GLEANINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 770, 3 December 1886, Page 4

GLEANINGS.

ABSTINENCE AND MODERATION IN LIFE STATISTICS. The French Journal of Hygiene estimates the probabilities of life for moderate drinkers and total abstainers as follows : A moderate drinker at twenty years of age may expect to live about fifteen years; at thirty, twelve years ; at forty,' ten years ; at fifty, eight years. The hope of a total abstainer is : At twenty years, forty years of life ; at thirty, about thirty-six years ; at forty, about twenty-eight years ; at fifty, twenty-one years ; at sixty, fifteen years.

The young King of Spain recently reviewed his troops for the first time. All the soldiers were in gala uniform, and Alfonso XIII, who appeared in the arms of his mother, the Queen Regent, was serenaded by the bands of his three regiments of Body Guards. All the dignitaries present preserved a serious countenance, and the King was overcome with emotion, crying lustily.

One of the banners displayed at Mr Gladstone’s reception in Edinburgh bore the following couplet : ‘ Great is thy power and great thy fame ; Far kenned and noted is thy name. ’ The motto had been slyly furnished by a. Tory, and it had been hanging up all day before it was found that it was the opening couplet of Burns’ 4 Address to the Devil.’

The Polish women are noted for their strength of mind and intellect. There is a Russian legend which says that God once sent a bee laden with brains for the Polish males, but the Polish ladies captured the treasure and left uothing for the men.

''The old residence of the Houghton line is f another one of the English houses which eßiovs the attention of a well-accredited family ghost. This is the famous ‘Brown i, Lady of Houghton,’ who has appeared to dozens of guests, some with fine imaginative powers and nerves, and some without. . Lord -Beaoonsfield encountered her iniß/i, and she was the original of Sir Walter S Sco'tt’s ‘ Lady in the Sacque.’

, novel design in engagement rings is to . divide the ring and bend the ends apart and held them so by a small gold bar. A jewe is th°n set on each end, and the resrdt; is that the jewels are very close together, but 3 tiU not united, and are thus quite typical of ► engagements. ,i : -

q-The-New York Mail and Express’gossipsavs —‘ It is to be the English here for ladies to combine their * names with their husband s surnames.

A/Wark worth, Ontario, minister prayed „. one recent Sunday morning as follows: • ?Lord bless our servant girls who aTe rTe- - tained from joining in the worship of Thee by the sleeping of their masters and mistresses.’

r That ladies may have trouble with their - watches even if they take care not to bring •' themmear a. dynamo, says the Electrician, is , shown* by the following story : A_ young * woman- of Columbus, Ga., about to visit the station :of the electric light company, was told to leave her watch at home lest it be magnetised by the strong electric current. •iShe did so, but complained afterwards that , her watch would not keep good time. Still, whenever she carried it, her time was too <slow, .although when she left it in her room ,*it ran correctly. A gentleman who knew of -the circumstance suggested to the young dady that she wear another pair of „ c , ors , e . , <-wheD next.she carried the. watch. She did ,so, ..-and had no further trouble with the wateh. /The steel springs in her corset had ’•been-magnetised. -