Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 18 July 1925, Page 2

,“Oxfords", the newest cut in trousers in England, which recently extended to a girth of 32 inches, .had a common-sense origin, just as they will probably have a common-sense demise. Baggy flannels and a sweater were used by rowing men over their lowing kit. Then a party of wags began having every successive pair ot trousers made baggier than the last, until "Oxfords” became first, a joke, then a competition, and finally a fashion. Traffic in titles, which a new English bill is designed to prevent, has .sometimes been turned to account in the cause of charity. When, years ago, appeal was made for a new hospital at Rio do Janeiro, the capital of Israz.il, the response was so poor that Doth Pedro 11. hit, on the idea of oering the title baron to every subscriber of 100.000 milrcis. and that of count to till who gave 250,000 milreis. Money poured in, and (lie hospital was completed with an in script ion above tile portico; "Human Vanity to Human Misery.” An American mining engineer in Mexico was lately guided to a gold mine by cockroaches. Ihe mine was known to tho Spaniards in tile days of Cortes, who, on account, of the number cockroaches near tho entrance, dubbed it Cuciiracha, which, being interpreted, is the cockroach. It yielded a steady supply of gold until 1812, and during that troubled year it was sealed up and its site forgotten, though its story was remembered. Tin's young prospector, finding a rock swarming with these insects, recalled the story, followed their trail’ and found the mine, which now, after a century of idleness, is again being worked. ' ■