INTERESTING ITEMS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 342, 4 March 1911, Page 2

INTERESTING ITEMS.

The "greens" of many Indian golf courses are made of rolled mud sprinkled with sand, and they are very true. The total amount of stake money won in Great Britain and Ireland during the last flat-race season was £511,731 (is. Coronets are to be bought for £l6, These seldom-used head gear are not made of solid gold, but of silver gilt, and the balls that surround them are made of silver and are not really pearls of great price. While shooting among the deer at Crofton Hall Park recently, Sir Ilylton Briseo killed two deer with one shot. The first bullet went right through one animal, and entered another that was running alongside. Two Texas sportsmen have hit on the novel idea of hunting in motor cars. Recently they obtained a huge bag by motoring over the plains and on spying any big game, riding them down from different directions in their cars and shooting them with rifles. Mr Andrew Carnegie was asked some time ago whether he thought a penniless boy, without influence, stood as good a chance now in America as in his own early days. His reply was that the boy would probably stand a better chance, as there are so many more openings for enterprising youths.

Paderewski, when three years old, used to creep to the piano to listen to music; he had violin lessons at the age of six, but claims that Nature was his first teacher. "She taught me to revere her sounds of forest, field, and brook, her smiles and tears." He now practises at ali hours of day or night, without any rule but his own fancy. The Restigouche Salmon Club is the most exclusive of its kind in the world. It fishes in the Restigouche river, Canada, and the estimated cost of each salmon caught by the members is from one to two sovereigns a pound. The fishing privileges of the club are valued at £200,000, yet forty years ago an angler leased the entire river fyr £2O. One day while Kipling was correcting proofs he began to croon "On the Road to Mandalay." His little daughter, who was in the room, listened for a few minutes in silence, then she asked, "Father, didn't you write that song?" "Yea," Mr Kipling replied, "I did." "Well," was the rather scornful comment, "it seems to me you should know the tune better." Even the best made billiard ball begins to run untrue after some months' play, ana it is then returned to the maker. After it has undergone their process some three or four times it becomes reduced below the regulation size, when it is relegated to the pool and pyramid sets. In this capacity its life is long, and when of no further use it is'sold to ivory carvers, who turn it into chessmen and other articles. Lord Furness was the victim of an amusing bon mot when he was contesting Yritk against Lord Charles Beresford. To the aid of Lord Charles came his two brothers, and the trio were cordially chaffed on the number of Beresfords in the field. But "Charlie" was ready with his apt retort: "Yes," said he, "here we are—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, come to save you from the fiery Furness." Mr Somerset Maugham, author of so many succesful plays, said to an interviewer in America recently: "I always feel the best place to write a play is in the midst of an audience representative of the people for whom you are writing. lam sure that here I shall find what to my mind is the finest of all theatrical publics, one to which things of heart primarily appeal, whose feelings are still flexible and what has a great zest for living as well as curiosity about life."

A capital story is told of the Master of Elihank M.P. Some time ago when the Master was taking a brief respite from his labours on the Continent his arrival at The Hague was duly chronicled in the French papers. With memories of "Lord Chamberlain" and Lord Harcourt the difficulty of the title of "Master" was not one. to be easily surmounted and consequently the announcement was gravely made on the following day that the Master of the Bank of Ely had arrived at his destination. Germany is a country of Nimrods. There are we learn 600, <>tl(> sportsmen which mean one gun for every hundred people. Each year falls to the gun on an average •100,000 hares, 4,000,000 partridges, 2,000,000 thrushes, 5,001),000 rabbit 3, 100,000 deer, I-la, 000 woodcocks, 40,000 wild ducks, 25,000 pheasants, 15,000 quail, 13,500 bucks, 4100 wild boars, and 1300 bustards. In weight this "bag" represents 25 million kilogrammes, a kilogramme being 2 l-151b. The monetary value is 32,000,000 francs, or £1,2 10,000. The sum received for license to shoot it; 7,500,000 francs, or £300,000. Lord Suliield is one of the most kindly-hearted and genial of men. As long ago as 186S he was appointed Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria, and was speedily selected to accompany King Edward, when Prince of Wales, through his Indian tour. Since then he has held many Court appointments, and has always been on intimate tern:3 with his Sovereign. Lord Suffield had a brief experience in the Army, but did not see active service. He was noted as a horseman before he became a Hussar, and for many years hunted the Norfolk Foxhounds and Staghounds, whilst in ISSO he was Master of the Buckhounds. Few men had so good a seat and such perfect hands, and Why to Melville's well-known couplet, was written in his honour: — A rider unequalled—a sportsman complete; A rum 'un to follow, a bad 'un to beat,