NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8264, 24 May 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A man nearly 70 >»»<<«ge» dered his wife at Islington, was hange<fc3t N Xftbe first time in the State ofMSsaia. sippi, a white man ha» been hangedfor-tIKJ m Tl^ r Kh»g offtSy k* B oonfcribnted. 100,0X1 francs towards the erection of a monameat in Rome to Mazzmi. . u A eiant who has just died m Italy-had! gome tame previously sold his skeleton mnseam in Rome for 10,000 francs. THa tract for the construction of tfuo I Congo Railway has been published. Tha 1 line has to be in working order on the 31st ! of December, 1894. At a sale of autographs m of Queen Victoria, dated 1804, and teUmg what charming skating parties they had atj Christmas, fetched £4 Bs. London milkmen claim to noose £20, a year through having their cans stolen. They are forming themselves into a "Milkcan Protection Society." A sum of £1200 has been awarded a widow with four children, whose husband was killed in a railway accident between Manchester and Stockport. A German in St. Louis, who, on a wager of half a dollar, drank a beer glass of gm and seven glasses of whisky, less than an hour after was found dead in bed. The death is announced of the l/taefof Meft, a tenant of the Duke of Fife s Scotch estate, aged 96, who performed remarkable muscular feats in his younger days. William Liddle, a Dunbar centenarian and a Freemason, has been entertained toa banquet. He was presented with a silver snuff-box, and sang several old songs. The Duke of Orleans has let his friends, the Duke 3 of Luynes find pay his prison restaurant bill of 1464f. The young pretender's every meal costs about 50f. The child King of Spain is said to be-in need of a change of air, Dut bis mother does not care to leave the Escurial, lest an attempt should be made to kidnap the infant monarch.

Straw-plait for hats and bonnets, hitherto associated with Lutton and Dunstable, the work of the nimble fingers of the Backs and Beks villagers, is now largely imported from China.

A youthful member of a princely German family has got into trouble with bis friends for marrying the wealthy widow of a Jew. Proceedings have been taken by his father to annul the marriage. A lady intends opening a large barber's shop in London, in which all the assistants will be females. Some establishments have long employed female barters to attend lady customers. In 1851 the white population of the Australian colonies was about 240,000, within annual trade of £6,000,000; whilst at the close of 1888 the population had reached 3,678,046, and the revenue £27,240,565. » A man in Edinburgh Infirmary was suffering from a diseased leg-bone. By a triumph of surgery the diseased portion has been removed and substituted by an ox-rib, and the limb promises to be as strong as ever. Ten days after the Morfa colliery disaster the explorers came upon 20 horses, which, strange to say, were still alive, although lying in a helpless condition. Steps were taken to bring them out of the pit alive. A woman in Edinburgh identified the dead body of a man found in Leith harbour as that of her husband. While proceeding to arrange for the funeral the supposed widow accidentally met her missing husband.

A San Francisco fanatic prophesied thai America would be destroyed by an earthquake on April 14. Some people, believing him, removed to the hills, and daily prayermeetings were held in places to avert the disaster.

The Duke of Portland presided over the annual meeting of the Temporary Home for lost and starving dogs, Battersea. Of the 24,123 dogs admitted to the home last year, only 30 were found to be suffering from rabies.

A woman was charged with killing her husband by throwing a lighted lamp at him. At the Liverpool assizes the prisoner pleaded that she was provoked to 'the act by a long course of 111-treatment, and the jury acquitted her. The Queen, accompanied by Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenburg, arrived at Aix-les-Bains on March 26. When going on board the royal yacht at Portsmouth the Queen supported herself with a walking-stick. An epidemic of diphtheria swept over the town of Bruin, Newfoundland. There being no doctor, the Roman Catholic priest saved the lives of 40 patients by cleansing their throats, but died himself, falling a victim to his heroism. "

Lord Rosebery, opening a new fire-station in Marylebone, said the Fire Brigade was really London's Salvation Army in physical and material matters. In the past three years the number of serious fires had declined from 25 to 6 per cent. _ The Berlin Labour Conference has decided to prohibit the employment o| children under twelve years of age andto permit those between twelve and fourteen years to labour six hours, and between fourteen and sixteen to labour ten hoars daily. A lad, 15 years of age, took the liberty of kissing a servant girl whom he accidentally met on the highway near Totnes. For this he was sentenced to six weeks' hard labour. After being confined for ten days, the boy was liberated by order of the Home Secretary." London has a resident population of nearly 1600 professional orchestral instrumentalists. Of this total nearly 700 are violinists. Flute-players come next, followed, in order of numbers, by players-on the violoncello, contra-bass, cornet-a-pis-tons, aud clarinet.

Nothing so quickly restores tone to exhausted nerves and strength to a weary body, says an author, as a bath containing an ounce of aqua ammonia to each pail of water. It makes the flesh firm and smooth as marble, and renders the body pure and free from all odour.

A case of the new trance disease, which has followed the influenza on the Continent is said to have occurred at Hastings A gentleman slept for twenty-four hours, air efforts to awake him proving fruitless, although three doctors in attendance applied mustard plasters to his feet.

A plague of frogs is reported from Northampton. The frogs and their spawn choked up the waterpipes, actually cutting off the supply to some houses. People had been drinking the water unfiltered, and the reservoirs will have to be emptied to remove the frogs and cleanse the pipes. A bullock is said to have been killed at ahurles by the fail of a meteorite. Millions of these wanderers through space, it is estimated, reach the earth daily in the shape of meteoric dust. The meteorites usually crumble from the friction occasioned by passing through the air at the rate of 20 miles a second.

A negress was found decapitated in Tennessee. Her son, aged eleven, who waa playing with other children, on being questioned, coolly confessed that he cat off his mother's head with an axe, she having threatened to murder him unless he did so! She had not the courage to take her life, and committed suicide by proxy. ' Sir Edward Watkin is anxious to raisa the coal which has been discovered near Dover, and he says there is evidence that petroleum may be found beneath the coal. If boring for the Channel Tunnel is to meet with continued opposition, he would suggest the laying of a huge tube across tW Channel, through which trains could pass. The Duchess of Fife, while out shopping the other day with her husband, is said to have called in at a confectioner's in Regentstreet to have some tea. The shop becoming crowded, two young ladies squeezed round the small table, the Duke giving one of them his seat. The Duchess, being closely veiled, was not recognised until eh? rose to leave.

Some time ago a gentleman gave £100_00€ towards the establishment of a convalescent# home for London patients, and now another anonymous donor supplements that p-ifi with £50,000. Lord Cadogan has given an acre of lanjl in Chelsea, valued at £40 000 for the use of the Guinness Trust in provid' ing dwellings for the poorer classes and sites have been purchased in Bebhnal Grt-»n and Walworth.

A White Star liner in mid-Atlantic came across a derelict vessel. Some seamen ap. proached it in a lifeboat, and discovered a mad dog racing up and down the deck while moans could be heard below The dog ™ shot, and the moans were found to httle pig, which was lifted into the lifeboat and to the steamer. The two poor animaE had i'a'sa