Brief Mention.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4715, 5 August 1893, Page 3

Brief Mention.

The word beer is of German origin, I Fifty-year-old Tokay coßts from £-> to JBIO a bottle. In Sweden an appetizer Ib made of the common fennel. Bacon advised the use of cider and perry on sea voyages. Catherine de Medicis introduced the use of liqueurs in France. Hermetically Bealed wine flasks bave been found in Pompeii. „ Cocoa was sent to Europe from Mexico by the Spaniards in 1620. Much 80' called Mocha is grown in the East Indies and sent to Mocha. j The average amount of alcohol in beer is 4 per cent; in cider, B'6 percent. Syrup of rose* is any white wine sweetened and flavoured with rose essence. Effervescing waters were first made on a large scale by J. Sohweppe, of Geneva, in 1789. Sparkling champagne was the discoveryof Petras Perighon,a monk, who died in 1715.' '*.'■■• Queen Anne was so devoted to brandy tbat her subjects called her "Brandy-faced Nan." Kimmel is brandy sweetened and flavoured with coriander and caraway ecede. The peculiar flavour of the Bavarian beer is due to the use of pine tops iv ita manufacture. The natives of Siberia prepare a singularly intoxicating beverage from a common mushroom. Beer was the universal drink of the English till the introduction of tea and coffep about 1650. Rum improves with age. . __n 1865 a quantiiy of rum known to be 140 years old' sold at _B 3 a bottle.' Wide ekins, made of the hides of pigs, goats, calveß or oxen, are still used in the rural districts of Spain. The liqueurs of two centuries ago were, without exception, invented and manufactured in the monasteries. In the sdhthern provinces of Russia a drink resembling brandy is obtained by distilling the juice of the watermelon. In 1871 250 leading doctors of England issued a cautionary declaration against the use of alcohol in medical praotice. Moselle has 9*6 per coht of alcohol; Rhine wine, 11; champagne, 12; sherry, 19; maraschino, 34; brandy, 53*4; whisky 54. .-. , ■ In all nations spirituous liquors have bsen considered a proper subject for heavy taxation for the support of the State. - •• In the wine districts of Franco, Spain and Italy, grapes are still trodden with the bare feet, under the idea that the wine is better. . Absinthe iB au alcoholate composed of anise, coriander and fennel, flavoured with wormwood aud coloured with indigo and sulphate of copper. The Swiss "wine of blood" is so called from the battle of Birs, fought on the vineyard; 1600 Swiss opposed 80,000 French, and were all killed but sixteen. Maraschino is distilled from cherries, the fruit and seeds being crushed together. The most delicate variety is made from a black Dalmatian cherry, very bitter and unpalatable. "Pledging a health" is a Saxon moment*/. The drinking horn had to be raised in both hands, and the drinker's pledge stood beside him with sword drawn in order that no one Bhould stab him while drinking. „* ■ Speaking at the annual meeting of the Tonic Sol-fa College, Lord Carrington remarked, as an instance of the great strides made by musical education, that when he was a boy ab Eton there was only one piano, and the present Earl of Sandwich was the only pupil who played on it. An electrical rocking chair bas been brought out by an inventor in New York. The chair is actuated by the current from a dynamo, and the Bitter can* at the same time receive gentle currents through the body either by grasping metal handles in the ordinary way, or by resting the bare feet on metal pedals. The Shah has an unfortunate affeotion for Great Britain. He is always writing to the Queen offering to visit Her Majesty, who is thought however, to have had enough of him last time. He not only drinks a bottlo of brandy a day, but is also an opium-eater, and is a man of violent and irresponsible habits. Horrible cannibalism is reported from the Congo. An explorer who has just arrived in Liverpool says he saw slaves tied together with marks on their bodies. The poor creatures were to be killed on the following day, and the marks on their bodies were made by persons who had purchased those particular "joints." The following remarkable advertisement appeared recently in the London Standard:— A gentleman of culture and means, who has lately led a somewhat solitary life, is now desirous of entertaining yonng and bright society at dinners, theatres, races, picnios, etc.; striot confidence and liberality may be relied upon. : A despatch from Kalamazoo, Mich., says that "from the stomach of a patient who bad just died at the Michigan Asylum for the ibisane there were taken seventy-five stones, thirty-eight nails from l£in tos£in long, fifteen staples, two screws, two buttons, one piece of glass, several pieces of barbed wire, resides dirt and gravel, the whole weighing 210z." The yearly expenses of the Sultan of Turkey are estimated at no less a Bum than sis: millions sterling. Of this, a million and a half alone is spent on the clothing ofthe women and _880,000 on the Sultan's own wardrobe; Nearly another million and a half is swallowed np by presents, a million goes for pocket-money, and still another million for the': table. A London watchmaker insured his stock against burglary. His house waß broken into, the thieves carrying off principally notes and caßh. The burglary, insuranoe company declined to be responsible for these things, as they were not stock-in-trade. The case was lately heard in the Court of Queen's Bench, when judgment was given for the watchmaker. Hindus gamble at the Dewali as a religious duty— a saorifioe to Lukshmee, the goddess of Fortune, in whose honour the festival is observed. The man' who does not gamble at the Dewali is in danger of entering the body of a donkey at his next birth. The Times of India thinks that English gamblers have already passed through this transformation. A Bombay man has constructed a bed. stead priced at 10,000 rupees. It is thus described :—" lt has at its four corners fonr fnll-Bized, gaudily-dressed Grecian damsels— those at the head holding banjos, while those on the right and left foothold fans. Beneath 'the. cot is a musical box, which extends the whole length of it and is capable of playing twelve different charming airs." By the revival of an anoient oustom the Queen is to receive this year, through the Lord High' Steward of Gloucester (the Duke of Beaufort), the Rojal lamprey pie which from an early, period. prior to 1880 was annually sent by the City of Gloucester to the reigning Sovereign. The Royal pie will be accompanied by Bkewers or spoons, speoially prepared, bearing the arms of the City of Gloucester and the name of the present mayor. It is expected that the Corinth Canal will be opened this month. The works were begun in May, 1892, but owing to financial difficulties their completion haß been much delayed. The new waterway will be 6500 meties long, 22 metres wide, and 8 metres deep. The width and depth are thus the same as in the Suel Canal. It will make an appreciable difference in the distance between the ports of Western Europe and thoße of Greece, Turkey and the Blaok Sea. A hygienic teapot is reported to have been invented by Princess May of Teck, /who is sending it out to the Chicago show. It is simply the principle of the coffee pot applied to a teapot. The water is poured on the leaves in a vessel above the teapot proper, and whea it has run through the upper portion is removed. By this means tea. leaves ate effectually prevented from getting into your cup with the tea, and the deleterious products of the tea are keptout of the-beverage.