BRIEF MENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7695, 2 May 1903, Page 3

BRIEF MENTION.

Beware of barkless dogs and silent men. Turkey now exports £600,000 worth of opium a year. ' Eight British • commanders have been granted dukedoms. In an ordinary white shirt there are no fewer tihan 21,000 stitches. Forty-one toy manufacturers are forming a tnuib in th© United States. The systematic use of oaprbal letters in' writing and printing was not common until about the year 1340. " I do not know of a single Scotch regiment with which I have nob served," said Loixl Roberts recently. Curaa-e is the most virulent poison known. The ome-hundred-t-housandth part of a grain produces powerful effeebs. The police of Berlin carry revolvers which fire seven shots in five seconds, and kill at v. distance of 600 yards. Fatima Sing Hpo, said to be the smallest* person in the world, has died suddenly at Beaumont, Texas. She was twenty-two. years old, weighed 151 b, and stood 2S__ higih. . Business in East Chicago (Indiana) was in the middle of ' January brought to a standstill by lack of coal. Five thousand men, practically all the workmen of the town, were idle. The drums used by the Scots Guards in South Africa have just been sold, and in some cases they fetched between £60 and £70 apiece, a price which is nearly eighttimes as much as they originally cost. Duck dinners are the latest society fad in America. The ladies who attend are dressed to imitate ducks. Duck decora-, tions appear on the table; and the menu includes ducks ' cooked in various styles. Even the ices are made up in duck shapes. The rector of Runwell, Essex, having experienced trouble in getting bell-ringers, has devised an automatic way out of. the difficui--ty. The automaton, fixed in the belfry,' is connected with- the electric current used for. lighting. The church bells are now rung with perfect order and precision. Flowering plants are now forced into early bloom by a bath of ether vapour. The plant is placed for forty-eight hours in a sealed tank containing ether. It is afterwards removed tb an ordinary forcing house, and comes into full bloom in two or three weeks. Lilacs, azaleas and deutzias respond readily to the treatment. Dr Longhursb is probably the oldest organist in the United Kingdom. He has been at Canterbury since George IV. was King, and has known seven Primates* As a boy of sixteen Dr Longhurst p.ayed the organ ab Canterbury, and before he played his last note, a f ew years ago, he had been at the organ sixty-three years. . The town of Winchester, Massachusetts, is now almost entirely bereft of cats. The superintendent of the State Fowl Hatchery, finding thab the animals wrought great havoc among his poultry, fixed up wires, and at night ran a powerful electric current through them. During the past two years over 200 "cats have 'been electrocuted. The experiment of paving the roads with straw has been tried Avith success by the farmers in Western America. Every autumn the roads are covered with dust, which, after the heavy rains, becomes thick mud, making travel hard for beast and man. After straw had been laid on the main, thoroughfares to a depth of a foot or more, travelling became easy. Over 300 miles of roads have thus been covered. Probably the most remarkable lake in the world is one with a coating of salt thab completely conceals the water. It may ba seem at amy time during the year, fully exposed, being seen at i't_ best when the sun is shining upon it. This wonderful body of water is one. of the saltiest of the salt lake-,, and i.«*situated near Obdorsk, Siberia. The lake is nine miles wide and seventeen long. The salt coat increases 6in every year. ■ -Mrs G. B. Wilson, of Philadelphia, has one of the finest collections of orchid- im the world. For one of her plants — you could slip pot, plant and all into a man's waistcoat pocket— £2ooo was refused. This orcnlid is a cross between a Cattleya aurea and _ Cattleya labiata. It was two years oldj -and it would be five years more before it .would begim to bloom. But it was lhe only orduid in the world with leaves half green and half white. One of the latest Parisian novelties is an electric hair-cut. The customer seaibs himself in the ordinary chair while the barber proceeds to lessen his growth by means of an electric cutting comb. The comb is similar to an ordinary one except- that a thin wire, which is connected' electrically with a .borage bat ! bery v , is . tre tched above the upper portion of the teeth along the handle. The whole operation is so rapid that a heavy head of hair may be clipped in a few minutes. v \ Almost all the emery used in the world comes from the little island of Naxos, ncr Greece. Over 300 men are engaged in quarrying it, and as emery . is.- one of the hardest substances known, ordinary tools cannot be used to cut- ib ouL Rather curious means arc, therefore, employed. Huge fires ar© lighted near it until ib cracks, and then it. is broken off with, levers. . It is shipped in big lumps, as if it were furnace coal. At least one editor is nob inconvenienced by the temperature being below zero, for while we are sweltering in several degrees of frost, up in tl_o frozen northland,, almosU within the Arctic Circle, Mr W. T.Lopp is looking after his publication, the "Eskimo Bulletin," probably a unique paper. The place is Capp Prince of Wales, and bbc "Bulletin" is issued but c<ucc • every twelve /months. Indeed-, under the Lead of the paper is the conceit, " The Only Yearly in the World." Engineers, as most of us know, sr© famous for their ready resources in emergencies. During the recenb Chinese war ib was necessary to get a number of* troops across a river in a great hurry, to prevent the enemy taking an important position. There was no bridge and there were no boats. An engineer took a detachment to a- village near by, raided it and came back with a numbei* of coolies, each carrying one of these large painted -coffins which every Chinaman keeps in his house. With these as pontoons, a bridge was improvised, and the men got across in time, thereby saving the loss of much time, ammunition and, perhaps, valuable lives*. Practically the. whole of Northern Sweden is famine stricken. Senator Bremberg, who is a member of the Relief Committee, reports that at least- 50,000 persons ai'e affected, ahd are now being saved from starving to death by contributions in money .and kind' amounting to about £30,000 in all: Provisions and clothing) are being carried free by 'bhe State railways, and if private charity prove insufficient to relieve the distress the Government intends to vote the necessary funds. The distress is worst in the district far away from the railways and in the remote regions within the Arctic Circle. Two thousand railway truckloads of food, clothing and fodder have been sent by private charity to the stricken districts. At Eaton Hall in the days of thelate Duke of Westminster, there stood on the. mantelpiece of the principal guest chamber, dedicated to bachelor ' visitors, a clock of .remarkable design. Below it was placed a card, bearing the words,. " Please' do not touch." A famous politician, who chanced to find himself an occupant of the room, ventured to ask his noble host after dinner the reason of this prohibitory notice. " I have often contended with my daughters," replied the Duke, "that-women are more curious than men. To satisfy me of the contrary fact, they have placed- the clock to. which you refer in the bachelors' room, with the notice affixed to it. The result • has been that every man, with one notable exception, who has occupied that room has asked me the reason of the notice." "And who, may I ask,'' rejoined the interested guest, " was the notable exception you mention?" "The late- Mr Fawcett, one .; time Postmaster-General," was .the reply, of the Duke. "As you know, doos man,, he was "blinds' '" '7 7 7 '7; X*XXX-