Brief Mention.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5092, 27 October 1894, Page 3

Brief Mention.

An ordinary piano contains a mile ol wire. Siberia has 5,000,000 square miles of good farm land. Of the English Bench of Bishopß twelve are pledged abstainers. All the grandsons of Charles Dickens bear the name of Charles. German dentists are now ÜBing glass for stopping teeth in some instances. Over 1000 varieties of poat cards have been issued in the world within thirty-five years. The volcano Cotopaxi, in Ecuador, v active, and the inhabitants of Quito are terror stricken. • No branoh of England's armed strength (sayß the World) is afflicted with so many weaknesses as the cavalry. The British Museum has now more than 10,000,000 books, and additions are being made at the rate of 50,000 a year. It is possible for any Chinaman, on the payment of a sufficiently large sum of money, to become a deity in the Celestial Empire. Before the laying of the first American cable, gutta-percha could be brought for 2s 9d per lb, but now that prioe has been almost trebled. Japan haß 42,899 doctors, which is at the rate of a doctor and a fraction for every thousand of the population. There are also 2836 apothecaries. Six years hence, France will inaugurate the twentieth century with an international exhibition, which iB to totally eclipse the World's Fair. A genuine bust of Herod, the ruler of Judea in the days of Christ, discovered in Palestino, has been presented to the Imperial Hermitage in 8t Petersburg. President Diaz, of Mexico, has Bent out a topographical and geological expedition to the volcano Fopocwepeti, owing to the attempts of an American company to bay the mountain. Professor Dameney, of Berlin, recently took a series of photographs of the movements of the lips of a rapid talker. The words thus formed by the Hpß could be readily deciphered by deaf-mutes. After an interval of eleven years the Ministerial whitebait dinner waaheld at The Ship, Greenwich, on August 15. Fortyfour members of the Government were present, and Lord Tweedmouth oooupied the chair. A gentleman, who was one of the 300 specially invited guests at the trial run of a very special Bteamer from the Thames, states that the drink bill for the voyage, which did not last twenty-four hours, came to .£6OO, or £2 a head. In England 233 families pay over £1000 a year honae rent ; 9214 pay between JBSOO and £1000; 8633 pay between £200 and £500 1 101,948 between £50 and £100; and 3,624,608 pay lees than £20 a year for the houses in which they reside. The first newspaper published in Australasia was the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, the first number of which was issued on March 5, 1803, and consisted of four pages foolscap size, with the letterpress arranged in three narrow columns en each page. As Waterloo was won in the playing fields of Eton, so our best hope for the future of our race (say the World) must be centred upon the continuance of those active exercises which are only possible in flannels, and which will best repair the tissues wasted by a season in town. The driver of the hearse whioh conveyed the remains of President Carnotto their last resting plaoe was, strangely enough, the favourite coachman of Napoleon 111. His name is Linguet, and he is now Btone deaf, but still retains that imposing aspect which Napoleon admired so much. The King of Anatn has about one hundred wives, who are divided into nine classes, according to the station of life in which they were born. Five of them act as bis assistant personal attendants, and one of their most important duties is the care of his Majesty's finger nails, which are as long as the fingers themselves. The 11,000 guineas paid the other day at Christie's for the " Portrait of Lady Betty Delme," painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, is the largest amount for which a picture has, so far, been sold in a London auction* room, surpassing: by 900 guineas even the record price paid for the lost " Ducheßs of Devonshire," by Gainsborough. Lady Dufferin, who presides over the British Embassy in Paris, is aquiok-witted and warm-hearted Irish woman. While President Carnot'a body was lying in state, for blooks around her house was a mass of suffocating humanity. Lady Dufferin sent her servant with glasses of water, to as many of the sufferers as were within reach. A curious prophecy is revived in connection with the royal christening by those people who believe in the ultimate return of the Jews to Palestine. It is said that whenever a King of England bearing the name of David sits upon the Throne the period of his reign will be signalised by tho return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land. A curious incident is reported from Bunzlau, in Germany. A pigeon flew, in the early morning, against the dial of the church clock, and was caught by one leg and one wing on the ornamentations of the minute hand, which is over 3ft long. At a quarter-past three the two hands met, and the pigeon was squeezed to death. Thon the clock Btopped. The island of St Helena, which has lived for the best part of a century on the memory of Napoleon, is to become the resort of less angust criminals. The Government of Cape Colony has decided' to utilise the island aa a place of transportation for certain classes of prisoners. And, curiously enough, the inhabitants of St Helena raise no objection to the scheme. The "Cursoripade" is the name of an apparatus invented by a Dutchman, Mr Bichard Crygan, of Harlem, to be attached to the feet, to enable anyone to travel quickly along the roads. The arrangement comprises two small wheels for each foot, with such a multitude of connections, as to lead one to believe. that the arrangement is intended to convert users of it into "cursors." Sir Lyon Playfair gives the following as all that is necessary for a healthy man to eat in a week :— Three pounds of meat, with one pound of fat, two ordinary loaves of bread, one ounce of salt, and five pints of milk; or, for the meat, five or six poundß of oatmeal may be substituted. Thiß sounds like a starvation diet, but Sir Lyon Playfair generally knows what he is talking about. The latest thing out in the way of clubs beara the title of " The Six-finger Club." Each member of this particular club must have at least Bix fingers on one hand. An elaborate report drawn up by the secretary showßthat there are 2173 persons in the world with six fingers to each hand, and 431 with seven fingera. One individual, indeed, is the proud possessor of eight fingers to one hand. Among the hundred thousand plants catalogued by botanists only a tenth exhale any odour. Of the fifty species. of mignonette ' officially recognized one only, that of our gardens, has an odour ; and among the hundred varieties of violets scarcely twelve have the exquißita perfume which we know. In general the proportion of plants without odour to the fragrant ones is a hundred to one. In the town of Oberweisenthal, in Saxony, disputes between the inhabitants are bo rare that there is no room for a lawyer. A Leipsic merchant, who applied to tho tribunal at Oberweisenthal for the addresßof a counsel, received the following reply: "We have the honour to inform j you that there iB no advocate here; but the barber, Fitz Biel, represents the ] interests of litigants in civil cases." Leo XIII has just; ordered hia tomb to be sculptured by the famous artist, Marasai. It will be in white marble, surmounted by a lion with one of its claws placed on the Tiara. On the right side will bo fourd n st.uue of Faith vi^\\ a Fl itiibenii in one cam I and the Graces it\ i l -.i other; and, <-n t 'jo left, a statue of i Truth, bearing the arms of the Pope. The pedestal will contain the following brief inscription in Latin:— "Here jreposa.lh.Q whe^^eo^lU.,3ppe^ ' :■ -