General News.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2279, 22 September 1899, Page 4

General News.

When tea was first brought to Eng Hnd the leaves were eaten.

A Chinese drama, "The Death of Lin Su," was performed 1900 B.C. Sunshades, formed like the umbrella, were held over Roman ladies by slaves. The King of Siam has 500 brothers and sisters. Thought is the wind, Knowledge the sail, and Mankind the vet-sel. Two ladies of the Rothschild family own pearls worth £200,000. Our present system of musical notation was invented in the eleventh century. Bismarck once called the late Queen of Denmark "Europe's mother-in-law.'' A lady's height should be eight times the length of her head. Egyptian women were so fond of their mirrors that they used to take them with them to their places of worship. At banquets during Elizabeth's time every guest came with his spoon in hia pocket. In every country insanity is more prevalent among unmarried than among married persons. In Norway, poisons who have not been vaccinated are not allowed to vote at any election. Milton's wives gave him so much trouble that he wrote a book advocating divorce. Beer was the general drink of the English until the introduction of tea and coffee, about 1650. The diameter of the planet Jupiter is about 85,000 miles, or nearly eleven times that of the earth. The most expensive drug known is one prepared from the Calabar bean, and is used in diseases of the eye. It is called physostigmiue. Handkerchiefs were made fashionable by the Empress Josephine, who had bad teeth, and held one before her mouth when she laughed. Original editions of some of Tennyson's

A Chinese drama, "The Death of Lin Su," was performed 1900 B.C. Sunshades, formed like the umbrella, were held over Roman ladies by slaves. The King of Siam has 500 brothers and sisters.

Thought is the wind, Knowledge the sail, and Mankind the vet-sel. Two ladies of the Rothschild family own pearls worth £200,000. Our present system of musical notation was invented in the eleventh century. Bismarck once called the late Queen of Denmark "Europe's mother-in-law.'' A lady's height should be eight times the length of her head.

Egyptian women were so fond of their mirrors that they used to take them with them to their places of worship.

At banquets during Elizabeth's time every guest came with his spoon in hia pocket. In every country insanity is more prevalent among unmarried than among married persons. In Norway, poisons who have not been vaccinated are not allowed to vote at any election. Milton's wives gave him so much trouble that he wrote a book advocating divorce.

Beer was the general drink of the English until the introduction of tea and coffee, about 1650.

The diameter of the planet Jupiter is about 85,000 miles, or nearly eleven times that of the earth.

The most expensive drug known is one prepared from the Calabar bean, and is used in diseases of the eye. It is called physostigmiue.

Handkerchiefs were made fashionable by the Empress Josephine, who had bad teeth, and held one before her mouth when she laughed. Original editions of some of Tennyson's works are very valuable. A copy of the Cambridge prize poem of 1829 sold for £lO.

The custom of celebrating birthdays is many thousands of years old. There is mention of Pharaoh's birthday festivities in the Pentateuch.

The first woman to live by her pen in England was the notorious Aphra Behn. Her name was Johnson, but she married a merchant named Behn in 1658.

Great Britain occupies 120,979 square miles, and her colonies 16,662,073 square miles. The population of the mother country is 39,825,000, and that of her colonies 322,000,000.

Young mice are said (by a recent French writer) to be a favourite dish with Chinese gourmands. They are aerved alive to the guests, who dip them in a pot of honey and eat them. In the reign of King John religion formed part of every entertainment or exhibition. Theatrical spectacles were all of a religious character, the clergy and their attendants being the actors.

Sir Arthur Sullivan has had demonstrated to him the fact that "the price of a mere song" does not necessarily imply a small amount. He has received altogether nearly £IO,OOO as his share of the profits of "The Lost Chord." There is no patch of the moon's surface of a mile square that is not accurately mapped, yet there are still immense tracts in Central Africa and Northern America which have never been surveyed. Some years ago it waa maintained by some naturalists that mankind had sprung from several sources, and not a Bingle one ; but this doctrine has fallen into the background lately. The evidence of ethnology regards the various branches of the human race, diverse as they are, as having sprung from the same root.