FRAGMENTS OF FACT.

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 27

FRAGMENTS OF FACT.

Small-pox scars cannot be removed. Photographs were first taken in 1802. It costs £13.140,000 a year to run Loudoii. Only 900 people in a million die of old age. Jews are not permitted to buy land in Russia. We spend £1,900,000 a year on foreign gloves. For every 110 civilians, 380 soldiers commit suicide. A man should weigh 2Glb for every foot of his height. There are two solid-silver tea-tables at Windsor Castle. Fully 95 per cent, of the opals obtained are of no value. Potatoes in Greenland never grow larger than a marble. A ton of soot results from the burning of 100 tons of coal. A ton of coal is said to yield about B,oooft. of purified gas. There are no fewer than eight- printing offices in Jerusalem. Iti the eye of the State, all religions are etpial in Australia. Five hours is the utmost sleep indulged injiy the elephant. Tiie friction of steel on ice is exactly half that of ice on ice. Belgium is the only maritime country m Europe without- a navy. There are nine kilted battalions altogether in the British Army. It costs the average vessel £BGO to pass through the Suez Canal. There are said to be 275 women preachers in the United States. Fifty-five British yacht clubs own, between them, 4.100 yachts. A s * n gl o workman can cut by hand 6,000 watch-glasses a day. Thirty-seven thousand girls attend cooking classes in London. There are four sovereigns in circulation to one half-sovereign. Out of 10,300 islands in the Indian Ocean only 370 are inhabited. . ,® veil every 10,000 people who die in England are murdered. English apple orchards cover 180,000 Acres against 560,000 in France. In Berlin they have luminous nameP a 3 up at the street comers. At all seasons of the year 5 a.m. is the coldest hour of the twenty-four. A racehorse galloping at full speed 20ft to 24ft every bound. £IOO,OOO worth of so-called old violins 2,. ex P° r tod from Germany yearly. ho Chinese have twice sacked Mos~ rpi’ once j}\ 1237, and again in 1293. iho starfish iia s no nose, but can smell m, t!l ® "'hole of its under side. Ginrl mnety biggest men itt the Scots Guards average 6ft 2*in in height. in RnV V i erag ° "' cight of wlmon caught m BnUsh waters is eight pounds. banks / t\ 3 n °' V °P° nin S new savings Out. Of 16 r r a A- 0 SIX hundred a year. the lLt cmtum 173 eatreS - bU A rnt d - Uring Great Br?t 13 Y^ ro m America. £l5O 000 a j tain S u' ve i a . th incr eascs about 40 005 no T that is 3d a head a day. guinea « pe ? p 0 m these islands pay the Silk is f coa . t '°f-amis tax/ the poorest /o? ln Mada gascar that of it. people wear clothing made put of'the'/orm taentb of tho paper outfit. Peforshuro-'l con l ert , ed >'«to books. »to of an v ]ff S the highest death--1,000, y J ' ur °pean capital, 51 per

The horse has no eyebrows. The British working-class family spends on an averago Gs lOd a week on liquor. There are fifty-five dogs in the United Kingdom to every thousand inhabitants. Thirteen British life assurance offices decline proposals from unvaccinated pirsons. Mozart -holds the record among composers of having written G 24 compositions. Of the 1,900,328 domestic servants in the United Kingdom only 140,733 are men. Tho driver of the first railway engine, “The Rocket/’ died in 1895, at the age of eighty-four. In Italy there are more theatres in proportion to tho population than in any other country. At the Strozzi Palace, in Rome, there is a book made of marble, the leaves being of marvellous thinness. The number of species of palms known in 1797 was 16; to-day they , number 1200. The biggest artesian well in Europe is at Garneiie, near Paris. It gives 700,000 gallons of water a day. In Persia the man who laughs is considered effeminate, but free license is given to female merriment. Russia leather is tanned in an infusion of willow or birch bark, and gains its delicious odour from birch oil. Tenants occupy 21,000,000 acres of England, owners 3,700,000. In Scotland owners occupy 004,000 acres, against 4,125,000 occupied by tenants. The average duration of human life is about 33 years. One-quarter of all the people boni in the world die before the age of six, and one-half before 16. The grenadiers, a body of tall, strong soldiers who threw bombs or grenades into the enemy’s ranks, were established in France in 1667, in England in 1685. The biggest mortar in the world is Mallet’s 36in, made in 1855. It is still to be seen in Woolwich Arsenal. After three rounds it showed signs of cracking. Over £600,000 of unclaimed army prize money has been applied towards keeping up Chelsea Hospital and grounds. A statistical item of interest to women is that to-day women are 2in. taller on an average than they were 25 years ago. The key to the Bastille is now hanging on the wall in the hall of the old home at Washington, at Mount Vernon, U.S.A. It was given to Washington by Lafayette. There is in existence an unrepealed law in Switzerland which forbids the wearing of hats more than 18in. in diameter, artificial flowers, and foreign feathers, under a heavy penalty. Far away from civilisation gesturelanguage is still extant in Australia. Some of the tribes possess such an excellent code that it is almost as efficient as tho spoken language. There is a statue in a village in Egypt which is said to be the oldest in the world, having been in existence over 6000 years. It is the representation of one of the chiefs of the domain wherein it was erected. A cockatoo appeared as a witness in the Stockton County Court. The plaintiff lost a cockatoo, and claimed one that was alleged to have been caught and retained by a farmer. The bird was produced in court, and at the plaintiff’s bidding said certain words. The judge thereupon ordered it to be returned to the plaintiff.