Odds and Ends.

Hastings Standard, Issue 53, 27 June 1896, Page 4

Odds and Ends.

The following is, one need hardly say, American. Old Party (to bookseller's clerk) ; "I would like a Chaucer." Clerk (new to the business but very polite) ; " Really, sir, I'm very sorry, but I haven't a bit of tobacco about me ! " More than seven hundred biographies of Columbus have been written in various languages. Including the new York prince, the Queen's great grandchildren, the first of whom arrived sixteen years ago, number 25—1G boys and 9 girls. Cathay was the old name given to China by the Venetian traveller Marco Polo, who, in the employ of the Khan of Tartar}", visited it in the early part of the thirteenth century. The British crown is made up of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, pearls and emeralds, set in silver and gold bands. It weighs 89 ounces 5 pennyweights troy. In it there are 8642 diamonds, 283 pearls, 9 rubies, 17 sapphires, and 11 emeralds. The Empress Frederick of Germany posposes a unique service. The teatray has been beaten out of an old Prussian half-penny. The teapot is formed of a German farthing, and the tiny cups are made from coins of different German principalities. A Cold Winter.—" Waiter," said a gentleman in the dining car, " have you any gooseberry pie ? " "No, sah ; haint carrying any dis yeah, sah." "Why is that?" "Well, you see, sac, dey's scarh dis season. Last winter was so cold and stormy dat it was mighty tough on de geese."