NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8354, 6 September 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Mr. Spurgeon has written a new hymn, entitled " Th« Fountain of Praise. The latest idea in Boston weddings is to have the pulpit draped to match the bride's costume. Statistics show that blondes are increasing' in America in numbers more rapidly than, brunettes. The Duke of Westminster has given £100 to the Native Races and the Liquor Traffic Committee. In the Bankruptcy Court it was mentioned that a debtor had lost £30,000 by betting and gambling. A few days ago Mr. Dupont, a well-known riding master, of Brighton, was thrown from nis horse and killed. Mr. Thomas Cooper, manufacturer, of Pudsey, died from over-exertion, caused by hurrying to catch a train. Princess Christian has resumed her interest in nursing and other benevolent work in and around Windsor. Powdered wigs on private coachmen in London are going out of fashion, and is a fashion kept up by a very few families. In Paris there is a skating rink formed of real ice on a circular basin of water artificially cooled by pipes containing ammonia gas. At Middleton, County Cork, an old man named Georee Wafer, aged 82, and his wife, aged 78, died within a few hours of each other. They had been married nearly 60 years. The opening of the British Museum of an evening has been fairly successful. The number attending in three months was 16,977. In Carleruhe, the official capital of the Grand Duchy of Baden, pianoforte playing spread so as to excite a decided movement against it. In the last twenty-five years the United States has paid off £360,000,000 of deb®, leaving the present debt something less than £180,000,000. The Russian Government is going to forbid Jews to publish or edit political papers. A ukase to this effect is shortly to be submitted to the Czar. The Chinese are strengthening their position along the Russian frontier, and propose to resist the aggressions of their powerful neighbour. Princess Beatrice went to the Abbey Institute, Windsor, and played the piano during the practice of an anateur musical society of which she is a member. The house in which Garibaldi lived, his garden, and his grave are to remain th. perpetual property of the General's eldest) lawful descendant in the male line. A parliamentary return shows that during the month of January the most punctual railway line was the Great Eastern, the most unpunctual being the Midlands. The conversion of hides into leather by electricity and reducing the time of tanning from months to five or six days is among the latest discoveries reported in England. The thrifty portion of the population last) year deposited £19,814,000 in the Post Office Savings Bank, and after withdrawals left a balance to the good of three millions

sterling. General Sir F. Roberts' terra of office as Commander-in-Chief in India will, ib is stated, be extended for two years, on the expiration of his five years' appointment in November next. Berlin court Circles are greatly disturbrd in consequence of the action of the Dowager Empress Frederic!: in investing the fortune she inherited from the Duchess of Calliera in England. The Government have agreed to include in the scope of the inquiry by the select committee respecting the bonding and blending of spirits, the question of the sale of ether as an intoxicant. Kicking, which is being adopted as a form of exercise for American girls, is said to give one grace, suppleness, and healthy appetite. Thia looks cheerful enough for the kicker, but what about the kicked ? A conspicuous Austrian peer, Prince Starhemberg, pronounces boldly for general disarmament. Austria, he says, is drifting rapidly to financial ruin. But he fears that war must come before disarmament. The American swimmer Davis Dalton swam on his back from Putney to London Bridge with his clothes on and wearing a high silk hat. His hands were clasped behind him, he using neither legs nor arms. A novel gas meter has been invented, and large numbers are being made by a Manchester house. The meter is on the automatic principle, a certain quantity of gas being set free on the slipping of a penny into a slob. The mechanism is said to be very simple A young woman asked the Wesminster magistrate if he could punish a young man who had stolen some money she entrusted to him to back horses for her. The magistrate said he could not asissb her, and advised her to give up betting, which she positively declined to do. The mechanical milkmaid has been pronounced a success. An iron suctiontube is fitted round the cow-house, and indiarubber tubes are attached to the udder. A force-pump, worked by a boy. supplies the suction, and six cows may be placed under requisition at once. The Duke of Norfolk, who is leading a band of Roman Catholic pilgrims, ha? written from the Holy Land to the Quee to inform her that Mass has just been sung at the silver altar in front of the Holy Sepulchre by a prelate from England, for the first time since the Crusades. Of the entire human race 500,000,000 are well clothedthat is, they wear garments of some kind ; 250,000,000 habitually go naked, and 700,000,000 only cover parts of the body; 500,000,000 live in houses, 700,000,000 in huts and caves, and 250,000,000 virtually have no shelter. The Duchess of Albany presided over a meeting in London for promoting domestic hygiene. It was stated that about 250,001 lives are lost, and 50me7,000,000 casesof sickness occur annually in this kingdom alone, which are entirely preventable, being th« direct result of carelessness or ignorance i* hygiene. Mr. Justice Kekewich has had to decide the meaning of the expression "an unmarried man." The counsel on the one side declared that unmarried meant never having been married. The judge, however, agreed with the opposing counsel that to " die unmarried" means to depart this life without leaving a husband or wife surviving. An extraordinary wedding has just taken place in West Virginia. The bridegroom had celebrated his 101 st bitthday, and the bride had reached the respectable age of 83 ; the gentleman who led this brfde to the altar was 81. The only bridesmaid was comparatively youthful, being only 75 years r>f age—twenty-six years younger than the bridegroom. The Thirteen Club, which, exists to explode superstitions, held its first annual dinner in London. The dinner was three times 13 minutes late. To enter the dining-room it was necessary to pass under a ladder. The knives and forks were all carefully crossed, and there were* six tables each with 13 diners, and the ladies present just numbered 13. In a breach of promise case the young man complained that the lady's father took exception to his smoking. The lady was awarded £25 damages. Another lady whe sought to rocover £1000 from a chemist for breach of promise was awarded 40s. Yet another lady recovered £200 from a tax collector, who had gone the length of purchasing some napkin-rings as a first! st«p towards housekeeping. The Queen of the Belgians, while recently driving in Brussels in a drenching rain, perceived a wretched woman crouching in a doorway. The Queen stopped her carriage stepped out, took off her waterproof and wrapped it around the poor woman, and, slipping some silver pieces into her hand, re-entered her carriage before she could bo thanked by the astonished beggar. The large sums of money, which th« Government of India devotes annually as j rewards for the destruction of snakes in that country have brought about an unexpected and most undesirable result. It seems from a communication made by the Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces that the natives of those parts are now beginning to breed and rear poisonous snakes for the purpose of obtaining the usual head money offered. The Chinese have the credit of inventing one of the most diabolical punishments that the human mind could imagine, or* human beL -js participate in carrying out. It is the deprivation of sleep, until the unhappy victim finds relief in the everlasting r6st of the tomb. Guards relieve each other every two hours, night and day, whose sole duty consists in preventing the prisoner going to sleep, and this is kept up day after day until at lenght he sinks beneath the » fearful torture.