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Show m9mvmmfmlm, 1 1 1.,. II lJli!LJSSSaSl j Oids and Ends. There Is said to toe shortage In the world's supply of wool. . . A perambulatine; barber, bavin customers cus-tomers on the street U no nusual eight in the side street of Manila. The trees of Finland are the money bags of the people. A peasant even makes his shoes rrom birch bark, and thatches lie roof with shavitits. He virtually lives on wood. In London the unusual heat of the last summer gave a further vogue to the straw hat and mde silk hats so unpopular unpopu-lar that the factories dismissed many of their workmen. In Japanese schools a mischievous boy a made to stand and hold a slender etlck jf lighted punk until it burns out. It he s caua-ht breaking: oft the lower end of the stick a second punishment Is added. A hug statue of the Virgin has been successfully placed on the summit of the Dent du Oeant, a mountain in Italy 11,000 feet hih. near Milan. Divine service was performed on tne summit In celebration of the event by the vicar of Courmayeur. A Finnish housewife buys a new broom every morning a . necessary extravagance, extrava-gance, since she sweeps her, whole house every day, and the broom she uses Is Just a bundle of fresh, green birch leaves, whose natural dampness licks up the dust. i A mail bag captured by the Boers in 1S99 has .Just been recovered. It contained forty-seven registered letters, in whlcn were about IS50 in cash, a number of postal pos-tal orders, a draft for $10u0, documents involving in-volving a sum of $25,000, checks, official papers and two wlhs. The French treasury has up to now benefited to the extent of $1,600,000 by the tax on cycles and motor cars. Motor cycles contribute $50,000 of this amount, and motor cars $375,000. Since 1900 the number of motor cars .paying the tax has increased by 1089 per cent. In rural Finland a bride wears to church a curious combination of wedding veil and wedding bonnet. It is a rreat cap with ribbon streamers behind, and in front a fall of lace which shadows the face. Over her dark cashmere dress she ties a handsomely embroidered white apron. Immigration inspectors have reported to Washington that almshouses, homes for orphans and other charitable institutions in nearly every State in the Union have a large percentage of aliens, who are sent to this country because they receive better treatment here than in similar places In Europe. Belgium, where public libraries are almost al-most unknown, enjoys 1SO.0OO public houses. That means one public house for thirty-six inhabitants, or one public house for twelve men above 17 years of age. During Dur-ing the last fifty years the population ha increased 50 per cent; the number of public pub-lic houses & per cent. A curious custom obtains among the Coorgs of India. When one of them kills a tiger or a panther he Is married to the dead animal, regardless of Its sex. Propped upon a framework of wood or bamboo, the animal is carried In' procession, proces-sion, and the marriage ritual Is strictly observed, while lavish hospitality is dispensed-. A man recently returning from the East was about to fret into his berth on a sleeping car when he heard the voice of a huge Kentucklan. who was holding up a pillow between his thumb -and finger while he roared out o the porter: "I say. ou boy, come back and take this away!' "Wha" for. sah?" "Because I'm afraid the thing will get Into my ear!" The greatest hoard of the yellow metal ever gathered In any country could not buy one yesr's harvest of the American corn and wheat. To buy one season's wheat crop would take all the gold mined in this country In six years. In the last seven years all the gold mines have produced pro-duced only enough to buy one year's yield of our six leading cereals. |