INTERESTING ITEMS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1987, 7 May 1906, Page 7

INTERESTING ITEMS.

The railways of England gives employment to 900,000 people, *j. Of every 1,000 persons born, only one lives 100 years. J, . Britain adds 600,000 tons a year of new ships to her commercial marine. * Holland is the one Europen?; emm trv where coffee can be imported tree of duty,. Nearly 30,000 letters aie posted without addresses in the United Kingdom every year. The total value of toys "made in Germany” every year is no less than £3,500,000. V The Hottentots, now one of the lowest races of men. were, ages ago, one of the most highly civilized.

A cannon-ball fired from one of the (beat Krupp or Armstrong guns travels at the speed of 12,887 feet per second.

Sailors in merchant vessels have a natural dislike for cargo of chemicals since they are so prolific a cause of (ires and explosions. More than 5,000 horses are killed in Spanish bull-fights every >tw r. while from 1,00(1 to 1 ,200 (mils are sacrificed. * The great German Ocean f'shingground known a.s the Dogger Hank is estimated to yield an annual income of £6OO a square mile. In France some women artists and others are allowed to wear masculine attire : but for this a tax of about two guineas a year has to be paid. — Statistics show that, in Germany's population of 50.000,000 the females outnumber the males by nearly a million. The May of Bengal is the largest in the world. Measuring in a straight line from the enclosing peninsulas, it extends about 420,000 square miles.

What the camel is to the people of the deserts of Asia and Africa the llama is to those who dwell in the Andes. It is a faithful, much-endur-ing beast, sure-footed and speedy, without the services of which the inhabitants of some parts of the country would be utterly helpless, for mules and horses cannot endure the great altitude and the rarefied atmosphere.

• A gold mine is s*aid to have been found in County Donegal, and is owned by a company under the control of Mr. Jlobert .Johnston, a Belfast timber merchant. The rock is said to be rich in all sorts of minerals, but richest of all in gold—hold ing as much of this metal as two ounces to the ton. n, There is no special way to capture a giraffe, as almost every wax has been tried, and all have been almost equally unsuccessful. The method which has occasionally resulted in a capture is by using a long corn, at each end of which is a round weight. This cord is thrown by the hunter in such a maimer as to wind round the animal’s legs, either bringing it to ground or rendering it incapable of escaping before il is made a prisoner. Most of the giraffes in captivit. have been caught by chance when young. It is known to the police in England that there is a sum of £7OO in sovereigns buried in a Brixton front garden. That is to say. it was there a few years back, and should be there now unless it has been Occident ally stumbled upon by someone who has kept the secret of his find to Jiimsclf —a very Improbable supposition. The money was part of the proceeds of a burglary, and was hidden by a couple of notorious Borough criminals. 1492.