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Show ,Mr. Gladstone's statue is to be set up t Athens, in the gardens of Zappeion, In recognition of his services to Greek Independence. Even In these days of high power, small caliber rifles, the smooth bore with a big mouth is a bad weapon to run up against. A ragged coat cften covers a warm h"art, while many an embroidered ' waistcoat has nothing better under it than heartburn. Queensland is being converted into a large orange orchard. The Australian Austral-ian orange ripens at a time when other countries cannot provide fruit! Telegraphic wires are better conductors con-ductors on Monday than on Saturday, on account of their Sunday rest, and a rest of three weeks adds 10 per cent to the conductivity of. a wire. Recent explorations, show that Brazilian Braz-ilian resources, if pressed, could tur-nish tur-nish 50 per cent more raw rubber than at present Investigations in Africa have disclosed a-sufcply which is practically prac-tically limitless. ;. , , . v ' Gen. Andre, the new French war minister, had his measures on taking office cancelled pending military pun-. pun-. tsjbments and rescinded Gen. Galliffet's inhibition of. the wearing of civil driss by officers when off duty. There is a horse in Havana, Cuba, which probably has saved the lives of 1,800 persons. He is kept in Havana's bacteriological laboratory, which, like the Pasteur Institute of Baltimore, was founded by a newspaper. This horse was . given to that institute in 1895. From that year up to date, it is said to hare furnished 74,000 cubic centimeters centi-meters of anti-diphtheria serum, with a record of 1,800 cures. Special trains on the Siberian railroad rail-road certainly possess everything for the comfort of travelers. There is a library, piano, writing , conveniences, harbor shop, gymnasium, ice water, hot water, dials which indicate the ne'xt station and the length of the stop, double windows to protect the passengers pas-sengers from dust and the extreme Siberian Si-berian cold, and an observation car at ue rear, i nere is no charge for medi-eal medi-eal attendance, but baths cost $1. There are attendants on the train speaking English, French and German. The time from St Petersburg to Irkutsk is seven days. The famous Trans-Missouri Freight association decision of the Supreme Court was said to have thrown the railroads back into a "competitive" state. But a railroad passenger association asso-ciation has decreed that any road running run-ning a train between New York and Chicago' in less than twenty-eight hours must charge $4 above the regular fare. That does not look like competition. competi-tion. An association sufficiently powerful power-ful to compel the rich and enterprising roads to forego the advantage of their enterprise is hardly the shorn, crippled and decrepit creature that its members have represented it as being. A recent visitor to an astronomical i observatory looked through the great telescope, and reported a remarkable appearance in the sky. The professor, standing near, was incredulous; the looker persistent The man of science took his turn at the instrument, and then quietly remarked: "There is a cobweb forming across the glass. That accounts for your vision of the extraordinary extra-ordinary object." Observers in various vari-ous departments of human thought and activity, who report the coming of wonderful or threatening things into view may, so to say, have only a cobweb cob-web to thank for what they see. The business, the political or the religious firmament has really no such occupants occu-pants of its space. England's patent office has just Issued Is-sued its report for 1899, and it appears that there has been a falling off during the past twelve months, as there is a diminution of about 1,000 in the number num-ber of the year's complete specifications. specifica-tions. The outbreak of the war occasioned occa-sioned the invention of several shields and cuirasses for soldiers; the abnormal abnor-mal heat during the summer resulted result-ed in many applications for patents for headgear for horses; and the passing pass-ing of the "Shop Assistants' Seats Act,'-( Act,'-( by which every employer must provide his assistants with seats during their work, resulted in the granting of patents pat-ents for over fifty various kinds of seats. The largest number of applications applica-tions in one day was 127, and the smallest fifty. Women were responsible responsi-ble for 574 specifications, 149 of which were in connection with articles of dress and forty-two related to cycling. The general diminution is attributed to the great decline of invention in connection with the cycling industry. |