CLIPPINGS.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8708, 2 February 1894, Page 4

CLIPPINGS.

The German Emperor is a very good shot. Tin's is remarkable," because, as everybody knows, his left ami is withered, and haojg. uselesa at his side. The other day the' Kaiser was shooting with several officers at clay pigeons, and they are a good deal harder to hit than one would think. However, his Majesty, holdiug his gun in one hand, blew to pieces thirty in succession.

Turin has taken a long step forward in newspaper enterprise. It has recently produced a little paper printed with an ink that becomes, luminous in the dark, ao that the matter may be read at night without the assistance of artificial light. The inventor is a Turinese.

The result of a series of experiments has been that gas for household purposes can be got out of street refuse. A pound of rags, odd bits of leather, cabbage-stumps, bones, crusts, egg-shells, cigar cuds, arid such rubbishy fragments were collected and burnt in retort, aud gave off 22ft of bright, clear gas, which burnt at tha mouth of the instrument for half an hour.

A remarkable example of journalistic candour is to be found in the current number of a wellknown Servian paper, the Schumadiski List. The following announcement, signed by the " Manager,'? is to be found in a prominent position—"ln consequence of the indescribable laziness of our Editor, M. - —- [the name is given] who, since the sth of November last, has turned night into day, spending the nights in revelry and the days in sleeping, the present issue contains one-half sheet only.'

Cabbies, carmen, bus-drivers, and others whose lines of business keeps them with the rein in their hands at all times and in all weathers, are going to have a warming apparatus this winter. It is-to be an overcoat with a lot of little pipes ruuning in different directions all over.it. They go under the armpits, round the collar, up the sleeves, round the waist, and near whatever portion of the body might be gratified with artificial warmth. These pipes are filled up with boiling water at the various cab shelters or bus termini, and are guaranteed to retain their heat for at least four hours. .

It appears that the wooden blocks which recently gave a journalist the impression that his city was about to be paved with mahogany were really chics from quite another tree, a eucalyptus tree of Western Australia. The timber is called karri wood. It resembles mahogany in colour, but is a hard, aod not an expensive wood. Messrs J. Temperley and Co., of Bishopsgate street, states tbat in laying -down this wood in Paris the Municipal Council are only following an example "set them in various parts of London, where this wood has already been put down.

How the women of England are engaged:—Eighty thousand at the date of the last census were in the workhouse, 2500 in

gaol, .721 occupied as miners, and 46,000 as agricultural.labourers. Thero wore ovor 1,000,000 widows, aud a preponderance of 896,723 womeu over men. Alas, poor women.' Our ears were deafened with complaints as to the scarcity of domestic servants, yet the census shows no fewer than' 1,759.555 female servants in England and Wales. Bub who woald have thought 0. fc-ding amongst the women of England sixty-nine female merchants, three femalo bankers, 765 female brokers and agents, sixteen female bill discounters and financial a«e_.s, 985 wholesale buyers, .with eleven i__der fifteen years of age), 165 female commercial travellers, and 17,859 female clerks? Likewise 660 journalists and 127 reporters. And 3696 ou the stage, « with a largo preponderance under twenty.

The ideal career for youth is evidently tbat of a musical composer. Mr l-dwarc. Soiomon, who follows this calling with distinction, recently brought an action m which lie claimed damages for extra labour at the rate of £20 a day. The defendants were certain builders who, he sain, hau ; damaged the roof of his study and thereby admitted the rain with fatal effect to the score of two of his operas. Parts of the composition were obliterated, and had to be re-written ; the plaintiff accordingly claimed £200 for t.u days'labour iv making good the damage. It was clear from his evidence that he was astonished at his own moderation, for he assured tha Court that his actual earnings, when iv the full flow of composition, were £39 a day, or neaily twice tiie amount claimed. The astonished counsel for the plaintiff remarked ruefully tbat it was " better than the Bar." The equally astonished Judge said that it was better even "than the City." The defendants were unable to obtain a sight of the obliterated score; and they maintained, with some plausibility, that a mere copyist would have put it all in order for a few shillings, and that the £10 they paid into Court would more < than cover all Mr Solomon's losses. The jury gave them the verdict, and the Judge ordered the £10 to be returned to the owners.