NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Bruce Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 1954, 1 May 1888, Page 4

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

It is said that the biggest toothpick factory in the dworld is near Paris, It was originally a quill pen factory, but when these went. out of general use the , factory turned to the toothpick business, and now makes 20,000,000, annually.

, , The collections at the services in the .newly -opened ■■?, United Presbyterian Church, Dumbarton, on a recent Sun- .. day, /Were in aid of the building found. . The amount placed in the plates inthe forenoon was oyer £1000. The total amount raised was £1169, which will nearly liquidate the debt on the new church. . John Maedonald, a labourer, who dhad lived principally on porridge and milk, died the other day in a cottage in the vicinity of Beaulj at the advanced age of 104 years. In a long and exhaustive article the ' G-aulois ' shows that this year, even should peace be preserved, the armies and navies of the world will cost about 700,000,000 francs, or £280,000,000 sterling.

The number of thousand square miles in the British Empire is 9339. Tbe population of this vast area ts estimated a 307,000,000.

Arthur Orton, the famou3 Ticbborne Claimant, announces that in a few weeks his lawyer will "shake all England," by beginning the battle over again with pleuty of new evidence to establish has identity. The Claimant is now employed in a Brooklyn cafe, and weighs 3561 b.

15,000,000 Martini cartridges and a large quantity of powder constitute the order which the Bulgarian Government is getting executed in Belgium, and to superintend the delivery of which three officers had gone to Brussels, It is a large order lo be given by a little country at a time when declarations of peace are so plentiful.

Prince Bismarck's famous recent speech in the German Reichstag on the German armaments so enchanted the people of Cologne that they will present the Chancellor with a huge memorial silver salver, bought by public snbscription. The salver will be engraved with Prince Bismarck's concluding words : — "We Germans fear God, we fear no one else."

They propose to go in for Chinese at Cambridge. A new chair is about to be created for the study of the interesting tongue, and its first occupant will be Sir Thomas Wade. Sir Thomas will teach Chinese without a salary, so he mm t be a very good-natured as well as a very disinterested man. Oxford not to be behindhand, is about to institute a chair of Pidgin English. Mr Willie Edouin is talked of as the professor star.

At the annual meeting of the Glasgow Shipowners' Association, the chairman took a somewhat pessimist view both of the prospects of their own trade and the future of shipbuilding on the Clyde. He expressed the belief that shipbuilding had be-*n rather overdone, aDd that when vessels now on hand are read} 7 for employment a serious effect will be produced on freights. Moreover, as few inquiries are being made at present, he anticipates before the end of the year "quite a collapse in shipbuilding."

Ia Glasgow recently 8. man named James May, aged 60, Was found in his bedroom under conditions which indicate a sensational suicide. By his bed close to his side was a bucket full uf charcoal. To this he hid apparently attached a pipe, and after igniting it and stopping all ventilation, had inhaled, tbe fumes. He had been out of work for some time, and much depressed.

At the Gateshead Police Court 170 miners employed by Messrs Bowes & Co. at Felling and Wardley, were tiued 58. and costs each for having absented themselves from work for four days without having given notice. The defendants " laid the pits idle ' because the manager would not " lay off," in order to counterbalance matters, a lad who had happened to earn a little extra. The prosecuting solicitor said the prosecutors were determined to put down what was a system of terrorism and intimidation.

A London society journal publishes the foUowing story of " a certain British peer who suffers from kleptomania," and whose name as well na his distressing malady is kept carefully covered up. Tbe other diy his lordship purloined his countess' false teeth and hid them in his boot. His valet, who empties the boot every night and restores stolen property, thought the teeth belonge 1 to another lady and sent them to ber with a politely worded note which he has always us-ed for similar emergencies. It was not till the countess had inquirsd for her teeth and the messenger was kicked by the other lady's husband that things were put right.