One Thing and Another.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 914, 6 September 1889, Page 6

One Thing and Another.

After counting noses it is found that Liiei e are 20,000 children of school age in Now York for whom no room is provided in the school buildings.

In the United States otte man in every 200 takes a college course ; id England, Une in every 500 • in Scotland* flne in eVery 600 j ill one in every Chemists say that it takes rdore than twice as much sugar to sweeten preserves, sauces, &c., if put in when they begin to cook, as it does to sweeten after the fruit is cooked. \ The peculiar fragrance of Russian leather is due to the oil or tar derived from birchwood, which is used in tanning it. The average height of the Scotch is sffc. 74in.j and the average weight 1551 b. ; of the English, sft. 6Jin. and 1451 b. ; and of the Irish, sft. 6£in and 1381 b. Delicate trees • should be transplanted in spring. They should be firmly attached to stakes for the first season, and it is well to place a oouple of heavy atones on the ground near their stems. The new Earl of Carlisle is a practical Prohibitionist. His cellars contained some of the beat home-brewed ale in Kngtand. but he had the vats emptied and destroyed, and has ordered the closing of all public houses ou his properties. In the town of Bessbrook, Ireland, whero John G. Richardson employs 3000 people in the manufacture of Irish linen, no liquor has been sold for forty years, and as a result there i» neither policeman, prison, pawnshop nor pauper in the town. Von Moltke’s objection to entrusting private soldiers with a rifle which can be fired too easily appears justified since two German-regiments'have held a sham fight with an imaginary enemy consisting of wooden palisades. The command was three times given to ‘fire at will,’ and 220,000 rounds were fired. About nine-tenths of the bullets went clean over the palisades. In Clarendon’s papers is the following : c At Henley-upon-Thomes a woman, speaking against taxation imposed by Parliament, was ordered by the committee to have her tongue fastened bv a nail to the body of a tree hy the wayside on a market-day, which was accordingly done, and a paper in great letters, setting forth the heinousness of her crime, fixed to her back.’ According to Prof. Sargent, the strongest wood in the United States is that of the nutmeg hickory of the Arkansas region, and the weakest is the West Indian birch. The most elastic is the tamarack, the white or shellbark hickory standing far below it. The least elastic, and the lowest in specific gravity, is the wood of the Ficus aurea. The highest specific' gravity, upon which in general depends value as fuel, is attained by the bluewood of Texas.