INTERESTING ITEMS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 312, 16 November 1910, Page 6

INTERESTING ITEMS.

The Kaiser is said to have become interested financially in a leading Berlin hotel run by members of the German nobility and prominent financiers.

Within two years Berlin will be a seaport. It was announced last month that the ship canal from Stettin to Berlin would be completed and ready for traffic by the summer of 1912.

A man's amusements are often a surer test of his character than his own occupations. His amusements are his own, whereas his occupations are either shared or imposed by other people. -London "Daily Mail."

The resaon for which we are doing a thing decides its success or failure. If we do it for love, for the life and good of ail men, it is certain to succeed. If we do it for ssifish motives —for fame for money, greed—it is certain to fail.—"Open Road." The first secret of success is, without doubt. judicious self-advertisement. There must be no shrinking from this fact, the value of which is so clearly and unmistakably demonstrated by the example which is set by successful men. —"Madame" (London). In Germany in 3908 the co-operative banks lent £240,000,000 to farmers, traders, and artisans. Britain remains the most backward of all countries in adopting this means of placing the resources in the hands of the poorest classes of producers. "Saturday Review."

There are several gold mines in operation in France. One of them, at Montrevault, according to the British Vice-Consul in Nantes, produces gold of the value of about £BOOO monthly. It forms a block of about 1,000,000 tons of ore, which represents £2,200,000 of pure gold. I am rather a jealous observer of municipal enterprise. I believe that there are strict limits within which it is beneficial, but I think that the tendency is to extend those limits somewhat largely, without sufficient regard to the interests of the public and the ratepayer. —Lord Rosebery. At an extraordinary meeting of the shareholders of Lever Brothers, Ltd., at Port Sunlight on July 6th, resolutions were adopted sanctioning the increase of the company by £2,000,000 to £9,000,000 by the creation of 100,000 ordinary shares of £lO each, and 1,000,000 ordinary shares at £1 each. When a fine, with the alternative of seven days' imprisonment, was imposed on a Yarmouth dealer the other day for Sunday trading, he informed the bench that it had no power to imprison him, and he demanded to be sent to the stocks, as provided by Charles ll.'s Sunday Act. The New York "American" records the fact that upwards of a million dollars worth of stock in the Sun Electric Generator Co. has been sold to the public. The promoters of the company claim that they possess machines which will extract and store electric fluid drawn from the sun's rays, and they add that they intend to keep the machines under the ir own control, selling none of them.

The lead mines of Missouri, which have yielded tens of millions of dollars, and are not yet half worked out, were discovered by a boy and a dog. The dog was chasing a rabbit and fell into a hole, and it was in getting him cut that the boy found a picee of ore and took it home co show his father. The family became rich, but it cannot be learned that the dog even got a new collar for his share in the discovery. The Czarina of Russia possesses a typewriter inlaid with mother-o'-pearl. The keys are of African ivory, the bright parts of solid gold. Queen Alexandra, who is devoted to dogs, does not confine herself to one particular breed, c.nd large and small alike come in for their share of attention from her Majesty, Mrs Todd Helmuth, of New York, is an honorary member of no less than a hundred different women's clubs all over the world —in Europe, America, and even Australia. Wives often object to their "hubby" belonging to one club, but what must a husband say when his wife belongs to a hundred! A novel method was adopted in offering a bouquet to Madame Melba at her concert at the London Albert Hall recently. After her second song a miniature aeroplane was lowered filled with flowers; but before Madame Melba could take out more than one of the beautiful blooms, it ascended quite out of reach.

A unique distinction has been conferred upon Miss Margaret Mary Basden, a student of the London School of Meudicine for Women, and of the Royal Free Hospital, inasmuch as she is the first woman to receive the diploma of Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Miss Basden passed her professional examination in anatomy and physiology recently.