GENERAL INFORMATION.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1984, 16 April 1906, Page 7

GENERAL INFORMATION.

Extreme heat is more fatal to hu- ; man life than extreme cold. As a rule, single women live longer than single men. ! There are hall' a dozen ways of signalling in the Navy. Out of a total of 1.425 known British plants no fewer than 1,020 , are to be found in Yorkshire. I * I The wallflower at a ball may be the only, girl present who can bake i good biscuits. Remember that young i men ! I *i | The "Switzerland of Wales" is the description applied to Bryn-y.-Pin i Pass, a charming spot about four ■ miles from Abergele (Denbigh.) There are really two distinct Chinese languages, the spoken and the written. The former may lie easily acquired, but the latter, the "book language," is a study of a lifetime. * On board the Russian Royal yacht "Standart" the Czarina has a most complete nursery fitted up for her j children. Nearly all tfre furniture | and upholstery on board is green in colour. I In Paris alone £11,200 a day, or ' rather more than £4,000.000 a year I is said to find its way ir*t© the pocki ets of waiters, cabmen, porters, and ' the many other persons who look | upon tips as their right and perquisI ite. ! * j At most big laundries, blouses, etc. ! —as well as skirts, as a rule—are ! ironed by hand. Cuffs and* collars are ironed by small machines, and | large articles by great and powerful I cylinders that mangle and iron at : the same time. * i The number of employees of the j Midland Railway Company alone is | 70,806, not including the company's North of Ireland section, and the ' average weekly wage bill amount to j the huge sum of £77.142, or £4,011,384 per annum. The Yellow River is styled the "Sorrow of China." During the last century it has changed its course twenty-two times, and now flows into the sea through a mouth 300 miles distant from that of 100 years ago. * The absence of insects in wintertime has led to the belief that the approach of waiter kills them. This iis not the case, however, according ! to a naturalist, who explains that I thousands of insects conceal them- | selves under the bark of trees or logs, j and hibernate as truly as the mole or ! the dormouse. ! Tn the island of Jamaica there is a | tree that is greatly admired by all ■ visitors ; hence its name, travellers' i tree, it is similar to the palm tree, ! but in shape is like a fan. A curious j feature of this tree is that its plume- ' like leaves sway and bend with the i sun and the rain. In rainy weather ; the leaves bend almost to the ground ] but in sunshine they raise themselves Ito their upright and more graceful ; position. The effect is very curious, for the leaves of this tree are immense. Any place of consequence in Jamaica has one or more of these specimens, but it. is necessary to travel there for a sight of them for they wi!l not grow in any other climate.— "Philadelphian Press." j Mr. Roosevelt is a man of uncommon vigour. AH his life he nas sought work for the work's sake. Position, like salary, he has not needed, and his strenuous spirit has put him in this category because he needed always to be doing. Neither did it matter much what the work was—assemblyman and rancher ; civil service commissioner and historian ; police commissioner and essayist ; secretary of the navy and biographer ; cavalry colonel. historian of his regiment, and candidate for governor ; governor and hunter ; Vice-President and then President — he has piled on the work, dropping the job done for the next with an avidity for the doing of things wnich has made him hardier and more eagre than ever, and a President at the earliest age recorded in the place. Surely he is the man who of all others could carry the people's burden and laugh at the toil. And he does laugh. But those nearest him say that the. strain is beginning to be felt, and that even Theodore Roosevelt is often weary. An early riser, and up betimes, he darts into the breakfast room with a cheerful hail to those already there, some of his family and a visitor or two. The visitors are constantly coming and, going, and he shakes hands with, thousands of people every week. *

The groat feature of all coster's sports is the basket race. Before this classic event, egg-and-spoon races, sack races, threading-the-needle races, and all other such contests pale into insignificance. For it is not given to- every man. to aarry a pile of ten baskets on his head. and, thus laden, compete in a rate. At the start of a basket rac aii the entrants are placed in a row, and in, front of each is set a pile of t.-i, baskets. At a given signal th-sio baskets must be picked up and carried to a given spot without any being dropped on the way. The first arrival wins. The greatest excitement prevails at one of these races. Often a man will get a good lean, and then let fall a banket or 'two at the very winning-post. The winner is generally a competitor who takes pains rather to keep his baskets intaet than to force the pace. A cool head is absolutely essential ; the unlucky wight who gets flurried ia lost, for down come his baskets with: a crash. Frequently one of these races arouses great enthusiasm ; betting, too, is freely indulged in, and the odds are solemnly disouswd for weeks before €he actual r%ge, 1439..