MISCELLANEOUS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2736, 28 December 1881, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

A club has, it is stated, beeh established in St. Petersburg, the members of which bind themselves, under penalty of fines, to wear only clothes made of Russian cloth, to employ only Russian workmen, to dine at Russian restaurants, and to abstain from everything coming from foreign sources.

The Brahmin, says Dr. Scudder, has intellectually no superior. No man can mingle much with them and not have his wits sharpened. They are the learned men of the country. The Sanscrit, “ queen of languages,” is their native tongue, and its vast literatuie has been their grand field of mental training. The Brahmin is almost white, wonderfully neat, begins the day in the water eats no animal fond, believing that if ho does he shall pass through as many transmigations alter death as there are hairs on the animal of which he eats. Physically these people are of splendid form, majestic heads, and carry themselves grandly.

As an instance of the thoroughness with which musketry practice is taught in the German army, may be mentioned a device which has recently been introduced with good results. The better to accustom the men to the interferences with sight in a battle, clouds of smoke are produced by burning furze and wet grass, or by other means, between the marksmen and the target. For several years past the Great Western Railway Company have been boring a tunnel under the Severn with a view to connect their lines on the Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire sides of that river. The points at which the subterranean work began were two miles apart, and, as is customary in such work, boring was carried on from both ends. The two parties met half-way under the river, and the blow of a pickaxe opened one tunnel into the other So exact had been the line taken tha the centres of the two tunnels cor resdonded within three inches. The French soldier is to be provided with a ticket of identity in the shape of a thin metal plate, by which he may under any circumstances that may occur be readily recognised. The name and regiment of the owner is to be engraved on each, and he will be expected to wear it continually while on active service. The object is that if the man should be killed, or so severely wounded as to be unable to speak, those who find him should have no difficulty in assigning to him his proper place in the army, and making their report of casualties accordingly. An English writer, reviewing the statistics of English railway accidents a year ago, found 937 failures of tires, 346 failures of axles, 17,377 broken rails, and he commented thus: —“Two thousand six hundred and seventy-three flaws and failures in wheels, couplings, and rails, and any one of these sufficient to cause a fatal calamity. No more shameless illustration of the way in which English manufacturers have been meeting competition can be shown. Bad iron, ill-worked steel, and scamped workmanship—these are the chief causes of the failures in tires, and axles, and rails. It has become quite an old story, unfortunately, this relaxation of honest pride and commercial honor during the past few years. Loaded cotton, shoddy cloths, rotten iron, ill-tempered steel, poorly-ground cutlery, short weight, and adulterations of all kinds have taken the place of the genuine English goods by which the Old Country had made her reputation.”