In The Smoke Room

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XVII, 24 April 1897, Page 507

In The Smoke Room

THE most valuable sword in existence is said to be that owned by the Gaekwar of Baroda. Its hilt and belt are set with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, and it is valued at £220,000. The Shah of Persia has a sword valued at £ 10,000, which his father wore ou his first visit to Europe. The most valuable sword in England is that which was presented to Lord Wolseley by the Egyptians. It is valued at £2,000. Liverpool receives some curious shiploads at times. Cargoes of turtles and other live and dead animals, ca-=ks of leeches, ship loads of bones from battlefields, of human mummies from the Egyptian tombs and of dead cats from the cat cemeteries of the same countrv are among the most remarkable. A German sugar trust has been formed at Berlin with the outspoken object of raising prices. A syndicate will control all sales, and will begin by hoarding a certain percentage of the sugar made. It will fix an international market price, below which German sugar shall not be sold. The big ocean greyhounds will soon, it is thought, be equipped with lifeboats harnessed to balloons, so as to be practically unsinkable. Cylinders filled with compressed gas will be placed in compartments of the lifeboats, and from these the balloons, which will be harnessed with cords to a hollow mast connected with the cylinders, are inflated. The mast, which is iron tubing, is adjustable, and, when turned forward, the big balloon acts as a sail, oars proving quite unnecessary. The combination boat will doubtless prove of the greatest service in saving people far out at sea. In a recent test it was shown that, even with the boat filled with water to the gunwales, the lifting power of the balloon prevented the craft from either sinking or upsetting.

The coldest part of the globe is the northeast corner ot Siberia. There are only ninety-three days in the year when the ground is clear of frost. In consequence of satisfactory- results obtained from experiments conducted on a somewhat extensive scale, Brazilian planters are convinced that tea can be profitably grown in Brazil. Probably the most extraordinary journal in the world is published weekly at Athens. Its contents are written entirely in verse, even to the advertisements. Bullfighters make more money than anybody else in Spain, their salaries being much greater than the incomes of any except the highest of the nobles and com. paring fairly well even with the stealings of colonial officials. In the past year a toreador named Guerrita appeared sixty-eight times and pocketed 606,000 francs. Another, Reverte, has made thirty-eight appearances and netted 143.500 francs, while Mazzantini, with twenty-nine battles to his credit, took 131,000 francs, Bombita 129,000 francs and Algabigno 115,000 francs. Taking into account the value of the bulls and the cost of transport, it is estimated that Spain each year spends more than 5,000,000 francs on this so-called sport. Over 1,000 bulls were killed by the chosen few of the public, who only number twenty-three throughout the whole country. It is said that runaway horses are almost unknown in Russia. No one drives there without having a thin cord with a running noose around the neck of the animal. When the horse bolts the cord is pulled, and the horse stops as soon as it feels the pressure on its windpipe. It is claimed that more steel is now used in the manufacture of pens than in that of swords. It is even said that the metal annually turned into pens weighs more than all the metal used during a year in the war implement factories of the world. A mathematician has computed the movements of a rider’s feet while working a bicycle, and has demonstrated that it requires less exertion to travel fifteen miles on a bicycle than to walk three miles. Probably the most valuable spots on the face of the earth 'as the burial sites in Westminster Abbey cannot be bought with gold} are the four corners where Wallstreet touches Broad and the two where it meets Broad-

way writes Mrs Van Renselaer in the Cmtary). I cannot guess how large a price any one of these might bring in the market now, but a million dollars and had a million more were recently paid for five lots on Broadway opposite Bowling Green. This was the value of the land alone, as the old buildingsit bore were at once to be torn down ; yet. says Philip Hone, a lot in just this place sold in 1829 for only 19.5005. As late as IS4O lots on Cortlandt-street could be had for I,ooos or even 700$. But a year or two ago the corner of Liberty-street and Nassau, measuring 79 feet along the one, and 112 along the other and about 100 feet in depth, brought 1,250,000$ and this, again, for the sake of the land alone. Loochop. China, is excited over the recent appearance on her streets of a dwarf, who appears to be about fifty years of age, but is only twenty inches in height. He has a long gray beard, which almost reaches the ground, and talks several Chinese dialects quite fluently. He says that he is from ‘ the kingdom of the dwarfs by the western ocean,’ but further than that no one knows anything about him. The hulk of the French warship ‘ Marengo ’ tells the story of the tremendous costliness of naval armaments. Only six years ago, in 1891, the ‘ Marengo ’ was the flagship of the French squadron which went to Cronstadt and received a tremendous welcome from the Russians. It was this reception which initiated the France-Russian alliance. The ’ Marengo ’ is an ironclad of more than 10,000 tons displacement, a finer ship than any the Russians possessed in IS9L She would be a giant in their fleet to-day. But in comparison with ships having Harveyised armour she is obsolete, and therefore has been sold for the old iron and wood that are in her. The returns of the Municipal Council of Rome, now published, far from showing any signs of improvement, demonstrate, on the contrary, a steady diminution in civic prosperity in the Eternal City. Thus, while the number of private carriages kept is diminished by 1.000. and the number of horses by treble that amount, the number ot summonses from the rate collector served upon families unable to pay their municipal taxes shows an increase of no less than 60,000. The number of pledges in the municipal pawubrokingestablishment has risen to 997,000, on which the yearly interest amounts to no less than 14,000,000 lire. Germany is forging ahead in an altogether phenomenal manner with her mercantile marine. In IS7I it consisted of 147 steamships, with a total tonnage ot 82,000, whereas last year the Government returns showed a total of some 1,200 steamers, with a tonnage of over 1,000,000.