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Show INTELLIGENCE ITEMS. The first known steel pan was made in 1830. Kerosene was first used for lighting purposes in 1826. Examination shows the Agricultural Department cost $554,000 to the Government last year. During the year 1879 twenty minor planets were discovered and their number is now 211. A hundred million acres of land grants to railroads have lapsed by non-completion of the roads. The little State of Rhode Island wants to stop bribery at elections. The astonishing statement is made that $125,000 was paid for three offices. The Brazilian coffee plantations, from which most of our Java and Mocha comes, are reported to be in doubtful condition for a good yield this year. The first telegraph instrument was successfully operated by S. F. B. Morse, the inventor, in 1835, though its utility was not demonstrated to the world until 1844. The Roman Catholic Church has in this country no less than 687 seminaries, colleges, and academies, besides 2,246 parochial schools. Its charitable institutions number 373. There are two hundred and eleven women students at University College, London. A few classes are open only to women, and a few only to men; the rest are attended only by male and female students together. The Prince of Wales finding nine o' clock dinners untimely - so far at least as to interfere with theatre-going - has declared that he will henceforth dine at seven, and at seven the fashionable dinner hour will henceforth be. Princess Emelie, aged fourteen, the eldest daughter of the Comte and Comtisse de Paris, is already an artist. She is one grand-daughter to the late Duchess d'Orleans, one of the most distingue women of her time. The pressure of the atmosphere upon every square foot of the earth amounts to two thousand one hundred and sixty pounds. An ordinary sized man, supposing his surface to be fourteen square feet, sustains the enormous pressure of thirty thousand two hundred and forty pounds. While their countrymen are starving in Ireland the Irish societies of New York have determined to have a parade and a good time next St. (Saint) Patrick's Day. Their reception on Broadway is likely to be pretty blue. The gallant Sixty-ninth decline to take part in such a mockery. (N. Y. Herald). The reported school population of Kansas is 311,316; the enrollment in the public schools during the past year was 208,409, and the total attendance was 123,996.There were 6,707 teachers employed. The school revenues amounted to $1,887,568.22, and the expenditures to $1,500,791.33. The enlarged Astor Library building will be an imposing structure. Through the liberality of John Jacob Astor the building will be made one-third larger than it is at present, holding 350,000 volumes instead of 200,000. The whole front will be 200 feet, while the depth is 120 feet. The Astors have given in all over $1,000,000 to the institution. When any man gives Detroit - but no matter. (Detroit Free Press). Nearly 300,000,000 postal cards were made in the United States last year ??? Sentence Unreadable ???. They are made at Holyoke, Mass. (Massachusetts), by a private concern, under the general supervision of a Government officer. The work is nearly all done by machinery, even to putting them up in packages of twenty-five. The use of postal cards is said to have driven many makers of writing paper and envelopes out of business. |