MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Waikato Argus, Volume IX, Issue 768, 1 October 1900, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

The longest continuous run of a railway train in Europe is that from Paris to Constantinople, 1,921 miles, in sixty-four hours uud a-quirter. Lady Randolph Churchill (says the Truth) by her recent marriage with Mr Coruwalis West loses her precedence as the widow of tne younger son of a duke by her second marriage, and also the privilege entree which was granted to her by the Queen as the widow of a Cabinet Minister. One could not get a habitable house or set of rooms iu an apparent house anywhere near the centre of New York for less than £BOO a year, and even at that price it might not be a very nice one. The same apartments that in London would coat £3OO a year would uot be had in New York for under £7(30. M.M. Landouzy and Brouardel recently made a communication to th« French Academy of Medicine to the effect that they have observed numerous cases of poisoning caused by the varnish used to blackeu yellow leather shoes penetratiug the skin of the wearers in hot weather. The varnish in question containing 92 per cent of anilin* and 8 per cent of colour derived from coal. At Wei-hai-Wei, the Royal Engineers have been uninterruptedly on fortifications for some weeks past, and the forts were well forward in construction. The forts are so constructed as to give the guns an all-round fire. But there are no guns. When these latter arrive, and the forts are mounted with the 9'2 guns, it is regarded that the approach to the harbour will be impregnable.

The butter factories in the neighbourhood of Oamaru are being amalgamated under one company, and it is proposed to establish a central factory in Oamarn, the existing factories becoming creameries. It is not improbable that creameries in connection with the Oamarn factory will be established near Waitaki. The company propose also to supply cream and sterilised milk to the townspeople. A Sydney paper tells how a cook on oue of the largo ocean-going liners recently landed four hogsheads ot fat, of which three were delivered at restaurants, but the fourth into the basement of a city warehouse. Here careless handling stove-in the top of the cask, and revealed the fact that the fat only extended to a depth of six inches, the balance of the cask being filled with tobacco and cigars.

A deal has just been closed, whereby a well-known English brewing firm purchased about 480,0001 b of corks. This deal represents £90,000. In two years the company will deliver to the brewery upwards of 100,000,000 corks. This .is said to be one of the biggest deal in corks ever made. These 100.000,000 corks in bulk, weighing 480,0001 b, would support 240,000 men on top of .the water were they to be thrown overboard, each with a single life-preserver on.

An English journal recently wondering whether the pronunciation of some of the ignorant classes or of some of the cultivated classes is the worse. For instance, the groom says: " 'Arry, 'old my 'oss." Bat the curate says: "He that hath yaws to yaw, let him yaw." And the doctor's wife says; "Jawge, please go to Awthah and awdah the hawse, and don't forget to look at th« fi»h." And the vicar Bays : *' Tf owah gracious sovereign lady wurah to die ?"

An amusing illustration of the growing demand for athletic clergymen was recently given (says the Daily Telegraph) by a country curate, who received notice to quit because, though unexceptionable in other respects, his vicar declared that" what his parish really needs is a good fast bowler with a break from the off." No doubt the worthy vicar perceived that no village lad could possibly reject the theology of, a curate capable of winning the annual match against the neighbouring hamlet by his own prowess.

Cape Nome, in Alaska, where gold on the beaches was found in such rich patche?, cannot be a very desirable place to live in if we may judge from the report of an American Correspondent. He says :—Crime, disease, and poverty are the attendants .on the army of gold seekers who went north to the Cape this spring. The population in a few weeks increased from 2700 to 20,000, enteric fevei and small pox broke out in consequence of the accumulation of filth, wattes range low, and living expenses are high, murder 19 rampant, martial law has been proclaimed, and conflicts have taken place between the military and the miners. Thins has the lust for gold entailed dreadful consequences without compensation.

In China family life is unknown. It is a shame for a man to be seen with his wife in public, and for a husband to converse with his wife at home is to draw upon himself the ridicule of his friends and . neighbours. Writes Dr. Smith, author of " Village Life in China" : "In those unique instances in whiqh the young couple have the good sense to get acquainted with each other, and present the appearauce of actually exchanging ideas, this circumstance is the joke of the whole family circle. We have heard of cases in which members (fa family in which there was a newly-married couple kept a string, in which was tied a knot every time they were heard to speak to one another. This cord would subsequently be exhibited to them in ridicule of their intimacy."

An important Russian engineering project is outlined by General Venyukoff in a paper on Central Asia. It is for a Euxine-Caspian canal, which he describes as follows:—The waters not only of the Don, neighbour of the Volga, but also of the Dnieper, theßue, Dniester, Danube, Rion, Ingour, and Konhan will turn towards the Caspian Sea by passing through the Euxine, the Azorf, and Manytch canal, and will enlarge it. This project will constitute one of the most important acts in th« life of Russian people, and its accomplishment will not he long delayed if only because it provides the remedy against the dearths and famines which desolated the south-east province of European Russia. The Caspian \» 85 feet lower than the Black Sea ; to tutu the latter into tke former is therefore possible, not to say easy.

Among tbe French papers, most of which have united iu iosultius our Queen, there is one—a womau's paper—which not only stands up for her, but also blames those who heap abuse upon her honoured nan.e. 'Lb Fronde,' the daily newspaper conducted and written exclusively by women, has taken this brave stand, and refuses to lend itself to the manufacture of that race-hatred which forms the diversion of so many of its male contemporaries at the present time. Madame Andree Tery, a prominent member of the ' Fronde ' staff, wrote as follows in a recent number of the paper :—' However intense our sympathy may be with the Boers, that ought not to make us unfair to the English. Whatever the right 3 may be, they tell me they are not all gathered on the same side. At the risk of being suspected as a hireling of England, as I was of the syndicate, I intend one day to go further into this matter. . . England hating chauvinism is still more ridiculous and clumsy than our campaign of hatred against Germany. Who can forget the benefits we owe to our neighbours across the Channel '! . . Englaud used to be and is now our school of liberty.' These iiie brave and thoughtful words from a I'lenchwoman, aud it is not surprising that the article iu question concludes with an indignant protest against the insults which are being levelled agaiust Queen Victoria,