INTERESTING ITEMS.

Western Star, Issue 1300, 27 March 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

INTERESTING ITEMS.

The note of a piano is best when the instrument is not near a wall. Nino people out of every ten can hear better with their right ear than their left c ar.

The bicycles used in the French army each have an electric light, which can be turned on and off at will. For headache, bathing behind the ears with hot water often proves an immense benefit.

The first English hymn-book used in public worship was that compiled by Isaac Wesley in the year 1715. Many savage people worship the devil on the principle that it is the evil and nob the good deities that need conciliation. The eyes of birds that fly by night are generally about double the size of day birds.

, On dark nights a white light can be seen farther than any other ; but on light nights red takes the first place. . ; ; During the reign of Charles I. of England, everybody wore boots and spurs whether he ever mounted a horse or not.

Cigars are given to soldiers in the Italian array as part of their daily rations.

It is a singular fact that dogs dislike most odours that are disagreeable or offensive to man. The smell of ammonia, for example, will drive a dog almost wild.

When Queen Victoria is robed for a State occasion like a ' Drawing Room ' it is no unusual thing to see her display £150,000 worth of jewellery. , Every person under twenty-one years of age needs nine hours' rest- out of twonty-four. So says Dr. Cole, an eminent German physician. Consumption is scarcely known among -he Jews, and suicide is three-fourths less frequent among them than it is among Gentiles. <

It is said that a woman's voice can be leard in a balloon at'a height of two miles, while a man's voice cannot be heard at a greater height than one mile. The late Justice Bowen's definition of a * search for equity' was'a blind man looking in a dark room for a black, hat that isn't there.; . * When the Queen ascended the throne 47 per cent, (or nearly half), the population of Great;,Britain were unable to write. Now only 7 per cent, are unable to sign their nauies. ; , ■. ; >,

There are about one hundred grains of iron in the average human body, and yet so important, is this exceedingly small quantity that its diminution is Attended with very serious results. The children'of the blackest Africans are born whittiah. ; In, a month they become pale yellow, In a year brown, at four dirty black, and at six or seven glossy black. . The change is in the mucous membrane, below the cuticle.

The healthiest place in the appears to be a little hamlet in France, named Aumone. "" There are only forty inhabitants, twehty--three of whom are eighty years of age, and one is over a hundred.

With the exception of the sheepskin bag,' there, is nothing Scotch about the bagpipes. The wood—-ebony or cocus wood—comes from Africa and Jamaica, the ivory from Africa, the horn from Australia, and \ the cane for the reeds from Spain. . . i One of the .tortures practised in the prison at Uskub, Macedonia, at the present day, is by means of ants. The victim is fastened to the floor, so that he cannot move body or limb, and fifty.huge ants are then permitted to wander over him, thus causing intense agony.' In the confession-book of a Norfolk kdy, the Princess of Wales;has left a record in her own handwriting to two interesting facts-—one, that her favourite art is millinery; the other, .that her favourite employment is 'minding her own business. : '" . _■,., . When Li Hung Chang visited thei Empire Music Hall he suddenly caught sight of two of the theatre attendants in all the glory of crimson plush. Mistaking them for high dignitaries of State, Li Hung Chang inclined his head profoundly, whereat the attendants were wonderfully surprised. "'; _/'" Russian hens are progressive. They laid 11,000,000 eggs for export in 1870, 235,000,000 in 1885, and 1,250,000,000 last year. The eggs are sold in Russia at from threepence to fivepehce a dozen.' They are exported to Hungary, then sold to Germany as Hungarian eggs, and finally to England as German eggs. ':■ The straight line is an abomination t& the Chinese.' They endeavour to avoid it in their streets and buildings; and have banished; it completely where country field paths are concerned. They will always substitute a curve wherever possible, or they will torture it with a zigzag. To the Chinese mind the straight line is suggestive of death and demons. -