FRAGMENTS OF FACT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1260, 23 April 1896, Page 13

FRAGMENTS OF FACT.

TIT-BITS OF INTERESTING AND USEFUL INFORMATION.

Ireland has 12,000 girl Pacemakers. To make one ounce of attar of roso3 requires 10,000 roses. Every day in London 2580 children enter school for the first time. ... It costs £3 a minute to fire the Maxim gun at the rate of 700 shots a minute. Dyspeptics have found much relief by eating six apples a day—two after each meal. The cost of training the Oxford University eight is over ,£650. The largest people in the world are the Patagonians; tho shortest are the Laplanders.

Curly hair indicates exuberant vitality, the curl being caused by the heat or electricity which pervades the system. Punctuation was first used in literature in the year 1520. Before that time wordsandsentenceswereputtogetherlikethis. In tho public schools of Germany the bright pupils are separated from the stupid ones. Medical men do the sorting. As many as 36 working men have been appointed magistrates in England outside of Lancashire, while in the County Palatine 38 have been appointed since last August. It is a curious anomaly in tho law that if you pay for your photograph being taken, no copy can bo sold without your consent, while, if you do not, the photographer may sell to any extent. So much has the art of dressing and dyeing feathers been developed that numbers of the seemingly raro feather boas worn liavo simply been made from the plumage of the ordinary fowl. Tho railway companies of Great Britain pay an average every day of ill7oo in compensation; about 60 per cent, being for injuries to passengers, and the rest for lost or damaged freight. It has been estimated that in Great Britain and Ireland there arc thirty million barn-door fowls, which lay one thousand million eggs. But the consumption of eggs is greatly over twice that number.

The costliest mile of railroad is a mile measured on the steel portion of tho Forth Bridge. The length of this portion is a mile and twenty yards, and the cost of it was considerably over <£2,000,000. A curious barometer is used in Germany and Switzerland. It is a jar of water with a frog and a little step-ladder in it. When the frog comes out of the water and sits on the steps, a rain storm will soon occur.

Tho children of the blackest Africans are born whitish. In a month they become pale yellow, in a year brown, at four dirty black, and at six or seven glossy black. Tho change is in the mucous membrane, below the cuticle.

Last year 185,366 persons of British nationality, 82,738 foreigners, and 3,750 whose nationality was not distinguished, left tho United Kingdom. Tho total (271,851), compared with the year 1894, shows an inciease of 45,027 emigrants. Lord Beaconsfield’s brother, Mr Ralph Disraeli, is still living. He bears no resemblanco to his distinguished brother, and has always lived a quiet, retiring life, having been for many years clerk of tho House of Lords. “ Meredith tho Obscure, and the Amazing Hardy” is ouo of tho latest literary witticisms.

Asked what ho found most helpful in his work, Mark Twain at once replied, “ Tobacco.”

One of the results of the now photographic discovery by Dr Routgen is that a letter can be photographed through its envelope and tho contents read with as much ease as though tho seal had been broken. The experiment has been successfully mado by several members of the staff of the Gaulois.

Says a leading San Francisco paper “ There is blood in the old lion, and fight, too, as Emperor William is evidently

realising.” The Bishop of Manchester said the other day that his first ideas of another world were derived from reading “ Jack and the Beanstalk.”

Verestchagin, tho famous Russian artist, at his house near Paris, has a glass studio which revolves on wheels just as a locomotive engine is turned on the turn-table. The movement is effected by means of a windlass conveniently placed beside the painter’s easel, and by this ingenious contrivance ho is able to paint the whole day with the sunlight falling in one direction on models or drapery. Tho British Empire doubles its population in Europo overy 55 years ; in tho colonies overy 25 years. Tho Countess of Dudley owns the famous “Star of South Africa” stone, recently valued at <£25,000. A curious form of life insurance is springing up in French manufacturing towns under the namo of La Fourmi (tho ant). Tho peculiarity is that tho longer the man lives, the less ho becomes entitled to. The payment of four shillings a month assures the payment of <£2oo to the heirs of a man dying before the age of 38, the payment diminishing proportionately to .£lO2 at 51. The idea seems to be that if a man dies young, his children are likely to be in want, hut that when he is 50, they will be able to earn their living.

Berlin “ Society” is leaving the capital on account of the idiosyncrasies of the Kaiser.

Among the Pesliawur l’athans the mother’s prayer is that the child may grow up to be a successful thief. Judging by tho insanity returns, sixteen cases out of every thousand are caused by love affairs.

In Switzerland a favourite dish is boiled chestnuts mashed fine and served with whipped cream.

Horses succumb to cold quicker than any other animal.

It is said that every spotted dog has the end of its tail tipped with white. The most wonderful vegetable in the world is tho truffle. It has neither roots, stems, leaves, flowers, nor seeds. If you were on tho moon the earth would appear to be sixty-four times larger than the sun does to residents of this planet. The finest tomb in Great Britain is undoubtedly that of the Duke of Hamilton, in the grounds of the Duke’s seat. It costover .£200,005.

It has been calculated that a tonbarrelled machine gun is equal in intensity and endurance of lire to an entire company of infantry at full war strength. Among tho Kimloh people, who live on Lake Nyassa, in Africa, the favourite form of suicide is to enter the water and allow oneself to be swallowed by a crocodile. Tim Presbyteiian Church of Waterloo, Indiana, U.S.A., can well claim to be one of the most unique buildings in the world, so fur as the material of its construction goes, for it is built substantially of stone taken from one huge boulder. It is not generally known that when a person falis into the' water a common felt hat may he made use of as a life-preserver,

and by placing the bat upon the water, rim down, with the arm round it pressing it slightly to the breast, it will bear a man up for hours.

According to the laws of good society in C hina, young widows should not rc-marry. Widowhood is, therefore, held in the highest esteem, and the older tho widow grows the more agreeable her position becomes. Should she reach 80 years she may, by applying to the Emperor, get a sum of money with which to buy a tablet, on which her virtues are named. The tablet is placed over the door at tho principal entrance of her house.

It is generally supposed tho lily is the national flower of France. But this is not tho case, for although the jlcur-dc-lys is often taken for the emblematic flower of France as tho rose is of England, it is in reality only the emblem of 1 he old French royalty, and its import is no more a national one than the boos and violets of Napoleon. As a matter of fact Franco has no national flower, and if it did possess one it is much more likely to be the daisy than the lily, for this simple flower is a universal favourite with the French. The only heraldic emblem of tho country is tho Gallic cock.

A tragic event has happened at Lyons. A. woman named 101 iso Biot, who had two lovers, hid one of them in a large trunk when she heard the other knock at the door. She went out with the hitter, named Matillon, and entirely forgot all about Badoil in the trunk till late on the following morning. She then opened the taunk, but her lover was dead. Jewellers have cleverly contrived not only to overcome in large part the ancient superstition as to the bad luck attending the opal, but even to give it some reputation as a luck stone. '1 lie result is that

opals are more popular now than over before, and their price has risen, especially in the case of those that are distinguished

for brilliant flame tints. A tired woman’s epitaph Here lies ail old woman who always was tired, She lived iii a place where too much was required. Her last words on earth were, “ My friends, 1 am going Where there neither is cooking, nor washing, nor sewing. With loud hallelujahs the heavens arc ringing, But I shall have nothing to do with tho singing. Then weep not for me, nor mourn lor me

never, For I’m going to do nothing for ever and ever.”

Marvellous London.—Presiding at the half-yearly meeting of the London General Omnibus Company, Mr J. Bound said the gross receipts for tho six months were ,£■174,5-1" 1-, an incaease of £31,909, while the expenses were £-1-32,458, an increase of £25,843. The average number of omnibuses run was 975, against 911. Tho total number of miles run was 11,489,886,

against 10,693,359, and the number of passengers carried 74,092,903, against 07,400,510. At the age of 82 Mr Gladstone made his first speech ill French. Mr Alfred Austin, the Boot Laureate, acted as special correspondent of the Slandaad during the Franco-German war. It is doubtful whether anyone has more gold and silver plate and other objects of value than the Pope. 11 is declared that were he to melt down a'l the medals, chains, vessels, and other objects preserved in the Vatican, the amount of gold obtained would make more coins than the whole of the present European circulation. Madame Dioulafoy, a French lady, is the

most confirmed of male women. She has worn man’s clothes since she was a bride in 1870. She elected to go with her hus-

band—a volunteer under Chanzv

-through

the war. To avoid attention she dressed as a lad of sixteen, and she has never since worn a woman’s dress. Madame Dioulafoy is to be met at Elysco balls in a swallowtailed evening coat, with her hair clipped to the skull. Prince Nicholas of Greece is an exceedingly clever conjuror. Miss Braddon was at one time an actress, playing small parts in the provinces. ilr Henry Labouchere, who is no great

stickler for orthodoxy, is, or at least professes to be, keenly opposed to women riding bicycles. It is the habit of a well-known statesman when travelling abroad alone to fasten above his bed each night a slip of paper on which is written instructions as to what should be done in the event of his dying suddenly.

No British Sovereign has vetoed a Parliamentary Bill during tho last 185 years. France'is the only European country which has to-day fewer able-bodied men than it had 30 years ago. Fried shrimps and grasshoppers are sold in the markets of Mexico i both aie cooked whole and so eaten. The oldest and heaviest triplets in the world are, or were, the Ewing brothelo, of , Lawrenceville, U.S.A.; 51 years old, weight I respectively, 225, 213 and 218 pounds. j Tho rector of a rural parish in Kent, , while examining a class of boys in history, ! asked them who was the patron saint of England. With one voice the class re- j sponded: “Mr Gladstone.’ _ j The elephant is given the credit of being | the most long-lived, as well as the moM ; intelligent, of all animals. Cuvier says j that there are instances of ono having | lived to beyond the age of 300 years. A German authority estimates thabalmost a third of humanity speak the Chinese language, that the Hindoo language is spoken by more than ]00,()00,i)00, the ! Russian by 59,n00,000, while the German is spoken'by 57,000,000 tongues, and the Spanish by 4-8,(100,000. The Yellow River is styled the “ Sorrow of China.” During the last century it has changed its course 22 times, and now flows into the sea through a mouth Joo miles distant from that of a hundred years ago. It- is estimated that its floods in the present centmy have cost China something like eleven millions of lives. A little girl of Metz, 14 years old,named Louise Fuchs, has just been condemned to ei'dit days’ imprisonment for having insulted the German Emperor. The insult consisted in writing a private letter to one of her little friends, in which there was something disrespectful to His Majesty. .Such sentences are quite common in AlsaceLorraine.

Those who have partaken of peacock declare that gorgeous bird to bo decidedly tough eating'; while it is said of the swan that tho fact of its ever having been a familiar dish speaks highly in favour of ancient English cutlery. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that when bustards’ and boars’ heads were as common as sirloins and saddles now are, there were scarcely any vegetables to eat with them. The boundary line between Canada and tho United States is marked with iron posts at mile intervals for a great part of its length. Cairns, earth-mounds, and timber posts are also used, and through the forests and swamps a line a rod wide, clear of trees and underwood, has been cut, Across the lake artificial islands have been made to support the cairns, which l-Re about eight feet above the high-

water mark. Anyone more simple in habits or methods than the present President of the French Republic, M. Fame, could not bo imagined. Hb lives at home in the simplest style, and the other day he apologised for being late to a brilliant assemblage at his own house, giving as his excuse that so late at night the ’buses were .all crowded. John Jacob Astor, the American

millionaire, has recently taken his first les.-em ill manipulating a horseless carriage. He was seen riding this up one of the principal streets of New York, receiving the instructions of a woman who rode beside him. The motive power of his new toy is petroleum, and the mechanism is concealed beneath the sent, Strange bed-warmers are used by Chilian women. 11l cold weather, when m bed, they keep their feet wann by placing them on a dog. There is but ono factory in Japan where leather shoes are made. The natives, except about tho Court, wear sandals of straw or wood. The telephone lino recently stretched from New York to Chicago is twice as long as the longest line known. Nearly a million tons of copper wire were used in laying it. Jn St. Petersburg every bicyclist is bound to have affixed to the back of tho machine a metal plate on which the registered number is displayed in figures large enough to be legible from a considerable distance. Date vinegar, which is now being put

on the British market, is regarded as something quite novel and superior to malt vinegar. It is to be noted that the Arabs and Asiatics have prepared vinegar from dates for ages past. A Belgian funeral party, desiring to show fil'd - ' originality and ind'-p'Mtd'*n<-‘, have smleivd severely in c..n.,eqlienee of their having broken the t rad it «>na I rules of funeral etiquette. It is "sual will'll burying a friend nr relative in Belgium to (a t nothing but baked meats. < Mnlrury to this rule, however, the party eat only raw ham, in consequence of which 17 were

poisoned. The humming of telegraph wires is not

caused by the wind, for it is heard during dead calms. Changes of temperature, which tighten or loosen the wires, probably produce the sound. Mr Hiram Maxim has put the tricycle to a now and an important use. lie has fitted the machine with two Maxim guns, each weighing 251 b, and capable of firing 600 rounds a minute. Each machine will carry 1000 rounds of ammunition. In tho streets ol Paris lately a novel mode of advertising his needs was adopted by a workman in want of employment, lie had written in a good round hand on a

sheet of paper, “ 1 require a situation. This lie had placed upon his hat, and during the aiternoen he might have been semi walking quietly along with his head slightly inclined, so that the public at large might conveniently read bis candid declaration.

At the little village of St. Dogmell, Cardiganshire, there resides a matron who, for many years, has acted in tho capacity of pilot to the steamer trading between Bristol and Cardigan. She is known locally by the familiar nickname oi “ Betty,” and, in addition to piloting tho Bristol boat, takes charge of any craft that go up the Cardigan river.