AMERICAN ITEMS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 929, 20 February 1872, Page 3

AMERICAN ITEMS.

St. Louis has a direct trade with 10,000 mile "navigable rivers. There art _>r 100 chiropodists in New York. . Masons and bricklayers in Chicago are making £1 a day. A family has been poisoned at Ogden by eating highly-coloured cheese. A single woollen mill at Lawrence, Massachusetts, employs 4200 hands. 10,000 miles of railway are expected to be laid down in the United States this year. A single establishment at Albany turns out 60,000 paper collars and cuffs a day. , ! ' Sewing machines are soon to be introduced into the public schools in North Carolina^ Discoveries of diamonds and other previous stones in Arizona, are attracting attention.

The damage annually done to Cincinnati by burning smoky coal is calculated at 3,0U0,000 dols. One-half of San Francisco, comprising 75,000 souls, has only one Englishspeaking place of worship. . The coal-field* of Western Virginia cover an area of 15,000 square miles, or about three times the coal area of Great Britain. ,;

The State Board' of Health sachusetts is desirous of investigating the effects produced ori the health of women by the use of sewing machines, and has.; selected Dr Lucy Sewall, of Boston, to ...prepare asreport on the subject.. This is said to be the first instance of the appointment of a female physician to draw up a medical report for the Government. .. The whole number of.boot and shoe facfories now in . operation in San Francisco is 26, 20 of which are owned by white men and 6. by Chinese. In addition to these, there are 16 slipper factories, 15 owned by Chinese, and one by a white man. Thqre are employed, in small shops and factories, 1400 white men, 262 women, 40 boys aud 862 Chinese, a total of 2561 persons. "The number- of pairs of boots shoes, and slippers, made during the year is about 980,000; and their value about 3,300,000 dols, of which 20 per cent, is paid lor labour, i : ., { From recent papers we have learned that a 3ft 6in gauge railway has been opened in Canada and is doing a successful business in carrying both goods and passengers.