News in Brief.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 42, 17 August 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

News in Brief.

» Tbe British Empire and its dependencies and colonies embrace 11,000,000 square mile«, or about the size of all Africa. Iv France there arc far moro female than malo bicyclists. Sixteen years a;;o a small coffee-plant was sent from the Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, to Blantyre, in Africa, and from this single plant no fewer than 5,000,000 coffee tre=s have been derived, and have become tho main sources of prosperity of the European settlements in that part of the Dark Continent. Statisticians agree that suicide is on the increase in all civilised nations. At a meeting of an English life assurance society recently, it was stated that they had paid £52,700 for deaths caused directly by influenza, which had cost them two and a-half times more loss in two years than cholera had done in 43 years. A man has died in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, as the result of swallowing two false teeth during a fit. Orders have been given to surround the future French camps in Madagascar and on the French Alps with electrical currents, These currents will be so arranged that, were the sentinels to be got rid of, the camps ringed round 'with the wires would all tho same be alarmed by anyone approaching within the ring. A nine-mouth-old iufant died from nicotine poisoning in Scotland recently. It was given a pipe, as a plaything, during the brief absence of its mother. When dead bodies are entered as cargo on a ship, they are recorded on the invoices as "statuary," or "natural history specimens," to allay the superstitious fears of the crew. The Chinese burglar takes an ingredient of his own, burns it, and blows the smoke through the keyhole of the bedroom where the master of the house is asleep. The fumes dull the senses of the victim just enough to make him helpless, while at the same time permitting him to hear and see everything that goes on in the room. Lack of physical exercise has a tendency to make school children short-sighted. Over ono hundred stokers are required to feed the fires of a fast Atlantic liner. The Texas Department of Education bos ruled that nuns may not teach in the public, schools of Texas, and that everything of a sectarian nature must be absolutely eliminated from the public schools. Catholic nuns have been conducting schools iv Southwest Texas, and this puts an end to it. The longest telephone- wire span in the world has just been completed. It is stretched across Lake Valen in Switzerland, connecting the town of Quintan, near Leistkmann, with Murg. The total length measures about 80,000 ft. A single Californian county has 489 miles of irrigating ditches, constructed at a cost of £600,000. Thoroughbred dogs are said to be less intelligent than mongrels. We learn from an American contemporary that a church at Boston has announced Sunday services at 8.30 in the morning during the early summer months, in order to accomdodate those people who take an outing on Sundays, "to absent themselves from church services later in tho day." Six lady barbers now find employment in Cardiff. A marriage in a lions' cage took place at St. Louis receutly. The brido, MUa Devere, an animal trainer in a circus, was said to hail from Chester, England, the bridegroom being a cowboy. The couple stepped iuto the cage, the six lions being regarded as bridesmaids, the justice who performed the ceremony remaining outsido. An American society for the prevention of cruelty to animals gives weokly lectures to coachmen on the proper way to treat dumb animals. One of the most curious enemies of British freshwater fishes ia a. small floating waterweed — the blodderwort. Along its branches are a number of small green vesicles or bladders, whioh, being furnished with tiny jaws, seizo upon the little fish, which are assimilated into its substance. This is a subtle poacher, the true character of which has only lately been detected. The great Ottoman Empire, which at one time threatened the civilised world, sprang from a band of four hundred wandering Turkoman families. A simple way to strenghen the voice is to bathe the chest and throat with cold water, and rub with a bath towel before going to bed. To carry ont this recipe * regularly through cold weather will beSSST effort, but it certainly has its reward. Manypeople add sea salt to tho water, and find it very invigorating. Kats may bo got rid of by stuffing their runways with dry hay that has been well seasoned with cayonue pepper. Remarkable botanical achievements are now being effected by means of cross fertilisation. Perhaps the most wonderful yet achieved in the present age is the one recently recorded by Professor Emery Smith from California. He has produced an entirely new violet, highly and pleasantly scented, and of exceedingly beautiful appearance. Its colour is a clear violet purple, its fragrance being one of the most powerful known. The cultivation of the peach in China has been traced back to the tenth century before Christ. Under the Belgian law unmarried men over twenty-five have one vote, married men and widowers with families have two votes, and priests and other persons of position and education have three votes. Severe penalties are imposed on those who fail to vote. A Munioh professor declares that he discovered whole colonies of miorobes on wearing apparel. On a glove alone 23 such colonies were found. People who live beyond their means and are very tardy in paying their debts have been blacklisted in Vienna by a daring publisher. A book containing their names has met with a huge sale. A French medical authority asserts that death caused by a fall from a great height is absolutely painless. The mind acts very rapidly for a time, then unconsciousness ensues. The University of Kansas equips several scientific expeditions during this summer. One, under Mr. Dyche, goes to Greenland for zoological specimens. Mr. Williston commands another for the collection of tertiary fossils in Kansas and Wyoming. Mr. Snow goes to the SouthWestern States bent on entomology, and Mr. Haworth will survey the tertiary formations of Kansas. In discussing the claims of various foods to armease hunger at once quickly and satisfactorily, Sir Henry Thompson gives the first place to milk. A feature of the agony column of American papers is tho presence of advertisements from men who make a living as ' advisers and adjusters of marriage and , family troublts.