In The Smoke Room

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXI, Issue XI, 10 September 1898, Page 329

In The Smoke Room

Turkey and Greece are the only European countries into which the telephone has not yet been introduced. Between Madagascar and the coast of India there are about 16,000 islands only 600 of which are inhabited, but most of which are capable of supporting a population. Austria is the only empire in the world which has never had colonies, or even transmarine possessions in any quarter of the earth. Her ambition has hitherto been purely continental. The sudden changes of climate encountered by soldiers when troops are moved from one quarter of the work! to another are estimated as increasing the annual mortality of Europe by 50,000 men. It was once customary in France, when a guest had remained too long.

for the host to sene a cold shoulder of mutton instead of a hot roast. This was the origin of the phrase ‘to give the cold shoulder.’ The Berlin Rundschau, in an article concerning the war indemnity paid by France to Germany at the end of the Franco-l’russian war, says that the only mistake made by the French officials in counting out the £200.000.000 was when they included in a package of bank notes a bogus one hundred thaler bill (Prussian). It is the height of the ridiculous to set down a girl as frivolous and ignorant because of her beautiful appearance. just as it is misleading to term a plain girl clever. Actions speak for themselves, and soon make patent to a thoughtful observer whether the mind is beautiful or not, be the face that of an angel, or. to quote the adage, ‘as plain as a pike-staff.’

No less than a sum than £41.000,000 has l>een given or bequeathed in the last five years by wealthy Americans to build and support schools, hospitals. libraries, and picture galleries. No Church, State, or municipal grants are included in this sum: it. represents personal contributions only.

Last j ear's total— £ 9.000,000 —was perhaps the largest that has ever been known in the United States. There has been a rise in the market price of wives in Natal. South Africa. Before the rinderpest killed so many eattle the quotation was eleven head of cattle, valued at £33, but eleven head now represent £ 132. It is being urged that the Government should fix three head as the price of a wife for the present, and should make it a rule that the money equivalent may be paid where cattle are unprocurable. Another ‘decree of expulsion’ has been issued by the King of Siam, this time against one of his own officials. Chow Pligh Rax. Minister Plenipotentiarv. General Adviser, ete.. in which it said that ‘he shall be publicly stripped of his Siamese honours.’ that he shall then have his head shaven for the better preservation of his health, and‘that he shall be. after the expiration of seven days, made to cut grass for the royal elephants for the rest of his natural life.

At Rangoon is situated the famous golden pagoda of a Buddhist temple, the whole of the exterior of which is one mass of shimmering gold. This

generous coating of the metal is the result of years and years of votive offerings to Buddha, for devotees from all parts of the world go to Rangoon and take packets of gold leaf, which they place on the pagoda. During the last century, Tshewbyo-Yen, the King of Burmah. gave his weight in gold to the walls of the pagoda, an offering worth £ 9000 sterling.

Holland holds the first place in the world as a nation of smokers. Every Dutchman consumes, on an average, 100 ounces a year. The Belgian comes a good second with an annual consumption of eighty ounces, followed by Turkey, with seventy ounces, and the United States with sixty ounces. Germany. France Spain and Italy tread closely on their heels, while the United Kingdom comes comparatively low on the list with twenty-three ounces.

The sort of application for a new trial which has just been made in consequence of a decision in the Indiana Court is absolutely unknown in English legal procedure. The losing party alleged that the decision went against him because the smoking of the judge and attorneys prevented

him—a non-smoker—from stating his case fully. The Supreme Court held, however, that the man ought to have objected to the smoking when it took place and not after the verdict had been given. Appeal was therefore dismissed.—‘Law Notes.' Slowly, but irresistibly. Germany's sea commerce and merchant service are approaching those of England, and will soon surpass them in quantity and numbers. The German spirit of enter-

prise is creeping up step by step, and may now proudly call the attention of Englishmen to the fact that at this moment aGennan4steamship company, the Hamburg-American Line, is the greatest in the world, that the largest cargo steamer in the world is the German steamer the Pennsylvania, and finally, that a German Royal mail steamer, the Kaiser Wilhelm the Great, is the fastest ship in the world. These are three records all won from England.