GLEANINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 867, 12 October 1888, Page 5

GLEANINGS.

A YOUNG MOTHER. * F.R.C.P.’ writing in tho British Medical Journal apropos of the case of a young mother of twelve, recalls the fact that the mother of Henry VII. (Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond) was little more than thirteen when he was bom at Pembroke Castle, June 26, 1456.

AN ECCENTRIC HEIRESS. They have a wild young heiress in California—Maud Meredith by name. She will one day own millions of dollars worth of property at Oaklands, near San Francisco. Her latest freak was to run away from her legal guardians who are trying to educate her. She was found hoeing beans on a farm, disguised as a boy. THE BIGGEST ROSE BUSH. The oldest rose bush in the world is trained against the old church at Heldersheim in Germany, and it is claimed that authentic record states that in 1079 Bishop Hepilo caused a trelli? to be erected to support tho rose. The main branch is larger than a man’s body.

Mrs Gladstone recently appeared on a special day at the Irish exhibition in London with a white Irish lace shawl thrown over her black dress and a couple of little grandsons olothed in fancy Irish costume.

An hotel manager claims to have made the discovery that tall men sleep later in the morning than short men, and that persons of a dark complexion invariably require more rest than blondes.

Miss Ramsay, aged twenty-one years, who took a * senior classic ’ at Cambridge, England, several years ago, coming in ahead of all the men, is engaged to Rev. Dr. Butler, aged fifty-five years, maste"r v of Trinity College, and Mrs Grundy is recalling the marriage of ‘ Dorothea ’ aud * Mr C&saubou ’ in * Middlemarch.’

The food of the Sultan of Turkey is cooked by one man and his aids. It is prepared in silver vessels, and each vessel is sealed by a slip of paper aud a stamp after the meal is cooked. These' seals are broken in the presence of the Sultan by the High Chamberlain, who takes a spoonful of each dish before the Sultan tastes it. The annual expenditure of tho Sultan’s household is over forty-one million dollars.

The American movement to give to women the titles of their husbands has received another impetus by the calling of the venerable Mrs Polk, ‘Mrs ex-President James K, Polk.’

* About 50 years ago,’ Mrs Heales informs as, * there was iu Northorpe Church, Lincolnshire, a small pew known as the ‘ HallDog Pew,’ in whioh the dogs which followed the residents of the hall to church, were placed during divine service !’

There are ten ladies in the woild at present who bear the title of Empress. There is, first our own Queen Victoria, Empress of India. In Germany there are three—namely, the Empress Augusta, the Empress Victoria, and tho reigning Empress Augusta Victoria. Besides these there are the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, the Empress Marie Alexander of Russia, i the Empress Theresa Christina of Brazil, and the Empress Avon Ko of Japan, the ex-Empress Eugenie of the French, aud the Empress Mother of China.

Miss Mary Anderson is much annoyed by * the pestilential nuisances who write for autographs,’ but has now hit upon au effective plan for dealing .with them. She has had a specimen of her writing lithographed, and her manager sends each applicant a copy, thereof, with a printed card saying: ‘Miss Anderson desires me to enclose you her autograph as you request, with her compliments, and to say how sorry she is that the matter has not had her attention eie this.’

‘Once,’ said Lawrenoe Oliphant, * I was in a Cornish mine, some hundreds of feet down in the bowels of tbe earth. Crawling down a ladder, and feeling that the temperature was every moment getting warmer, I said to a miner who was accompanying me, “It is getting very hot down here. How far do you think it is to she infernal regions ?” “I don’t know exactly,” he replied, “ but if you let go you will be there in two minutes.’ ”