GLEANINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 915, 13 September 1889, Page 5

GLEANINGS.

SOURCE OF COLOURS.

The cochineal furnishes the gorgeous carmine, the crimson and purple lake. The cuttle-fish gives us sepice ; it is the inky fluid which, the fish discharges when alarmed. Indian yellow comes from the camel'. Ivory chips produce ivory black. The beautiful Prussian blue is made by fusing horse’s hoofs and other refuse animal matter with impure potassium carbonate. India ink from burned camphor, but the process is a secret. Ultramarine blue is obtained from lapislazuli, but there is very little of the genuine article in the market.

POISONING OF A WEDDING PARTY. Fourteen persons belonging to a wedding party were taken violently ill the other day after dinner in a restaurant at Tromblaine, near Nancy. One of them, a little girl of three, expired in great pain after 06 hours, and several others are likely to die. The bridegroom and his uncle were the first who showed symptoms of poisoning, while the bride and two guests who left the table before a custard cake was served, escaped. The bride was engaged for two nights attending to her father, mother, and husband, who are still dangerously ill. How the poison got into the cake has not been ascertained.

A HAPPY THOUGHT. One of the Paris clubs has carried out a happy thought. The committee have opened relations with the Reform Club and the Carlton, proffering the hospitality of the club to members of the Loudon clubs, properly introduced by the secretary. Upon payment of one guinea London clubmen may for the space ol a month eojoy all the advantages of the splendid establishment of the Paris club. This is an international courtesy which will be largely availed of in the coming recess.

The old sanctuary of Methodism, known as the Tabernacle, oh Tottenham Court road, London, of which George Whitfield laid the foundation-stone in 1756, has been pronounced unsafe, and services have been suspended. It will probably have to be taken down entirely.

Here is a good specimen of Baboo English, from the Times of India. A native sent his employer a gosling, with the following letter * Honoured sir, —My father was in Bombay, and he bought two goose’s pups of the newest fashion, so I beg leave to send your honor one; they are not common gooses, but of somewhat respectable family ; kindly accept.’

Some papers do not like the English habit of omitting the article * the ’ before the names of yachts named after women. The omission does seem unfortunate when it makes such statements as these possible : * Cora proved slow in her stays.’ * Gracie ran her nose in the mud,’and * Alice careened and staggered under her heavy load.’— Nautical Gazette.

A correspondent writes that in the cemetery at Heiligenkreuz, near Vienna, a white marble headstone has just been placed over a grave on which the grass has hardly grown green. The inscription on the stone is : Marie, Baroness be Veszera, Born March 19, 1871. Died Jan. 30, 1889.

‘Life is a flower'; it opens and is plucked.’ This is in memoriam of the young woman who shared the tragic fate of Crown Prince Rudolph.

The London Standard declares that in some mysterious way mosquitoes have been introduced into the tight little isle, and it predicts that they will soon become numerous.

About thirty thousand people a day go up the Eiffel Tower. Of these between three thousand and four thousand go to the top. On an average a person has to wait about an hour to go in the lift.

There is on exhibition at Paris a globe that is the exact representation of the earth on the scale of one-millionth. All the lines of communication are shown and the rotation is obtained by clockwork.

A conversation in a country house in which Mr and Mrs Gladstone stayed during the ‘ wakening of the West Hostess Well, my dear Mrs Gladstone, I really don’t know what will be the fate of poor old Ireland. But (piously) there is One Above who knows. Mrs Gladstone —Yea ;ho will be down in a minute. He s brushing his hair.—St. James Budget.

It is better (says ‘ Carmen Sylvia ’) to confess to a physician than to a priest. You tell the priest that you detesc mankind ; he replies that you are not a Christian, The physician gives you a dose of rhubarb, and thereupon you love your fellow-creatuie. you tell the priest that you are tired of life ; he replies that suicide is a crime. The ohysiciah gives you a stimulant ; and thereupon you find life supportable.

Mrs E. D. E. N. Southworth, the authoress, lives in a very modest house on Warburton avenue, Yonkers. Her life is almost one of retirement. She goes to bed about 2 o’clock ia the morning and is not disturbed even if she doe 3 not awake until late in the afternoon. Mrs Southworth resides with her son, Dr. Southworth, a kind-hearted second edition of his famous mother.