MISCELLANEOUS

Dunstan Times, Issue 2087, 30 July 1901, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS

The proper distance between the eyes is the width of one eye. I Cannon were first used by the Moors at Algeciras, Spain, 1343. ; London spends over one million pounds annually on funerals. j The largest savings bank in the Uniteo ! Kingdom is in Glasgow. j There is a surplus of over 2,000,000 unmarried men in America. A leading physician says that pepper is deadly poison to the system. ! London requires 600,000 cows to supply it daily with dairy produce. j In China, to salute anyone by taking oft one's hat is a deliberate insult. I It is said that women are not permitted j to be photographed in China. | In the United States only one murderer ; in fifty is condemned to death. i A church in Seidlitz, in Bohemia, con- | tains a chandelier of human bones. A certain sect in Russia considers hair ! sinful, and baldness a sign of sanctity. Vienna has a bicycling female monkey at the Zoological Gardens in the Prater. In Borneo there grows an insect-eating flower which has the smell of carrion. Manv scientists now believe that the atmosphere is not less than 100 miles deep. There are seventeen quinine factories in the world, and six of them are in Germany. In Mexico the family of a dead duellist can claim support from the person who shot him. A hundred years ago there were only fu cities in the United States. Now there art over 400. The Chinese have a flower which is white at night or in the shade and red in the sunlight. A novel and simple cure for headache is announced. It is for the sufferer to walk backwards for about ten minutes. Trees can be poisoned as easily as animals, all that is necessary being the injection of a little arsenic in a hole bored into the tree. Professor Darwin, of Cambridge, prophesies that the moon will ultimately. return to the earth, whence it was cast oft in the remote past. Many English miners and quarrymen make pocket money by collecting and selling fossils. The collieries near Barnsley are full of beautiful fern impressions. A great strike has begun at Pittsburg (U.S.). Already 100,000 men are out, and 140,000 more will join the strikers unless the men's demands are conceded. King Edward has authorised these changes in evening dress at Court functions :—Silk stockings, velvet knee-breeches, velvet clawhammer coat, black satin waistcoat, shoes, and buckles. This, he thinks, is needful in order to distinguish guests from waiters. The average height of an elephant is nine feet. Earl Russell will do his " time" in Hoiloway gaol. A * full-grown elephant can carry three tons on his back. Emily Harriet Taylor, aged 62, and her sister, "Mary Taylor, two years younger, rented a small room at Arundel terrace. Glebe (Svdney). They had formerly held good positions" as governesses, but were now in necessitous circumstances, and applicants for old age pensions. The sisters retired to rest at the usual hour one evening, and not making their appearance next morning, and no replv being got to knocking, the door was forced in. The eldest sister was found dead in her bed, and life had apparently been extinct for several hours. Mary Taylor was unconscious, but after treatment" at the hospital she recovered. A medical man detected an'odor of chloral in the room, but a search failed to discover any trace of that drug. . Smoked snow-water is a favorite tipple in Lapland. . The word "its" only occurs once in the whole Bible. There are 9,000 cells in one square foot of honevcomb. . . The 'custom of hand-shaking originated with the Jews. A mammoth tooth was recently found weighing 801b. In the German Army nearly 10,000 carrier pigeons are used. The Sahara Desert is three times as large as the Mediterranean. Out of every three persons struck by lightning two recover. , inhabitants of Eap Island, in the Pacific, have pink hair. Recent returns show that there are over 3,000 J.P.s in the colony. London lias 10,000 lady* clerks. V ery encouraging for male clerks. Lemon juice (outward application) will allay the irritation caused by the bites of mosquitoes or'flies. Hippopotami are rare and expensive animajs. and it is not possible to name a price for* them, as sales are few. There are in the United States over fifty distinct secret orders, with more than 70,000 lodges and 5,000,000 members. The Wellington City milk-supply is drawn from 4,000 cows. Glasgow spends £560,600 a year on build ings, £49,000 of which is for churches an* schools. . , A new patent machine for edging ana trimming the sides of the country roads is being tried in the Cupar district, N.B. -In an hour and a-half it did as much work as the ordinarv staff of roadmen would occompliah in four or five days. Its average day s work is set down at from six to eight Si \h' Rev. Mr Fourthly." exclaimed the good old soul, "is truly a godly man. "Well, certainly," replied the unregenerate man who had heard him preach, he giveth his beloved sleep." . The militia ballot was put into operation in Guernsev on May 20 to strengthen the militia. Guernsey is the only portion t.f the British Empire where conscription is in force. ~. . Great Britain's revenues from the Chinese opium trade amount to 40,000,000d01. Of the 196,500.000 Mahomedans in the world only 18,000,000 live in Turkey. In the private schools of China a teacher is paid about one halfpenny a day per pupil. Robert Louis Stevenson's grave m the Apia Mountains is said to b« painfully negleeted. „ . , , Great Britain uses 1.000,000 tons of paper a year, of which she buys 100,000 tons abroad. Japan is becoming remarkable for its singular associations. Among those recently formed is a "Society for the Investigation of Causes of Discontent"—in other words, a "Grumblers Society." Another is a sodality to encourage boisterous laughter among" its members. Its name, literally translated, means " The Association to Laugh Greatly." The latter society have their headquarters,in Nakutsu, Oita-ku ; and the former, in Yokohama.

Society is a more level surface than we imagine." Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there »re f»w giants or dwarfs.