Miscellaneous.

Lake County Press, Issue 2392, 7 September 1911, Page 7

Miscellaneous.

JUPE-CU LOTTE VILLAGE

A PERSIAN WEDDING.

The Chinese divide the day into 12 parts of two hours each.

In Russia the railway gauge is 5 ■cl, as against 4 feet 8-1 inches in

England

Sir William Ramsay reccntily exhibited a pair of scales which will weigh a seven thousand-millionth of an ounce.

The hairs from the snout of die walrus are collected by the natives of Alaska, and exported to China, where they are used as toothpicks.

The Baltic is the shallowest sea, or.lv 41 yards in depth. Next comes the Adriatic, with an average of 4? yards depth. — -♦ Bi England there arc 114 widows to every S4 widowers. In Italy the relative numbers (per 1000 women and 1000 men) arc 146 and 60; in France tto and 74; in Germany, 1,30 and So; in Austria. 12T and 44-

WATCHING A MILLIONAIRE EAEY. Vincent Walsh M’Lcan, the “£20,000,000 baby,” spends ten hours a day in the open air, guarded by detectives and nurses. He is eighteen months old, and is in riotous health. Every evening when he leaves his “iron-clad perambulator” the baby is

placed in a nursery, the windows of which arc fitted with latticed steel shutters, which are padlocked from the inside at six o’clock in the evening-. Two armed detectives sit outside the nursery door all night. Elaborate precautions are a family tradition. During their boyhood and girlhood both the parents of the baby were similarly protected against kidnappers.

In the Swiss Canton Valais there is a village named Charnpery, and here, an Italian contemporary points out, women have for generations worn the j jupe-culotte, quietly and unostentation slv unconscious that there is anything at all remarkable in their attire. •So while the Western world amuses itself with renewed discus-

sions about the proper attire for women. these village maidens and elderly dames go about their day’s work dressed in the dcbatcable garment. Extrccmcly picturesque they look in their culottes, which are cut exactly the same as those worn by the fathers, husbands, and brothers. They

arc made of a rough blue serge, that stands the wear and tear of hard life. For a hard life those women do live amongst the mountains, in a village perched on a green slope, where the industry is patsturage. Many a girl starts out before daybreak, and does not return to the village until nightfall. There are frequent wet days ; much snow, and storms rend the valley. The close-fitting costume is well adapted for the wearer’s needs, which is the best that can be said of any garb.

THE TURKISH WOMAN. An interesting letter has been written by a Turkish lady to the french ■‘Figaro,” revealing the soul of the woman of the harem, as the cry of a spirit in captivity. “For an intelligent woman,” the lady writes, “the life in the harem is one of long grey hours full of discouragement and weariness. Oh. yes, it is true we

may read ! That is still our principal distraction ; but to whom may we speak of our readings, with whom may we exchange a few serious thoughts? The society of men is for-

bidden to us, and we arc surrounded by women relatives and friends who are generally lacking in education, because under the old order of things

it was not allowed to send Mohammedan girls to European schools, and the teachers who came to us from France or elsewhere were usually vulgar adventuresses, unworthy of the confidence shown to them. Our husbands are immensely surprised if we wish to speak with them about some subject outside the habitual circle of so-called feminine conversation. They are often glad to leave these harems of ours, crowded with children, slaves,

and gossipers. FLOATING ISLAND. In Whitingham, Vermont, on a small body of water known as Lake Sadawga, one can see the unusual phenomenon of seventy-five acres of unattached soil locally famed as “The

j Floating Island.” This island consists of a vast nexus of roots of reeds

and trees which are overspread by a thin lavor of earth. Quantities of moss, iiajrs, cat-tails, and other veßa-

(alien which favours moist localities, arc found in great profusion. The trees arc mostly beeches and firs, some of which are of great age, but thev grow to a height of only about feel, and at that point: the growth is arrested, probably on account of interference with their nutrition. Fi diermen cut holes through the soil and fish through them fust as one

fishes through the ice in winter. THE WORLD'S TALLEST TREE. .Australia claims to have the tallest tree in the world. It has long been thought that to California belongs this distinction, but while Californian trees are of gigantic dimensions, they do not count up to Australia’s eucalyptus trees. The Californians are noted, not so much for their height, as for their girth and diameter. The tallest tree in California yet discovered

was found by actual measurement to be vto feet high. Australia’s record gum tree can beat this by 140 feet. Baron Mueller (formerly Government botanist of Victoria) is stated to have said that Australian gum trees attain a height of 500 feet; but the tallest even the Baron ever measured was a prostrate one on the Blacks’ Spur, ten miles from 1 Icalcsvillc. totalling 4SO feet. This tree was 81 feet in girth near the root. Another, found in the same locality, was 41 s feet high, with a circumference of 60 feet at tlie base of the stem. Mueller refers to this species as “ihe highest tree in the globe, surpassing the famous Californian Sequoia and Wellington pines.”

j In iBBg Mr. G. W. Robinson, Civil j Engineer, of Berwick, in a journey from Gippsland to Mount Baw, measured a tree 471 feet high. The height of this specimen had previously been ! estimated at not less than 500 feet. I These eucalypti trees possess many 1 excellent qualities. Their timber is of great durability, strength, and toughness The eucalyptus rs a j genus of the tree of the natural order | Myrtaccae, mostly, if not all, indigenous to Australia and Tasmania. Australia has 400 species of the eucalyptus; or, as it is more popularly known, the “gum” tree.

JEWELS ON A STATUE. A ring studded with diamonds and pearls hangs suspended by a golden chain around the neck of the statue of the Virgin of Almudena of Madrid, which is located in one of the most frequented parks of that city. It is safer there than in the strong room of the Bank of Spain. Thousands of people pass it every day and admire its beauty; but the greatest thief in Spain would rather die than touch it. as it is believed to deal out death to whom it belongs. This ring was presented by Alfonso XII. to his Consort, Queen Mercedes, who died wdthin a month afterwards. Ere the funeral had taken place the King bestowed the ring on his sister Maria, and she was dead in a few days. The fatal circlet then coming again into his possession, he presented it to his late Queen’s grandmother. Queen Christina, who died three months afterwards. The King then placed it in his own casket of precious relics, and he lived less than a year. The Queen Regent was not disposed to run any risk, and refused to accept such a deadly possession, and had it .ung on the statue as stated.

Marriage in Persia is a decidedly quaint business. The happy pair are not allowed to see one another until they are formally betrothed, and this takes place in the presence of a Mulla. The lady appears with her face thickly plastered with rouge and powder, and her eyebrows painted; it is therefore difficult to see what she really is like. She is not allowed to speak. However, at intervals, she is presented with jewels, lumps of sugar, covered with gaudy strips of gilt paper, or, in some cases, gold leaf; sugar candy moulded into the form of bowls. At a critical moment a burst of music announces the arrival of the bridegroom. The room is at once cleared, everyone dashing full speed into an inner room. From behind curtains they watch the groom, seated on a throne-like chair, receive gifts and eat sweetmeats. After some dancing and smoking, the men go out and the womenfolk rush in again. A smart Persian wedding is quite a serious affair. It may extend over a week.

On the last dav of the wedding the bride, who has been treated as a sort of outcast, is conducted by a near relative to a room, where she undergoes farther and more elaborate decoration. She then returns to the guest room, and her dowry is laid before her in trays. The dowry often comprises such queer things as cheap and highly coloured oleographs, gaudy- vases, bird cages, and other useful household articles.

flavins’ kissed the hearthstone of her home, she is given bread, salt, and a piece of gold, and thus equipped and closely veiled, she is hoisted on to a gaily-adorned donkey, and, accompanied by a circus-like procession of friends, goes to her future home, where her husband awaits her.