Doctor Campbell has demonstrated that one bat will consume as many as 250 mosquitoes in one night. He[Pg 57] has estimated that the amount of guano that could be collected from a single bat roost, capable of accommodating 250,000 bats, in a season of nine months, would equal about forty tons—and guano, the highest of all fertilizers, is worth forty dollars a ton. It is Doctor Campbell’s idea that the bat roost is a natural hygienic measure, which should be adopted by governments, municipalities, or corporations controlling large bodies of land, and who are financially able to erect enough of the roosts to protect their tenants. The roosts, however, must be constructed from a scientific standpoint, so that they will not only attract bats, but cause them to remain there permanently.
Knife Melted by Lightning.
Francis Wagoner, a farmer of Upper Mount Bethel, near Bangor, Pa., struck by a bolt of lightning during a terrific storm that passed over that section lives to tell his story, but he will be marked for life.
Wagoner was sitting in the kitchen reading a paper when the bolt of lightning struck a section of metal spouting, entered the bathroom window, and went into the kitchen by way of the stovepipe.
From the stove the lightning hit Wagoner on the right leg, then crossed diagonally to his left shoulder. On the way it came in contact with a knife in his pocket, which was partly melted by the bolt. The lightning left reddish streaks over his body, and he was badly stunned.
Girl Poses as Boy Five Years.
After five years of roaming about this country and Europe posing as a boy, Edna Puffer, eighteen years old, arrested in the New Haven, Conn., railroad yards just as she was about to hop on a freight train for New York, was thrust back into petticoats as soon as they could be procured. She said she had traveled to Europe on board a cattle ship.
Convinced that Franklin Shaw, the sailor who was arrested in her company, was unaware of his companion’s sex, although he had been with her for nearly three months, Judge Booth, in the city court, continued both cases.
Government’s Movie Shows.
The department of agriculture keeps up a special motion-picture factory at which it makes the films it uses in promoting scientific farming. The department heads use the films to illustrate lectures, and the field force shows them at country schoolhouses and churches, where they have invariably attracted large and interested audiences. Even before the factory was set up, various bureaus of the department made use of films in educating the public. Thus, the bureau of animal industry has a special film to show Southern farmers how to make and use the dipping vats that would free their herds of ticks. It also showed films that illustrated the correct ways of handling meat, breeding cattle, and raising poultry.