NEWS IN BRIER

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9154, 8 September 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIER

♦ .. . > I Lawyers in Alsace-Lorraine are ordered to keep their books in German. # • Washington City has gained 34,000 W population the past three years. The Zuyder Zee may be drained befor# long, for the association for that purpose i* about to try it. Pope Leo has decided that all his jubilee presents which are of a sacred nature are to form a Leonine Museum.

The Town Council of Beverly, England^ proposes to devote all the town charity funds to technical education.

The Prussian Minister of the Interior has prohibited the use of tobacco in any shape by the inmates of the Prussian prisons. A 500-acre farm in Essex is held by the present tenant at the nomial rent of £1. A few years ago the same tenant paid £500. An Indianapolis woman has become insane through fear that her husband, who had been bitten by a dog, would be attacked by hydrophobia. The whole stock of diamonds produced by the three largest companies in Cape Town has been purchased by London merchants to be held for a rise.

The Maharjaba Holkar of India has jusfc married a damsel in her twelfth year—a proceeding which has excited the keen indignation of his other wives. The export of handkerchiefs from Japan is making rapid progress. In the nrsb three months of this year some forty-eighb thousand dozen were sent abroad.

The Pan-Presbyterian Council, which represents about 20,000,000 of communicants and adherents of the Presbyterian Churches of the world, met lately in London. The pin factories of the United States manufacture about 18,000,000,000 of thes& diminutive but useful articles every year. This is a pin a day for each inhabitant. The Russian railroad to Samarcand of 1200 miles is spoken of as a miracle of cheapness, and it was built in a region where labour receives from 6 to 14 cents a day. Professor Virchow has delivered to the Berlin Trades Unions a touching memorial address upon the Emperor Frederick. He concluded with a very warm tribute to the Empress Victoria. The last French rifle, as described, has a ball so small that a soldier can carry 220 rounds, shoots with a new smokeless powder and its bullets pierce a brick wall eight inches thick at 500 yards. During the month of June the Metropolitan police captured and took to the Dogs' Home, Battersea, 1312 stray dogs; Thirtyfour dogs described as mad were killed in the streets 22 by constables. Several officers of the Austrain regiment) Wilhelm have been presented to their chief, the Kaiser. They have also called on Marshal Moltke, who said to them, " Be sure, gentlemen, that we shall stick faithfully to our allies."

King Humbert has ordered the publication, at the expense of the Government, of the authenticated writings of Columbus and of all the documeuts, autographic or otherwise, which may serve to illustrate his life and voyages. Tom Lee, a West Houghton collier, desired at the end of a drinking bout to end his life. He tied his ankles together, placed a stone weighing five pounds around his neck, and jumped into a deep pond. Tha unfortunate fellow succeeded. The Eiffel Tower, which is to be the great attraction of the Paris Exhibition of 1888, is making great progress. The second stage is reached, and on July 14 n grand pyrotechnic display will be given at a height of about 360 feet from the ground. The peasantry in the South of Russia complain that they are being badly treated by the German colonists, and that a great deal of waste land has been taken up by them which they had no right to. The Russian Government is considering the matter.

A gentleman recently took half a ton of Kentish jams to India, and he has now witten home to say that "the carriage of the jams from London to Southamptonjust} over 100 mileswas £1 Bs, whereas all that was charged for conveying the same by steamer from Southampton to India was 17s.

A man name John Watson leaped from Sunderland Bridge into the river, a distance of 100 feet, at midnight recently. The feat has been quite a craze lately, this being the third leap within a month. Watson was severely injured, and died next day. The Great Eastern is still intact and it's just barely possible now that instead of breaking it up the monster craft will be altered for service in either the cattle or bulk petroleum trade. There are those in London well versed in vessel managing who think the steamer can be made to pay* A few days ago a Waterloo veteran died in some country place in Belgium. He had fought on the memorable 18th of June. A notable thing about this old warrior was his age —103 years. He had paid several visits to England, and it is said of him that he was present at the funeral of Nelson. The havoc of Arab traders in Central Africa is vividly illustrated by the fact that one of the tribes Bishop Taylor intended to reach when he started his missions three or four years ago was wiped out cf existence some time before the Bishop's missionaries finally arrived at the borders of the desired country. Woman's curiosity again. Annie Ahrend was arrested in Newark, New Jersey, for attempting to poison her father, brother, and sister. She acknowledges that after reading books on poisons she bought the poison and administered it to the family. She had no reason for doing so except curiosity to see how it would act! Two superb state railway carriages have just been built in Paris for the Emperor and Empress of China. They are splendidly or. namented, and on the panels are dragons it gilt bronze, with most elaborate decorations. The principal saloons are furnished in yellow satin, and the carriage appropriated to the exclusive use of the Empress in sky-blue plush and silver. During the theatrical season at Manchester, which is now on the point of closing, it appears that Shakspere has been performed 8 times ; drama, 37 times; comedy, 30; opera, 48; comic opera, 126; farcical comedy, 91 ; melodrama, 226; burlesque, 36; pantomime, 163. It is not difficult to see in which directions the tastes of the Manchester playgoers lie. A writer in the Century tells of a piece of good fortune coming from somnambulisticiiabit. A young woman, troubled and anxious about a prize for which she was to compete, involving the writing of an essay, arose from her bed in sleep and wrote a paper upon a subject upon which she had not intended to write when awake, and this essay secured for her the prize. Total prohibition on the Mahommedan system would stop drinking, and possibly in a century or two produce as instinctive aversion to much drink, such as is said to be growing up, without external restrictions, in the cultivated classes of Europe; but we do not perceive that the teetotalers hope for such a law, and certainly if they do they are deceiving themselves.Spectator.

Colonel King-Harman was the best looking man in the House of Commons. A year or two ago, if anyone had been asked to point out the two M.P.'s who looked the finest specimens of physique in the House, he would have pointed to Colonel King-Har-man and Colonel Tottenham, and now they are both dead, whilst many who looked as though a strong wind would blow them away are still living. The extremely novel sight, of a cow acting as foster-mother to a foal may be seen at Kirbymoorside. Mr. John Wrightson, farmer, of that place, recently had the misfortune to lose a valuable brood mare after foaling. The equine youngster, however, is progressing favourably, deriving its nourishment from a cow. Many persons have been to see the curious sight of the foal and its attentive foster-mother.

In one respect the " Church of Our Father," a Umversalist Church in Brooklyn, is now a model church. It follows the advice to "owe no man anything." It had a debt of £14,000 it has on the occasion of its fifth anniversary paid the last part of the debt; and on receipt of the deed of mortfage, the pastor " tore up the mortgage and ropped the particles of the paper into the baptismal font," whilst the congregation sang the doxology.

White hair is now the fashion among American belles. Fair tresses are quite oub of date, so blondes and brunnettes are ruining their hair by treating it with a bleaching mixture, which turns the most raven locks snow-white in two applications. This last fashionable fad is very injurious to the health, but the ladies ignore this point in order to produce the startling contrast of fresh cheeks and youthful complexions with the hoary head usually considered an attri bute to old age.