BRIEF MENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6138, 26 March 1898, Page 4

BRIEF MENTION.

The world has 200,000 postmasters.

America contains 6300 women compositors. Two persons die of starvation in London every week. Over 1000 children are born yearly in London workhouses.

One pound of sheep's wool is capable of producing one yard of cloth. The railways of the United Kingdom possess nearly 20,000 locomotives. The average amount of sickness in human life is nine days out of the year. It is estimated that close upon 100,000 pianofortes are manufactured every year in London.

Some of the screws used in watches are so small that it takes 380,000 of them to weigh a pound. One of the possibilities in future railway travelling are glass rails, which can be made tougher than any steel.

The largest wine tank in the world has been constructed at Osti, Sauoma County, California. It holds 500,000 gallons of grape juice. The teeth supplied by most dentists are made of porcelain, which is far more durable than anything else that could be used for tbe purpose

It is reported from Paris that at Pensol, in the Department of Haut Yienne, a meteoric stone was recently seen to fall and set fire to farm buildings. About 5000 words in the English language have no rhyme to tliem. These include sucb important -words as honour, virtue, gulf, month, and echo. Poster dances are the latest craze of fashionable society in New York. Every guest has to be dressed as one of the posters which adorn the hoardings of the city.

If the whole ocean were dried up, all the water passing away a-s vapour, the amount of salt remaining would be enough to cover 5,000,000 square miles with a layer one mile thick.

The secret police of Paris is quite distinct from the regular force. The inembors are generally unknown to each other, and one detective is often employed to watch another.

It may interest the curious to know that in the Lord Chamberlain's dopartment the position of chimney-sweeper is held by a woman, and that the office of statuary mason is also filled by a member of the

fair sex.

Rev Edward Allen, of Tiverton, the oldest living clergyman, celebrated his 100 th birthday recently. He speaks twelve languages, and writes without glasses. In his early lifo ho was delicate, but is now in excellent health.

New York now claims to possess the finest hotel in the world. It has just been opened, having cost .£3,750,000 Some portions of it are made to resemble the famous castle of Holien-Schwangau, built by the mad King of Bavaria. One of the most curious sights in England is the cemetery of the Duchess of Newcastle's favourite dogs at Oatlands Park, Surrey. There are now no fewer than sixty buried there, and each dog is honoured with a separate tombstone and inscription.

A model has lately been made to illustrate tho curreuts of the Atlantic. The water is blown out of various nozzles representing the mean direction of tho permanent winds. The movement of the water is made perceptible by dust sprinkled over its surface.

The secretary to the Duke of Westminster has a very desirable post, the salary being a thousand a year, with the use of two furnished houses — the one in London, within a short distance of Grosvenor House, and the other at Eccleston, the village near to Eaton Hall. The number of monarchs who have ruled in various countries of Europe is : Great Britain, thirty-five ; France, thirtyfour ; Germany, thirty-nine; Russia,fiftyone ; Spain, thirty-two ; Denmark, thirtynine; Sweden, fifty-three ; Turkey, thirty - five. Th© average reign has boen twenty years. The hair on the heads of most of the hundreds of thousands of dolls exhibited in shop windows is made from tho hair of the Angora goat. This product is controlled by an English syndicate, and is valued at a year. After the hair is prepared, it is sent to Munich, and made iuto wigs by girls. The two eyes really see two objects. If the two forefingers be held, one at the distance of Ift, the other 2ft in front of the eyes, and the former be looked at, two phantoms of the latter will be observed, one on each side. If the latter finger be regarded, two phantoms of the nearer finger will be observed mounting guard, one on either

side,

Some 300 and odd cats are maintained by the United States Government, the cost of their support being put down as a regular item in the accounts of the Post Office Department. These cats are distributed among about fifty post-offices, and their duty is to keep rats and mice from eating and destroying postal matter and canvas mail sacks.

It is stated that Prince Maximilian of Saxony, who is about to enter a monastery, has quitted the world in consequence of a love disappointment. H9 was deeply attached to a sister of the German Empress, but a3 the Royal House of Saxony is of tho Roman Catholic faith, and that of Schleswig-Holstein devotedly Lutheran, an insuperable obstacle presented itself.

During her last trial run over a measured mile on the Hudson River, the 80ft yacht Ellide made the speed of 3789 miles an liour. This places ker far ahead of any steam yacht, large or small, in tho world. The fastest steamship of any kind afloat to-day is the Turbinia, an experimental torpedo-boat, propelled by the Parsons steam turbine, which has a record of 40*35 miles per hour.

Between four hundred and five hundred people were engaged in last year's pantomime at Drury Lane Theatre, and in a single performance they donned something like a thousand dresses, of two hundred aud fifty distinct designs. Thore were seventeen scenes, requiring the attendance of about fifty workmen. The pantomime cost several hundred pounds a night, and .£6OO was paid every night to witness the performance.

Many well-dressed London dandies have I contracts with West End florists for the . supply of button-holes. As a rule, the : charge is about £1 por week, and this : includes two button-holes daily, one for i wear during the day, and the other for the . evenings. The cast-off button-holes become the perqusites of the valet, and it is I usually supposed that this gentleman * returns them to the florist, and adds to his | pocket-money considerably vhereby. j A house built of buttons is the latest ! thino- in architecture, and ft certain French j musical celebrity is building it. The walls, _ the ceiling, tho doors, the exterior and the j interior are all ornamented with buttons j of every description, from tho very origin ! of tneir invention np to those of the present ! day. Those dating from the lower Greek j empire are of the most curious manufac- J ture but every country has been ransacked and ' some very curious specimens have been brought to light. On the approach of a thunderstorm French peasants often make up a very \ smoky fire in the belief that safety from! lightning is thus assured. By some this 1 is" deemed a superstition, but Schuster ' shows that the custom is based on reason, I inasmuch as the smoke acts as a good con- - ductpr for carrying away the electrioity j slowly and safely. He points out that in a thousand cases of damage by lightning 6"3 churches and 85 mills have been struck, j whilst the number of factory chimneys has only been 03 I A London milkman, watched by, his master and a constable, was said to havo been seen to empty a three-pint can 0 f water into a four-gallon can of milk. The man was charged with wilfully damaging his master's property. At the police-coutt ' he pleaded that he had lost so much milk ' on his founds that he waa bound to make it lip, but the employer stated that he allowed each of his milk-carriers two quarts extra fpr that purpose. As the * charge raised a novel point of law, tho ' case was remanded for consideration, '.