FROM FAR AND NEAR.

Northland Age, Volume VIII, Issue 25, 9 February 1912, Page 7

FROM FAR AND NEAR.

Bricks made of coal-dust are used for paving in Russia. The coal-dust is combined with treacle and resin

It is estimated that to meet tho demand of the new King George pu.M age stamp 1,000,000 stamps will have to be printed every hqpr of the working day throughout the year. Miss Dora Harrison, of Evergreen, Long Island, U.B.A, has waited 1,100 miles—from New York to Tam pa—to get thin and to win a bet of £2OO. She intends to return on horseback.

Mr. Thomas Bell, a local conductor on the Canadian Pacific Railway, cently took his brea last in a Fort William restaurant and ordered a dish of oyster stew. In the stew T ho found a pearl that has been valued by a local jeweller at 2,500 dollars. Nina Turataviloff, a peasant wo mun at Telev, in the Caucasus is probably the oldest person iu the •world. Recently she celebrated her 100th birthday. Though sh# is now ncapable of using her limbs, she is still in possession of hex mental acuities.

Hie Norwegian Government has submitted a Bill entitling women to be appointed to all the offices of State excepting only ( military, diplomatic, and clerical pdBU. - Tb# Government was incliued to include er#a clerical posts, but the bishop# opposed this plan.

A Yorkshire collector of medals, Dr. A. A. Payne, Hillsborough, Sheffield, has been amasniftg medals for over twenty years, and ha# a collection of 2,500, worth £26,00(i. He has fifty medals that have been connected wrtli cither tb« peerage, baronets, or knighthood#. Seventy people s*t dewn at Oorle#ton to a huge sea-pie, mad* by tain Harrum, skipper of a i#w#»>. Its c;i»t was uin. thick. <*-#*. it wm lightly packed with rrtrbits. kidneys, beefsteak, potatoes, turnip#, corvrrt#. and sprouts, the whole baking ctgtol hours to cook. As tho result of c. tfcn* '.reeks' Asking trip to Iceland, the Grim#** trawler ‘ Earl Monmouth” hae »#M •id,223 Hrr catch was most*"' wit!. :t»o pi-ewmt scarcity and ta« huge d«r*T.d for fien, i*r:oes aan <vivanc«*d e»»*»rnico**y. 't** received al out *?l°.Q for an* vor**?*. Ta the of & taxiderinlKt. ia > inhurgb i« u- r* seen the figure of a •drag perchod cfl a gulf-be.il, am; encl.jsed in a na*it £*•*•B c-se. The ;*■ c. bird .# .aoir.ii»*d on D e sphere *ncausod it* (Wt;i. The x-orident happened on the golf-coura* at Elie. The bird v. ua ntrusk wail# it» flight, and Instantly killed.

| O’vh? the report* of cos## oi ' small pot within the London radius m large amo int of insurance business has already been placed against the risk of the disease. It is stated that as much as £IO,OOO bae been covered in respect to a single case, and it is generally known in the market that £I,OOO policies have been freely issued. Mr. A. J. Gorringe, a tradesman, of Ditehling, has a bantam which lays her eggs i n different parts of the yard, but his cat never fails to find them. She takes the eggs between her teeth, carries it to the back, places il> on the step, a ud rattles the door-handle wutb her paws until her mistress arrives to take in the egg. Not one of the eggs has yet been broken.

A common South African flowp’* possesses the valuable property o' keening fresh for two months or more after cutting. It is a white Star of Bethlehem, producing a compact spike of flowers ou the stiff, erect stalk 18in. to 2ft. long. The flowers are of a thin and papery tissue all white except the yellow anthers. It can be sent over as a cut flower from South Africa to this country, and then lasts for weeks in water.