News in Brief.

Evening Post, Volume XLVI, Issue 25, 29 July 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)

News in Brief.

Tho Paris officials stato that the ico used in the cafes and restaurants Uiero contains legions of typhoid fever microbes. The Board of Health is noiv making- it imperativo that water used in the niauufacture of ice shall bo the purest obtainable. The aquatic wonder, Captain Boyton, and his man}' Earl's Court performers, amused a huge crowd of people recently by walking on the Thames down to Londou Bridg-e. Near Trans>;uebnr, on the south-eastern const of India, there is a species of fish ■which not only io able to walk on level ground, but can climb trees. In English society the wearing of mourn - ing is rapidly going- out of fashion. Foxes are killing a large number of laml>s in tho counties of Ros* and Suudcrland. Times are hard in London. More persons of greater or less importance hav«j givon up keeping carriages during the past year than during any previous one. Flies, white in all respect* excepting their eyes, which were red, were found iv an old mine recently reopened in Bangor, Cal. Tho insects, upon being- exposed to tho light under glass, regained their 10.-<t colour. During ordinary seasons tho English Mint turns out 420,000 sovereigns a week. But it can turn out a million, and it has done ho more than once. At a Court ball at Berlin the Empress wore in her hair the famous jewelled hatbuckle of Napoleon 1., which fell into the hands of the Prussian cavulry after Waterloo. Tho coldest place in tho United States i* the interior of Alaska — thirty degrees below zero. Damages for breach of promise of marriage can now be obtained in Belgium. Until recently tho law acknowledged no such claim. A man has travelled from Manchester to London on a wooden globe. The man has last 291b in weight on tho journey, and the globe has lost 101b. Victoria Cross is in all probability the rarest of modern war medals. There are only 450 of the medals in existence ; one recently sold for £25. The Manchester Ship Canal is to l>e opened next Janunr}'. Smallpox lately ragedat the Johannesburg goldfieldn, South Africa. The average height of tho elephaut is nine feet. Paper dresses are being worn at evening balls in Paris. In China there are three systems of religion — Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Bishop's Court, tho rcsidenco of tho Bit>hop of Sodor and Man, has boon destroyed by fire. In boys, we are told, the year of the greatest growth is the sevonteeth, and in girls the fifteenth. Girls generally reach their full height in that year, and acquire their full weight at the age of twenty. There are thirty-seven cotton-spinning milk in Japan, with a monthly output of some 21,000 bales. Tho average weight of the Chineso brain in said to bo heavier than the average weight of the brain in any other race. Glass curtains are a novelty in art industry for house furnishings. They aro in colonial glass, audlmvo tho effect, when closed, of stained glass. They consist of a seiies of lutle squares of coloured glabs, each set in a bjnall zinc frame, the squares bein^ attached to each other at tho four co: ners by httlo S-shaped hooks. A cute of eczema of tho hands is reported iv London, provoked entirely by the ute of doeskin gloves, coloured red to imitute Bussiau leather. On inquiry it was found thnt many of the men employed in tho dyeworks had been attacked in tho same way. Some of the French railway companies employ women not oiJy as clorks, but in. the signal-boxes. All the courting is done by women In Ukraine, Eussia. When a woman discovers a man she would like to marry she visits him at his house, and tries to charm him. If ho does not like her, he leaves her, and lives elsewhere until she deserts his home. The old Worcester porcelain dinnerservice that was presented by the British nation to Lord Nelson was recently sold in 70 lot?, and realised £1 154. It consisted ', 260 pieces. Each pieco was painted with a portrait of Lady Hamilton as Hopo, in various attitudes on tho sea-shore, a ship in tho distance, the borders dark blue with i rich decoration in gold. , Nelson's houso at Mitoham, Surrey, ij in ' the market, and an effort is boing made to preserve it. There is a proposal to convert 1 it into a Nelson museum. A gentleman must kiss every lady he is , introduced to in Paraguay. It is the cuatom of the country. The grand Chinese collective sacrifices of 1 the twelfth month dispose of all the sacred i pigs saved up till then, and roasting pork ' perfumes the land* ' London pickpockets dispose of empty ' purses bydropping them into pillar post- ' boxes. Here they are found by the postmen > who colleot the letters. j A charter of liberties granted by King ■ John to the barons, and older than Magna Charta, has just been discovered. It is supposed to date from 1213. j ' Women in a London jam factory earn T 8s to 21s a week. They work by piece, and j their hours extend from 6.16 in the morrif ing to 5.45 at night. , j There are 2200 ohurch boll-ringers in the 9 j diocese of Oxford. This is the largest 9 number in any English diocese. Ei«ter r come* Moomd, and Davos third, ■„*