GENERAL NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 65, 13 September 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

GENERAL NOTES.

The latest application of paper is the adoption of that substance for plates by some of the great restaurants and cafes in Berlin. The innovation was first introduced during the summer of last year by the adventurous landlord of a much-fre-quented open-air restaurant. Every customer who ordered bread and butter, rolls, cakes, buus, or similar articles, had them served to him on a little paper plate, made of light papier mache, adorned with a pretty border in relief, and having at the first glance a gTeat similarity to porcelain. Guests, waiters, and hosts were all pleased with the novelty. It saved the waiters many a deduction from their ¦wages on account of breakages, which the very deftest and cleverest can scarcely avoid when he handles hundreds of pieceß of crockery during a single afternoon and evening. The paper plates were so cheap that the landlord did not care to assert his ownership over them, and his customers were allowed to cany them away like the pretty serviettes of thin paper used in so many restaurants in Holland. There was also a considerable saving in the time lost and the chance of accident incurred in the cleansing of earthenware pottery. The success of the experiment has been so marked that the new species of plates is likely to be introduced in a great number of restaurants. A young and well-known English nobleman is the owner of 35 cabs and 70 horses in London. The hansoms may be recognised by their smart appearance and the letters S.T. under the driver's box. There was a great probability the other day of his lordship appearing as a defendant, owing to one of his cabs having come into collision with a private owner's vehicle, but the spectacle of the noble lord in a London County Court has been obviated by a compromise. Becently the sensation in London was that the police had discovered a man living with a West End family as lady's-maid ! The horror of the revelation may well be imagined. It recalls an authenticated story of some years ago, when a robbery had taken place in a large establishment, and the thief was searched for in all directions. The household were assembled at the detective's request, and going up to Lady E — 's own maid, he said, "Why, Charlie, who'd hay« thought of finding you here in this disguise ? " The confidential post of lady's-maid had been for two or three years filled by a man. A photographer has taken a group picture of Queen Victoria, her daughter, the Crown Princess of Germany, and her grand-daughter, the Princess of Saxe-Meiningen, aged five years. The group includes four generations in the female line. The other day a man, a Mahometan zemindar of the Punjaub, appeared at a London office, whose appearance and story recalled one's impressions of the characters in the Arabian Nights. He had started some three years ago from a district in the north of the Punjaub, and travelling on foot, via Constantinople, Pesth, and Hamburg, had reached London that morning. His object is to invoke the aid of the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh in some land dispute, in hope of obtaining justice. He knows no word of English, and his only guide on his journey has been a card on which had been written by a friend in India the London address of a gentleman who some years ago resided in the north-west provinces. After a comforting chat in his native tongue, he proceeded on the final stage of his journey to Holland Park, the London house of the Maharajah. Henry George began life as a printer; later he became a sailor, then a reporter on the Sacramento Kecord, then owner of the San Fran-

cisco Post, and afterward a lecturer. He is forty-five years of age. His wife is of Irish parentage and Australian birth. The ex-Empress Eugenic still clings to Chiselhurst, aud is now negotiating for a new residence, an estate known as " Coopers," which is larger and more attractive than Camden, where she so long has lived, and is particularly acceptable to Eugenic, as it commands a view of the tomb where her husband and son are buried. The United States House of Eepresentatives has passed a Bill forbidding the importation and migration of foreigners being aliens under contracts to perform labour in the United States. The measure punishes the shipmaster introducing such persons. The Bill has been prepared in response to a universal demand of the working classes for the prevention of the system of taking over organised bodies of Hungarian, Polish, Italian, and other workmen, whose competition reduces wages. Two houses in Dublin, the property of the notorious James Carey, were sold a few weeks ago, in the Court of Bankruptcy. They are let in tenements, and yield a profit rent of about £ 1 05. For some time there was no bidding, and it seemed as if nobody would touch the traitor's possessions. Then some miserably small bids were made for each house separately, which were refused. At last the two together were bought in trust for a lady for £150. Fired by the approval of the Manchester Ship Canal scheme, the people of Scotland are now talking about a Forth and Clyde Canal. The two rivers are connected at present by a canal, but it is fit for barge traffic only. What is wanted is a canal that would connect the eastern and western ports of Central Scotland, and notably Glasgow, with Leith, Dundee, and Aberdeen. As yet, however, no practical proposals have been made concerning it. On 18th June (the Times relates), while a case was being tried before Mr. Justice A. L. Smith and a common jury, the Court adjourned at about half-past one for lunch. At two o'clock the jurors and counsel had reassembled, when, to their astonishment, Mr. Justice Stephen, whose Court also had adjourned for lunch, entered the room, took his t seat on tho bench, and was apparently about to resume the trial of an action which had been begun by Mr. Justice A. L. Smith. Mr. M'lntyre, Q.C., evidently somewhat embarrassed at having to open the case for a defendant before a judge who had not heard, the case for the plaintiff, ventured to ask whether, amid the intricacies of the new buildiug, his lordship had not lost his way, and come into the wrong court. It appeared that this was so, and Mr. Justice Stephen retired amid much amusement. Eumour has it that General Booth is organising a " Hallelujah Bicycle and Tricycle Corps," with "glory bugles " and the other paraphernalia of Salvation Army warfare. The bicycles are for " hallelujah lads," and the tricycles for "hallelujah lasses." General Booth's idea is probably to dragonnade the villages and hamlets with "flying squadrons" detached from a "flying column" which is to move from town to town along the high road.