RANNDOM READINGS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 1220, 5 June 1919, Page 3

RANNDOM READINGS.

TW quail-without toast. Mo bird is* better known on tbt Mediterranean than the quail from the Spanish littoral to the Arabian hillsides. Twice a year he pusses: over the great inland sea,, northward in spring and southward in September and October. His coming is quite a festival, and many an outstanding bill and many a peasant's overdue rent are paid at his expense. When he goes northward in May to his nesting-place is MM<fle Europe the sandy Italian sea beaches are covered in the line of his flight with fine netting loosely held ttp by stakes, and the unhappy little quails, flying low over the sea, plunge into these, and are held securely by the falling meshes. No fewer than seventeen thousand have been received in Rome in one day, and in the small island of Capri, near Naples, one hundred and sixty thousand are sometimes taken in a season. REGIMENTAL NICKNAMES. The King's Own Borderers were known in the Army as the "Dirty 15th." In the Napoleonic warn they wore white knee breeches,but the mud dimmed their lustre, hence the nickname. The 25th were not named C'ameronian* from the famou# clan. In IGS.9 they Mere a body of five hundred men from Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, followers of Cameron, the noted Covenanter. The Cameron Highlanders, 79th, were raised by Cameron of Errachi in 1793; none but those who spoke Gaelic were enlisted. The fK.iili inTr rai>>-il in 1794 by Graham ol llalgowan, aiiciaaids Lord Lyeru!o«-h. They uerv I.iium If as the "Grey Tin* 7th Kumars, raised in Scotland in IUSHJ, gained the nickname nit tin* ••Sauey 7th." It was claimed that :be jacket from the was adopted in honor of the hurry at Bni>?' , U on th" i:tar«-h >o Waterloo. th" oflirrr- ih their • but this is proSablv mythical.

GATE IT A TBIAL. A certain minister, who was one. well known as a shining light in thrtcmpcrancc cause, was advised by hi: doctor to take a little stimulant, the b-st remedy for some indispoHtion from which he was suffering-. lie pointed out to the doctor thn< bis position as the leading local advocate of temperance would not admit of >uch a thing. The doctor, however, was inexorable.

"You shave ever}* morning, I presume ?" queried thr doctor. "Yes, of course," replied the good ■an.

"Well, then," proposed the doctor, ••why not lock a bottle of whisky in your bfdroom, and when your shaving water is brought up it will give you an excellent opportunity to take your whisky without in any way affecting the morals of your household or your parishioners." So the reverend gentleman consented to carry out the orders of his medical man. Some time later the doctor met one of the minister's servants in the street.

"How is your master now, John ?" queried he. "His health is. by this time, quite restored, I trust!" "Oh. vrs, it is., sir. 'E's quite recovered in 'is 'ealth. sir," replied John, "but I'm much afcard there's somcthink wrong in 'is 'cad!'' "Dear nie, dear "ie! What do you mean?" hastily re«ponded <he doctor. "Well, sir, I can't understand 'im in some ways. 'E's took to shavin' five or six times a day, rcg'lcr!"

THE RUSSIAN WOLSEY. Oppressed by accumulated misfortunes, Alexander Menschikoff, usually r.tvled Prince Menschikoff. died in exilein Siberia on November '2, 17'2d. His csrc<r Im !. fiiucli in common with that c; C.*r«.linssl Wulm'.i, inasmuch as his cr;,;iii was low, and hi.-, iall was accelerated by hi- ambition. imprudence, an'l osientniioii

Menschikoff was originally an apprentice to a pustryi-ook near the Pa lac® of Moscow, but had tbe good fortune, as it then appeared, to be drawn tiom that situation and placed in the household of l'cter the Great, with whom M •oon became a £ivat favorite. Having ■udc himself master of several languages, Menschikoff first rendered bimaalf agn—uble. and afterwards became necessary, to bis Royal master, whoa W> in all his projects. Kntering tbe army, Menschikoff distinguished himself at the siege of Azov, «nd afterwards .HTompunied Peter the Great on hi* travels in Holland and England. During tbe war wish Sweden he play»'d •»» iinoortaii: pur; at Pultowa, lur wl.Vb IV:.-r iuud>- him a iieldaarsbal, :»s»d hr nsr;li-r • lisuuguished himself at Kijja. Stettin. Mark-i.burg, etc. I> was at the captur** uf Maricnburg that the who brraiue Catherine I. f.-ll iitui bis hands. aud wjs thiough him intrudm-rd to the Tsar. On th«* d«*ath of Peter, in 172i>. Men-(K-bikofT managed to bring the diffej&nt pj»rti« - in Petersburg to agree to the «ticce.H>ion of the Tsarina Catherine, by whom he was raised to the summit of his drvation. and during her reign it was Mrnchikoff who ruled Russia with almost absolute authority. The commencement of the next reign, that of I'eter 11., marked the commencement of Menschikoff's fall. His ambitinn was not yet satisfied. He was about to crown it by marrying his daughter to the young Tiar when the jealousy of the old nobility procured his banishment and the sequestration of his Yast estates. With his family, dressed in the habit of a peasant, he was conveyed tn Siberia in a common waggon.