NEWS IN BRIEF.

Rome lias twelve obelisk*, Paris ouo, London five, and New Tork ouo. Mrs. Ricks, popularly known us Auut Martha, the negruss who watt received by the Queen, having arrived at he* farm in Africa, has sent a letter of thanks to tho Queen and tho British public. A harvester named William Morton died recently at Headley, Dorking, from poisoning. Ho is supposed to huve uaton fungi in mistake for mushrooms, a quantity of which was found after his death in tho furnished where ho hnd beon living. The Liverpool City Council have agreed to seek Parliamentary powers to got rid of all obligations to support tho ton corporation churches, and to secure tho sites of tw<> of them, in the centre of the city, on paymont of a sum of £97,000. The man who shot tho hoifor which attacked Mr. Gladstone has rofusod £10 for tho head and horns. He has sold the teeth at half-a-crown each. Whether they were bought by Unionists or Homo Rulors is not stated. Tho railways of the United Kingdom have nearly 17,000 locomotives. Nearly 40,000 men desert from the German army every twelve months. The largest tuning-fork ever manufactured was one recently made at Hanau for the Physiological Institute at Leipzig, and weighs 27 kilogrammes, or a little over 721b., and gives 11 double oscillations a second Chinamen are m»id to be in groat demand us husbands in America. Thoy an not only peaceful iv diftjxwition. bill, are thoroughly domesticated, being ablo to bring 1 up a baby, wash, aud how. A remarkable acrolito is said to have fallen in Owyheo County, Idaho, on August 20, weighing 4001b , and containing, it is believed, a largo percentage of gold. William Luckey, aged 70, his wife, aged l 6G, and their" daughter Minnie, wore murdered on October *th, at New Bliss, a small village near Smith ffwlls, Canada, and_ tho house fired to conceal tbo terrible crime. ChurloH Luckey, a sou, has been arrested an tho murderer. Sir Walter Raleigh's mansion in Ireland is to be taken down, aud ro-erocted at the Chicago World's Fair, together with tho yew tree under which Sir Walter is said to. have amokod his first pipe in Ireland. A happy pair, on leavjng the Wesleyan Church at Wolstanton after tho marriage ceremony, mounted a tandem tricycle whioh was waiting at tho door, aud started for a honoymoon tour in Wales. Tho Brussels Chroniquo declares that tho Oovernmont of tho Congo Free State, in violation of the Anti-slavery Conferencedecision, has ordered 20,000 repeatingrifles, which will bo bartered with tho natives for ivory. Certain officials uro allowed a commission of 10 per cent. upon. tho transactions. Cabinet councils were first introduced itr 1670. There artf reported to bo more Jews in throe of tho 24 wards in the city of Now York than in tho wholo of Groat Britaiu and Ireland. Tho number of telegraphic messages handod in at London offices for transmission to other London offices exceeds 100,000 a week, which is about ono-tenth of tho total for tho wliole of the kingdom. Every ono of these messages is now charged for at the rate of a half-penny per word. A remarkable case is reported from Brooklyn, Now York, of a man named Frank M'Kiornun falling eleven stories, breaking two four-inch timbers on hit* downward flight in tho elevator shaft, and escaping without broken bones. At the annual meeting of the Library Association of the United Kingdom, held in Paris recently, a resolution was passed to compile a catalogue of early Englishprinted books down to 1040, as a supplement to that of the British Museum. An electrical "transformer" has been exhibited in tho Crystal Palace by which 50-horse- power can bo transmitted for n reasonable distance through a wire no thicker than a hair, and across tho Atlantic with a loss of 2-horso-power, through a wire a tenth of an inch thick. During some recent excavations m Endsleigh -street, in the north-western part of London, the workmen came upon remains of a mammoth and other prehistoric! animals at a depth of about twenty-two feet from tho surface. The new banqueting hall at Osborne i* to be known as the Indian room. It hair beon sumptuously decorated in tho Hindoo Sikh style, aud all the hangings etad furniture are Oriental. The latest thing in cigar and cigarette holders in America is to make them develop a small photograph by the action of amokp passing over specially prepared paper. With each holder is supplied a small packet of plain white photographic paper about the size of a postage stamp. One of these in placed in the interior of the holder, and while being smoked tho ommonia vapour which arises from the tobacco causes the photograph to become visible. Cabbage has always been said to be » euro for intoxication. The Egyptians ate boiled cabbage before their other food if they intended to drink wine after dinner, and some of the remedies sold as a prevenventivo of intoxication on the Continent contain cabbage seed. One of the natural curiosities in Asia is the Great Salt Desert of Persia. It is many miles in extent, and is a solid incrustation of salt several feet thick. An Indian Prince, Shriraant Sampatrao Gaikwad, has formed the first free library in a native State. He has purchased 10,000 volumes, including 7000 English works, at a cost of £7000, and placed them in the largest hall of the old Sarkarvada Palace at Baroda In Germany, France, Austria, and Italy there are constantly in barracks or under arms not less than 3,000,000 men. It is stated that 40,000,000 of Queen Victoria's subjects in India never know what it is to got enough to eat. In Iceland men and women are in every respect political equals. The nation, which is about 73,000 people, is governed by representatives elected by men and women together. The work of education is in the hands of the women, and in the whole island not a MDg-le illiterate is to be fonnd. These voting mothers who educate their children have produced a nation in whioh there are no prisoners, no police, no thieves, and no array. The freedom of Swansea, Wales, wan conferred upon Henry M. Stanley, the African explorer, on October 3. The drinking of salt water is said to be <i perfect cure for seasickness, though it makes tho drinker very mioerable for a few minutes after he takes the cure. This if accounted for by the fact that the stomach on board ship is in a very sensitive state, and the palt water pickle« it, so that it gets hardened to conditions that previously revolted it. _^^^__^^^__