NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9711, 5 January 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

London uses ilX),000,000 gallons of water a day. " A Of every 1000 sailors 84 have rheumatisms every year. Electricity is now used to improve the complexion. There are in England and Wales 14,960 football clubs. About 1000 servants are attached to the Royal household of Great Britain. Danish lighthouses are supplied with oil to pump on the waves in case of a storm. Germany's proportion of suicides is larger than that of any other European country. Nearly twice as many German children are short-sighted as in the English schools. The total of matriculations ab Oxford this year is 695, which shows an increase on last year. 1 • Blacksmith's tongs and pincers, together with hammers, have just been unearthed at Pompeii. 1 There is scarcely a hamlet in South Africa nob now connected with the post and telegraph. A New York widow is said to wear a pinch of her husband's cremated remains in a locket. In Norway the trend of the recent elections seems very much towards separation from Sweden. Earthen dishes, large enough to hold the carcase of a lamb, were» found in the Pompeiian kitchens. Glasgow has made another step in the direction of social reform, having established a labour shelter. The total cordage requiring for a firstrate man-of-war weighs about eighty tons, and exceeds £3000 in value. . Thirty thousand women spend their lives in driving and steering the canal boats in southern and midland England. 1 In Madagascar silk is the only fabric used in the manufacture of clothing. It is cheaper than linen in Ireland. The Norwegian law prohibits a person from spending more than twopence-hall- ' penny at one visit to a public-house. It is proposed to establish a flower markeb in Trafalgar Square, London, to add to the | brightness and gaiety of the square. I In Prague there lives a Jewess, named 1 Sali Rudolf, who has attained her 105 th year. She is in humble circumstances. Ib is said that not less than 13,000,000 human beings have perished in earthquakes since the beginning of the historical era. The boa at the London Zoo which recently swallowed its brother, has nob only digested its scaly friend, bub has voraciously regained its appetite as well as its normal size. A dredger in the harbour of Bizerta, Tunis, recently brought up a silver sacrificial bowl of exquisite workmanship. It is the work; of' a Greek artist of the first century of tha Christian era. In a ton of Dead Sea water there are 1871b of salt; Red Sea, 931b ; Mediterranean, 851 b; Atlantic, 81lb ; English Channel, 721b ; Baltic, 181b; Black Sea, 261b; and' Caspian Sea, 111b. More than twenty-one million pounds sterling represents the sum annually wastedon an average daring the past five years in promoting companies that gave no return-' to the shareholders. Five acres of land at Charing Cross, now/ owned by the Marquis of Salisbury, wera bought 250 years ago by his ancestors fop grazing purposes, at the rate of ten shillings' an act for 500 years. . The Genoese physicians are much disappointed with the Berlin anti-diphtheritic: serum. The Venetian doctors are equally ; dissatisfied, many cases having resulted fatally under the new cure. / In Edinburgh the tramway companies now issue what are called " errand tickets" at reduced fares for messengers. On one system a messenger may make hi& journey and return for a single penny. The Chinese dentist makes artificial teeth from the femur of an ox, and inserts them by passing a copper wire through them and fastening to the adjoining teeth. They are ornamental rather than useful.

The tunnels of the world ate estimated to number about 1142, with a total length of 514 miles. There are about 1000 railroad tunnels, 12 subaqueous tunnels, 90 canal tunnels, and 40 conduit tunnels. The catacombs of Syracuse, in Sicily, form a great subterranean town, with numberless tombs cub out of solid rock. Dead of all ages, from those of the Greek invasion to those of last year, are there interred. Buenos Ayres will soon see the comple* % tion of the largest opera house in the world. It will seat 5000 spectators, and the stage will hold 800 persons. The house is so constructed that box-holders can have their ! carriages driven up to their tiers. It appears that there are people in Italy who derive a dismal satisfaction from being admitted to watch the process of cremation at the charge of four shillings a head, and that it is the revenue from this sourcl : that defrays the cost of cremating the pool folk. The intensity of confined sound is illustrated at Carisbrook Castle, Isle of Wight, where there is a well 200 ft deep and 12fb in diameter. When a pin is dropped into ib, the sound of it striking the surface of the water, 182 feeb below, can be distinctly heard. On payment of £60 a young man is excused from military service in Spain. The other day a man wrote to the Queen that he had already paid £600 for ten of his sons, and begging her to excuse the other fourteen, as he had no more money. The Queen granted the request. The only bridegroom on record who ever took his blushing spouse on a wedding torn to the Arctic regions was Royal Carroll, of New York, whose steam yacht, on which the wedding journey was made, was seen in August, 1891, off Point Belcher, Alaska, four degrees inside of the Arctic circle. According to a traveller an intense pre judice exists against the introduction of electricity into Turkey. The only application of electricity in evidence in that country is the telegraph. Large sums have been offered the Government for electric-lighting and telephone privileges, bat all have been refused. A young beggar named Emile Gueriaud has been arrested by the Marseilles police. He had been often warned. At his lodging were found debenture and railway shares and other stock representing £10,090. There were also begging letters to the Pope, the . of Marseilles, and charitable widow ladies. They were in Gueriaud's handwriting. . > It is proposed to produce in Lohdon, in . May, 1895, the Trilogy of iEschyms, consisting of the "Agamemnon," the " Choephori," and the " Eumenides." The performance will be in English. Professor Stanford, who wrote the music for the performance of the " Eumenides" at Cambridge, has consented to compose music for the other two plays. A schoolmistress at Witham, Essex, made a curious discovery on going to her storeroom the day after the meet of the East Essex hounds ab Witham. On opening the door she was startled at seeing a fox crouching behind some parcels of drapery on a shelf several feeb from the ground. On her approach the fox jumped over her shoulder, and made tracks for the front door. This curious piece of news is from an American paper :-A'' Mr. Gladstone has gone into the hotel business in his old age, having opened an establishmenbnear the library he equipped ab Hawarden, with a rate of 25s a week for board and lodging and the use of the books. The place has been running only a month or so, bub readers and student! have already made it a success." Anew disease called " telephone-ear" is \, ■ said to be prevalent among some telephone girls. Ib is caused by the constant strain due to keeping the receiver at the ear eight or nine hours a day. In San Francisco, where the trouble was first noticed, buzzing in the ear and headaches were the first symptoms, and in some cases abscessv. * formed on the dram of the ear, and operations were necessary. . Governor Flower has decided to allow the body of the New York murderer, Wilson, who is shortly to be electrocuted, to bo || experimented upon immediately after the » execution, with the idea that life may be restored. Governor Flower has promised . Wilson's attorney that, in the event of re-; suscitation, the man's life shall be spared, and Wilson himself clings to the only hop® : left him, and has expressed his .gratitude to|||p|* the Governor foe th% Q* gir«n to bim.