GENERAL EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12654, 7 September 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL EXTRACTS.

, PHENOMENA!* LUCK AT WBIS3Y v As event which has been vouched for by witnesses and which was duly recorded, in whist annals was the phenomenal hand of 13 trumps. It occurred in a game at the United Service Club in Calcutta in 1888, th ft players bein? a judge and thfae physician*. j The pack lid a been perfectly shuffled and cut,. It has been calculated that in a game of whist I everyone holds owe of 635,013,559,600 possible hands, and Mr. Babbage reckoned that if 4 million men'were to deal cards day and night at the rate of one deal per minute for'* hundred million years they would not exhausfc one hundred thousandth part of ths possible variations of the cards. - ' ARE WOMEN CONSIDERATE? The question " Are Women Considerate?* was answered by poor Mr. Max O'Rell &»: follows:—"I spent! so much of my time sing- - i ing the praises and extolling the virtues of women Hint I set myself thinking the other ' day, and said to same self: —' >< o\v, surely women have not the monopoly of everything : that is good under the sun. Is there not some virtue, at least some quality, which we nw n possess of tener than, women?' And I thought ". hard, and finally succeeded, I believe, in discovering one. Ladies, I am of opinion that ?;;'- we men, as a rule, are more considerate than 1 you of the feelings of others." - MONSTER BOWL OF PUNCH. In 1&94- Admiral Edward Russell, commas. . der of the English Mediterranean fleet, efttertained 6000 people in a large garden jit Alicante, where he served the largest ■ bowl of punch over" brewed. It contained 20 gal- - lons of lime juice, four hogsheads of brandy, one pipe of Malaga wine, 2500 lemons, Ifcwt.; i of fine white sugar, three packages toasted I biscuits, 511b of grated nutmegs, and eight j hogsheads of water. The whole was prevented from dilution in ' case of rain by a large canopy, which spreaa over a marble fountain bowl, which held th, punch. The punch was served by a boy,who rowed about the basin of the fountain ' in a boat built for the purpose, and Refilled the empty cups. THE FOUNTAIN TREE. • A French explorer, M. Henri LecomSe, recently returned! from the Congo, tells soma curious' details of a fountain tree. It grows' to a great height, and usually in damp places. The trunk is regular, and provided with' S' ? large branches, which bear finely diswefosi leaves. It is divided at the base likp tfee , > mangrove, and enters the earth through % : ' 1 large number of ramifications. When the > tree is cut at a height of about 6ft from s the ground a large quantity of water is observed to flow from this section. M. Le» eomte cut one at this height that had a diiimeter of 20in, and then, forming a gutter along the trunk, placed a pail at the base. The next morning the pail, which held nine " u J quarts, had overflowed. The water is 'drink* j able, though it is rich in chlorides and other \ salts. ■ - .■ i : I : o}it!\

LORD DUNDOXALD'S INDISCRETION.' ' Lord Dunddnald has been ordered to keep 1 silent and return Home. That is, in plaint words,, what Mr. Arnold-Forsfer informed the House of Commons the other night. ■< But the mischief is already done, and party feeling in Canada has been inflamed Over tile j: remarkablv indiscreet utterances of Lord Dundonald. It may be that he was right in I the attitude he took up, but that is not » the point. He has succeeded in driving in a B wedge between the Dominion Government. | and the Home authorities ; a clreunistaflCe | that; ought to have been checked at the first I by the Cabinet winch talks so loudly abottt ij Imperialism. ' | BISHOPS AND CREMATION. ,'. fj We are told in the annual report of -tttjjraa Cremation Society, just issued, that,' among those who had signified their approval of I the new crematorium p.t Birmingham werlSii the Bishops of Worcester. Lich'iftld and Coventry, The Bishop of Worcester wrote j| that ho should desire, when he died,\tta't|||;l his body might be reduced to ashes as Ja rapidly as possible, so that the dead should do no harm to the living. He saw no sen- I' ous Christian argument against sush a pr«o. , I rice, while from a sanitary point of view i; L had enormous advantages. The Bishop c: Coventry wrote that,: in addition to' beiD| preferable for sanitary reasons, eremitic; | was also the most reverent and'decern ■ method of dealing with the bodies of, m i 1 dead in accordance with Christian belief. , ' " GERMAN TAXATION, ' ' Taxes are high in Germany, and all in« ' 't comes over £25 have to pay them. The (Jo- I vernment taxes are levied on income, inds||l the communal taxes are based on thes*, atid , often equal them.. In Saxony a mart with | £500 a year has to pay (a writer in the cur* I rent Comhill points out): — " .''-i •-;'.'"' :■■;' ~. .. £ b. d. I' State income tax ... >.. 19 0 C ' 1 Municipal rates ... ... 19 00, JB Water rates... ... ~ ... 710 6 | J School rates, ... ... 12 0 0 | Church rates 2, 50 , 59 15*0 ■ • Of course all these are "direct" taxes. A' German can hardly put his hand in hi l " pocket without helping to pay the i induwi* | ones raised by duties on imports and the necessaries of life. • - > 1 WHEN ROYALTY WAS ENTERTAINED..- \f In entertaining Royalty many restrictions must be observed. One of the; strangSft 1 of these unwritten laws is that which lot-; J| bids the use of finger bowls at dinner, for i any of the guests except the Royal , one?. • I ■ This custom dates from the early i&jt Oj n the Georges, when the nobles wore divided || in their allegiance between tki reignifig ; §f House of Hanover and the exiled Stuarts. To many r of theS(> nobles allegiance to I Stuarts was a religion, and often the oiil* § ward acts of allegiance to the reigning Bo*-j-. reign were perverted into ; treasonable WR» of homage tt> the exiles. No dinner***,, »| complete without its toast to ■*-* the KiafT in those days, to evade which was an -a** J| of treason, punishable even with death '»ip| loss of titles and'estates. The Jacobite?, however, discovered.,a way :to 'avoidllMis penalty without sacrificing : their ;, loyaltv. « Holding the wineglass over the finger bowl, l they drained the glass to " the King, )t wita 1 a mental reservation .*' over the water.' Tft* || simple, ruse was soon discovered, and the |s|fe|| of finger bowls was forbidden. . i • \- ii

A JAPANESE PRISON. Imagine a "ark or garden in the Japanf*i | style, with dwarf trees, surrounded by * ' | hedge, instead of a wall. In this park oH | sees a group of Japanese bouses, like tflW ; *; occupied by the peasants. _ \ % The prisoners are a»l at work, proportions- .: ,j to their physical ability. Some are thr««-.., ]- ing and grinding rice; others are weaTtfig; | coarse, cloth;. >of a dark red colour, or#lwf|l the prison uniforms are made; the old ana < j infirm are separating leaves of paper. * B I of them receive a percentage of their 9" : I ings. The younger prisoners are in school.' cj| The discipline is military in !torm,.but'3 ,• it? spirit reformatory. There are few eva- j sions, notwitstanding the ease with wl '* i they could be effected. One reason t&gf 1 is the efficiency of the Japanese police, '***" || is said to be the best in the world. . *■ § The prisoners ar« divided into three B!W*JJ, g and arf differently fed, according as tcxi ai.'e id) > and refractory, amenable to. °£?" «? plihe. or exceptionally well behaved. *&. V, only other punishment is solitary confin***" > in a sort of dungeon, not esceeding five W- | No prisoner may be discharged, how'"' | short his term of sentence, unless his »*£ y or .friends ausume responsibility fer '*JT' 1 The result has been the organisation! « '^ 1 . " large number of prisoners' aid society. •; A LORD'S CURIOUS CUSTOMS. ;' j! Lord Anglesey's quaint cuV.onis tW ..j| subject of some notes in Vanity **>■?■ . v * 1 Si. 81 would dine, lor instance, in dress clotlt* ' {,'■ varying colours. Blue or pi»i were i v 1 favourites. His collection of walking:'! -«■_ I numbered over a thousand. His ovo *£: I were another remarkable assortment. fW" | sian lamb, sealskin, Russian sables--ail *«}• trepresented. In number over a huni ~s!' 'i they were, hung in ordered rows, the spy? , , care of his valets, four- in number. '* | taste lit morning suits was certainly «™*"|j § He preferred striking patterns, M«. w» u 'r X often top a flaring check with a red t«»W | shatter ot other strange headgear. ■»» * - | his jewels he was a " crank on pearls. ,<£ _~ j had. many necklaces of seed pewfc -| were i favourite hobbv. For one blackP*» ,|j he gave £10,000. His theatre was the« ; | chapel of the castle, He had a curious | in plays. On one occasion a triple j nu y I sisted of a gruesome tragedy, a fan «&*>» / i Lord Anglesey in tights, and a W*|'«*i > " if tumble pantomime. Lord Anglesey's ktwM" 'I on ft rising ground above the castae con^- r ed o. remarkable collection of dogs. »w - j every breed had its representatives;'■»«were winners. " Toy terriers had a'S|*.'»; i: | hothouse provided for ihm* * 'V v | :1) ?&