BRIEF MENTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXI, Issue 171, 13 July 1895, Page 3

BRIEF MENTION.

The average income of the Britith working man is now about £41 13s 4a per annum* At least two ladies have been recently appointed " obairmen " of parish councils m England. A correspondent cf a Scotch paper vouches f r the faot that a cat on a Goupar Angus farm is nareing a litter of mice. * When a man gets famous it would seem that every man m the country used to play marblea with him at school. A farm at Lambourne, Berke, with homestead, was sold the other day for £4 15s an acre, hardly the value of the buildings, The largest perfumery distillery m the world is at Cannes, m the South of Franoe, where over 500,0001ba of flowers are used every year. Cholly : " How did you catch that fearful cold, Fweddy?" Fweddy (with a hollow cough) : " I thick I mußt have twimmed my fingah nails too close the othah mawning, deah boy." A Paris lover became bald through illness recently. His Eweetheart accordingly renounced him. He bought a wig. Sbe laughed, and snatched it off his head. Growing angry, he stabbed her. An old smuggler intei viewed at the age of about 100 years, aßked for a reason why he had lived so long, replied he did not know ; he need to get his feet wet every day and was drunk nearly every night. Poor old smuggler. Marob to March, 1894 95, was the worst year known m England m the interests of dootors, undertakers, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Influenza set m too late to improve the receipts of the latter gentleman, who is terror on the death duties. Sirs Smith : " I declare, this leg of mutton has ehrunk away almost to nothing." Willy Smith : " Perhaps, mamma, it came off the Bame sheep that my flannel did." A man m Regent's Park lately gave 180 guine&B for a great auk's egg. We should prefer the auk, but perhaps the auk wbioh lays the golden eggs is no more. Female bootblacks are increasing m number m Paris. They dress neatly, and are, eaye the Pelican, ooazingly polite when they mter the French equivalent for " Shine, Bir ?'• A leading modiste m the North of England possesses ft parrot which she has trained to Bay "Oh, how lovely !" every time a customer oomes into the shop. The astute milliner is reported to be making a large fortune. At Baratonga the Liquor Law baa worked well, and drunkenness is rare, but m the orange season Borne of the natives stupefy themselves by secretly drinking the fermented juice prepared and consumed m the virgin bush. Ah 1 the Old Adam gets m even when there's no whiskey on hand. The Deceased Husband's Brothers Marriage Bill had its third reading. Those who have an affinity for deceased husbands' brothers will be pleased to see the progress of the meaßure. It is still agin the law for a man to marry his grandmother or a woman to marry her grandfather, and m that reßpeot the country is sound on the goose, " Apelleß painted a bunch of grapes with euoh Ekill that the birds tried to eat them." " That's nothing. Mr Van daub painted a chip m a storm that made eveiyone who caw it Biok," Joaquim Miller, after doing Honolulu, was interviewed. He said, "At once I will tell you of the een, the great sapphire sea oi glass, the deep, deep blue, and the blue, blue deep. I saw the blue above folded on the bine below, and fastened there by starheaded nails of gold. It is as eerene m its deep blue hue bb a day m June ; indeed, there is no blue so blue. You feaßt your soul on the boundless blue above, with ite Southern Croßß. And then the world of stars, and the world of blue below." Some one must have struok him between the eyes with the bine-bag.