Men and Women.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue X, 5 September 1896, Page 296

Men and Women.

A YOUNG Indian girl of the Chippewa tribe was adopted when three years of age by a Michigan farmer for the sole purpose of satisfying his hobby that women, if properly trained, can run faster than men. They trained regularly in boxing, wrestling, running, and various other athletic pastimes. The young lady is now nineteen years of age, weighs 117 pounds, and, according to an Eastern exchange, can outrun any man with whom she has ever raced.

Next year the English church will celebrate the 1300th anniversary of the baptism ot the first English King by St. Augustine. The Dean and Chapter of Canterbury still hold land in Essex given by King Ethelbert of Kent, which has been in their uninterrupted possession since 597.

It cost Oxford University Z 320 to go to the High Court of Justice and have the title ‘Ford’s Professor of English Literature ’ changed to ‘ Ford’s Lecturer.’

The Japanes e authorities have a peculiar way of discouraging accidents on the railroads. They don’t permit the railroad companies to be mulcted in heavy damages or force them to provide safeguards against running over people. Instead they fine the relatives of the killed for permitting them to tresspass on the railroad. A poor man near Kamakura recently lost two children, who were run down by a train. The railroad company was not censured and he received no money recompense, but was fined £l. There are a good many railroad corporations in this country that would like to see the Japanese method introduced here.

A British authority says that there are really only three proper drinks for cyclists—cold tea, with lime juice, milk and soda, and ‘shandy-gaff.’

The most picturesque character in the recent National Democratic Convention at Chicago was from Oklahoma. His name was Temple Houston, and he had a history. One week a month ago he was on trial for murder. The next week he was selected delegate to Chicago, received a higher vote than any other candidate, and was unanimously selected to lead the delegation. Such are American politics.

A new method of treating habitual drunkards is to be tried at Bellevue Hospital, New York. It is claimed that the new remedy will cure a chronic drunk in three days. What the treatment is has not been announced. ‘Golf arm ’ is an affliction of the musculo-spiral nerve, the functions of which are interfered with under certain conditions which have been found to occur more frequently in the playing of golf than in any other game of physical exertion. The attention of physicians was first

called to the new disease by the complaints of professional golf players. These players told of acute pains along the upper part of the arm. Similar pains had often been noticed, but were thought to be the natural result of unusual exercise. The Right Rev. Dr. Abram Grant, the newly-elected Bishop of the first district of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, is an imposing figure physically. He is more than six feet tall, and weighs about 250 pounds. He wears a full black beard, has but little hair on the top of his head, has a short but well-shaped nose, and black, intelligent and genial eyes. He has a commonsense, chatty way of talking, and only occasionally does a Southern locution creep into his otherwise good English. Bishop Grant’s career, from birth in slavery to the achieving of the highest dignity which his church can give him, has been a remarkable one.

An amusing incident lately occurred in the Mediterranean on board one of Her Majesty’s ships. The commander is a very particular man about the men’s dinner time. Directly eight bells strike, whatever they are doing, the men have to knock off and go below. The commander’s wife was on board, and. being rather stout, whenever she went ashore a whip and chair were rigged from the yardarm to get her off and on board. One day she started about two minutes to 12 o’clock (eight bells). The chair was put over the side, the lady hoisted half way up, when the quartermaster struck eight bells. The commander ordered and the boatswain piped ‘ Belay !’ The lady was left one hour in the chair while the men dined.

One woman in England holds a master mariner’s certificate. This lady, who has passed all the examinations made compulsory by the Board of Trade is the Dowager Lady Clifford, widow of the late Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, who died in 1892. She sails her own yacht for many months of the year in the Mediterranean and the Solent.

Prince Bismarck used to be very fond of brandy. When he was going away to the war in 1866 his youngest son asked him how long he was to be away. He replied that he did not know. At that moment a servant came in to inquire how many bottles of cognac were to be packed up in tbe Prince’s luggage. ‘ Twenty-four,’ was the answer. ‘ Ah, papa,’ cried out the ‘ terrible infant,’

• now I know how long you are to be from home—-twenty-four days.’ Lady Randolph Churchill had to pay a London shopkeeper £t, los for keeping a chiffon front over night and returning it the next day as unsuitable. The shopkeeper testified that ladies would order things sent home on approval and after their maids had copied the patterns would return them the next day. Nestled among the fierce lions, bears and eagles of

Europe are several little republican midgets which enjoy the blessings of free government unmolested. The republic of St. Martin has but 8,000 inhabitants, each an individual sovereign. The republic of Andorra contains a united civil brotherhood of 6,000. The smallest republic of all is that of Moresnet, on the Germano-Belgian frontier, with 1,200 free citizens and carrying on valuable industries.

Miss Anna L. Hawkins, of Baltimore, who was recently graduated from the Maryland Institute School of Design, has chosen architecture as her profession, and her plans for the High School buildings at Havre de Grace, Md., have just been accepted. Miss May Abraham, the new English Superintendent of Factory Inspectors, is a beautiful woman of the Semitic type. She began her career as Lady Dilke’s private secretary.

The woman’s suffrage appeal that was laid on the table recently in Westminster Hall bears the signatures of 257,000 women—namely, 57,800 from the metropolitan constituencies, 140,700 from the countries of England and Wales, 151.270 from Scotland, 7,320 from Ireland. Among such numbers it is difficult to trace all the special names of note, but the signatures include the heads of nearly all the colleges for women and of a large proportion of the head mistresses of high and other public schools for girls, and of women serving on boards of guardiansand school boards. The leading women in the medical profession have signed, and a number of the most eminent in literature and art, besides many of wide social influence and leading workers in the many movements for general well-being.

The new Shah of Persia is full of reform schemes. He is most anxious to put down financial corruption—no easy task in Oriental lands of * backsheesh ’ —so his majesty announces that dignities, official appointments and honours of any kind will in future be accorded through merit alone, without regard to pecuniary considerations. He himself sets the example by refusing all offerings of money from his subjects.