Items of Interest.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXX, Issue 1513, 10 May 1898, Page 2

Items of Interest.

The consumption of tea in Englandduring 1892 reached the highest point ever touched since its use has been generally diffused among the masses, the total quantity used being 207,000,0001b. Paper quilts are becoming popular in Europe. They are cheap and warm and composed of sheets of perforated white paper sewn together. An untamed swallow which had its nest in a farm nearßoubaix was lately caught and taken in a cage to Paris, where it was released. It returned to its nest in ninety minutes, having accomplished a distance of 250 kilometres, or over two miles a minute. Dr. Scoresby calculated the velocity of the average wave in a storm at 2,875 feet in each minute or 3,267 English statute miles in an hour. Electric liners in the Atlantic are th« next thing we shall hear of. MessrsHarland and Wolff, the Belfast shipbrokers, think the limit of steam has been reached, but they are looking forward to great things from electricity. On a recent day no fewer than 6,906 letters, 209 postcards, and 8,381 book packets were dealt with by the officials of the Dead Letter Office. The American flag was first used by Washington on the first day of the year 1777, and was legally established by Congress eighteen months later. The cantilever bridge over the Niagara is built almost entirely of steel. Its length is 810 feet, the total weight is 3,000 tons, and the cost was £IBO,OOO. An electrical rocking chair has been brought out by Mr. C. E. Hartelins, of Bay Ridge, New York. Tho chair is actuated by the current from a dynamo, and the sitter can at the same time receive gentle currents through the body either by grasping metal handles in the ordinary way, or by resting the bare feet on metal pedals. The number of daily visitors at the Chicago World’s Fair has increased to 33.000, but it is still far below the number required to meet the working expenses. At the Mint is a curious copper mould bearing the design of tho shilling of William 111., which was found in the ruins of the old chapter house of Beverley Minster, and has been presented to the Mint by Lieut-col. Gerard Smith. In Iceland the past winter has been the finest ou record, the lowest temperature registered being 12 deg., which is not as low as we had in some parts of England. In the throe months to the end of February there were no frosts at all. Entomologists tell us that the smallest insect is the Alaptus excisus. Viewed under the microscope it is seen to be a slightlybuilt slender creature of such diminuti%'e proportions that it would take over 6,000 of them placed end to end to stretch one inch. The British Government in 1880 ordered 20,000 telephones for use in the postal service. This was the first great move in this country in the direction of telephony. News of a romantic marriage comes from Georgia. Ten years ago the couple, then only boy and girl, were married, but their parents separated them, the bride being sent away. They did not correspond, and neither afterwards married. Some time ago the groom advertised for his wife. She saw the notice, answered it, and both have now again been married. A German contemporary states that a very peculiar patient is at present under treatment at the Augsburg State Hospital. A man, aged forty, had set himself the task of swallowing some 250 fruit stones. Having finished this extraordinary meal, ho experienced excruciating pain. While under treatment on the first day in the hospital the medical men succeeded in removing 200 stones. The man had taken all this trouble to place his life in jeopardy for a wager of five shillings.

Few ladies have such a curious matrimonial experience as one recently married, for the third time, at Newcastle-on-Tyne. Her first husband was a Quaker, the second a Roman Catholic, and her present one a Protestant. She married at 16, when the bridegroom was 82 ; at 30 she chose a partner aged 60; and now, at the age of a little over 40, she has chosen a gentleman of 84.

The common water pump of to-day is but an improvement on a Grecian invention which first came into general use during the reign of the Ptolemies, Philadelphos, and Energetes, 283 to 221 b.c. The name, which is very similar in all languages, is derived from the Greek word “ Pempo,” to send or throw. Pumps with plungers or pistons were invented by Moreland, an Englishman, in 1674 ; the double acting pump by De la Hire, the French academician, some twenty years later.

The following instance of persistency on the part of a rejected lover, has, perhaps, rarely been surpassed. The diesapointed suitor followed the young woman and his more fortunate rival into the church—it was the church of Burwash, in Sussex —addressing the bride from time to time in piteous tones : “ Say no, Martha ; say, no, Martha,” and this he continued till the crucial question was put, “ Wilt thou have this man to be thy wedded husband?” As soqy as the fatal words “ I will” had passed the bride’s lips, instead of the “No,” which he had fondly hoped for, he turned away and left the church.