Spray.

Lake County Press, Issue 904, 29 March 1900, Page 7

Spray.

An Aboriginal Yarn. The following Is the latest true aboriginal story ;—A station the other day engaged a blackfeMow to rake up the yards about the place, and promised him ss. for the job, which was accepted. Passing by the scene of operations later on, the manager was astonished to see his employee sealed on the ground surrounded by black gins, while three other 'blackfellows were doing the work. “ What is the meaning of all this ?” naturally asked the manager. “ Oh,“ replied the aboriginal with a grandiloquent wave of the hand, “ me let ’im contract to these fellows for three bob.” Forbidden to Smoke. I hear from Russia (says the correspondent of an English paper) that the young Czarina is so excessively averse to ladies smoking cigarettes that, hot content with steadily refusing to smoke herself, hoping lire hint would not bo lost upon her people, but finding they still clung to the cigarette, the Empress has now peremptorily forbidden the use of tobacco to any female, lady or otherwise. in the Palace. Here she will doubtless succeed ; but the habit has taken too firm a hold upon foreign feminine taste for even a Czarina to abolish. Not in Public Employment. The origin of the word “ private,” as applied to a soldier in the ranks, may be traced to the much earlier use of the same word applied to civilians, “ a private man or citizen”—that is,_ one nor invested with public office or employment. The epithet being thus applied in common language to any Civilian nol holding office, has by a slight extension of meaning been used to signify soldiers not holding rank. Queer Pets. The young Duchess of Marlborough has a strange taste in pets. At Blenheim she is said to have set up a menagerie, in which there are two ostriches, several eagles and vultures, and an ibis. The strangest member of the .collection, however, is a garter snake that was purchased by the Duchess on the banks of the Nile. She was not at all afraid of the snake, and it soon became tame enough to crawl towards her. Thus it became her favourite of all the pets. A gentle-eyed Nubian boy in native costume has been added to the Duchess’s collection of honeymoon souvenirs. He will accompany her in her walks through the Blenheim grounds, and will make the rounds of the menagerie with him whenever she visits the animals. Swedish Sunday Schools. Some 200,000 children now attend Sunday school in Sweden, and are taugiit by a staff of 12,000 teachers. Prince Oscar Bernadette, the second son of the present King of Sweden and Norway, has himself a Sunday school for the children of the higher classes.- “Itis a pleasant sight,” writes a contributor to “ Sunday at Home,” “ to see this Royal Prince standing at his desk in the schoolroom, and touching to hear him, in his own earnest, unaffected manner, explain the Word of God for his boys. The Prince's earnest, faithful, talks leave a deep impression also upon occasional grown-up visitors; indeed, his whole life is a bright testimony to the reality of his religion.” English Princes do not favour the Sunday school. A M teorite that Paid a Mortgage. Another illustration of uses to which meteorites may be put before their real Character is known is afforded by those of Kiowa county, Kan. They fell on a prairie, where rocks were scarce and valuable, and the farmers of the vicinity found meteorites convenient for holding down haystacks, stable roofs, or covers to rain barrels. For such purposes they might have been used for a long time had not the wife of one of the farmer* become convinced that there was something unusual about them, and called an expert to examine them. He at once recognised thoir nature, and the enterprising woman finally sold hers for enough to pay off a heavy mortgage upon the farm. Soda Water. Soda water cartridges or " gas drops," for making aerated water at home or wherever one may be travelling, are made by a London firm. The steel shell is pear-shaped, about %in. in diameter at the largest part, and is filled with liquid carbonic acid at a pressure of sixty atmospneres. The cartridge fits into the mouthpiece of a soda-water bottle. A cap is closed over it, and in completing the closure a tiny ebonite plug in one end of the cartridge is punctured, when the gas escapes into the bottle, and is dissolved in the water A dozen of the gas drops weigh 30z., and 5000 of them can be packed in a cubic foot. Death of a Scientist. Arthur Stradling’s recent death from snake bite in Ceylon was a peculiarly sad affair. He was engaged in pursuing herpetological studies in the neighbourhood of Bogawantalawa, when he came across a specimen of the Russel viper—known to the natives ns the “ tic polonga”—a reptile of the deadliest variety. The doctor was bitten by this terror of Ceylon, and died six hours afterwards. Dr. Stradling was making investigations on behalf of the London Zoological Gardens. Patriotism. The truest test of patriotism is love ot country, the good of which should be our great aim in peace no less than in war. Peace, as well ns war, has its conflicts. The struggle of right with wrong is ever progressing, and the triumph of wrong may be more injurious to a country than defeat at the hands of external foes. —“ Universalist.” Eantley. Mr. Charles Santley, who recently entered upon his sixty-third year, inherits his musical talent from his father, formerly a well-known organist at Liverpool. He spent five years of his life in a merchant’s office, and first appeared in his present profession as a tenor in the choir at the opening of the Philharmonic Hall at Liverpool in 1549. Mr. Smithy's first great success as a baritone was at the Leeds Musical Festival in ISSS. Medicated Honey According to a Paris journal, a French scientist is trying to compel bees to make medicated honey for the cure of various diseases. He keeps the bees under glass, and furnishes only such flowers as possess the desired properties. By the different kinds of honey thus produced influenza, coughs and colds, indigestion, asthma, and many .other ills arc said to bo readily if indirectly reached. These medicines ought to be decidedly palatable. Hint's. Rings In the middle ages were sometimes so designed as to inflict injury. In Bavaria up to the beginning of the last century the peasants wore rings of brass, on the octagonal bezel of which stood out five steel points, half-an-lnch high. Worn on the middle finger of the hand, a blow from a burly fist, thus armed, would have left a lasting mark on an opponent. The novels with the ring and the incidents arising from the golden circlet are innumerable. In the old stories of Teutonic and Scandinavian origin it is constant, in the “ Faereyinga Saga” there is one of Earl Hakon, who, Calling in love with a statue, prays that she will give him her golden finger-ring, and she does. When Sigmund, bis rival, tries to take the ring from Earl Hakon Sigmund perish*" There are doaeas ®-t similar stories.

George Eliot is said to haw Written “ Middleinarch" in tour months. Some i doubt is thrown on this statement by the fact that she commonly "worked slowly, writing with great care and deliberation, and making few erasures after her work was dona.