OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11506, 19 August 1899, Page 8

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

It takes three seconds foi a message to go from America to England through the cable. Playing at .whist, it is possible for a player to h01d.635,013,559,000 different hands. .The school children in South Australia contributed nearly. £3.00 to the Loch Sloy relief fund. The liuge guns of modern navies can be fired only .75 !tiiries, when they become worn out. The pneumatic tube between Paris and Berlin carries a letter, from one. city to the other in 35 minutes. A man can hire a horse in Japan, keep two' servants; and live on the fat of the land, all for a little over £W a month. The Americans, after trying the/system of school work without examinations, have decided that it is. advisable.to. return to the system of periodical examinations. ■ At Antwerp at the present moment there are no less than 3897 publichouses. According to the new law just introduced by the Minister of Justice, 3004- would be suppressed. A huge wire-barrel at Nancy accommodated it dinner 150 workmen, who had been building it for the Paris Exhibition. The cask weighs 70 tons, and cost £6000. Auotria is the country most lenient to murderers. In ten.years over 800 persons were1 found guilty of murder, of whom only 23 were put to death At Munich there is a hospital which is entirely supported by the sale of old steel pens !\nd nib 3 collected from all parts of Germany. They are made into watch springs, knives, and razors. " A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." Do you want to know, all about it? Then go to headquarters before buying a bike. W. A. Scott, Speedwell dycle Factory, 155 George street....1 A philosophical statistician calculates that in the year 2000 there will bo 1,700,000,000 people who speak English, and that the other European languages will be spoken by only 500,000,000 people. . . Russian photographers.have a strange way of punishing those who, having received their photo, do not pay their bills. They hang the pictures of the delinquents upside down at the entrance of their studios. Within eight more centuries Leap Year will have becomo a relic of the past. By that time the extra 11 days lost to make up the. changes from the old Julian calendar to that of the present day will all have been duly accounted for, and the year will run its course in just 365 days, and no more. Successful experiments have been made in tho Auckland district in the cultivation,"of maranta, the plant from which arrowroot is', obtained. At Opotiki a settlor has been growing sufficient .to produce two ,or three tons a. year, and has found a good market for it.. : The mine-owners of Colorado have, altered their original intention «f sending to the Paris, exhibition a gold model of Pike's Peak Mountain worth a million dollars. They have subscribed that amount, but will convert it intoa life-size figure of a typical American girlcast in virgin gold. Mr Francis F. Smith, a well-known and highly-respected resident of Waikaka township, died very suddenly at his residence on the 9th inst." He had been out during the day on business, but on returning home he told Mr Lake, with whom he lived, that he did not feel well. Immediately afterwards he fell forward and expired, the rause of death being' heart disease. Mr Smith was 66 years of age. T. Ross has opened out his first.spring shipments of new goods. New kid gloves, (pretty tan shades and black), 2s 6d, 2s lid, • and 3s 6d. New sailor straw hats (an im-, mouse range), at Is 3d. Is 6d, Is lid, 2s 6d. and 2s lid. Pretty 6ilk and lace scarves and bows. New white muslin aprons richly trimmed, lid, Is 3d, Is 6d, Is 9d. and upwards. Ladies' new cashmere stockings, with seamless feet, at Is, Is 3d. Is 6d. and'upwards. New purses, handkerchiefs, collars and cuffs, and. belts, at T. Ross's, direct importer.... ' . .. ' Mr Mathias. of Hamilton station, writing to the Mount Ida Chronicle, states that after an 'experience of 33 years he has never seen the snow lie so long aa it has this winter.' Some of the largest'(and oldest insicnis are spoilt, if not destroyed completely. The following are the readings of his baromoter in. what i? supposed to be the warmest part of the plain, commencing July 13. .the figures representing the number of degrees of frost: 13deg. 16deg, 16deg. sde<r 6deg, 6desr. lSdeg. Odeg, 26.-W. 6dei?. 26de.(r. 30deg. 38deg, 6deg Qdeg, sdeg, 6deg, 20deg, Odog, 6r]eg, 16 deg. 18des». 19desr. 20deg, 22deg, 22dag. 20deg, lOdeg, lOdeg, 14deg. ' Gold! Gold! Gold ! Bright and yellow, hard and cold! Thousands of rich people would Rive all they possess for Nature's wealth— " Good Health." Consumption frequently starts with a nasty little cough. A few doses of Woods' Great Peppermint Cure will stop this or .any other kind of cough. Yes, stop it at once. Always keep a bottle in the house; the cost is only eighteenpence. Tt saves' doctors' bills and often, funeral expenses. —23