Crisp Condensations

Germany last year imported 62,000 horses. A cooking school in Pittsburg makes a specialty of educating men cooks. In the United States about 3,500 watches are manuf actured every day. The Japanese army is now 150,000 Btr ng. lt will be 600,000 before long. The Germán military budget containa an item of 9,000 for the breeding and training of carrier pigeons. England uses about 190,000,000 post cards a year, and the United States not far from 339,000,000 annually. A Chicagoan has invented a new calculating machine wliich will accurately add, subtract, multiply or divide. It is said now that England gave to the Germans a copy of her new rille in return for the recipe for making melinite. A talking piano, operated by numerous keys and producing words of all kinds, is one of the curiositics at a New York museum. Among the permanent residents of Paris, it is said, the exiles of Eussian nobility are the most noted for extravagance and prodigality of life. A curious notion in table decoration ia to have the center of the tablo made into a little pond in which crabs and lobstera are seen, and even fish are paddling about. A man at Laramie laughed at an Indian who slipped down on the street five years ago, and the otherda., the red man came around and stabbed him in the back as a reward. A young couple of Ellsville, Ga. , went riding, and became so intercsted in talk that it was some time before t,hey noticed that their horse was quietiy grazing at the roadside. Tho color of Othello has beon a questioned point in Shakespeare. M. Benjamin-Constant, the French artist, has recently expressed his opinión that Othello was not yellowish brown, but decidedly black. The use of tobáceo at Yalo is decreasing each year, owing to the example set by the athletic associations, which do not allow their members to smoke or chew. Gymnasiums have a wido influence over the health of collegiates. The census of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia gives the population of the two princip.'lities as 3,154,875, of whom 2,826,250 are Bulgarians, 607,000 Turks, 58,000 Greeks, 50,000 gypsies who have no fixed residence, and 23,400 Jews. Five hundred and twenty-four cats have been on exhibition at the Crystal Palace this fall. The most valuable cat was prized at about 10,000. He was a big, black belled cat, who liad graced many exhibitions with his presence. A Meadvillo, Pa., man obtaincd employment as a fireman on a locomotivo. He put a dozen raw eggs into a dinner pail, which he placed in the tank box. A week afterward, happening to think of the eggs, lie opened the pail and found a fine lirood of vounir c.liifkpns A Summerville, Ga., dog disappeared recently for a week, and at the end of that time was found in conipany with a canino compaaion at the bottom of an old well. Vhen taken out lie tried to rejoin the other dog in the veil, and was not happy until óoth were released. Horace Smith, of Philadelphia, is said to possess the largest collection of newspaper clippings in the world. He began when a boy of 10 and has been at it 50 years. It would take a furniture van to hold what he has now, although he has sold thousands and thousands of 6lips. Missionary Beach, of China, claims to have succeoded in representing the Chinese spoken language by a system of clear and simple phonetic symbols, fashioned aftcr the Pitman style. It is 6aid that an edncated f oreigner can learn the system n from two to five hours, and a bright Chinaman in ten hours. William McLaughlin, of Albany, Ore., has a tomato vine that was planted May 10, by hún, which has now attained the prodigious height of nearly 13 feet and is still growing. The main vine is nearly 3 inches in circumferenco and the branches cover an area of 20 feet. On the vine can now be seen ripe and green fruit and blooms. A farmer digging a ditch near Higgina lake, Roscommon county, Mich., was made aknost delirious when he unearthed an old iron kettle nearly f uil of stuff that looked like silver dollars. His joy was short liveil, however, for the coins proved to bo counterf eits, and such bad ones that the f ellow who made them had evidently buried them becauso they couldn't be passed on anybody.