FACTS AND FANCIES.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 18, Issue 42, 24 May 1907, Page 6

FACTS AND FANCIES.

A farmer, his wife, and four children, residing near Cork, were found to be all raving mad. They had eaten a portion o. a sheep which had been bitten by a mad dog. The most important railway system, not in the United States alone, but in the whole world, is that known as the Pennsylvania Railway. This wonderful fabric, with soma 4.000 miles of line, had in 1887 a gross m* come of £23,300,000, carried _ million tons of traffic, and over 74 millions of passengers. With its entrance into Belgium, the Salvation Army has now advanced into every one of the thirteen countries of the north-west of Europe. The foreign office of the movement is now directing its operations in a south-easterly direction, having under Commissioner Railton got as fai towards Constantinople as Berlin. In the colonies one often rubs shoulder? with all ranks. A friend of the writer’s was one of a party of three who sat down to dinner in a country hotel in New Zealand. One of the three was the then Governor of Fiji; the second, my friend, was a schoolmaster ; and the third (who dined in his shirt-sleeves) was the ostler of the hotel. At Quebec the winter markets are very curious. Everything is frozen. Large pigs, killed perhaps months before, may be seen standing frozen in the butcher's shop Frozen masses of beef, mutton, deer, fowl, cod, and haddock, aad eels, long and stiff like walking sticks, abound on the stalls. Milk also is kept frozen and is sold by the pound, in masses which look like lumps of white marble. The most widely separated points between which a telegram can be sent are British Columbia and New Zealand. The telegram would cross North America, Newfoundland, the Atlantic, England, Germany, Russia (European and Asiatic), China, Japan, Java, and Australia. It would make nearly a circuit of the globe, and would traverse over 20.000 miles in doing so. A strange old contract for a hired house has recently been found in Leipsic. It contains the following regulationsl. People who hire this house must not have more than two children, 2. Smoking is not permitted, as it darkens the papers on the walls. 3. Musical people must remain where they are; I can stand no row in my house a. Dresses and coats must be brushed in the courtyard, so as not to occasion useless dust, 5. Nobody must commit suicide in this house; whoever intends to do so must stay where he is. In the village of Woppmannsdorf (Oberpfalz) lives a family consisting of four pairs of twins, eight brothers and eight sisters, whose united ages amount to 620 years. None of them have ever in their lives drunk coffee, tea, or beer; their food consists of potatoes, bread, sauerkraut, milk, and milk puddings. They eat meat only once a year, at the village church festival. Doctors and physic are unknown things to them, and with illness they are acquainted only by hearsay. The only medicine they have ever taken is a home-made one of dried black berries. Perhaps one in a thousand readers may not know what beche-de-mer is, the fishery for which has now risen to some importance in Torres Straits and thereabouts. It is a sea-slug of from six to eight inches in length, and about two inches broad. It forms an important article of commerce with China, where from £IOO to £l5O is obtained for it per ton, the celestial epicures ranking the beche-de-mer as one of their choicest dishes. When properly dried and smoked the flavour is excellent, even to European palates, and the soup made from it has been pronounced equal if not superior to turtle. The Best and Worst Kind of RoadPaving.— The Horse Accident Prevention Society recently, by circular, invited an expression of opinion on the part of every driver in the employ of the London General Omnibus Company, the London Road Car Company, Messrs. Tilling, omnibus and cab proprietors, and Messrs, Carter, Paterson, and Co., carriers, as to which, in their experience and judgment, was the best—that is, >‘he safest— sind which the worst or most dangerous kind of road-paving in vogue in the streets of London. From the replies received, it appears that 750 drivers declare wood the best, 219 macadam, 197 granite cubes, rmd 51 asphalte. As to the " worst paving,’ 1 122 drivers say it is wood, and 1,046 pronounce asphalte to be the worst and most dangerous paving material used.

’ * ■■■■■ A Warning to Oyster Lovers.— Lovers of bivalves, especially those who prefer them cooked in their own liquor, may be Interested in knowing what the fluid contains, The microscope makes some very unpleasant discoveries of which with the naked eye alone we should remain happily ignorant. A scientific journal says that if, on opening an oyster, the liquor is retained in the lower part or deeper shell, and viewed through the microsope, it will be found to contain multitudes of small oysters, covered with shells, and swimming nimbly about—--120 of them extending but one inch. Besides these young oysters, the liquor contains a variety of animalculse, and myriads of three distinct species of worms Sometimes their light represents a bluish star about the centre of the shell, which will be beautifully luminous in a dark room, The World’s Most Powerful Tribunal. —The highest Court of the United States holds a unique place in forms of government, and one not found in any other government system. It wields a power greater than is exercised by any other judicial tribunal in the world. In no country of Europe or the East has any Court authority to make or unmake the supreme law of the land, to limit the prerogatives of the Sovereign, to control the powers of the Legislature, to shape the form of government, These functions are exercised by the Supreme Court of the United States. It Holds a power above that of the chief magistrate of the nation, superior to that of Congress, higher than that of any State, and equalled only by that which made or can amend the Constitution. It can change the relations between the State and the nation, It can extend or restrict either the central power or State sovereignty. In short, it can make or unmake the constitutional law of the country, j-v-' In a certain country town in Yorkshire there dwelt some years ago a large family ol the name of Card, who were for the most part engaged in the public-house and stagecoach line. They were anything but religious, and were a fast-living lot. An heir was bora to them, and a couple of Sundays after its birth the babe was taken to the church to be christened. " What name shall I call this child ?’’ asked the minister. ‘‘Pontius Pilate," answered the father p’romptly. " I will not," said the clergyman angrily. "No child was ever called that name since baptism was instituted, and it is atrocious to suggest such a name for an innocent babe." "Well, pa’son, I’m very sorry," said the father, somewhat shamefacedly, "for I have set on callin' that kid that name. I thought that it would be a first-class 'un for 'un, an’ I think it was in church I heerd it furst. Howsomever, pa'son, if we can’t caal it that name, caal it ‘Tramp,’" and Trump Card that child wa? christened.