INTERESTING ITEMS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XVIII, Issue 1859, 8 September 1923, Page 7

INTERESTING ITEMS.

Any sum of money paid on account to show the good faith of the buyer is known as an earnest, and is a payment recognised by English law. Typical of this is the King's shilling formerly given to soldiers on enlistment, and the similar coin given to domestic servants in Scotland.

There are no national legal holidays in the United States.

The women of Finland have had the right to vote since 1907. "Ostcnd" rabbits, on sale again in England, are now coming from Holland.

The rapid multiplication of insects is one of the dangers always facing the world.

The first lady to become a doctor was a Frenchwoman, who took her degree in 1875. Black parachutes were used during the Great War for dropping spies behind the enemy's lines at night. The largest insect known, but nowextinct, was a. dragon-fly, which had a wing-spread measuring two feet.

At heights above 23.000 feet above sea-level, mountaineers say that sleep would be difficult, if not impossible. During the first year of prohibition in the U.S.A. taxes and penalties against offenders amounted to some 5£ million pounds.

The doctor's claim on the estate of a deceased patient ranks first in Fiance.

Shoplifters cost the shops and the stores of New York about £250,000 a year for goods stolen.

The collared lizard of New Zealand is already learning the art of walking on its hind legs. Elephants are afraid of mice, while they also have a strong dislike for pigs, or even the smell of them. An airship is being built with sleeping and dining accommodation for 50 people, the cooking to be done by electricity.