Not Dirt Cheap

1895

Visitor (from the east) — Your premises seem remarkably clean. Where do you throw your garbage?
Western Kansas Man — I dump it in a hole in the back yard.
"That's a handy arrangement."
"Yes; it's rather handy."
"And when that hole's full I presume you can easily dig another."
"M — yes, but that hole won't be full for a long time yet."
"Cheap way of settling the garbage problem, too, isn't it?"
"M — no; it ain't so thundering cheap." "Pretty deep hole, is it?"
"Yes; pretty deep. Fourteen hundred and sixty feet. I had the impression once that there was coal oil or something at the bottom of it. I reckon we're going to have snow. Wind's straight from the northeast." — Chicago Tribune.


Meat Versus Grain and Vegetable Foods

If the human race were forced to depend wholly upon flesh for food, it would take 22 acres of pasturage to support each adult. Under wheat the same land would furnish food for 42 persons, oats for 88, potatoes, Indian corn and rice for 170 people. If planted with tropical fruits and vegetables, it would he found that the same number of acres in breadfruit trees would feed 6,000 persons, in bananas 6,500, and if in a carefully cultivated field of heca roots, 10,000! — St. Louis Republic.


Men and Women

The Wife (during a row) — The villain in the play is always a man.
The Husband — Yes, and it is always a woman who makes him one. — London Tit-Bits.


Babylon

The most important annual holiday at Babylon was in honor of Bel, or Belus. It was celebrated with human sacrifices.