Grains of Wheat.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 214, 12 November 1896, Page 3

Grains of Wheat.

The sum of £125,000,000 represents the_ capital of the shipping of tbe 1 United Kingdom and the Colonies. Tho oldest King in Europe is 1 Christian IX. of Denmark, who last ' April entered upon the seventy-ninth year of his age. He has worn the 1 crown for thirty-three years. ' There is a Spanish proverb that "ou Tuesday one should never travel or 1 marry," and this superstition is so in- ; grained that oven in Madrid there are never any weddings on Tuesdays, and trains are almost empty. 1 | A man in Montreal remained some minutes in a lire clad in an asbestos 1 suit resembling a diver's dress. I It is claimed for a New York invontor 1 that he has succeeded in making gold 1 oufc of silver. j A young lady near Bucharest was engaged to be married, but was 1 kidnapped by a man for tho sake of j her dowry of £20,000. The man's ' ; sister decoyed her to the wood, where 1 , her abductor was lying in wait. The i young lady was eventually recovered, I both the man and his sister being arested. Wheat is thought to be the cereal oldest in cultivation. The Greeks and Arabians used tho violet as a euro for wounds. Wild birds do not sing more than eight or ten weeks in the year. As well as .yellow, there is black, white, brown, aud green amber. The film of a soap bubble is the ; 2,500,000bh of an inch in thickness. The shelves of tho British Museum are said to contain thirty-nine miles of books. In the Andes there is said to bo a wax tree, the product of which is similar to beeswax. It is stated on high authority that one half of the flesh eaten in Germany is horse meat. The coloring principle of the madder is said to affect even the bones of animals that devour the plant. Crocodiles, like ostriches, swallow pebbles and small stones for the purpose of grinding their food. _ A horso will eat in a year nine times his own weight, a cow nine times, an ox six times, aud a sheep six times. In the Bay of Fundy the tido rises a foot every five minutes. The water sometimes attains a height of seventy feet. The Colosseum of Rome was built to accommodate 100,000 spectators. I was 120 ft high, and covered l£ acres of land. It has been estimated that electric railways have already displaced 1,100,000 horses. This is probably less than the actual number. Most of the shoes worn in Japan are made of straw or wood. Iv the entire country there is but one factory where leather shoes are made. The earliest known life assurance company was established in 1699, in London. It wasknownas the " Society of Assurance for Widows and Orphans." Dr Sehoofc, the German hydrographer, says that there are not less than 20,000 tons of mineral matter per day added co the store which the ocean already holds in solution. Among the English nobility 19 per cent, are childless. A new fad in gloves is to have gems, preferably diamonds, sot in the back seams. Denmark allows every subject, male or female, who is sixty years of age, a small pension. Of the seventeen Transatlantic cables only seven are in use, the others having given out from various causes. The total cost of the cables which are now useless was £6,000,000. The healthiest place in the world appeal's to be a little hamlet in France, named Aumone. There are only forty inhabitants, twenty-three of whom are eighty years of age, and one is over 100. The Queen has again ordered ber winter supply of apples from the United States, as she prefers their flavor. Over 50,000 penny-in-the-slofc gas meters and 34,000 cooking-stoves issued therewith have been supplied to residents in South London by one company. A woman told a London magistrate that she was the mother of 27 children, beginning with triplets and including several twins. The magistrate said she ought to " have the Queen's bounty or something." A magistrate told a newly-married man that it was not necessarily a matrimonal oifence for a wife to stay out at night. Several young women only just out . of their teens complained in one day to a London magistrate of the illtreafcmenfc of their husbands. He said that if childaen would get married before thoy knew their own minds, they must take the consequences. Pity the Kaiser I According to a German paper, the German Emperor is to be greeted ou his visit to Westphalia next month by a party of 500 singers and 700 trombone players ! About 2000 sailing vessels disappear in the sea every year, entailing the loss pf 12,000 lives. There are about 100 grains of iron in the average human body, and yet so important is this exceedingly small quantity that its diminution is attended with very serious results. About 69,000 elephants are annually killed in Africa. Every persou over five years of age ' in Sterbecb, Austria, is a chess player. The game is taught in the schools. ' In summer, the consumption of bread 1 falls 20 per cent, below the amount ' eaten in winter. The largest cast bronze statue in ■ the world is that of Peter the Great at 1 St Petersburg. It weighs 1,100 tons. ! The central crater of Vesuvius is in J eruption. , The most curious paper-weight in the world is said to belong to the Prince of Wales. It is the mummified ( hand of one of the daughters of . . Pharaoh. ( j So fertile is the ground at Hayti I that three crops of corn are often , \ raised in a year. [ | Kilmallock and Londonderry aro the j only two walled towns now existing in Ireland. 3 ■ Mould is reported to be sj)reading 3 in the East Kent hop gardens to an 3 alarming extent. I Quill toothpicks, as a rule, are im- > ' ported from France. The largest [ factory in the world is near Paris, , where 20,000,000 are annually pro- ' • duced.

I In a Scotch court a cyclist was ordered to pay dEBO in an action for personal damages. The sheriff bold that tbe ringing of a bell by a cyclist gave no right to run down a person." I At Streattham a beggar was found going his round on a stolen bicycle. He chained the machine up to railings while he made his calls. | A living human body was placed | under the X rays at Munic. Observers i were able to watch the heart, lungs, j and all the internal organs in action. A woman in America has challenged ! the champion prize-fighter. It is said that should he refuse to fight a woman the championship will pass to her. j Mrs R. T. Wilson is credited with being the greatest watchmaker in America. The marriages of three of her daughters and a son are said to represent the bringing of 86 millions sterling into the Wilson family. | Li Hung Chang's presents to the Queen included beautiful specimens ' of Chinese workmanship. The Prin- , cess Li, his wife, is 50 years old, but , looks 20 years younger. Her feet have been fashioned so small that she is unable to walk. Her husband's great | wealth allows her to have 1000 silk ! dresses and as many pairs of shoes. I There are three centarians in Skyo. One, a shepherd, aged 103, can walk from 16 to 20 miles a day. . Astronomers are about to celebrate ; the jubilee of the discovery of Neptune. \ This year is the jubilee of the sewing , machine. I A man's coat and hat were found on ; Southend peir, together witb a farewell \ letter to "my dear wife." When the ! firm where he was employed advertised for his successor, without giving their | name or address, the firat to make j application was tbe very man who was supposed to be dead. The debt of the London County Council, according to the annual report, amounts to nearly £35,000,000. A paving brick made from straw is a novel invention. It is but a third tho weight of an ordinary brick, and can be manufactured at half the cost. Every guest at a Norwegian wedding brings the bride a presents. In many iparts a keg of butter is the usual gift, and, if the marriage takes place in winter, salted or frozen meat is offered. During the last year 7500 inquests were hold iv London — 107 persons of the " subjects " died from want, cold, and exposure ; 572 children, were suffocated during the year by drunken or careless parents in bed. Accidents from petroleum lamps advanced to the great total of 473 last year.