Scissors.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5660, 19 October 1889, Page 4

Scissors.

Max Strakosch is at the point of death. Whoopup is the name of a Dakota town. Thu Queen of Siam wears one and ouelialf inch boots. The Pope has hud bis large bedroom filled with singing birds. Russia proposes to tax Protestant churches in the Baltic provinces. The Emperor of Germany rides recklessly, but his seat is not good. Switzerland has built 1000 inns since tourists began to visit her. An effort, is being made to build a tower at London 2,000 feet high. The young man who forced his way to the front is now in the " pen," Russian papers are abusing the Shah for his friendly expressions regarding England. The tennis ball now bounds in China, though dirt courts are more frequent than grass. A Philadelphia bootblack meets the russot shoe fad half-way with the sign, " Boots blacked yellow." The Venue of Milo in chocolates is one of the curiosities of the Exhibition. It is to bo sought for in the department of Italian confectionery. Gen. Grenfell, the British commander in tho war against the slave traders on the Nile, is 47 Tears old, a man of handsome presence and literan , tastes. Tho penny in the slot of the South eastern Railway of England carriages will now provide a traveller with an electric light in tho lamp fastened at the side. A New York hopeful, roturning from the ball game, on seeing , a bull-terrier in a silver muzzle, exclaimed: "O, papa, papa ! There's the ditcher!" Tim Birmingham steel pen trade's weekly average production, it appears, exceed* 160,000 gross, and 4000 men, women, and children are engaged in producing them. Duke Ernest of Coburg , , in his memoirs, Bays Napoleon 111., iv his youth, was an incessant smoker of cigarettes History is gradually clearing the cause of that monarch's collapse. Typhoid fever is at present prevalent iv London, many of the victims being members of the aristocratic families, who aro not exposed to the defective drainage and filthy surroundings. Great destruction of property and loss of life is reported from County Clare, Ireland. Floods swept hundreds of acres of farming lands. Nearly all tho growing crops were swept away to the eea. Wad-el-N'jumi, killed at Tofki, is said to have been the Arab who slew both Hicks Pasha and "Chinese" Gordon. From what they tell of him, he must havo been the terror of the Soudan. Some idea of tho Shah's travelling expenses may be formed from tho statement that Cook's charge for what railroad and hotel expenses had disbursed on the Shah's account was £25.00'). A syndicate has been formed in Stockholm which has purchased the well-known estate Djursholro, just outsido the city, for a sum of £30,000 tho intention being to build a villa suburb upon the site. A meeting of students, at which 34 countries wero represented, was held recently in Pans, for the purpose of founding a universal federation of students. A committee was elected to draw up tho articles of incorporation.

The amount of liberty which workmen enjoy io Germany oan be judged from the fact that delegates who had been to the Paris Workiugmen's Congress wuro arrested ■when they got home and tried to make speeches about it. Mr Ludwig, well-known as a member of the Carl iiosa company, is organising a fresh concert company "for a tour of the United States next winter. By way of nevelty he intends singing Irish songs in the native Irish tongue..\ Tennyson has a horror of the biographer. He keeps 110 diary and has destroyed his correspondence and all records of it. Ho is reported to have suid to a friend recently: " When I am dead I will take good cure hey shall not rip mo up like a pig." " Well, my dear, how would Farau-r Brown suit you fur a husband '< Ho seems uncommon sweet on you lately." " Perhaps, so, father; but his hitir is so red that " "True, true, my child; but you should recollect that he has very little of it." The export of granite from Sweden last year for paving purposes is valued at i>109.000, as against £5.3,000 in 1887. Tho largest quantities of stone come from the southern ports, the chief imj'orU'r being Prussia, whence stone to tho value of £70,000 was shipped. " What idiots they have on the newspapers nowadays!" exciaimtil Hoiublon-er. "There was a reporter in here yesterday, and I told him about the big improvements I have been making down our way. Of course I told him not to mention my nnnu>. in his paper, and the blamed fool didn't." A little boy of three yearn, whose mother played the organ i* church, and who was obliged to be left tWthe care of others, was asked one Sunduy morning what his kitten was crying su piteousiy for. " I don't know," said he, in tearful tones, " but I 'speut th« old cat has gone to church."— The Wurik. Miss Isabella Bird, tho enterprising, dauntless little Englishwoman, who has travelled alone in co umtiy out-of-the-way countries of the: world, and written fueciuuting accounts of,ht:r adventures and observations, is uiitrritd to a BMiop. The King of Shun has awarded her the order of " Kapolani" in recognition of her literary work. Mr Balfour was dining in Dublin not long ago, at the name table with the genial X'nther Henly. Tho Chief Secretary teked the prieHt : "Do tlio lrisii really hale me as much as the iiewepapera say ?" "My dear sir," replied tho reverend gentleman, "if the Iriph hated the devil only half as much as they hate you, my occupation would be goae." The Bayreuth performances, which have just been concluded, were more successful than those of any previous year, and the stability <>f Wagner's enterprise is considered iMHUrcd. Iv fcpite of many earnest requests which have been made for performances next year, it is improbable that another series will take place before 1801, when " Tannhuuser " will be produced on an imposing scale. Miss Jennie Gilder, the editor of the Critic, is a strange compound of masculine and feminine traits. In winter she wears an ulster down to her feet; tho wairt of her dress is a close fitting , sack coat, with a man's poukcts; under this is a man's vest, holding a watch uud chain ; her ttuuding collar and cravat are entirely masculine. .Even her face has a strong masculine wist, and she bears a striking rssemblance to her brother, the editor of tae Century. Mr Bennett has completed tho librefto of the cantata to which Mr Cowen is writing limbic for performance by small choral societies. The btory deals with an ulleged superstition iv regard to a rose gathered by moonlight ou thu eve of the feast of John the Baptist iv June and concealed from mortal eyu till Chrittoias Day. If at Christmas cue maiden who plucked it found the rose in full color, and put it in her bosom, the man who took it from her would be her husband. In raising the price of cigars the Austrian Government made a bad speculation. The sale of certain brans hus dwindled down to almost nothing. The general consumption has fallen off more than 13 per cent. In Vicuna ulono it was last year 30,000,000 cigars less than during the previous year. On the ether hund tho highly injurious practice of cigarette smoking has enormously increased. The difference is 194,000,000. The sale of foreign cigars has diminished over 2-1 per cent. Rapid progress is at last being made with the new canal which is to connect Amsterdam with the Rhine, und Consul Robinson telis us that it is expected to be completed by the year utter next. Simultaneously ■with the announcement it is stated that the Government have submitted to the municipal authorities a proposal for abolishing tho ciinal dues, which will probably be accepted. By this step free access from the sea will for tho first time be given to Amsterdam and Zaandam. The youngest admirul of the British fleet is Sir Geoffrey Hornby. The oldest is Sir Provo Walhs, G.C.B. Admiral Wallis is 9S years old. It is eighty-five years—just the year before Trafalgar—since he Jirst went to sea. And it is suveuty-six yearn and throe mouths since he fought iv that famous sea fight between the English ..Shannon and the Chesapeake, of Boston the latest iight between Enyliind and her American otiapring, und zua.y it be the lli»t. It its pleasant to think that this grand old scurnau, a contemporary of Nelson, is still in fair health and strength. The following is :i gocd sample of American gusL. It is in reference to v pianoforte concerto, by tichurwonka :■— '■ Whou we have parted through the rucky dark woud of eoxubro oaks and pines of tins part, we come out iuto the sunlight on the meadows of the beautiful slow movement, fraught with flowera and bouquets of lovely melody, and nfttr partus* iLgain through tho rcei.s and uudcrbru.-.h "of the forest of the prime part, we arrive on the rurul plains of the animated Kchw/o, 'v which we note the joyous frolic, of the inhabitants "f the rural household, skipphjf along in dancing frolic."

It is possible that the widowed Crown Princess may yet become Empress of Austria, for the Archduke Francis, the heirpresumptive to the throne, is well known to be absolutely devoted to her, and his great object in life is to marry her. The Archduke was born in December, ] 863, and he is, therefore, only five months older than the Crown Princess Stephanie ; but the faot that ho is an epileptic is a serious obstacle to his marriage, and he is also previously weak-minded. The Archduke has lately been undergoing a course of special treatment (including" electric baths) in the hope that he may be cured of his epilepsy. "It ain't everybody I'd put in this room," said old Mrs Jenks to the fastidious and extremely nervous young , minister, who was spending , the night in B at her house. "This here room is full of sac-red associations to me," ehe went on. "My first husband died in that bed with his head on these pillers, and poor Mr Jenks died setting , rijiht in that corner. Sometimes wheu I como iuto the room in the dark I think 1 see him wttin , there still. My own father died layin' right on that lounge under the winder. Poor pa! He was a spiritualist, and he allus said he'd appear in this room after he died, and sometimes I'm foolish enough to look for him. If you should see anything; of him to-night you'd better not tell me, it'd be a sign to me that there was soinethiug in spiritualism, and I'd hate to think that. My son by my first man fell dead of heart disease right wh»re you stand. Ho was a doctor, and there's two whole skeletons in that closet that belonged to him, and half-a-dozen skulls in that lower drawer. "Well, good night and pleasant dreams. ,, —Portland Transcript.