MISCELLANEOUS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXVI, Issue 1364, 5 January 1900, Page 7

MISCELLANEOUS.

A pathetic story of filial afivction is told in connection with the rpcent foundering of the Gourdon fishing boat Truelight. In the boat were an old man named Taylor and his four sons. Taylor, who was saved, relates that the boat was swamped by a heavy sea, and sank, dragging three of his sons with it. He managed to get clear, and found an oar, with which he supported himself. His remaining son also got. clear, and swain to his side ; but seeing that the oar could not support two, the young man called out, • Weel, weel, father, I maun jist awa,' and disappeared. 'Greater love hath no man this.' Wood crackles when it. is ignited because the air expanded by heat forces its way through the pores of the wood with a crackling noise. Green wood makes less snapping than dry, because the pores contain Irss air, being filled with sap and moisture, which extinguishes the flame, whereas the pores of dry wood are filled with air, which supports combustion. The great public dining halls of London have multiplied with the growth of the hotels. A quarter of a century ago there were not half a doz^n establishments which could accommodate 200 diners under one roof, and not two which could dine 400. Now there are at least half a dozen centres where the larger number can be catered for, and the list is ever growing. In Russia it is a common expression to say « As happy as a priest's, wife.' The reason why she is so happy is because her husband's position depends on her. If she dies he is deposed, and becomes a mere layman, and his property is taken away from him and given half to his children and half to the Government. This makes the Russian priest careful to get a healthy wife if he can, and makes him take cx fraordinary good care of her after he has secured her. He waits upon her in the most abject way. She must never get her feet wet, and she is petted and put in hot blankets if she has as much as a cold in the head. It is the greatest possible good fortune for a girl to marry a priest — infinitely better than to be the wife of a noble* The highest tower in the world is presently to be built as one of the great attiactions of BunVo during the Pan-American Exhibition, which is to be hrfld in the city in 1901. It is to be 1152 feet high and 400 feet square at the base, and will be a much more ornamental building than the Eiffel Tower itself. .It will be served by no - fewer than 33 e'e.ctrical elevator?, 16 of which will run only to the first landing, ij22s._feefc above thf? leve_[of the ground. The whole journey from the bottom to the top will necessitate four changes of elevators, and will take about six minutes, while the elevators will have a carrying capacity of 10,000 an hour. The estimated cost of this tower, which will be built of steel, is L 160,000 or about twice as much as that which was involved by the erection of the Eiffel Tower. I Pekin has a tower in which is hung a large bell cast in the fifteenth century | and another tower containing a huge I drum, which is intended to be beaten in case great danger should threaten the city. No one is allowed to enter these towers. The present King of Spain supplies the only instance of a child evho was bnrn a king. He came into the world about six months after the death of his Hoyal father, and at once became the possessor of the throne. The greatest height ever reached in a balloon was 20,180 feat. Two of the three aeronauts who made this ascent were suffocated. The use of blotting paper for cleaning machinery is anew idea, but it has been tried in the German workshops, and found to answer well. Milk is suggested as a good extinguishing agent for burning petroleum. It forms an emulsion with the oil, and, by disturbing its cohesion, attenuates the combustible element as water cannot. A Polynesian bridegroom is conspicuous by his absence- during the usual wedding festivities. As soon as negotiations are opened with the family of the bridp, the young man is always sent into the bush, and there he is obliged to stay til! the wedding ceremonies are completed. Prussian military experiments show that severe muscular exertion renders the blood very poor in sugar, and that renders tired muscles capable of. renewed exertion, while saccharine is far less beneficial. A similar impression prevails in Kentucky ; where the sugar is mingled with mint and other ingredients. A law recently passed in Norway makes a girl ineligible for matrimony unless she can show certificates of skill in cooking, knitting, and spinning. Electricity in the hands of a Vienna doctor has turned the Ethiop white. The negro went to the hospital from an Austrian gaol, and was treated with electricity for four months, the end of that time he was cured and also completely bleached.