Items of General Interest

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 1, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 1.

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Items of General Interest

— In the United States the educational buildings are valued at $225,000,000.

— It is reported that Kansas City merchants lose $100,000 a year to shoplifters.

— A paper chimney, fifty feet high, and fireproof, is a curiosity to be seen at Breslau, Germany.

— It is estimated that the wages of the chauffeurs of the United States total more than those of school-teachers.

— The deepest gold mine in the world is at Bendigo, in Australia. Its main shaft is sunk to a depth of 3,900 feet.

— A large force of Moorish tribesmen was recently routed, with heavy loss, by a veritable "shower of bombs" thrown by Spanish military aviators.

— An imitation of cow's milk, called soy milk, is now in use in Germany. This is manufactured from the soy or Chinese bean. This substitute is most satisfactory to the peasant, and is said to be fully as wholesome as the purest milk, and more nourishing.

— A German doctor tested his mental ability after one-half hour's sleep, and then after one, two, three, four, five, and six. He found his mind as clear for solving mathematical problems after half an hour's sleep as after the other lengths; but he found a great difference in his tests of his memory. He could remember things in exact proportion to the number of hours slept.

— A telephone cable soon to be laid between England and Holland will cost $3,000,000.

— Missouri has 677,196 dwellings, inhabited by 749,812 families containing 3,293,335 persons.

— About fifty workmen are permanently employed in keeping in repair St. Paul's Cathedral, in Rome.

— Congress adjourned December 24 to meet again January 12. President Wilson will spend his Christmas vacation quietly at Pass Christian, Miss.

— From 1790 to the present time the United States has paid $4,557,539,824.68 to the nation's war veterans, and is now carrying 860,204 persons on the rolls. The year ended June 30 took 57,459 pensioners from the rolls, mustered out by the call of death.

— On December 19, the Senate passed the currency bill by a vote of 54 against 34. December 22 the House of Representatives passed the same measure by a vote of 298 to 60. This and the tariff revision make two signal victories for the Wilson administrative policies.

— A lively controversy has been begun over the discoveries of a young Italian engineer, Signor Giuli Ulivi, who is reported to have discovered the F rays, by means of which he can cause powder deposits, shells, and ammunition stowed on ships or fortresses to be blown up at a distance. Signor Ulivi, though but thirty-three years of age, is described as a marvel of an inventive genius, something like an Italian Edison, who can invent or discover something new every day.

— One of the most famous wine cellars in the world—that of the Vatican—has, at the orders of Pope Pius X, been cleared of the whole of its accumulated vintages. The wines were distributed among the hospitals, monasteries, and convents in every part of Italy. The Pope, who is a strict teetotaler, was induced to take this course primarily by way of chastisement of the papal guard, whose rebellious behavior is attributed to the freedom of access to the cellars which they have enjoyed.

— Indomitable little Holland is once more to invade the sea. A new province is to be added to its reconquests of land snatched from it in former ages by the sea. The unique physical history of this home of the thrifty and persevering Dutch nation is known to every schoolboy. It has been an inspiration, in succeeding generations, to every nation. It is proverbially difficult to "beat the Dutch." For many years the plan has been in prospect to reclaim that great stretch of now salt water, formerly a lake surrounded by fens and marshes, known as the Zuyder Zee, or South Sea. This has now become a definite project for immediate execution. Queen Wilhelmina, in her speech from the throne at the recent opening of parliament, stated that a bill providing for the undertaking is to be submitted. There seems little doubt of its passage. The area of this sea is 2,000 square miles; its depth, ten to nineteen feet. The North Sea Canal, forking at Amsterdam, at present connects it with the sea to the west. This territory, which will comprise some of the most valuable in Holland, was formerly lost as the result of floods occurring in the thirteenth century. Holland has since the sixteenth century reclaimed from the waters over 1,000,000 acres, about half the area of the country.

— A submerged island recently discovered in the sea bed near Lemons, in the Greek archipelago, has been identified as the island of Chryssis, which, according to Pausanias, was sunk as the result of volcanic action about 200 years before the Christian era.

— One hundred and forty-eight women and girls have dropped out of sight in Kansas City during the last six months, according to the police report. It is stated that nearly a third of the girls who have disappeared came from small towns and rural districts in Missouri and Kansas.

— What proved to be the greatest money-raising campaign for benevolent purposes on record, came to a close Thanksgiving eve in New York City, when it was announced that $4,062,501 had been subscribed for the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations of that city in ten days. Those who contributed toward the project numbered 17,344.

— Conditions in Turkey remain rather confused, even after the signing of peace treaties with all the former Balkan allies. The Young Turk party is undoubtedly the strongest in the country, and not apt to be overthrown. In name it is the same party which dethroned Abdul-Hamid, but in reality it has changed very much. The party has practically dropped all doubtful and disturbing elements among its leaders. The greatest man in Turkey today is undoubtedly Talaat, to whom the Young Turk party owes everything, even its very existence.