News in Brief.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 36, 10 August 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

News in Brief.

The trekkers who are on their way to the Lake Ngami region for the purpose of opening up South Africa report that beyond the Kalahari Desert they passed through a magnificent country, well supplied with water, and healthier even than the Transvaal itself. The milk of the reindeer and its chemical product are said to be excellent for all lung diseases. The natives of Iceland, who live largely on this milk, are remarkably free from all forms of disease, and among the hardiest and most robust people in the world. A London magistrate has laid it down that a householder cannot interfere with an organ-grinder, unless he is disturbed iv his business, has sickness in his house, or is affected in his health by the sounds of the organ. One of the old houses about to be demolished in Paris was once occupied by Louis XlV. 's private secretary. It oontained a beautiful wrought-iron staircase, which has recently been sold to a sugar refiner for his own house for £5000. The old Dee Mill, Chester, where the historic Miller of the Dee plied his trade, has been burned down. Ancient legend foretold that the mill would be burned down three times, but this is the fourth time that the buildings have been consumed. An innovation in yachting is now being talked of, being nothing less than sails made of compressed paper. The sheets are cemented and rivetted together in such a way as a form a smooth and strong seam. The oil palm bids fair to revolutionise Central Africa, since African potentates find greater profit in compelling their subjects to cultivate this tree for the Rake of its oil than in selling them for slaves. A cook at Bercek, near Miskolez, in Hungary, has confessed to having poisoned an entire family. She had a quarrel with her miatrefs, the wife of a landowner, and ' deliberately put poison in the food. Two children have already died, and five more and tho master and the mistress are in a dangerous condition. The cook, when taken to the court-house, only escaped being lynched by an infuriated crowd through the exertions of the gendarmes. It is stated that Dr. Bertillon, inventor of tho famous Parisian method of identifying criminals by exact measurement, has discovered a new method for identifying handwriting by enlarging the letters by photography and measuring the alterations due to beating of the pulse. Evory year a number of boys are sent from Siam by the King to England to learn different things. One learns upholstery, one learns typewriting, one learns languages, one learns science, and so on. When they return to Siam, each takes with him some different information to impart to others. A Welshman proposes to build a ship that will have a speed of sixty miles an hour. The boat will bs 550 feet long and 50 feet wide, with a flat bottom and wedgeshaped bow and stern, of 10,000 tons displacement, and with eight paddle-wheels on each side, each making seventeen revolutions a minute. Small parcels of fnurpences still continue to be sent into the London Mint for recoinage, notwithstanding that they have, apparently, long since passed out of circulation. A sum of about £239 was received during 1891, while the total withdrawals since 1880 amount to £65,959. London is not only tho healthiest capital in the world, but is becoming healthier than the great towns of England. The death-rate is slowly declining, the mortality beingbelow the average for the corresponding period of the lost ten years. Birds which build in the open seem uniformly to have coloured eggs, while those which possess concealed or covered nests have white eggs ; the colour does not vaiy much in the same species in one climate or another. A reserve of many thousand acres of field ' and forest has been established in Ontario, to serve as a natural park and breedingground for fauna and flora which are in danger of becoming extinct. The price of platinum increased five times during last year, and the metal will soon be more expensive than gold. This is due to the increased demand for eleotrical purposes. In Asolo, north-west of Trevipo, opposite tho house where Robert Browning wrote "Asolando," Barrett Browning has established, in memory of his father, a lace school, where youDg girls are taught to weave tha old patterns of Venetian lace. More than half of the entire cultivated area of Great Britain is now occupied by permanent pasture. With a population not much, over half that of London, New York City (proper}" consumes daily 183,000, 000 gallons of water, against 190,000,000 for London. As many as 283 trespassers on the railway lines of the United Kingdom last year met their deaths from being run over by trains. The newest thing out in London's world of swelldom is a hand-painted shirt front. The Zoological Gardens at Berlin have received from Sumatra an orang-outang of a rare variety (Sitnia bicolor), and also, from the same country, two gibbon apes of a variety that has not been seen alive hitherto in Europe. "■*" There are no fewer than 103 cathedrals in the United Kingdom. Of these 48 are Roman Catholic cathedrals, 36 Church of England, 12 belong to the Church of Ireland, and 7 to the Episcopal Church of Scotland. It is estimated that the richest of civilised peoples is the English, with £750 per head capital. In France the average is said to be £700 ; in the United States, £680. There are scarcely ever fewer than 200 ships near the Land's End leaving orbearinir for the Engiish Channel. A fishery sohool is to be founiW&va||i Sables d'Olonne, a celebrated fishing centre " on the West Coast of Franco. The project is due to M. Odin, Chief of the Laboratory of Marine Zoology, and it has been adopted by tho Municipal Council. The eatabfishment will be called the Municipal School of Technical and Professional Instruction in Maritime Ti<iirag. ™ ™ _ , Over 400 diamonds are Known to have been recovered from the ruins of Babylon. Many are uncut, but most aro polished on one or two aides only.

She (haughtily) : "I beg your pardon, sir ; you have the advantage of me." Ho • (jauntily) : " I should say I had. I'm th» •> fellow you jilted ten years ago." \