GLEANINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 844, 4 May 1888, Page 5

GLEANINGS.

BED-CLOTHES MADE OF PAPER. ' Paper bed-clothes are made at a factory in New Jersoy. They are doubled sheets of manila paper strengthened with twine, and valuable as a non-conductor of heat. They have a warmth-preserving power far out of proportion to their thickness and weight. . REPROVE BUT DO NOT SCOLD. Avoid the scolding tone. A tired mother may find it hard to do this ; but it is she who will get most good by observing the rule. The tone of scolding wears.upon the throat, just where a woman who is not over strong iB apt to feel the ache of extreme fatigue. The children, too, who are great imitators, will be sure to catch the scolding tone, and will talk to their dolls, to one another, and, by and by, to their own children, very much as their mothers are now talking to them. By all means, avoid this bad tone, all you who govern others.

Mrs Hallam Tennyson sets the example to country ladies in supervising personally the work of the dairy on her father-in-law’s (Lord Tennyson) property near Freshwater Bay. This part of the Isle of Wight is largely supplied with the butter, cream, and milk issuing from the poet laureate’s farm.

Miss Emily Skinner, whose violin playing elicits so much admiration, has returned from a visit to the Queen at Osborne, where she performed several times before her Majesty. Upon her departure, as a recognition of the pleasure her playing had afforded, the Queen presented her with a handsome diamond bracelet.

M. Laborde has communicated to the Physiological Society of Paris the fact that one of his colleagues has narrowly escaped death from a dose of cocaine, taken for the purpose of having a tooth extracted. He became deadly pale, completely lost consciousness for awhile, suffered intensely for some time, and had the sensation of approaching dealh.

There was a large sale of Jacobite manuscripts at Edinburgh recently. The highest price was £ll 15s, which was paid for the original proclamation issued by Prince Charles Edward, at Dalkeith, in 1745. A proclamation of Oliver Cromwell, ‘ given at Dunbar ’ in 1650 brought £5 10s, and £9 was given for the ‘ Oath of Allegiance’ to James VIII, signed in 1750 by Balmerino, Cluny Macpherson and six other chiefs.

Roses grown for perfume are the common pink ones. They are cut low, and the ground between the trees enriched with manure. The flowers are gathered as soon as the dew has disappeared, and after the plant is through bearing blossoms the Btem is cut to within a few inches of the ground in order to conserve the vigor of the plant.

‘ The Medical Review quotes Dr Mackenzie as being of the opinion that catarrhs are largely due to the dust, and says that it is

not unreasonable to believe that the tremendous clouds of unsterilized earth which are driven into the faces of city people during tho season have something to do with the exoess of coughs and colds and the high mortality rate during this period, which, in some years, is exceeded only in the hot months of summer.

There was recently held at Antwerp a Postage Stamp Exhibition which included some remarkable works. Among them were tapestries, and even pictures—landscapes, marine views, and flower pieces—the colors in which were furnished by stamps, cut in every conceivable shape, and matched, in like mosaics, and the whole thing varnished over. Other frightful objects were chairs, tables, and kitchen utensils, plastered with stamps.

It is perhaps not generally known that the witty and accomplished author of ‘Alice in Wonderland ’ is . a mathematical tutor at Christ’s College, Besides writing his famous ‘ Nonsense ’ books and verses, he is the author of several books, more useful than amusing, on the science of mathematics. This bizarre combination, the Echo says, has given rise to a very amusing story. Whether true or not, it is worth telling. The Queen, so the story runs, was so pleased with * Alice in Wonderland,’ that she wrote to the author and asked him to be sure and send her the very next book he produced. As in loyal duty bound, of course he did so. Imagine her Majesty’s surprise when she received a learned work on Algebra 1