FRAGMENTS OF FACT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1265, 28 May 1896, Page 13

FRAGMENTS OF FACT.

TIT-Birs OF INTERESTING AND USEFUL INFORMATION, I When he visited Romo last summer General Baratieri pooh-poohed the idea of war with Abyssinia ! . Lord Arthur Hill is to receive one of the Colonial Governorships that will becomo vacant in a short time. The expiration of the term of copyright has suddenly made Matthew Arnold’s poems easily accessible to all. King Monelik has managed to gain the sympathy of Frenchmen by his courtesy to French explorers. Just in the spring and brightness of thei r young- womanhood to have to bo shabby is hard on girls— Globe. A new story and a volume of poems by Mr Bret Ilarte aro said to be likely shortly to be published in England. Somo of the whito Young Men’s Christian Associations in the United States will not admit coloured members. The King of Abyssinia is described as a very dramatic personage, who has acquired considerable dignity of manner. Mary Anderson and her husband, AI. do Navarro, have been staying for some time back in Warwickshire. The cost triennially to the London ratepayers for the mere purposo of electing a School Board amounts to AIO,GUO. The 500th anniversary of the foundation of the celebrated Certosa of Pavia, near Milan, is about to bo celebrated. In the lower classes in Sicily a vendetta results if a man pays attention to an unmarried girl without marrying her. Golf jerseys do not require belts, and aro extremiy comfortable for cycling wear in the present treacherous weather. The Princess Christian, it is said, is engaged in writing a book upon etiquette for the ladies who attend court functions. It is stated in an Italian paper that King Monelik will send a representative to Moscow for the coronation of the Czar. In the new play at the Lyceum Mrs Patrick Campbell wears regular Turkish costumes, including the " very spacious breeches.”

Tho German newspapers do not hesitate to speak of French machinations in Abyssinia as a main cause of tho Italian reverses there. The English language has taken firm root in Egypt. The new photography has now been applied to dentistry. It is almost as lucrativo to bo a crack cyclist as a jockey. The French President pays no railway far when ho travels. The Czarina’s coronation robe will cost something like ,£4OOO. Madame Nansen says she is stormed with telegrams and letters. Count Caprivi, the ex-Chancellor of Germany, is writing his memoirs. It is estimated that 1000 foreigners como to England to stay every month. Mr Quiller Couch’s new novel is to be dedicated to Mr J. M. Barrie.

Tho supply of stokers in tho navy is by no means adequate to tho demand. Professor Koch, is about to publish an article shortly on the use of tuberculin. Tho East Indian Railway Directors have appointed women ticket-colloctors. General Baratieri, the Italian Goin-mandcr-in-Chief in Abyssinia, is a man of 64, , .

The Marchioness of Lome has had three mothers-in-law during her married life. Tho Doan of Winchester says he looks forward to tho day when the fox will be extinct.

A movement is on foot to introduce the electrophono into tho House of Commons. After Bismarck was firod at in Berlin 30 years ago ho wore a steel shirt next his skin.

A correspondent of tho Times suggests “ Kingsland ” as a now name for South Australia.

The Governorship of the Island of Jamaica will sfiortly Do vacant, liie salary is .£6OOO per year. - One of President Kruger’s onerous duties consists of receiving any of his people who may desire to him. This being the case he has made it a rule to devote a portion of each day to waiting at a table in his oxtonsivo garden, where lie, with lus accustomed suavity of manner, receives his ,/-nests. .It is also hi.s habit, while giving his advice, to regale his visitors with a cun of coffee; for this purposo lie receives a “ coffee allowance ” of a year. Tho rate at which tho Zulus can run upon an emergency is astonishing, if..me will cover so much as fitly inias in m\

limns ; eight miles an hour is an ■ a dinar, - pact). The superiority of English coal makes the westward trips of Atlantic steamers faster than tho eastward. This fact, however, may bo partly accounted for by the prevalence of westerly winds. The Queen of Servia is ono of tho few examples of royalty who has a royal bearing She eschews soft bods and down pillows. She sleeps on a narrow divan, with a hard and unyiolding mattress and without tho vestige of a head rest ; tho consequence is that her figure is perfect and the carriage of her head stately and natural. The Royal Family of Servia had never been permitted as children to indulge in the pillow habit, and consequently the absence of it is no deprivation to the beautiful Queen. American wealth exceeds that ot Great Britain by thirty-five per cent., but the ratio per inhabitant is less. In all it has been estimated that over two million acres ate devoted to tho mainteanco of deer in Scotland, and that about 6000 stags aro annually killed. M. Gastinne-Renette, the French trainer of duellists, is tho proprietor of famous shooting-gallery in E urope. There, may bo seen any afternoon, some of the most prominent men of Paris shooting

away in all seriousness at targets—little discs of whito cardboard, which are afterwards treasured up by the marksmen as proof of their ability. M. Renette lias coached tho principals in some, of the most important duels in France, and is himself a magnificent shot.

It is not generally known that the Empress of Japan still wears her national costume at some of tho public functions where she considers it politic to appear patriotic. Otherwise Her Majesty is to be seen attired in the latest Parisian fashion, which style of costume she infinitely prefers.

Verdi is inclined lobe parsimonious, and in business dealings he strikes a close bargain. Ho lives soberly and is abstemious? 1 His first breakfast is simply a cup of coffee and, after the Italian fashion, he cats more cheese and eggs than meat. He has a bluntness of speech that can hardly be regarded as agreeable. At a rehearsal of “Falstaff ” at Milan the singers and musicians gave him an ovation when he entered the opera-house. In response he said : “ I thank you all, but will thank you more if you do better in your performances than last time.”

T’hcro is a scliemo for uniting Ceylon with India by a railway across _ Falk’s Straits. It will necessitate a bridge of proportions hitherto undreamt of, since it will have to lie forty-one miles in length. The engineering difficulties are not so formidable as would at first sight appear, for although the imp shows a formidable breadth of sea between the mainland and Ceylon, tho railway can bo made to traverse it on a series of stepping-stones formed by the rocks and shoals known as Adam’s Bridge.

The wearing qualitiesof Parisian drapery are tested with mud. Any new tint that cannot stand the influence of mud being thrown upon it is immediately put aside as useless. To experiment with mud, however, has been found unpleasant, foulsomo, and unhealthy. .An excellent imitation of the original was recently ordered of a chemist, which was composed of a solution of carbonate of ammonia, carbonate of potassium, sulphite of soda and sea salt in water, which takes the place of mud in the colour tests of new dress goods. Children born of mothers under twenty years old do not have as good a chance of healthy life as those born of mothers over thirty.

Ants do not harm plants to any great extent. Indeed, they are of benefit in most instances, as they catch the insects which, if left to themselves, would soon damage the plants greatly. The Post Ollice, says a correspondent, lias beaten its record in the deciphering of strangely addressed letters. The Rev \\. E. Clarke, missionary, who was Robert Louis Stevenson’s great friend in Samoa, was lecturing in Blackburn recently, and received a letter from his native congregation addressed, “i a misi talati o 100 i poretania.” The postal authorities discovered that this was Samoan for “ To Air Clarke, who is in England,” and tho rest was easy.

Mr Rockefeller, the American millionaire, has at last completed the palace in which he is about to live. Henceforth this illustrious person will sleep the sleep of tho just upon a canopied bed which cost a little over =£6oo. Too many to enumerate are the wondrous luxuries of the oil-king’s now home, but amongst the most curious may be mentioned tho stalls of the stables, which aro made of cherry wood ornamented with gold-plated trimmings. There is also a special building for two dozen cycles, so that Mr Rockefeller’s “ Wheeling friends ” need never be at a loss for congenial employment. Mrs Eva Nansen, the wife of tho famous Norwegian explorer, is one of those charmingly brave women who place infinite trust ill their husbands. At tho present moment she is awaiting the return of her “ Lord and Master” in her snug little home, some twenty minutes’ railway journey from Christiania. Mrs Nansen is exceedingly fond of music ; she is, in fact, the best singer in Christiania. It is not long since she went on quite a long concert tour through Sweden, and everywhere met with a most enthusiastic reception. Her art and her little daughter, somewhat curiously named “ Liv” (life), keep her fully occupied, all of which is well, as, perchance, it prevents her thinking too much of the dangers her gallant husband is running. A short time before Dr Charcot died, he said in a lecture that semi-scientists hud for mine than fifty years ridiculed the idea that the full of the moon was a danger.jti; time for mad people. Better-informed men are coming back to that old-lime notion, said Dr Charcot, as the re cti! of im-p* 'sod ie.'.r’iing "U the subject <-f earth tido, idni'lurto tile <K.cill.tf i"ll of .*'.l tide ;. A ;l i onoiuers calculate t hut tic surf.ice of the earth contains 31 'jJ.i'Ji/ square mites, of which 23,81 !■, 121 are watci, and 7,811,601- arc land, the water thus covering about seven-tenths of the earth’s surface. Experiments have shown that soft wood under pressure becomes considerably harder than hard wood under pressure. A new form of insanity has been discovered. This is caused by rising from bed too early in the morning. A pretty form of excuse forsooth! A watchmaker of the Pays-dc-C.ilais, Franco, will shortly exhibit a repeating watch which actually tells the hours instead of striking them. You press a button, and immediately a tiny photograph tells its tale. A folding bicycle has now boom introduced into tho French army. Tho pneumatic tyres are prudently replaced by cushioned tyres, and the whole tiling is so light that it may be carried by an infantry man with little more difficulty than a knapsack.