NEWS IN BRIEF.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 62, 10 September 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

On the occasion of the ninetiotii anniversary of the Emperor of Gormany's birthday an attempt war made to compile a list of all the known individuals in Prussia win: were older than the sovereign. Thf list was of wonderful length, including persons of the ages of 120, 118 117, 115, 2 of 112, 3 of 111, o d 110, 5 of 109, 5 of 108, 12 of 107, 20 of 106, the numbers at lowei figures increasing very rapidly, sc that altogether there were 160 who were returned as over 100. No attempt, however, was made to verify the accuracy of tho returns, and the document can only be regarded as n list of claims, many of which may be supposed to bo invalid. In an article contrasting Bussian and French prison?, Prince Krapotkine, the Russian Nihilist, makoti tho assertion that '• in France twothirds to one-half of all brought before the assizes, and two-fifths of all brought before tho police correotionnelle courts are released prisoners. No less than 72,000 recidivistes are arrested every year; 42 to 45 poi cent, of all assassins, 70 to 72 per cent, of all thieves condemned every year are recidivistes. 1 ' It takes 19,270 bandsmen to make the music for the 449,139 German officers and soldiers. Over 5000 bandsmen are employed as part oi the increased forces called for by the Soptennate Bill of this year. These figures are for tho standing army, exclusive of Landwehr and other reserves. The sum of £4450 was paid in London recently for two prints lately belonging to the late Duke of Buccleuch, sold at auction. The first, Eembrandt's famoiui " Hundred Guilder " piece in its first state, fetched £2300. It was bought by the Berlin Museum. The second was the first state of " Our Lord Before Pilate." The price, £2150, was tho largest sum over paid for this fiuo etching. It was bought for an American collector, namo not given. In accordance with a resolution adopted by the Lanarkshire Employers' Association, notices have beon posted at the collieries in Lanarkshire intimating a reduction of wages to the extent of 7^ per cent, or nearly 4d per darg. There are said to be about sixty Protestant communities in Spain, with 14,000 openly professed Protestants, and hardly a large town without a regularly organised church. It is just eighteen years since the first Protestant chapel was opened in Madrid. In a paper on tho colour of eyes in France, M. Topinard has called attention to the extreme rarety of greenish eyes in Europe, only six cases having been observed in Bix million Germans. Yet Chinese annals record that green eyes abound in parts of Asia, and Pallas notes they are met with in Siberia. A single factory in Sweden is at present turning out as many as 20,000,000 boxes of safety matches per annum, and the demand is increasing so much that extensions are being made. In the earlier ages the Roman* used neither saddles nor stirrups Saddles were in use in the third century, and are mentioned as made oi leather in 304 a.d. They were known in England about 600 a.d. Anne, Queen of Richard 11., introduced side saddles for ladies. A correspondent of the Engineer mentions that two telegraph operators, a male and a female, both otherwise healthy subjects are being treated in Berlin for a newly developed ailment — namely the dropping off, one after the other, of the finger nails. Prof. Mendel attribute* this curious affection as the result oi the constant jar caused by hammering and pushing with the finger end* in working the Morse system of telegraphy. It has been demonstrated thai platinum ware may be drawn so fin* as to be invisible to the naked eye, although its presence upon a perfectly Avhite card can be detected by the touch and can be seen by the aid of a small magnifying glass when the card is held in such a position that the wire cast a shadow. A singular bet is reported from Belzig, Duchp of Anhalt, where a 1 Hotel-keeper has engaged to copy within two years the whole text of the Bible, punctuation and all, without a single mistake, in consideration of a sum of £100. The conditions of the bet are drawn up in legal form before a notary. It was a remark of Linnrous that three flies would consume a dead hor6e sooner than a lion could. He I doubtless included the families of j the three flies. A single fly, the | Naturalist tells us, will sometimes ¦ produce 20,000 larva), each of which 1 in a few days may be the pUreht of i another 20,000 and thus the descend- ! ants of three flies would soon devour i an animal much larger than a horse. At an auction held lately in Cologne, a sum of 8000f., or £320 was given for a little book containing a letter written by Christopher Columbus in Latin. This valuable letter, which was written in the year 1493, consists of only four leaves and has thus cost £80 a page. It need scarcely be said that this ia the largest price ever obtained for sc small a volumo in Germany. An ingenius method has been adopted for sinking a shaft through swampy ground to the bed-rock. Eight-inch pipes are to be sunk a1 intervals of three and a-half feel above the space to be excavated, Through these pipes intensely cold brine will be circulated until a frozen wall will be formed, shutting out the water. It will be lined with casi iron, the sections being bolted together through interior flanges. The measuring of the candle' power of a light is accomplished bj comparing the shadow cast by a roc in the light of a standard candle wit! the shadow cast by the light to b< tested. By moving the latter toward] or away from the rod, a point willb< reached at which the shadow cast bj both lights will be of the same in tensity. The intensity of the tw< lights is directly proportioned to th< squares of their distance from th< shadows — s.e., suppose the light t( be tested is three times the distant

of tho oamllo its illuminativo power is throe times as great. At a sale of autographs in Paris the other day two men, ono younp and ono old bid actively against oi\ch othor for tho possession of a cortain letter. Tho young man eecurod the letter nt a high price-. Thou tho old man said to him, "You have obtained something that 1 desired, but I would I could have had it to destroy, for it compromises a man who was my friend." The younger, with teai b in his eyes, responded, as he grasped the old man's baud, •' And I aui his sou."