NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12991, 7 October 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

There are 49,605,000 dwelling-houses iai ii Europe. i Asparagus is .said to be the oldest plants 1 " ; used , for food. The humming-bird of the West Indies is : lens than an inch long. . : .< Starfish have the power to'change their colour to that of surrounding objects. • A sparrow impaled itself on the hat-pins | • •-,? of a lady who was cycling • recently' near ; London. ,• ■ ; A Paris jeweller has an opal weighing 600 carats. It is said to be the largest in , - the world. [ |||1 More tobacco is used by the Austrians in proportion to the population than by any " blether nation. - "The Tragedie of An tome," a little book it bought at a country shop for 2s, was sold ' ' in London for £560. ' , Uninterrupted good, health is the general |||J rule of .all • persons • engaged in . tobacco pro- ' ,*,? ceedings of' every kind. Housekeepers in Spain use the juice of oranges to clean the floors. The Mid;proves : an excellent substitute for soap. An eminent. ncientist has estimated that 1 ' the average man's eyelids open and shut Vj four ' million times during the year. «• From an- observation tower on the rocken, .in ' the II art 7, Mountains, 83 cities'and 668 villages can be seen in cloai; Mi weather. * A weighing machine said to he the most, powerful in the world is being made in. Birmingham. It is capable: of legistering a load of 220 tons. ' . The ocean water north of Cape Cod is much colder than the water south of it, for "-ifp the cape seems to turn a!branch of the warm. lk%& Gulf Stream out. to sea. £1,181,008 worth of specie was brought .« to England recently by the liner Himalaya., Y; that being the largest .amount of gold, and lifll silver ever carried by one steamer. In a square inch of the human scalp the hairs number about one thousand, and the i? whole number on an adult scalp is 1 about 'Yone hundred and twenty thousand. ' *,t m * , ' -Yv To prevent scow-blindness the natives ol | Tibet grease their faces, and then blacken, the skin all round their eyes; with, burnt sticks. Foreigners usually wear smoked 7 \ glasses. , ) George John Wall, a young street hawker, who playfully snatched the cap from, a friend's head, threw it into the street, and "if ran after it, was knocked) down and tailed - by a-pair-horse van. When asked at Stratford if he were guilty of drunkenness, James Collins made an unusual reply. "If the constable says *oft§ so," he said. "I have never known "a . policeman to tell a lie." r The motor census of car'and motor-cycle 1 registrations, jest published, shows that no fewer than 107,426 driving licenses were issued up to June 30, as against 66,703 . fM licenses for motor-vehicles. In the British Isles are now produced u■ C 2508 newspaper, to which total London alone contribute 496. while there' are also published a variety of magazines - and re „• f views to the number of 1540. Frau Prielle, who at one time was the most popular of all the actresses attached to the Royal Opera House, Budapest, lias gone mad in consequence, it is said, of : leading Edgar, Allan Poe's stories. j , On the recommendation of the lady doctor ■ at the Lambeth Workhouse schools, Norwood, the children are to be provided with sixpenny tablets of scented soap instead of " v the common article heretofore in use.' ~ .To. cure sleep-walkers of the : habit? and ' prevent accidents "a sheet of iron or zinc v, : placed- by the bedside is recommended. When the somnambulist steps upon the A' chilly metal he will usually, though not always, wake up. ■ William Ridley, who was described as a " gentleman," was fined £5 at. Holt, Norfolk, for. kissing a female visitor. As the woman was sitting on the beach at Cley the man pet his arm round her waist and I kissed' her several times. The Mayor of Doncaster.: has received a, '--"/j letter from Colorado stating that a fortune ] of about £500) has been left ;by George Adams, who has . just died, and that the / M amount awaits the man's relatives in Don- '• ' caster, if any are still alive. A vety large number of Russian peasants •" , find employment in the salt mines. Their working day is seldom less than sixteen '.. "j hours, and in some casese it [lasts for ,¥°M twenty-one hours," three hours being taken at intervals for sleep and meals. A lake of in!:, it is said, over an acre in extent, has iust been unearthed in that extremely volcanic region on the eastern; "•) boundary of Lower California. In the' .' liquid state it is a grey dull tint, but when dry it, assumes a very deep black. Leonard Alfred Beasant, a ■ messenger ' boy, was in sunk a hurry to go to a musiohall that, when sent to Cannon-street Sta- Y\.,f; tion to . send; i. parcel by the - Continental train, he entered the mail van while it was fifst being shunted. He fell on the line, and! was killed. A woman whose husband had taken to drink recently wrote to the Public Control '-Y'r Committee of the London County Council asking them to prevent her husband from obtaining alcoholic liquor. She thought the committee had " control" qf the - public. : houses.';' • ■It is definitely stated that the recently 1 discovered Irish gold mine is situated at.' Y. | ft Glentogher, about four miles from the vil-• lage of Carndouagh, in the peninsula of \ Inishowen. The mine, which was visited , \»;r; by the owners, is expected. to yield two ounces to the ton. On the far north-western waters of Pugefc /, Spund, there are so many dead trees always Y'iYS floating that none but screw steamers or /■ stern .wheelers can navigate. A paddle would sooner or later strike a log, perhaps - * " weighing many tons, which would knock her paddles to splinter*. The bearskin, the full-dress headgear of I the Brigade of Guards, affords a perfect XSI protection from the. sun, said Mr. Arnold- / - Foreter in the House of Commons. 'He <-'5 made this statement in reply to Mr. 13tenwick, who thought the bearskin should not be worn during the hot weather. Sir William Richmond, R.A., speaking at Sheffield, said that the- House of Commons was tumbling to pieces. One side was. . Y simply trying to get the other out, and if / " that was all that was going to happen for the advancement of the country, he could only say, "God help the country." A remarkable specimen of carnation has been cultivated at Los Angeles by a gentleman whose experiments extend over six ' " years. The petals 'of the flower are white upon a background nearly covered by wide , -15® stripes of vivid green which radiate ' from the centre to the edge of each flower. X. Buchanan, a blind street musician, who has set himself the tJ.sk of walking from Glasgow to London, passed through Coventry recently, having covered 350 miles of the . 600 he has undertaken to' - . .- travel in twenty-five days. He supports - himself on the road by playing the ocarina. Y-) A very tall man in female attire lias robbed many people near Evanston, Uli-. ; nois, lately. He relieved one man of £60' ■*/>' and a. (diamond . ring hi such a genteel fashion that the victim said: "You are a perfect Jady." "Yes, I am the newest woman," replied the robber in a gruff masculine voice. " He claims to be & North Sea fisherman, and whin ho goes round with his organ can. collect £4 or £5 a day," said a policeman 'Mm ot Percy Barry, a, legless and armless organ-' , grinder, who was sent to prison for aix~ weeks at Marylebone for drunkenness and assault. When arrested he used hie wooden , J|p| limbs as weapons. After a pause oi ! many years ..France has '• '• again entered the list of 'gold-producing Y countries. In December, 1904, f the"; first : gold mill in' Franco was started at the la « Lucietto antimony 'mine,-- near Laval. A' . 10-stamp mill is running steadily, the dailyY, ; ' production amounting to about ono kilo of p. gold iajlhp, fcagfe.of a.,ocb sms&ttajA," Y : ■ iS;Y:|:YY#lli!il YliM