Brief Mention.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4774, 14 October 1893, Page 3

Brief Mention.

Astronomers say there are 600,000,000 suns. Very full cheeks indicate great digestive powers. Walter Besant says Boston is thoroughly English. Chinese botanists can grow oaks in thimbles. The Blue-Coat School once had a coinage of its own. Hats cost the American people 800,000,000 doia annually. One-fifth of the families in Glasgow live, in single rooms. Mulhall estimates that the- civilized natidns pay annually 13,700,000,000301 for food/ The \£an Francisco ' police now carry axes wify which to break into Chinese fan-' I tanshop^ | In Fc^ce it is proposed to arm the postmen who have charge of the delivery: of postal oifders. Many o-f the explosions in flourmillsin the United States have been traced to electricity generated by belts. Rice-growing in Louisiana is so lucrative that it sometimes gives the farmer a clear profit equal to ten pounds an acre. . In Moscow the winter cold is so intense that it freezes Quicksilver, while the summer temperatuxe is as high as that of Naples. An immense deposit of petroleum haa been discovered on the eastern coast of Siberia. The oil can be bad at 1 cent per gallon. Therfl is a salt mine at Wieliczla, an Au9tro-Galician town, that has been worked for 600 years, and is still yielding fresh supplies. When a person loses the sense of hearing in one ear only, he fiadait impossible to locate the direotion from whioh. a sound proceeds. Fif ty-Bix years ago the block on which the Chicago Poat Office, now stands was sold at auction for 505d0t It is now worth 5,000,000d01. A western geologist says that Kansas can raise wheat for another thousand years before exhausting the necessary properties of the soil. v The Queen incurred a fine\of 7s 6d for having allowed six weeks to Elapse before registering the birth of the present Duke of Edinburgh. • • The wire rope used in Queen street tunnel, Glasgow, is about to be\renewed. It is 4500 yds in length, and has hauled over 28,000 trains. Greek and" Roman doors always opened outward, and when a man was passing out of a house he knocked on the door so as not to open it in the faoe of a passerby. At an Anarchist funeral in Paris recently there was an unexpected but sensible feature. At the cemetery gate a collection wa3 taken up for the poor widow. * . * Two millions sterling, it is estimated, has been for many years tfye annual expenditure of the landlords of England on their land—not a thirtieth of one year's rental. A new element has just entered into the progress of Siberia in the shape of a stream of Japanese colonists, who are immigrating into the easternmost region of the country. Adolph von Mechel, one of the bestknown painters in Germany, has jost. committed suicide because the jury of the Berlin Academy rejected one of his five pictures. The new tax on Stock Exchange transactions has well nigh paralysed business on the French market and almost caused the total abandonment of the Bourse. The gold mines of Peru were so rich that Atahuallpa, to buy his ransom, filled a room 22 x 17 feet to a height of nine feet with golden vessels. When melted they produced £3,000,000; The Chinese detective force is a secret body, and the beßt organised in the world. They have an eye upon every man, woman, or child, foreign or native, in China, and in addition, watch over each other. The most lucrative post in the world's Colonial services, next to that of the Viceroy of India, is held by the Dutch Governor-general of Java, who is appointed practically for five years, and draws a salary of .£14,000 a year. In the manufactories of Great Britain alone the power which steam exerts is Q3timated to be equal to the manual labour of 4,000,000,000 , of men, or more than double the number of males supposed to' inhabit the globe. " Usury in Italy," says British Consul Cocoto, " is now extended to Buoh a degree, and is so perfidiously exercised, that a sum of about £120,000 is employed in small loans at rates of interest paying between 40 per cent and 1200 per cent per annum." Some doctor has started the theory that the long spell of heat in England will prove extremely beneficial to health generally, as sunshine is a life-giving influence, and puts something into the system which is usually lacking in English constitutions. The sixtieth anniversary of the birth of the Empress Dowager of China was celebrated recently in the traditional manner. More than 1,200,000 pieces of red silk, 40ft long and 3ft wide, were made in the Imperial factories to be used in the decoration of the streets of Pekin. A new electrical device for heating, invented by two Belgian scientists, has developed a temperature of 4000deg centigrade, or 7200deg Fahr., and the inventors claim that by the use of a stronger current a temperature of 8000deg centigrade may be attained. The largest use of placards on record wa3 prior to the Paris election in 1889. General Boulanger had 1500 billstiokers, who put up 45,000 daily, in all 900,000. In some places, where they were torn down after the election, there were found sixty layers of bills alternating with those of Boulanger'a rival. ' Dr Rupert, oF Greenbrier County, Western Virginia, is the father of fifteen children, whose names all begin with the letter L and end with a vowel. The children's names are Ledona, Lavira, Livigna, Lorena, Lycena, Lualzo, Leancy, Lacelia, Ladura, Leonida, Launo, Lydaho, Lomega, Lenida and Leslie. A firm of druggists at Castle Douglas has been fined £1 and costs for selling wine without a license. It seems that the article -was called extract of meat and malt wine, and was sold as a medicine. Analysis showed that it contained 32 per cent of proof spirit, and was simply port wine with an admixture of flavouring matters. A corps of police drummers is to be formed in Paris. The Daily News correspondent tells us that its functions will be, when riots are apprehended, to supply to each police commissioner and inspector a drummer or drummers. The beating by any of these men of the drum will be equivalent to the reading of the Riot Act. There is now exhibited in Ceylon a specimen of jungle-man, imported from China. It stands about two feet in height, has a head and face like a monkey, and a body whioh, except for its diminutive size, appears to be similar to that of a human being. Its hands and feet are perfeot. This missing link is reported to be about three years old. What the potato and pig are to the Irishman, the goat and the chestnut tree, are to the Corsican, especially the Corsioan of the interior. Six goats and six chestnut trees will feed his whole family, so why should he degrade himself by labour P The chestnuts are boiled till their skins bunt; then they are bruised and mixed with milk and cream; and on this nourishing and easily obtained food the children are reared. It is a fact nob generally known that if one holds his breath, wasps, bees, and hornets can be handled with impunity. %he skin becomes 'sting-proof, and by hoiaing the ineeot by the feet and giving her full Ijjifijrty of action you can see her drive her weapon against the impenetrable Burface with a forced which lifts her body at every stroke, but let the smallest quantity of air eaeapa from, ike lu^gs wUI penetrate at once, "~ -o-