In The Smoke Room

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue V, 29 January 1898, Page 135

In The Smoke Room

The United States postal authorities have been recently making an experiment with reference to a new departure in postal facilities which has proved so successful in Washington and St. Ixniis. that it is to be extended to New York and the other cities of the Union. This consists of a system whereby, for a small fee. any house in the city can have its own private post office. The mode of providing this is as follows: —On application to the postmaster of New York any householder can purchase a regulation box. which ranges in cost from 10/ to 25/, which can be set up in the house in a spot agreed upon by the postal authorities and the householder, and of this box the Post Office and the owner have keys. The letters that arrive and those to be posted are each placed in the box. the postman taking away those to be mailed at each collection. But should the householder be out of stamps there is a small box in which the amount of postage can he deposited, and this amount is taken away with the unstamped letters, which are duly stamped at the Post Office. With each box also order forms for stamps are provided, and when one of these is placed in the box. together with the value in money of the stamps ordered, the stamps are left in the box at the next delivery. The system is one that might well be tried in this country.

One of the largest banks in New York makes a searching examination of each department at. least three times a year. No one but the president. knows when these may take place. He summons three heads of departments and they take charge of the clerks' books and firm assets so quickly that nothing can be changed or concealed. Since this system was adapted, several years ago. no trace of dishonesty has been found. Those clerks who get through a year without an error receive a premium . "Tabac’ was the first word uttered by a deaf French mute 25 years of age on recovering his speech. He wanted tobacco badly, and. after trying hard to make his want known, managed to get the word out, and since then he has talked fluently. Dr. Douard. who reports the case, thinks that it proves that the classical story about King Croesus' son may be true. Croesus. King of Lydia, was on the point of being slain by one of Cyrus’ soldiers at the taking of Sardis, when his dumb son exclaimed: ‘O. Persian, do not kill Croesus!’ This has been held to be one of Herodotus’ lies. In France, as in Germany, boys are first sent to gymnasiums when they are 12 or 13 years of age, and spend five or six years in study, and under discipline that is much more severe than is that of the preparatory schools and colleges of the United States.

The wearing of hats in Parliament by the members is explained back to the time when those who were summoned to legislate, or rather to authorise the King to make levies, came in wearing helmets, which were not easily removed.

More people over one hundred years old are found in mild climates than in the higher latitudes. According to the last census of the German empire, of a population of 55.000.000. only seventy-eight have passed the hundreth year. France, with a population of 40.000.000. has 213 centenarians. In England there are 146; Ireland. 578; and in Scotland. 46. Sweden has 10 and Norway 23: Belgium. 5; Denmark. 2: Switzerland, none. Spain, with a population of 18.000.000. has 401 persons over one hundred years of age. Of the 2.250.000 inhabitants of Servia 575 persons have passed the century mark. It is said that the oldest person living whose age has been proven is Bruno Cotrim, bom in Africa, and now living in Rio Janeiro. He is 150 years old. A coachman in Moscow has lived 140 years.

Early last summer a church in Syracuse. N.Y.. sent its cushions to be cleaned, and when the congregation came together again a plague of fleas cut the service short. Last Sunday

the church was closed while undergoing fumigation with burning sulphur. The word ’tip’ had its origin in the practice of the old English taverns, where a receptacle for small coin was placed conspicuously, and over it was written “To Insure Promptness.’ Whatever was dropped in the box by guests was divided among the servants. In the course of time, the abbreviated form of ’T.I.P.’ was used. In Austria the books of all trusts and similar organisations are subject to examination by the Minister of Finance, and the officials are compelled to furnish any desired information relative to their business. The Minister of Finance also has the power to nullify any action on the part of combines intended to decrease or increase the price of goods to the detriment of legitimate producers or consumers, and the trust officials may be required to give bond to comply with these regulations. Seven Yale students passed their summer vacation by serving as conductors on a New Haven trolley-car line. The superintendent says they were the best conductors he ever had, and they were not members of the football eleven at that.

The nickel-in-the-slot idea is utilised for restaurant purposes in the Brussels exhibition. By placing a franc in the slot a chop or steak, with potatoes. can be procured, hot and wellcooked: another franc will produce a half-bottle of wine: half a franc will supply a plate of cold meat, with salad and roll, and a nickel of 10 centimes will extract a piece of bread and butter and cheese, or a ‘brioche.’ Besides all this a nickel will draw an excellent glass of hoek.

‘Cantab’ writes: ’lt has never been stated how and when Mr Spurgeon learned to smoke. It was while he was an usher in a boys’ school at Cambridge. and became the pastor of the little Baptist chapel at Waterbeach. He used to stay with one of the deacons from Saturday to Monday. Admiring the zest with which his host enjoyed his clay pipe, a ‘churchwarden’ was promised him the following week, which offer he eagerly accepted. Said the old man: 'He smoked his pipe, as he did everything else, thoroughly, then he said. ‘I think I have had enough.' ‘Yes.’ I replied. 'I think you have,’ and he thereupon left the inside for the outside of the cottage.’ The wiles of the present day advertiser are many, but perhaps this is one of the most clever. A member of a firm appeared in a Law Court with the complaint that his partner in business would sell goods at less than cost price, and he desired to have him restrained. The defendant utterly denied the charge, and the case was adjourned for a fortnight. As the plaintiff went out of Court he exclaimed in a tragic tone —‘Then the sacrifice must still go on.’ The story was noised abroad, and the result was that the shop was besieged with customers. There the ease ended, for at the end of the fortnight the plaintiff failed to appear- in Court, having accomplished the purpose he had in view.