MISCELLANEOUS.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8086, 26 September 1894, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS.

British India has 10,417 licensod opium shops. Siberia has 5,000,000 square miles of good farm land. An express engino consumes 10 gallons of water per mile. labor bureaux are to be established throughout Spain. One-third of tho world is controlled by the Anglo-Saxon raco. Of tho English Bench of Bishops 12 aro pledged abstainers. Tho sulphur industry of Japan is undergoing considerable expansion. No fewer than 917 of tho 15,000 cabmen of London aro between 60 and 70 yeara of age. The United States has a lower porcentago of blind people than any other country in tho world. The spring and autumn manoeuvres of European armies coat annually ovtr L2,000.000. Upright handwriting is becoming tho fashion hi America. It is said to bo both eloguut and legible. Jamaica is growing greatly in favor with English and Americans as a winter health resort and climatic cure. The backs of tho garden seats on London omnibuses are being failed up to stop tho wholesale picking of Indies' pockets. The grave of Jive is visited by over *0,000 pilgrims each year. Jt in to b<5 ncen at> Jeldah In a cemetery outside tho city walls. Zebras are being trained to run in Imp neb's by Lord "Rothschild. One was driven in a dogcart through London streets ro« cently. It i.s proposed to construct a grand canal between tho Baltic and tho Black Seas, chiefly by connecting the riven Dnieper and Dwina. The Mayor of Lyons has refused an offer of L2000 made him by an Englishman for the carriage in which M. Carnot was riding when assassinated. Om of Byron's curls, duly authenticated, wab offered for nalo at a public auction in. London. It was described as ono of tho poet's best-behaved curls. There aro about 80,000 words in the Gor« man language; Italian, 45,000; French, 30,000 ; Spanish, 20,000. Tho famous vine at Hampton Courb Palace, which is 126 yearn old, this season is bearing 1200 bunches of grappa. The fruit belongs to tho Queen, The great wealth of the Duke of Westminster may be imagined from the fact that in charity alone he .spends L(30,000 a year. A German oflicer is on hh way to fiud an, island in the Pacific, where he and his associates can live the life of monkeys, sub* sisting solely on fruits, and going naked, While Sarah Bernhardt was performing in Glasgow recently a workman wan no carried away that lie rushed on the stage to protect her, as he be'ievcd, from her lover. A young Itili m doctor lias published n, pamphlot, recommending the occupation of firmly holding the tongues of persons taken with hyncope as » sure mean;, of restoring life. South American ants have been known to construct a tunnel three miles hi length, a labor for them proportionate to that which would bo required for m<su to tunnel under the Atlantic from New York to L,ondon. The di yes>t place in tho world is that part of Egypt between the two lower falls of the Nile. Wain has never been known to fall there, and the inhabitants do not bcliero travel lei. s when told that water can fall from the sky. The most wonderful cliff dwellings in the United States aie thoso ot the Mancos, in a southern Colorado canon. Some of those oaves are 500 or GOO feet from the bottom of tho perpendicular >>idcs of tho canon wall, and how their occupants gained iugress is a. mystery. A man iias appeared in Maiden Bradley claiming to be the rightful heir to tho dukedom of Somerset. He claims to bo Lord St. Maur, who, according to a tablet in the Chinch, was killed 29 year* ago by a bear in India. The claimant explains his absence by saying that he was takon prisoner by the .Russians. Mexico has the moat luxurious railwaya in the world. The rails of tho Mexican <fiilf Railway are laid on sleepers of mahogany, and tho bridges arc built of white marble. On the west coast of Mexico thero is another line, which has sleepers of ebony and ballast of silver ore, drawn from the old mines beside the track. A novel shaving record lias been cotab. lishod by a Hungarian barber. Ha made a bet of 100 florins that ho would on a r«il« way journey of twenty-nitre minutes, from Pistyan to Noustadt, shave fifteen men without cutting them, The bet was mor« than won, for he actually shaved thre« moie than tho stipuhtcd number. . A doctor in the Midlands recently p*r. formed successful surgical operations for bnoring. Stroking a sleeper's face with tho lingers will, it is said, Btop snoring. In i Wtbt Africa, beforo u. girl in married, aha is placed in chaise of au old woman who j cures hor of snoring by closing hor mouth. I In Cincinnatti University young ladies are i taught to "sleep elegantly." Two women had h violent quarrel at> Gennevillicrs, near Pam. Words led to blows, and a fierce conflict wa<s in pro* gresa when tho thirteen-year old daughter of ono of them, thinking her mother waa in danger, snatched up a krgo gimlot sncl plunged ib into the other'o chest. Th« lungs were penetrated, and the woman died ftlm<&b uwwUatctft %\i% <fti|4 Tfm