GLEANINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 935, 31 January 1890, Page 5

GLEANINGS.

HOW TO GET OFF A TIGHT RING. Thread a needle flat iu the eye with a strong thread, pass the head -of the needle with care under the ring, and pull tho thread through a few inches toward the hand ; wrap the long end of the thread tightly round the finger regularly all down the nail to reduce its size, then lay hold of the short end and unwind it. The thread repassing against the ring will gradually remove it from the finger. This never-failing method will remove the tightest ring without difficuity, however much swollen the finger may be-.

English artists and English art critics are having a quarrel. The artists say that the critics don’t u|||3erstand art, and the critics say that the artists don’t understand criti. cism.

London is to have a new art gallery, to be called ‘ Victoria.’ Queen Victoria has consented to lend the famous Holbeins at Windsor Castlo to the coming Tudor exhibition.

Tho Swiss Government distributes ,£6OOO every year in prizes for bulls. The prize bulls are nob allowed to be taken out of the country. The chief sources of farm profit in that country are from butter and cheese.

Horse meat is said to be selling at 7 cents per lb in Berlin, and such is the increasing scarcity of beef that the priceof horseflesh constantly increases, and the supply of it has so diminished that butchers can hardly supply their customers.

The simple method of treating drunkenness practiced in Norway and Sweden is reported to be very effective. The inebriate iB placed in confinement and fed only with bread soaked in wine, which in eight or ten days creates a positive loathing for strong drink.

A great scandal exists at Bologna in regard to its staple, sausages, which have lately been fraudulently made of diseased horse meat, mixed with pork. Foreign importers refused to take such stuff,' and the city’s, brands in this specialty now stands below par.

The Queen Regent of Spain has raised M. Santa Anna, the editor of the popular journal Correspondencia d’Espana, to tbe rank of a Marquis. The new noble is a man of great energy. Forty years ago he reached Madrid with ten francs in his pocket. He has not only created a newspaper, but ho has founded savings banks and pension funds for old age. Ho is widely popular.

Nova Scotia is remarkable for the number of its old people. It has a larger number of centenarians than any other country, there being one to every 19,000 inhabitants, while England has only one to every 200,000. They are chiefly of the farming clasß, in comfortable circumstances, accustomed to exercise in the open air, plain food, and plenty of ife, with good inhoritod constitutions.

Annio Pushkin, the eighteen-year-old granddaughter of Russia’s greatest poet, has been arrested on a charge of being connected with a Nihilistic conspiracy and couveyed to tho St. Peter and St. Paul fortress.

All the French horticultural societies will observe the centenary of the introduction of the chrysanthemum into Europe, and exhibitions of this flower will be held at Paris, Orleans, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and other cities.

The Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, brother of the late Henry Ward Beecher, is nearly 66 years of ago. He has been pastor of the Congregational Church at Elmira, N.Y., since he was thirty years old. His wife is a woman possessing remarkable executive ability. She is a granddaughter of Noah Webster, the lexicographer.

In Naples, a correspondent writes, there existsa raoaof cats whichlivein thochurohes. They are kept and fed by the authorities on purpose to eat the mice which infest all old buildings there. The animals may often be seen walking about among the congregation, or sitting gravely before the altar during time of mass.

Good taste is a true economist. Even the lot of poverty is elevated by taste. It exhibits itself in the economies of the household ; it gives brightness and grace to the humblest dwelling • it produces refinement, it engenders goodwill, and creates an atmosphere of cheerfulness. Thus good taste, associated with kindliness, sympathy, and intelligence, may elevate aud adorn even the lowliest lot.