p. 20 | News and Miscellany by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Aug 21, 1913

News and Miscellany

By Editor

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

—A lighted cigarette, carelessly thrown from a railway-train, is now believed to have started the forest fire that more than three thousand men lately fought on Mt. Tamalpais, in Marin County, California, about fifteen miles northwest of San Francisco. It was hoped to save Muir Woods, the home of the giant redwoods,—trees of thousands of years' growth and hundreds of feet high, the finest specimens in the world. Soldiers fought desperately to save these woods, but the flames leaped the trenches and the men had to flee for their lives.

—When you are tempted to be impatient with "Central" because she cannot give you your number with quite the speed of lightning, it would not be amiss to remember these facts: The British postmaster-general has stated that the average time, on 50,000 calls observed, taken from the moment of ringing up to the moment the operator responded was 5.1 seconds, and the average time till the person called answered 22.6 seconds. But that was in phlegmatic England. In nervous Chicago, the corresponding average times were 3.1 seconds, and 25.4 seconds. How should you like to try to do it quicker than that yourself?

—Ledgers recently discovered at Palos, Spain, contain interesting facts concerning the outlay made by Christopher Columbus on his expedition to the New World. The armament of the little fleet cost 14,000 pesetas. The personal expenses of Columbus and his officers were about 2,000 pesetas, and six pesetas a month sufficed for the crew, so that 22,050 pesetas, or about $4,400, was spent for the eight months that the voyage lasted. The sum total for the discovery of America, therefore, was 36,000 pesetas, or about $7,200. In spite of the small amount required, however, Queen Isabella was forced to pawn her jewels, it is related, to provide funds for the expedition.