SCISSORS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4282, 18 April 1885, Page 4

SCISSORS.

The Inflexible, England's greatest iron clad, is 11,800 tons.

Great Britain's army last year was G43,000 strong - , that included the volunteers. Henry George was arrested in Ireland in 18S1 under the Crimes Act.

The French lost 350;000 men in tho Franco-German war.

A machine for moistening postage stamps is tho latest.

Tho United States imported 15,000,000 cocoanuts last year.

" Chartered oppressor 1 ' is a new Western name for "blasted monopoly."

A violin played near a flock of geese will most invariably start them into a grand march about a circle.

Dexter is still alive aud well at Mr Bonner's stables in New York, and he is twenty-six yeas old.

Tho nearest approach to squaring a circle is a new augur lately invented that bores a square hole.

A Buddhist temple lias been opened in Paris, and the officiating clergyman is a priest from Ceylon.

Proctor, tho astronomer, is tho author oi a new work on whist, just pullishcd in England.

About forty million pennies wero coined last year and circulated throughout the country.

Sir Herbert Stewart was a Galloway mar and a descendant of the eighth Earl oi Galloway.

In Dakota on a frosty day a conversation can be carried on with perfect ease between persons a mile apart.

Inhabitants of the Himalaya regions ea' six meals a day—tho hazre, chatie, haiarche, tiffin, lunch aud dinner.

Robert E. Leo, confederate commander-in-chief, was ono of the surveyors of the Morris canal, in New Jersey.

Natural gas in Pittsburg sells for twelve and one-half cents per ono thousand feet, possible explosions thrown in.

A Mississippi lady grows three hundred and fifty varieties of roses in her garden every summer.

Drunkonncss in either the husband or wife is now regarded as a sufficent ground for divorce in France.

A blackbird is wintering with the poultry of Charles Cassidy, of Grass Lake, Michigan.

Queen Victoria, according to an official announcement, has never eaten a piece of cake, and yet she always has abundance.

Tho Empress Eugene is said to own several houses in New York city which yield her a handsome income for the rents.

Colonel Bonaparte's daughter refuses to make a social debut, and will take the vows of a sister of charity. She is grand daughter of Daniel Webster.

A daughter of Grisi and Mario appears to have inherited tho paternal weakness for getting through cash, and is reported to be in prison in Berlin for debt.

The Bible Church of Salford, England, makes vegetarianism as well at tcetotalisni and total abstinence from tobacco an essential condition of its church membership.

Mrs Josejihinc W Gabble is tho editress of a new journal, the Occult World, started at Rochester for the dissemination of Oriental knowledge.

It is said that Congressman Phil Thompson, when a piosecuting attorney in Kentucky, once asked his twin brother to try a case for him. He did so, and the Court did not know the difference.

A grandson of King Stanislaus, of Poland, tinder tho name of Thaddeus Louis Ponatowski, has for two years been working as a cattle tender on the farm of Dr. PatterBon, in Baltimore county.

A. writer in the Hour says the skating rinks and roller skates of the present day ■will either result in a generation of athlotic, graceful figures on the ico, or, on the contrary, in a race of knocked-kneed men and woman, with disproportionately large ankles.

Newfoundland dogs tiro better for sleighing in the arctic regions than native animals. A man, however, can do more work than any dog in proportion to the amount of food consumed.

Tho moistest climate known is in India, flt Cherrapongee, whero over a small area the yearly fall of rain is more than six huncfred and ten inches, or about fifty-one feet.

Of Colonel Burnaby London Truth says : "Many years ago he passed as the strongest man in England and used to twist a poker round his nook aud carry ponies up stairs. Then he had an illness and subsequent to this ho never renewed these feats."

A lady whose husband had contracted a club fever hit upon a brilliant scheme recently. She procured' a partly-worn gentleman's glove and left it on the parlor sofa when she retired, after sitting up until after twelve o'clock for the absent lord. He does not go out in the (.'veiling now.

An American who recently visited tho river Jordon says he- never saw iv this country a stream so vile. It is less than eighty feet wide, less than ten feet deep, and as dirty as can be. Its current is as swift as a mile race Ho stood about half an hour on "Jordan's stormy bunks," and saw all he cared to of it. The banks are called " stormy " because of the millions of mosquitos that live there and storm people who arc fools enough to travel hundreds of miles to see the river.

A Rhode Island man proposes to found a society whose sole object shall be tho advocacy of a change of the ugly names so frequently borne by villages. He believos there is something acctually immoral in such names as "Bugtown," " Skunk Hollow " and " Woodchuckvillc."

An incident fraught with considerable I interest is expected soon to occur in Bridge- ! port, Connecticut, in the birth of a Jumbo. Should the event actually take place it will be only the third elephant in the world's history- that has been born in captivity, the only previous instances in which there are any record having taken place in tho States. The first was in New York in 1880, by Hebe, and the second in Bridgeport, in 1872, by Queen. Not only the houses of the "Mexicans, but whatever you admire is yours. If j r ou express a sentiment of approbation for anything the owner at once says: " Senor, it is yours," but he simply intends to say something flattering, and you are therefore not expected to accept anything that is offered you. An amusing story is told of Sir Spencer St. John, the English ambassador, which illustrates how this national j courtesy often provokes embarrassment. Sir Spencer, who is a gallant old bachelor, was promenading with some ladies in the park when he met a nurse girl with a bright-eyed baby. The ladies stopped to admire the little one, and Sir Spencer asked whose child it was. "Senor, it is your own," replied the nurse, with a curtesy. Sir Spencer has never enquired as to the parentage of pretty children since. The ceremony of dedicating the recently completed Washington Monument took place at Washington on February 21. About G,OOO soldiers, drawn from all parts of the country, assembled, but the extremely cold weather prevented the people from gathering in large numbers at tho monument. Senator Sherman delivered the opening address. Colonel Casey, an army engineer, who completed the monument, next spoke, and a written address from Mr Willian Corcoran, the venerable head of the Monument Association, was read from tho platform. Tho Marine band also played a selection of music, but tho noise made by the thousands who were stamping their feet to keep them warm rendered the proceedings almost inaudible. A masonic ceremony dedicating tho monument followed, but tho cold compelled a curtailment of everything, and tho audience quickly scattered when the services were ended. The troops then made a fine display while marching down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, where tho President reviewed them. Congress afterwards met iv tho House, whero an oration written by Mr Robert C. Wiuthrop was road, and an iiddress was also delivered by Mr John W. Daniel, of Virginia. An exhibition of fireworks at the monument in the evening closed the ceremonies. Tho monument is tho tallest structure known, being -35oft. high. "I remarked a day or two ago in ono of your correspondent's letters a saying often attributed to the Duke of Wellington. ' Would to God night or tho Prussians would come.' Now, tho idea of a man whose iron nerves, coolness under every difficulty, and perfect confidence in himself, making at any time such a desponding exclamation is simply absurd. I will, therefore, give a perfectly authentic saying of the Luke at the crisis of the battle. " The late Mr de Blaquiere told mo ono day that at dinner at the late Duke of Richmond's the subject of Waterloo was mentioned, when the Duke of Richmond gave some of his reminiscences of the battle. The Duke of Richmond, when Lord March, had been Wellington's aide-de-camp in the Peninsular, had been severely wounded, returned home, and left the service. Of course he was with his family at Brussels. Late in tho day of the great battle, when liding well in front, ho met the Duke of Wellington. ' Charles,'said Wellington, 'what are you doing hero ? ' 'I may ask your Grace the same question,' said March. 'No,' said Wellington, ' I am whero my duty calls me ; you havo no business here.' Then in answer to a question of Lord March, the Duke said : ' I can hold my position here till night, and if tho Prussians come up in timo I will givo him the d dest licking hoover had.' "Now this remark of tho Duke, which is perfectly authentic, and was told by tho Duke of Richmond himself, any one acquainted with the Duke of Wellington's character, would admit to be very much iii his manner."—Letter in Toronto Globe.