MISCELLANEOUS

Dunstan Times, Issue 2094, 10 September 1901, Page 6

MISCELLANEOUS

The population of Belgium, according it official figures, reached 6,744,532 on - ber 31, 1899, of which total 3.362,436 were males; 2,485,384 spoke Flemish only, 2,485,072 spoke French only, and 700,997 both languages. The kfssing of the King by each Peer at the Coronation is one of the "services" to be abolished. William IV. wished to get rid of this ceremonial in 1831, but ultimately he was obliged to submit, and was even kissed by the Archbishops and Bishops, a part of the "affair to wnich he had strongly and specially objected.—' Truth.' A curious discovery has been made during the renovation of anempty mansion at Linlithgow. The workmen employed suddenly came on a large, heavy bag hidden away in one of the rooms It "was full of severeigns, to the number of about 1,000. The house has been untenanted for several years, and the mystery of the gold remains so far un-_ elucidated. According to the 'lndependence there are 44 journals and reviews published in Constantinople, of which 11 are Turkish, 6 Greek. 13 Armenian (two of these being in the Turkish language, but in Armenian characters). 2 Bulgarian, 1 Servian, 2 Jewish, 7 French. 1 Italian, and 1 German. Two papers are devoted to commerce, and two others are bi-lingual, French and English. A schoolboy of Windhill, in Yorkshire, Charles Bullock, aged eleven, was on July 4, at Bradford, ordered to receive six strokes of the birch rod for stealing ;it Shipley a collecting box of Dr Barnardo. He snatched the box out of the hand of a seven-year-old lad, and, breaking it open, proceeded to dine. The menu was as follows:—Four bottles of "pop." four ice creams, four pork pies, three sweets, one black pudding, one cake, one cup of tea, a pennyworth of tripe, and two oranges. A packet of cigarettes followed, and exhausted the contents of the box. In a case at Bow street, London, tire manner in which the game of La Casette is played was explained to the stipendiary. A fiat piece of wood, into which is let a marble slab containing holes, on the base, of which numbers are painted, is placed upon a bagatelle board. One man acts as banker, and throws a ball from the head of the table to the other end. The. ball rebounds and lodges in one of the holes on. the marble slab. Another player then throws a ball, and if he scores a lower numbei- than the banker he forfeits the amount he has staked, and vice versa, A draw is counted as a win for the bankei^y Mr F. C. Bullen, writing to the London 'Spectator' on the subject of ' Literature at Sea,' says :' "One man, an American of great mental' qualities, I especially remember, whose passion for reading was such that he would sit up the whole night with a favorite author, Dickens for preference, and bribe his watch mates heavily to take his duties for him, such as wheel or look-out, so that he might remained undisturbed. Bent nearly double in his bunk, the miserable lamp hung upon a surreptitiously shifted hook so as to bring it nearer him while still affording some light for his shipmates to rise or retire by, he made a pathetic picture of the pursuit of literature under difficulties, yet one familiar to all deepwater sailors." The following " Domestic Notice" appeared in the ' Diamond Fields Advertiser': —Engagement.—Mr Tuomas Kennedy to Miss Bergersen. —This is to certify that I am engaged to Miss Bergersen from this date for 'marriage.—l3th April, 1901, Kimberley. The laws of Connecticut arc silent on the subject of the will of a. millionaire named Plant, who has lately left an estate of millions sterling. The testator declares that the estate is not to be distributed antil its value is £60.000.000. Probably the lawcourts will bring common set-.se to bear on the will, and ensure the distribution of the £4,000,000 in hand, rather than wait for generations of quarrelling over the sixty millions in the bank. The French Government is now engaged in the restoration of what has been called "the greatest temple ever built on the face of the earth." This is the temple of Karnak, in Egypt, which for 3,000 years has been falling into ruins. Originally the temple was 370 ft wide and 1,200 ft long, or twice as large as St. Peter's, in Rome. It was begun 2,700 years before Christ, and was more than a thousand years in building. Six men with extended arms can hardly reach around one of the gigantic pillars still remaining. The steamer Stanley Ville, from Bom; , West Africa, has brought to Antwerp news of one of the worst accusations as yet brought against the Belgian officers in Africa. Two Belgian officers, after a night of carousing near a native village, roused the chief and demanded that he should produce the women and make them dance for the amusement of the white men. The chief, on the plea that there was a native lying dead in the village, refused to comply, whereupon both men took their revolvers and shot him dead. The women were then , brought out, and every one of them massacred by the drunken officers. Which was Which.—There is a story told of a candidate for priest's orders who was preaching an extempore trial sermon /before the late Archbishop Tait and Dean s?Uiiley. In his extreme nervousness, he began in a stammering way: " I will divide my congregation into two—the' converted and the unconverted." This proved too much for the Primate's sense of humor, and he exclaimed: "I think, sir, as there are only two of us you had better say which is which." Not a Good Time for Birthdays.—" 'Pears to me rather s'picious," remarked old Uncle Remus, as he wiped his spectacles with his red bandana, " that Massa Washin'toix and Massa Lincoln would bof have burfday dinners so far removed from de watermelon season." Dashaway : " Miss Calloway took me aside yesterday and wanted to know my honest, opinion of you." Cleverton: "I hope, old man, that you gave me a clever send-off." " Certainly. I told her that you never made love to a girl in your life that you didn't mean it." Our washwoman, a lady of color, came hastily in and exclaimed: "Sparatualism! What is sparatualism, Miss CoraP" I explained as well as I could, and asked why she wished to know. " Well, you see," she cried, excitedly, " Sarah—she's my daughter, you know, and she went last week to live with a. lady what says she's a sparatualist; and she says if Sarah takes anything she'll know it, Sarah's going to leave!" —'Harper's Magazine.' Max O'Rell relates in ' Harmsworth's Magazine' that a deputation of the W.C.T.U., with a journalist, waited upon him in America. He deplored the evils brought, about by drunkenness, and thought he had favorably impressed the ladies. After they had gone the journalist, said: "Well, your remarks on temperance and the W.C.T.U. work made a good impression on the ladies, but I guess those remarks would have gone home more forcibly if, all the time you spoke, the neck of that bottle of beer had not been peeping out of you>*\ overcoat pocket." Max, who is a very drinker, had bought a small bottle of just prior to the interview. There are some goldfish in Washington which have belonged to the same family for J the last fifty years-, and they seem no bigger and no Jess vivacious to-day than they did when they first came into the owner's possession. A few of the fish in the, Royal Aquarium at St. Petersburg are known' t» be 150 years old, and the age of the sacred fish in some of the ponds attached to ih« Buddhist temples in China is to be counted by centuries, if we ;.r to believe the priests.