GENERAL BRIEFS.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 17, Issue 17, 12 October 1894, Page 2

GENERAL BRIEFS.

One-third of the world is controlled by the Anglo-Saxon race. The longest clock pendulum ever m»de is that of the Eiffel Tower — 377 ft. Over 20,000 men, women and chil- : dren died from snake bites in tbe year 1893 in India. Leather trunks were made and sold in Rome as early as tbe days of Julius Cseaar. For every widower who marries a widow there are eleven who eupouse maidens, There are more slr.kes in tbe United States tban in all the rest of the world put together. No {nan of a less stature than fire feet nine and a-half inches can enter the police force of New York. A Waterloo veteran, in the person of Count Donnet-Vorger, has died at Paris at the age of 100 3 ears. Tho Adtniralfy have given instructions for swimming classes to be forratd the Sbeemsss School of Gunnery. The hrgesfc brocza statue in th<** world is that of Peter the Great at St. Petersbu-g. Its weight is ab?ut 1100 tons. A singular discovery bas been made in Algeria on tho site of the ancient Bo man town of Thamugadie, now known as Titngad. Portions of a colossal statue, the height of which is { eatircuted to have b^n no less than nin« yardp, have been fouud. In Hungary it is tho custom for the groom to give the bride a kick after the Wedding ceremony to make her feel her subjection. Thia ia a matt( r that suggests though*". The tail of the kangaroo is the fUshiest. part of the animal, It ia considered dainty fodd when boilfd in its own skin, which afterwards may be drawn ofl' like a glove. 4 A vessel c tiled th? Isloin detained at Glasgow because sbe U laden wi ht contraband of war, suppns- d to be intended for one of the belli .erent powers io the Far E*s\ Britibb G vernment does not want to pay another Ahbama claim. An American physician in Tokio is doing a rushing business by straightening the slant in the eyes of tLe Japanese A fine silk thread draws up the eyelids and holds them in place. A few neat stitches are all that are re** qiired, The term " infantry " was first used by the Spaniards, in tbe wars with tha Moorf , to designate the bodyguard of a Royal princ*-*, ov infante. It was later extended to the entire body of foot soldier*, and finally adopted throughout Europe. Sometimes there aie precocious boys otber than colonials. Our cable messages report the suicide by hanging of a, little eleven year old Londoner, who Look his life in a fit of pique because !)( being punished for a misdemeanor by tho deprivation of his dinner. Many references have been made rejently to the first Lady Mayor. But they have gone one better in the United States (aays a London paper). The Police Commissioner of Leavenworth, Kansas, is Mrs Eva M. Blackman, who Is, moreover, the editor and proprietor )f a newspaper, and is only twenty* leven ! It is estimated tbat the sunflower jlaot draws from the noi} md ezb&lWj

in 12 hour-, 12 ouuecs of water. The nerves are all connected v ith it directly or by the spinal marrow. These nerves, with their branches aud minute ramifi. cations, probably exceed 10$00,000 in nnmber. Announcement that the authorities ef Argentina have decided to allow the extradition -of the swindler Jabcz Spencer Balfour is fully confirmed. Tbe detective at Buenos Ayres sent to arrest the inf.- ra ous Liberator man has telegraphed " All right" to the Scotland yard authorities. Balfour will get a warm welcome back to his native land. ( The domestic household of Ban-lan, 'the King of Annam, consi-ta almost 1 wholly of women, inoluding a hundred wives, who are divided into nine claesep, according to the station of life in which they were born. Thirty women guard the entrance to his private apartments, while live more are his constant personal attendants. M. Casimir-Perior, who is forty-six years old, i*, with two excep'ions, the youngest ruler whom France has had since Napoleon, at thirty, became First Consul. Louis XVII. at bis accession was fifty-nine, Charles K. was aixtyseven, Louis Phillipe fifty-seven, Thiers sevanty-fchree, MacMahon sixtyfive, and Grevy Seventy.one. Cavaignac, however, was only forty-six when 1 placed at the head of the State, and Louis Napoleon, who succeeded bim, was only forty. The death is announced of General Boulanger V toother, Madame Boulanger, nee Griffiths, a lady of WVlsh birth, at the age of ninety-three, in the apartment in Paris where she had lived for many years. She had been in a wandering state of mind, her faculties having declined about the time when ber son's popularity iv Paris was at its clim ix. She was unaware of his expulsion from the army, or of his exile and suicide in tbe Ixel'es Cemt-t ry at Brusselp. Valentine Vox seems to have fonnd an imitator in an adopted Japanese girl of eigh'e.n who resides in the province of Kai. Her foster-parents and neighbors were recently astpniehed by the discovery that the house was haunted by a most mysterious voice. No " ghost " could be discovered. At last ie was found that tbe girl bad developed aa extraordinary faculty for ventril quistn.. She had been exercising hee faculty for the purpose of compelling her parents of adoption to restore her to her real mother. The trade in ehrimpa has griwn so enormously during tbe last year or two that about four tons daily are despatched j by the mail boats from Oatend to Dover, whence they are despatched chiefly 'to London and the great centres of Lancashire and Yorkshire. They are caught on the Band coasts of Belgium and boiled ready for market, and packed in huge hampers so as to reach breakfatt tables in tbe English Midlands tbe next day. A little extraot of liquorice destroys the taste of aloes ; peppermint water disguises nauseous taste of salte j milk is a good abater of the bitter flavor of Peruvian bark, and cloves that of senna, Castor oil cannot be fasted if beaten and thoroughly mixed with the white of an , egg. Another method of covering tbd nauseous tast«J of castor or cod-liver oil is to put a teaspoonful of strained orange juice in a wineglass, pour the oil into the centre of the juice, and then sqaeez > a iew drops of the juice upon the oil and opon the edge df the glass. The Wellman polar expedition has arrived Bt>fe and sound at Tromsoa, a Beaport on the north*west coast of Norway. The party got aB far north as lat. 84 deg. and there came to a " deadend," in the shapa of a solid wall of ice, whioh effectively blocked further ptogress. Not being able to wait unti) the io,*ffi»ll mele', tbe party hied them back to home and friends as fast as possible. Meanwhile it is chilling to reflect that Dr Nansen and his party are probably somewhere on the otber side of that wall of ice. i ■ i i .i.i I, i