SCISSORS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4300, 9 May 1885, Page 4

SCISSORS.

There are only 100,000 Parsees in India. China claims to have possessed trademarks a thousand years before Christ. Local bodies in England last year levied £24,000,000 in tho shape of rates. England imported timber last year to the value of eighteen millions sterling. England has 65 square miles of colony to the square mile of per own area. No book of the Bible i 3 in so much demand in India as the book of Proverbs.

"Brussels" carpets were first made at "Wilton in England. Linguists will be glad to know the Egyptian for " cat" is " maou." Tho Countess of Airiieis one cf the eight nominees for election to the School Board of Lintrathen.

Bandmann and Beaudet are playing in a " 10-cent museum" m the States. Times ish dull, Daniel! Eleanor Carey will re-turn to Australia in July next. She will be a member of Dion Boucicault's company. It is reported that the Queen has invested about a million sterling in ground rents in the city of London.

A man never realises how little his word is worth until ho receives a black 03-0 and attempts to explain how he came by it. A calf borne lately in the dairy of John Eufe of Noxamixon, 111., weighed 11G pounds. Judge JaokHon of Louisville decides that since a dog cannot be eaten he is not property. Gen. James Longstroet has not yet settled his accounts as United States Marshal of Georgia. Francis S. Drake, who died recently in Boston, was a lineal descendant of Sir Francis Drake. A large party of Ohio ex-prisoners of Anderson villo have just concluded a pilgrimage to the old stockade. Safes, to the number of between 500 and 600, were destroyed by a recent fire in a safe works in Now York. Ex-Confederate officers ridicule the reports that they are going to the aid of El Mahdi with the Feuiaus. There is luck in odd numbers. That is, more peace in the house if there is but one baby instead of twins. A resident of Alexander, Yα., was awakened by a cat tapping on his face recently, and found the bed enveloped in flames. The English sparrows have disappeared from several places in the neighborhood of Boston, and the supposition is that they have been frozen to death. The recent death of a citizen of Jamcsburg, N. J., from blood poisoning is attributable to a wound received during tho Rebellion. An Ohio women is credited with having bought a pound of coffee on trust and then selling it for fifteen cents, which she spent at a skating rink. A temperance society in Boston has just resolved that the use of tobacco for the gratification of the appetite is "a sin it Grod dud Imiminity- * In Burmah the women act for their husbands in all monetary and business capacities. Elsewhere they do it without its being legalised. It is expected that eight miners' representatives will be returned to the British House of Commons at *:ho next general election. The ratepayers of England and Wales were taxed last year to the extent of £1,418,242 for the support of tho Church of England denominational schools. Out of twenty-six graduates at tho Ohio Dental College, the gold medal was conferred upon the only woman in the class, Miss Carrie Lloyd. The Duke of Hamilton has intimated to the minister of Bo'ncss that he will give a donation of £1000 to aid in the building of a new parish church. M. Escah'.is was singing a few nights ago at the opera, the ballad "Hereditary home," at the moment his wife presented him with her first baby. Tho late Duke of Abcrcorn, who was tho father of seven daughters, succeeded in marrying every one of them off to either a peer or an heir-apparent to a peer. The freehold house No. 109, Fcnchurchfcstrcot, containing a superficial area of 1,400 feet, was sold rcccntlv for £10.700, equivalent to £12 per foot. ; ' Bother her decency! Can she cook collops ? '' cried an old Scotch lad}', when a cook was recommended to her as "a decent W^man." One hundred and ten members of the House of Commons voted with Mr John . Morley in his protest against the Soudan campaign. Master of the house to Robert, the gardener, who is cleaning the knives : " "Well, Robert, those knives look pretty sharp !" Robert: "Yes, sir; they must be quite dangerous to put in your mouths." A German correspondent states that, at Prince Bismarck's private table, no member of tho household speaks a word until its head has, tacitly or otherwise, given him leave. Bradlaugh, the English " atheist for notoriety only," announces that he will be returned to Parliament for several constituencies at the next election, and will sit for Northampton. In an advertisement for a young gentlemen who left his parents, it was stated that, "If Master Jucky will return to his, disconsolate parents, he shall bo allowed to sweeten his own tea."

■Rumors are current in Constantinople of an early visit of tlio Duke of Connaught to the Saltan, which is regarded as a favorable indication of a renewal of tho relations between Groat Britain and the Porte. In tho District Court held in Toowoomba, Queensland, on April 23rd, before Judge Paul, William Thompson was charged with having stolen a keg of whisky from the Commercial Hotel. From the evidence it was generally regarded that it clearly pointed to tho prisoner's guilt, but the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty, Tho Judge, in discharging the prisoner, said, "Prisoner, you are discharged ; and if you want to continue your offences, you had better remain in Toowcoinba."

A Salvation man's idea of no provocation " I just mentioned to the defendant that a few months in Darlinghurst (the gaol of Sydney) would do him good, and he struck me." " A very natural reply under the circumstances, ""remarked the magistrate. What will the " Black Wednesday" patriots of Victoria say to the following ?— Mr Herbert Gladstone, who now represents the Office of Works in the House of Commons, will henceforth have a salary of one thousand a year as Junior Lord of the Treasury. The proprietor of amenagerie relates that one of his lions once had a thorn taken out of his paw by a French lieutenant in Algeria. The lion afterwards ran over the list of officers belonging to the regiment of his benefactor, and out of gratitude devoured all of superior grade to the lieutenant, who thereby found himself promoted to the rank of colonel.

Mina Jury, whose name was prominent in the Tichborne case, was committed for trial m London the other day by the stipendiary magistrate for the Potteries on a charge of having obtained money by fraud, and was sentenced to a month's imprisonment for not having reported herself to the police. With his usual generosity and good feeling Mr Eno, ot Fruit-Salt fame, has forwarded to the Soudan, 1,000 bottles of his valuable specific for the use of the Australian contingent in Egypt. He has also made a handsome present of similar _ description to the British forces stationed there. His thoughtfulness will be hignly appreciated and remembered. A Newfoundland dog, says a New York paper, swallowed a set of artificial teeth belonging to his mistress, whose little nephew induced a sympathising druggist to go to work on the animal with emetics, with the result of having the teeth restored to the owner, without her becoming aware of the manner of their loss.

One of the strangest people with whom the missionary has to do are the Falashas of Ethiopia. They are black Hebrews, about 200,000 in number, living "West of Jordan, who have as their holy writings the Old Testament in an Ethiopia version, and who still rigidly adhere to the Mosaic ceremonies and laws. They are the children of Hebrew immigrants, who, in the time of the great Dispersion, settled in Abyssinia and married wives of that nation —something not strange, as the Ethopians are Semitic in nationality and language. Among' the gems of criticism of the Mapleson opera season in St. Louis, sprinkled over two columns of space in the lending morning paper of that city are the following : " Scalchi is very much a daisy." " Oh, give us Dotti for just one cold night." "Mrs Fraley was in the front row again." " The Gowdii family filled two upper boxes on the right." " Scalchi's pulsating limbs thrilled the occupants of the front row." J. F. Molloy, the author of " Peg Woffington," the "Wooden Shoon," and so many charming songs, is about thirty years old, but his black hair is already sprinkled with gry,o although he has a fresh, youthful color in his face. He lives in bachelor apartments in London, where ho gives aesthetic teas, which are quite popular. Here is a piece of news which is quite amusing. We arc told that "MajorGeneral Sir John M'Neill, V.C., who assisted the Duke of Connaught in the Egyptian campaign of 1882 when his Royal Highness commanded the Guards Brigade, has been appointed to command the Second Brigade in the Suakim-Berber expedition." In what did General M'Neill " assist " the Royal Duke ? Surely, ho did not want any help in keeping out of harm's way? A pretty girl applied to the general dolivery window of the post-office and, smiling at the bashful clerk, she twittered, "Is there any mail here for me?' "I—l beg your pardon, Miss," replied the clerk, blushing in four colors all waranted to wash " I said is there any mail here for me?" she twittered again with a smile. ' I—l don't know Miss, I'll ask some of the other boys. I'd like to be, but you came too late for I'm already bespoke by another girl." The postmaster g-ave the young man a few lessons before he let him take charge of the window again. The ex-Khedivo of Egypt, Avhile in the height of his power, was visited by the exEmpress Eugenic. He showed her all the sights, but there was one sight she wanted to see—namely, an Arab marriage. "You shall sec it, madam," he said, and forthwith directed one of the ladies of his harem to be brought out, and to bo presented to his aid-de-camp. The unfortunate officer, who was as much an Englishman as an Egyptian, and whoso dream had been to marry a European, had no escape. The nuptial ceremony was performed within two days and a large dowry went with it. A Berlin correspondent writes to a contemporary : —" It is not often that one hears of a student of the age of seventy-four taking a degree at a university. The ' bemoostes Haupt' is sometimes to be seen at German universities, but ho is generally a man who has spent his best years in idleness. The Nestor of the Berlin students to whom I now refer has been studying at Berlin since 1881, and has just taken a degree as Doctor of Medicine. The Professors addressed him as ' AVorthy Colleague,' the students as 'Papakin.' In 1833 he was matriculated at Berlin, and studied theology till 1837, and spent his time from then till ISSI as a missionary in South Africa. It had been his wisli all his life to study medicine, but pecuniary difficulties stood in his way. Now that he has passed his examination, having worked with all the zeal of a young student, he is going to return to Africa where he will practice medicine." Accounts have reached London of the brave conduct at the great fire at the lunatic asylum, West Philadelphia, U.S., when 50 inmates lost their lives, of Miss Alice Fisher, an English-trained nurse, who had i*cccii"tlv" arrived, ixi. fctic iu.tst.itntioTi irom tTno University College Hospital, London. It is stated that, while all the confusion ws in progress amongst the men, Miss Fisher " did wonderful work in preparing the women patients of the insane department for the inevitable abandonment of their quarters." She laid her plans with perfect coolness, her assistants were told off to definite posts, and the patients were gathered in groups. It is further added, " No undue haste was observable, and there was comparatively little confusion. The wretched women were told to take what they could with them, and blankets were even served out to all." At. one time the lives of over 700 lunatics were in imminent danger.