TIT-BITS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 288, 25 November 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

TIT-BITS.

New York State has abandoned the uso of public drinking-cups. •-• • • Lightning clouds are seldom more than 7GO yards from the earth.

Havana exported 200 millions of cigars last year.

Tho first life insurance society was started in London in 1698.

In tho United Kingdom, no fewer than 70,000 girls are employed as barmaids.

Tho swiftest fish is the dolphin. Tt can swim at the rate of 25 miles an hour.

So strong is tho Bank of England notepaper that a single sheet will lift a weight of 1001 b. • * ’ • There are not half-a-dozen dry docks i;i tho world capable of holding vessels of the size of the Olympic.

Footlights on the stage were first used in Italy. Garrick was the first to use them on the English stage in 1765.

Fifty years ago only one woman worked for wages to every ten men: now the ratio is one woman to every four men.

Louis the Great paid such attention to his manners that he took a dancing lesson every day but Sunday for 23 years.

London has over 14.000 shops fo sale of milk.

Norway is the only European country which has a lower dcat-h-rate than Britain.

Prisoners in the Montgomery City Gaol, Chicarro,. are now permittee! ;o go o-.’.t and fish all day.

Three million people attend cine matograjih shows daily in Great Bri tain, spending a sum of £25,000.

d hero is a clock in Brussels which has never been wound up by human hands. It is kept going by the wind. ♦ • • •

Thcro are over 250 railway stations within a six-mile radius of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. Paris has only c<’in all.

The* Roman catacombs ar© 580 miles in extent, and it is estimated that from 6.000,000 to 15.000,000 dead are there interred.

<>ix..v-fivo. thousand elephants are annually killed in Africa, yielding a quant-ty of raw ivory the selling price ,ot which is £859,000. * • ♦ ♦

The oldest note in tbo possession <.f t>io Bank of England is dated DecemiT 1 ' and is fc ' r £s ' s “- Li the Bank library is a note for £25 which was not presented for 111 years.

Japanese chess is the most intriqnU' game in tho world. The board Las SI squares,, 20 pieces arc used, and the pioeea cnango in grade when thev arrive at a certain position on the

Tnc first milestone out of the Gitvof London on tho Great ■Eastern-road to (olcnester is to bo found in the taproom of a beerhouse m tbo White-cm-wm-road Probably the house was bdbt over the stone.

_ffar painting of rural main roads in is ent .ast year, rendered necessary l>motor traffic, reports the county"ss’rveyor. cost £29,591. In mlditioh, the country council paid £4855 for tar painting urban main roads.

TA Jnle drunkenness is decreasing among tho men it is on the increase among the women.” said tho magistrate at Clerkemven Police Court, London” recently; and added that the cn.ses againsc women in recent years made un 50 per cent, of the v.h->le li f , t . 1

Miss Adelaide Pauline Irl.o-. an Englishwoman who played a prominent part m the struggle for Servian indepei.dlimo and the insurrection in Bosnia m 1«'«(’. has died at Saraievo. Bosnia, in her 7'>th year, and loft'£2o.ooo to Servian philanthropic institutions.

ST. Ivan Clustine. the now ballet nmsroi Opera. Paris, who conus from the Russian Imm rial Theatre in Momi.w, has resolved io .abolish the. traditional short gauze ballet skirt, replacing it by the longer skirt popularised in Paris and London by the" Russia n cm peers.

Berlin has made the experiment of appointing 30 feminine “pelicemen.” Those guardians of the law will have children as their especial charge. Not only v. ill homos bo visited, for the woman officer may walk into anv house at her own discretion, but schools and institutions whore little people are bonr-d.-4 and educate I will bo rntorpr. i r-xamine-.l at will. If an owner allows liir. trees to ovor-1.-’ii" another man’s land, the o.her may lon them. Bat the looped brr.u idles belong to the owner of the tr‘-;s. ♦ - - • Mr-. George Cain, of ftn .Diego. C-.llfnrnia. has gone tn Ren . to ondopvour to obtain a divorce from her husband, because he spends C 250 a year on silk socks.

That wood will stand the passing of centuries ns well ns metal is nroved by the unearthin''- near the Nile of soma F.gvptian boats nearly years old. which arc in good co adit rm.

A letter from Lady Hamilton to the Prince of AValc-s. wl'A'i" a !•■'■’< of N'dson’s hair, realised 3fH) trainees nt the sale of the Bride-e collection at the Manor House. Piddletrenthido fD >rset)

The National Priniing Worl-s ; >f Pi,, do Janeiro Brazil, founded bv Dorn John VI.. at the beginning of the Ibth rnntnrr. have been destroyed by fire, th--- daningc being estimated at ci .one i -do.

The White Hart Inn in fh'o B. rough. London where Mr. Pickwick made Sam Weller's a'-nuaint.anee —has b< < . transformed into a station*rv va..l- - The inn served as the headquarters of Jack Cade during his rebellion.