FRAGMENTS OF FACT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1266, 4 June 1896, Page 10

FRAGMENTS OF FACT.

TIT-BITS OF INTERESTING ANO USEFUL INFORMATION.

An observer says there "are some young women so absurd as to pedal in a highheeled boot."

The Bristol Town Council have decided to spend a some of .£IOO,OOO upon improving the docks there. For aasulting a Prince two youths have received 15 days' imprisonment in St. Petersburg. In the thirty year;; between 1850 and 1881, the working classes had increased by about 15 per cent. "Judo the Obscure" has been denied admission to the Liverpool (Lyceum) Library. Mr James Payn's "Discoveries" as editor of the Conihill include Mr Stanley Weyman. In the United States there are about twenty women lighthouse keepers. Mr Eider Haggard seems to maintain his popularity with the public libraries. " Education " says Plato, " is the fairest thing that the best of men can ever have." "Tom Brown's Schooldays, by and Old Boy," appeared in 1857. Out of every three companies registered two becomes insolvent. I

A branch of the Bank of JapanMs already established in London.

The Khalifa pretends to act under divine inspiration. The habit of bathing the eyes every night is a good one. The enumerators of the last census in America reported forty-seven frog farms. Lev,- will not form on some colours. "While a yellow board will be covered with dew, a rod or black one beside it will be perfectly dry. In the ant hills of South Africa have been found suspension bridges, passing from one gallery to another, and spanning a gulf more than six inches wide. Half the counties of England claim the house of the tragedy of the " Mistletoe Bough," but the village of Owlesbury, near' Winchester, boasts the possession of the fatal chest itself.

Probably the smallest republic in the world is Pranceville, one of the islands of the Xow Hebrides. The inhabitants consist of forty Europeans and five hundred black workmen employed by a French

company. ' Gold in transit across the Atlantic "sweats," however tightly it may bo packed. It is usually sent in stout kegs and squeezed in as tight as possible; but there is a regular allowance for loss by attrition upon the voyage, and in the course of years this loss to the commercial world amounts to a large sum. The Chinese send three invitations to the guests that they desire to see at their great foasts. The first is dispatched two days before the feast ; the second on the day itself, in order to remind those they have invited of their engagement; and the third just before the hour has struck, so as to show how impatient they are to sue their friends airive.

An accomplished bacteriologist has reported a very curious experiment. Having cultived some bacteria from the mouth and throat, ho subjected them to tobacco smoke in a specially-designed apparatus, so as not to expose them more than they would bo exposed in ordinary inhalation by the mouth. They were then returned to a broth culture and found to be sterilised. That is, their vitality was gono, they ceased to grow, and they were virtually destroyed. He regards the inference as irresistible. In Germany the view obtains that the executions of criminals should be by some means more certain even than the electric chair. Dr E. Cuhmann, a celebrated chemist, suggest the use of carbolic acid. According to this plan, the criminal would be carried to a cell which can bo filled noiselessly with carbolic acid in gaseous form from floor to coiling. When the gas reaches the delinquent's mouth and nose, it causes instant paralysis of the lungs and unconsciousness, and life departs without previous pain. The harp has almost died out in \\ ales. The late Archdruid " Clwyfardd," writing to Mr Edward Tirebuck in 1893, said : " I cm recollect that, twenty years ago, all the principal inns and hotels kept a proficient harpist to play on the "Welsh harp for the diversion of visitors, highly appreciated by ladies and gentlemen who frequented their establishment in those days, .and on the Ist March ' St. David's Day,' you might see nine or a dozen harps competing for a prize; but now you cannot find a"Weish harp and harpist of proficiency, I believe, in North Wales, excepting at Newtown, in Montgomeryshire.'' One of the most recent, as it is the most novel, of tho applications of Professor Rontgen's discovery has been madem the Museums of Natural History at Vienna, The museum contains an Egyptian mummy, which is human in form, but which, from the inscription on it, was taken to be that of an ibis. It is, however, so rare and valuable an object, that it was not possible to do it the damage of opening it, in order to ascertain the contents. It was taken to tho School of Photography and examined by being photograped with the " X " rays, The picture obtained shows the outlines of a largo bird skeleton, and. proves the nature of tho mummy. Rosa Bonheur, the great French animal painter, was a dressmaker's apprentice when she was a girl of fifteen years. The Duke of Cumberland was born without a nose. Tho one that adorns his face is the result of the much ingenuity on the part of tho surgeons who attended him as an infant. Kin"- Humbert of Italy has a marked aversion of playing cards—an aversion so strong that he absolutely refuses to even take thorn in his hand. This is because his father wasted so much of his time and

Women, on an average, need a little less than half as much food as a working man. The frying-pan is said by physicians to do almost as much harm as the beer-mug. Eaphael showed his artistic abilities at the early age of 12, when ho was widely known as an artist in oil.

Mr MacNamara, the editor of the British Schoolmaster, says he would never advise a man to make his son a teacher. The first invention of Mr Hiram S. Maxim, of big gun celebrity, is said to have been an automatic mouse-trap. The Countess of Lovelace is among the few women in Surrey who have been elected on the new Parish Councils. Sir Walter Phillimore, the barrister, bad tho nicknames of Mary at Oxford, and Portia when he came to the liar. The Khalifa is never happier than when ho lias brought people to complete destitu-1 tion by confiscating their property. _ I Tho ladies of Paris are twirling their | tresses to a topknot on tho summit of their heads, and London will follow in hut pursuit. Mr Ballington Booth lias cut down the name of his new Salvation Army still further, making it simply "'Tho Volunteers."

The Field regards tho scheme to have a regiment of gentlemen as a decided step towards snobbery of the most pronounced kind.

Tho power got out of the waterfall of Niagara is the same as that of millions of horses.

Tho total debt of China (including the present Anglo-Gorman loan) is 22' millions sterling. The latest thing in Spanish hull-fights is to put tho matador on a bicyclu instead of a hoi so.

A correspondent of a London paper complains that nearly every baker about London is a German.

In 1895, 20,000 emigrants went to tin Cape and Natal, as against rather les; than 17,000 in 1894.

In the year 1831 only 155 horses were exported from the Emerald Isle. In 1895 31,500 left her shores.

In his personal habits President Kruger is a Boer of tho Boers. He smokes much and expectorates freely. "Bab" was the pen-name of W. S. Gilbert, who first came to prominence as the author of " Bab Ballads."

"Hans Breitman," whose dialect narratives are even now popular, was the name chosen by Charles G. Leland. Tho Corporation of the City of Loudon have decided to set aside .£2500 for chat itable purposes during tho ensuing year. Tho Lord Chief Justice of England receives ,£SOOO a jear, and after 15 years' service is entitled to a pension of JHSOO a

year. After the battle of Trafalgar, Sir John Franklin was always a little deaf, a troublesome reminder of that furious cannonade.

The planet Venus always exposes the

same side to tho sun, and one half must be in perpetual day, while the other is in perpetual night. Though a shilling is charged for admission to Garlyle's house, over 3000 persons have visited the exhibition since it was opened in July last. It is said on very good second-hand authority—on that, no less, of Rabelais —■ that apes esteem their young to be tho handsomest in the world.

According to a New York paper the number of miles travelled by the wind in that city during February was 14/102, or 0107 miles more than in February, l.s'.M..

Dr Parker holds up for admiration the Welsh divine who declared, " He that believeth shall be saved, he that bolioveth not shall be dammed, and I beg no pardons." ■Sir Henry Irving, next to the Prince of Wales, is in most demand as a speaker at public functions. The Dukes of York and Cambridge! follow Irving in popularity. The Duke of Cmnaught is probably the best, chairman in England. He knows how-

to manage a meeting, and always speaks without notes. The Empress of Austria has her hair shampooed once a month. It is still beautiful, luxuriant and perfectly black, and r hen let down i! touches the ground as she stands, and she is tall. It is said the hair-wash requires forty eggs, and the other ingredients are obtained from no fewer than twenty mysterious bottles. Lord Salisbury rises at eight o'clock, and invariably takes a wall; before breakfast, When at his magnificent country estate he goes out in his park, and very often reels oil' throe or four mile; before taking his coffee. When in London it is his custom to have a sharp spin round the Green Park, or even Hyde Bark, before the days fairly begins.

Frau Cecilia Wagner, widow of tho great composer, is causing much comment by her growing eccentricities. She recently composed live) poems in honour of her sou Siegfried's five dogs. On Siegfried's birthday she gave a reception, ami after the guests had assembled she called in the dogs and had her live poems recited and sung for their benefit. Mr Balfour, who plays golf for amusement, and not in the spirit of a professional, does not pretend to be a great performer, ill though ho has written a charming chapter the Badminton book on golf, which abounds in good stories j and he has, we believe, rather a poor opinion of his own play. For a long time it was almost his only amusement, but he has now taken to cycling. Mr Cramp, the head of tke famous shipbuilding firm of Cramp's, is a millionaire, and his mission in life—m-xt to making money—is to restore to America her lost shipbuilding trade. Years ago he mapped out on paper tho area of ground his yards were to cover and tho extent to which the building capacity of his business was to develop before he reached his seventieth year. His aims were high, but such has been his energy and push that, provided he 1 is spared, he will probably see the fulfilI ,rW nf V,; a lifo'a flMirfi.

The Infanta Eulalie of Spain never travels without a young negro attendant. Corea has a cold wind cave from which a wintry blast continually blows. Seaweed is eaten largely in the West of Ireland during tho w inter season. For very minute writing, pens made from crow quills have been found to do excellent work. The Government of India lias decided to make experiments witli the manufacture of cordite.

The Queen has sixty-three descendants

living, seven children, thirty-three grandchildren, and twenty-three of the next generation.

The Marquis di Iludini, the new Italian Premier, is a tall Sicilian nobleman, with broad shoulders, not yet sixty, wearing a bushy yellow beard and an eye-glass. It was Cromwell who, while his troops were preparing to cross a river, gave utterance to the well-known sentence, "Put your trust in God, and mind to keep your powder dry." An expert is responsible for the opinion that the heart of a. cyclist accomplishes in twenty-four hours a task equal to lifting 1(10 tons one foot from the earth.

Of every shilling turned out the Mint makes a profit of nearly threepence. On every foil of penny-pieces taken out from the Mint there is a profit of X3S2. Irish peat rugs, which made their first appearance in London quite recently, are gaining approval in many quarters. Not only rug.-, but dresses and men's suits, can be made out of this peat.

For some years there has stood in tho British Ligation at Tokio an old safe, the key of which has long been lost. Thoother day it was forced open, and among its cmtents were found the gold and silver medals which, twenty-six years ago, were sent by the British Government to be presented to the natives who defended the British Legation against the attack of the mob in 1801. Most of the men for whom the medals were intended are dead or cannot be found.

James Dodds, a retired shepherd, of Boston, Berwickshire, has just entered on his one hundred and third year. He was born at Harehead, on the Lammermoor Hills, on April 5, J 791. He has been twice married, and is the father of ten children, the eldest being a man seventy years old, now resident in Buenos Ayres. Four successive generations in direct order are alive, the eldest of each bearing the parent name of James Dodds. He has over seventy descendants alive.

Of labour that may be fairly called skilled, the Japanese is probably the cheapest, for a worker in lacquer or inlaying and mosaic work will employ skill and knowledge that has been inherited and handed down for generations in return for a wage that an English bricklayer's labourer would refuse with contemptuous disgust. In tho valleys of California grows a tall, slender-stemmed liliaceous plant, with purple and white flowers, which played an important part in the economy of tho Spanish population, and is still more or less used by the couutry people. It is tho wellknown amolo, or soap plant. This bulb has the detergent properties of soap. Tho average height of clouds above the earth is between one and two miles, but highly electrified ones are much lower. Lightning clouds are seldom more than seven hundred yards from the ground, and often they are much closer. Some clouds are about twenty square miles in surface, and above a mile in thickness, while others aro only a few yards or inches in depth.

In Franco there exists an order of merit, founded by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, of which the members are dogs who have distinguished themselves by deeds of bravery. A taste-fully-designed "collar of honour" is awarded to the nominees of the order. In ISS7 a London linn published a picture representing tho " Jubilee Celebration in Westminster Abbey." It had a considerable popularity, but il is a melancholy fact that of the Princes figured in it nine have sine.; died. All the Princesses represented are si ill living. The Queen employs an easy method of newspaper reading. Kin; never sees the papers in their original state. They are carefully peruse,l ],y an oilicial, who cuts out what he thinks will phase her, pins tho clippings on to silk ribbons and lays them on her table. In his younger day.-: Lord Dunravcn financed several theatrical companies—with the usual financial results. Ho was Lord A dare then. Somebody asked 11. J. Byron for a "catching title" for one of these ventures. "Oh," said tho humorist, "call it ' Robin Adair.'"

Although it is only seventy years since the fiisl railway in the world was finished kOOtyitNJ miles have been constructed, tin British Empire accounting for about one sixth.

The Japanese, in order to celebrate their recent: victories, are going to erect a gigantic statue of Buddha. The height wilf be 120 feet. Tho metal will be supplied from the ordnance captured in the late war. The monument will cost about one million yen, and is to be erected at Kioto.

A has been seen to make three different balloons before he became satisfied with the experiment. Then ho will snap the guy rope, and, suspended from a filament, will sail away to land as gracefully and as supremely independent of his surroundings as could well be imagined. "When it was first proposed to light the streets of London with gas, great objection was made by the public and newspapers on the ground that the people! would bo poisoned, that the trees and vegetation would all be killed, and that domestic animals could not possibly survive the deadly fumes. Everything in Vienna is dear. Cab fares are double those of Paris and London; rents are exorbitant; coal, gas, and water aro 30 per cent, dearer than in England; and tho income-tax amounts to | three shillings in the pound, or fifteen per I cent of a man's revenue. .