W. Bird, Bolivar, Mo.—The Maas (or Meuse, as it is called in the upper part of its course) is a river of Belgium and Holland, which, after uniting with the River Rhine, discharges into the North Sea not far from Rotterdam. During the winter months the Dutch travel and amuse themselves on skates and runners on the ice of their many canals, lakes, and rivers, these being their thoroughfares in winter as well as in summer. Owing to moderate temperature and an unexpected rise in the river in the winter of 1512, the ice suddenly gave way at a point on the Maas, near Rotterdam, and a large number of people, some say about 8,000, were precipitated into the water, where the most of them perished.
Joe Davidson, White Rock, Kan.—1. The District of Columbia contains an area of sixty-four square miles. 2. The yearly salary of the President is $50,000; that of the Vice President $8,000; of each of the members of the Cabinet $8,000; of Senators, $5,000 each, 20 cents per mile mileage, stationery $125, franking privilege, and expenses when serving on special committees; Representatives the same as Senators.
Leonard Smith, Atalissa, Iowa—The fastest time on record for any locomotive in this country (and we find no faster for any other) is fourteen miles in eleven minutes, made by locomotive Hamilton Davis and 6 cars on the New York Central Railroad in 1855. This was an average of a mile in 47⅐ seconds.
Prosy, Busti, Iowa.—1. Rice was introduced into this country from Madagascar through the gift of a sack of rice by the captain of a vessel driven into Charleston, S. C., in 1694, to Thomas Smith, who planted it in his garden and distributed the seed.
M. V., Suez, Ill.—“Gulliver’s Travels” were written by Jonathan Swift, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, Nov. 30, 1667; died in the same city, Oct. 19, 1745. The above named work was a series of humoristic satires on the weaknesses of human nature, the follies of society, and the foibles of certain individuals against whom Swift cherished personal antipathies.