I have learned that “In the last five years our national and state lawmaking bodies have passed 62,550 laws.” The surprising thing about this information is that the number is so small!
I have learned that “Russia has ten thousand lepers, taken care of by twenty-one institutions.”
I have acquired these valuable bits of ornithological lore: “The frigate-bird is capable of getting up a speed of ninety-six miles an hour with hardly a movement of its wings. The greater part of its life is spent in the air.” “The swallow has a larger mouth in proportion to its size than any other bird.”
I have, from the bottom of a single column, gleaned these three items of incalculable value: “By harnessing a fly to a tiny wagon an English scientist found it could draw one hundred and seventy times its own weight over smooth surfaces.”
“Missouri last year produced 195,634 tons of lead, a fairly heavy output.”
“The United States has five hundred and seventeen button-factories.”
The New York Times staggers me with this statistical line: “One Paris motion-picture plant produces an average of three million feet of films weekly.” (This strikes me as a kind of “French frightfulness.”)
The New York Evening Post contributes to my welfare and domestic comfort this item: “Both an electric range and a refrigerator are included in a new kitchen cabinet, but are hidden from view by doors when not in use.”
I am certainly a wiser man for knowing that “The Mexican seacoast on the Pacific and the Gulf of California is 4,575 miles.” And I am at least interested in the fact that “An Englishman has invented a cover for hatchways on vessels that operates on the principle of a roll-top desk.” If this hatchway operates on the principle of the only roll-top desk I ever possessed, God help the poor sailors when the storm breaks!
Such items as these disclose to me the extent of my previous ignorance:—