Varieties.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 391, 5 November 1903, Page 2

Varieties.

* |£j£HIRD. CLASS tickets were issued VMck * ree on a Bnovve^-tI P railway Hear Warsaw on condition t*iat if the train stuck in a drift thsiholders would assist in digging it out, '">..,, ". Fifty million gallons of water were used last year in washing the London streets, and 79,548 loads of refute were carted away, an increase of oyer 8000 loads in ten years. Beer tablets have come into use and popularity in some German, towns. A lover cf the homely beverage can by means of them be, to all intents and pur. poses, his own brewer, and rapidly convert a glass of cold water into one of foaming beer.

PERSIAN DINNERS. Persian dinners are very much like ours taken backwards. The feast is preceded by smoking and handing round of tea and sweets. Then the servants b/iag in a long leather sheet wbiob they spread on the ground, and round which the guests equafc, tailor fashion. When all are seatedj a flat loaf i 8 placed before each person, and the music begins. The various dishes are brought ia. on trays, and are arranged round the leather sheet at intervals. Then the covers are removed", the boat says • BismiUah ' (in the name of God) and without saying another word they all start eating. -

A BURRIED TREASURE. A buried Treasure is beieg Bought in North.West Bengal, through a discovery worthy of the ingemousauthors of Christmas books, A poor Brahmin at Monghyr possessed an amulet which had been in his family for generations, and, as bo was almost starving, he took ifc to a goldsmith for sale. The goldsmith broke it up to feet t!.e metal, and found in the hollow centre a scrap of paper covered with minute writing. This being deciptered by a learned puncit, the Brahmin learnt that cloae by the. Shrine .of Pir Shah Nepal is a well dating back to Mahomtdan times, and at a certain distance from the well are hidden fourteen lakhs of£ rupees. The Brahmin has obtaiued .Government sanction to excavate the j ground, a rich neighbour furnishing the funds on condition of receiving a share of the treasure. Tha Government, will claim one-fourth and the Brahmin will retain the restwhen it is found, that is to say, for the labourers are still digging.

No mere touching compliment conld be paid than that of the child who had overheard a conversation at the table on the qualities of a wife. As he stooped over to kiss his mother, he remarked: 'Mamma, when I get big I'm going to marry a lady 'xactly like you.'|