms possessing a hundred each The baya bird of India spends his nights catching fireflies with which he plasters his nest The bays does not kill the fly but simply attaches it to his nest by means of a piece of moist clay On a dark night a bayas nesthas the appearance of an electric elec-tric street lamp Many a huntsman through along life has I chased the fox with an enthusiastic ardor I who would be surprised to know that in the very tip of his tail or brush is a little bunch of hairs from twenty to thirty in number which gives forth to the despairing despair-ing and almost vanquished beast the refreshing re-freshing and stimulating odor of violets Canary birds are a good deal troubled by mosquitoes The toes of the bird are simply provided with small veins and as time membrane between the toes is extremely ex-tremely thin an observant mosquito may see his favorite fluid circulating in plain sight A bird with a swollen hind toe was I brought to a bird fancier recently and hoi ho-i pronounced the trouble poisoning from a mosquito bite He said the thing was not uncommon A granger hailing from Placer county brought to the San Francisco Ciimntcle office of-fice a curious freak of nature in tho shape of a live snake with two distinct heads There is no malformation the body and I neck of the reptile being perfect and the heads being each of full size and development develop-ment Each head has two eyes and the snake when aroused darts forth its I tongues from both mouths simultaneously at times and at others tiding only one tongue The reptile is a little over a foot long and belongs to a harmless variety Aiiout Eggs The consumption of eggs in Paris is something extraordinary According to a municipal statement the city consumed last year no less than 23000 tons equal to 147 eggs per capita The artificial incubation of eggs originated origin-ated in Egypt where it is still carried on According to a consular report no fewer than 75000COO eggs are hatched in this way every year on the banks of the Nile New England is coming forward with fabulous egg stories The Newburyport Mass Reics says A thoroughored hen laid a few days ago at South Stockbridge an egg with a shell that fairly glittered witb tiny specks of gold A second newspaper news-paper relates that a Portsmouth N H woman recently found a one cent piece in an egg which one of her hens had laid and later on the same hen laid an egg with a ten cent piece in it Speed and Force A bullet from a Mannlicher rifle will go straight through four men standing close behind each other A line of steamships is about to enter into a contract to carry the mails between England Eng-land and Canada in five days The highest velocity ever given to a cannon can-non ball is estimated at 2626 feet per second sec-ond being equal to a mile in 32 seconds The velocity of the earth at the equator i duo to its rotation on its axis is 1000 miles per hour or a mile in 36 seconds Therefore There-fore if a cannon ball were fired due west and could maintain its initial velocity it would beat the sun in his apparent journey round the earth A large steamer engaged in the Australian Austra-lian and New Zealand deadmeat trade recently re-cently completed a voyage that is remarkable remark-able from the fact that the vessel st amed at full speed for 12059 nautical miles with out slowing up The engines which are of the tripleextention type were in excellent condition at the end of the trip The average aver-age speed was between eleven and twelve knots What is probably ono of the quickest pieces of work on the telephone was performed per-formed by a newspaper correspondent from Cheltenham to Tewksbury England on the occasion of the installation of a public station at the former place The limit of time allowed users of the telecbone between be-tween towns there is three minutes and during this period a report for the local paper numbering 700 words was communicated communi-cated Odd Sclentiflo Facts A watch threequarters of an inch in diameter is being repaired Adrian Michigan Mich-igan i Its weight is nine pennyweights The telephone line which has just been completed between Pikes Peak and Manitou Man-itou Is the highest line in the world Platinum and silver can each be drawn into wire many times finer than tho human hair The former has been drawn into wire so fine that two of them could be twisted I together into the hollow of a hair I The process of whitening sugar was I never known until a hen walked through a I clay puddle and then strayed into the sugarhouse sugar-house Her tracks were of course left in II i the piles ot sugar and when it was noticed I that the spots where she had stepped were whiter than the rest the process of bleaching bleach-ing sugar with clay was adopted An alchemist when experimenting in earths for making crucibles found that he had invented porcelain and a watchmakers watchmak-ers apprentice while holding a spectacle glass between his thumb and forefinger noticed that through it the neighboring buildings appeared large ana thus discovered discov-ered the adaptability of the lens to the telescope tel-escope The surface of any given quantity of gold according to tho best authorities may be extended by the hammer 310814 times The thickness of the metal thus extended appears to be no more than the 560020th I part of an inch Eight ounces of this wonderful metal would gild a silver wire of sufficient length to extend entirely around the globe 1I1selnlteolI Fish are always sold alive in Japan A ton of coal yields nearly 10000 feet of gasSt St Petersburg is tho coldest capital in Europe Twentyone thousand stitches in an ordinary or-dinary shirt I Fortyseven newspapers published in Ecuador I The Rhine flows at three times the rate of the Thames I Chess is an oW game It was played by the Chinese 174 years before Christ I The Vatican contains 203 staircases and 11JO different rooms I The unexplored area of Canada is 1000000 square miles Two and a half million parcels are sent monthly by British parcel post The value of property in London has I trebled since 1856 The worlds press is stated to include 37COO newspapers m The theatres in London regularly employ over 12000 people Alexandria possesses the largest artificial harbor in the world The Italian government raises 15000000 yearly by holding lotteries The total income of the Qhurch of England Eng-land is about 81OUOUOO a week Our enterprising American florists sold 14175328 worth of flowers last year There are now 65007 postoffices in the country tho highest number ever reached I Ono dollar a minute is the charge for using the telephone line from London to Paris 1 More than 100000000 Chines are engaged I either directly or indirectly in the tea industry in-dustry There are nearly two and a quarter millions mil-lions of acres in Scoland occupied by deer forests A fine quality of sugar is now being extracted ex-tracted from tho sap of sugar pine trees in California All petitions to the British house of commons com-mons must be in hand writing and may not be printed In proportion to population exactly three i times as much spirits are drunk in Scotland as in England A London moneylender recently sued for repayment of a loan on which ha received re-ceived 600 per cent interest A London cabman was recently fined for carrying fourteen persons in his cab at onetime one-time Twenty million copies of Hymns Ancient An-cient and Modern have been sold since 1872 In proportion to its size England has eight times as many miles of railway as the United States Fortyfive per cent of the water con o I sumed or drawn for domestic purposes in London is wasted It would take 41000 cars of 400 bushels each to haul the wheat grown in Kansas this year It is stated that the Australian agriculturists agricul-turists lost last year by rust in wheat over 11000000 During the heavy gales the waves of the Atlantic are from twentyfour to thirtysix feet in heighthalf above and half below the mean level of the sea Interesting Works of Art In the new works of the Pir usA thena railway station the marble head ofa woman has been found of good workmanship It wears a diadem and the features are very finely carved It is thought to belong to a headless statue found on this site in the city a little time ago A WONDERFUL VASE New Orleans TfmesE rnocrafr In the cathedral of Genoa is pitserved and has been for GOO years a vase immensevalue It is cut from a single emt aid Its principal princi-pal diameter is twelve and a half inches and its height five and threefourths inches It is kept under several locks the keys of which are in different hands and it is rarely exhibited in public and only by an order of tho senate When exhibited it is suspended around the neck of a priest by a cord and no one is allowed to touch it but him A decree passed in 147G forbids anyone any-one going too nnar the precious relic A Genoese antiquarian has written a hook to demonstrate that this vase is one of the gifts made to Solomon by the Queen of Sheba COLOSSAL CARVERS There are in the window of a Nassau street cutlery store a colossal carving knIfe i and fork that aro said to be the largest in i the world and probably the most costly They were placed there on exhibition a day or two since They are upreared in the window resting on the handles with the blade and prongs crossed They fill the entire en-tire front of the window and look like the arch of a great gateway Tho knife is tenandahalf feet long the blade sixteen inches wide The fork is sevenandahalf feet long The handles were made by the proprietor proprie-tor of tho store out of an extra large pair of elephant tusks and alone are worth over SSOO The knife and fork together weigh 320 pounds and are valued at about 1500 |