MISCELLANEOUS.

Lake County Press, Issue 982, 3 October 1901, Page 7

MISCELLANEOUS.

An ordinary lead for casting at sea weighs 71b to* 141b. and has at the bottom of it a hole filled with tallow to bring up samples of the sea bottom. The Ceylon pearl fishery lasts only three weeks. During that time the average catch is over eleven million oysters. Thenare only fifty divers employed. A distinguished Austrian professor has made an exhaustive study of the family history of the Czar and Czaritza with a view to ascertain why there is yet no male heir to the Russian Throne. The Vienna correspondent of the " Express' states that the professor traces the whole trouble to hereditary tendency on the part of the Czarina, the families to which Hessian princesses have given birth from the Middle Ages to the present day having shown a preponderance of females altogether abnormal. It must be many years since a manufacturer of cloth has woven in his mills the wool from his own English sheep. Experiments have been made at Hyde Farm, near Minchishampton, in Gloucestershire-, which may ultimately have economical results of a. far-reaching nature. The senior partner of ■<> well-known manufacturing firm at Dudbtidge. near Str .1. has been using in his mills tL. wool from his flocks of registered Hampshire Downs. It is interesting to note that, so far, the experiment has proved an unqualified success, and that quite a considerable amount of the khaki worn by the troops in South Africa has been manufactured from the Home-grown article. The recent list of divorce cases heard before Mr Justice Simpson at Sydney this term was the heaviest on record, bringing the total tried before him up to 3.922. His Honor remarked that he was glad to notice that in the Federal Bill proposed to be introduced there was an intention to remedy the most dangerous and objectionable pro vision in the present law by which a person who obtained an order for restitution of conjugal rights could, in the event of the order being disobeyed, obtain a divorce upon the ground of desertion, although only two or three months might elapse. That provision was a most dangerous one. and one which ought to be remedied, for these orders were rarely obeyed, and there could be no attachment when they were disobeyed. At a theatre one of the audience observed a man sitting three seats in front whom he thought he knew: so he requested another man in the next row to him to " dig that rhap in front with your cane." The polite stranger did so; the person disturbed turned out to be othe-; than the man he was taken for, and there was a ludicrous and embarrassing scene, during which the original cause of it looked sublimely innocent. At last the man with the cane asked rather indignantly: " Didn't you tell me to dig that person with my stick?" "Yes!'' "And what did you want?" "I wanted to see whether you would do it!"

Paris is passing through the hardships of a pearl famine. The pearl necklace has become so fashionable that pearls have become exceedingly rare, and consequently unconscionablv dear. The more they cost the more they are sought after. In a wellknown dealer's establishment, the ' Figaro' affirms, is a necklace of forty-five pearls, a dozen of which are black. The price is; £17.600. Americans are especially keen pearl-hunters, and they will pay from £4.000 to £12.000 for a collar without a murmur (so says the ' Mail's' correspondent). In consequence of the continued demand, a necklace which fifteen years ago was worth £4OO will to-day fetch from £1,200 to £1,600. Compared with the figures of three years back, the total revenue of the United States shows an increase of almost fifty millions sterling, or close upon 50 per cent., while the expenditure—due principally to sumset aside for army and navy purposes—indicates a correspondingly large increase. Fortunately for the United States their finances arc at present well administered, and they can well bear this increasing burden.—' Daily Graphic' An odd incident was recently witnessed by the British ship Celticburn. On July 2 the Celticburn sighted a Spanish steamer, which proved to be the Brakbat. flying a signal to the effect that she wanted the assistance of a navigating officer. The Celticburn got ready to send off an officer, when it was seen that a fierce scuffle was taking place on the Spaniard's deck. Suddenly one of the crew ran to the wheel and altere 1 the steamer's course, and the ship made off without waiting for the asked-for assistance. In direction the British trade unions operate to curtail effective output. Their power to do this depends upon the invincible ignorance of the simplest rules of political economv which distinguishes many English workmen. The American workman is better informed. He may strike for higher wages, but he does not insist upon equal rewards for the competent and the incompetent, nor does he believe that the way to improve his position is deliberately to coerce the better man into equality of production witli the worse. —'Times.' ' Colonel Montana in iu his new book deals chiefly (and excellently) with the punitive expeditions after the relief of Kumasi. He tells a good story of the journey out. In conversation at Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, with one of the Republic's most influential citizens, the subject of which was the Boer War, the gentleman, who was as black as the cae of spades, drawled out with a regular Yankee twang : " Wal, I guess there are two generals whom 1- do admire, and they are General Jones and Lord Roberts '"—-General .Jones, whom he placed first, being the black Commander-in-Chief of the five hundred or so rag-tag and bobtail niggers who compose the Liberian Army. Two or a Kind. —Jaggles : " What makes you think they are searching for the unattainable!'" Wraggles : "His wife is seeking for something to remove superfluous hair, while he is looking for a preparation to grow hair on a bald head." A somewhat cruel story is told in legal circles anent the family of a certain Judge whose decisions are not generally upheld by the higher courts. The legend runs (says the ' Free Lance') that the other evening the dhildren of this legal luminary burst into the drawing room, and with one voice exclaimed : " Mamma, may we have apricot jam for tear" "Why, dears?" asked the mother, annoyed at this invasion when she was entertaining friends at her own five o'clock. " Because," cried the youngsters, triumphantly, " nurse says that one of papa's judgments hasn't been upset by the Court of Appeal to-day." How He Happened to Win.—Percy : "Do you wemembaw that day at, the waces when the leading hawse fell down and the next four fell over him?" Algy : " Deah me. yes! That was the only time I evah won a bet on a hawse wace!" One hundred million sacks are made out of India's yearly jute crop. California takes twenty millions of these and China fifteen millions. The. crop weighs 190,000 tons. Not. so Bad as Volodyovski.—Lady (to applicant for nursemaid's place): "What is your name!-" Applicant: " Hermyntrudc, mum." Lady: "Good heavens! That would never do. Can't you think of something shorter?" Applicant (after a pause) -. " Well, mum, my young man alius calls me Carrots." Willing to Oblige.—" What nice things you said about that man in his obituary notice. Don'L suppose, you'd say such nice things of me," said the citizen. "Oh, yes, I would with pleasure," replied the. polit-c newspaper man.