After Dinner Gossip.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue II, 12 July 1902, Page 76

After Dinner Gossip.

Making a Billiard Ball It takes more than a year to make au ivory billiard ball! Few devotees of the game probably are aware of the infinite pains that have to be expended on this important part of the equipment that contributes to their enjoyment. Billiard tails are made from elephants* tusks, and only the small tusks, from four to six inches in their thickest diameter, will do, for the-.-furnish the best ivory. The price of this ivory has greatly increased of late, and the demand is far in excess of the supply. The stringency in the market has induced a prominent billiard company to offer 10.000 dollars for a perfect substitute for ivory. The elephants' tusks come from the factories cut up in sections, each having been cut just large, enough to allow of the turning of a single bail. Only skilled labour is employed to work upon it. The exact centre of the piece must first be discovered by measurement. It is then placed in a socket, and one half of the ball is turned by a sharp edged steel instrument- The ivory is then hung up i t a net for a time. Later the second half is turned, and the bail again hung up as before, in a room where the temperature is from §0 to 70 degrees. The ball must be kept thus suspended for about a year, when st is rubbed, and polished to as near a certain weight as possible, and to a diameter of two and three-eighths inches. Even with the greatest eare it is impossible to make two balls of exactly the same weight. The life of a billiard ball after it is placed its use is an uncertain quantity. If the room in which it is kept is too hot the pores of the ivory may close and a crack ensues. Then it has to be returned to the factory, where it is shaved oh. and consequently reduced in size. A second-rate billiard room gets it next. By and by it develops another crack, and again goes back to the factory, where this time it is probably fixed up for a cue ball in pool. When it has reached its last limit of usefulness as a ball it is bought by dealers in bone and ivory and turned into buttons.—" Philadelphia North American." + + ♦ Shah Shocks Fine Society. During his recent tour the Shah of Persia took more delight in hearing an American musical machine, of which there is one at the Persian legation. Berlin, than to listen to all • he crack military bands. His Majesty sat in his shirt sleeves for hours enjoying the strains of "The Htar Spangled Banner" and other airs. From time to time he handed the operator cigarettes. The Shah found the climate of Germany disagreeably hot. Be spent most of his time indoors and when he entered a special train at Leipsic on his way to Carlsbad he took oS his coat, rolled up his sleeves and sat at an open window farming himself and inexpressibly shocking a large military contingent and society people who were bidding him farewell and whose ideas of propriety never admit that a gentleman may be seen in tits shirtsleeves. The Shah is equipped with a letter of credit for 3.000,000 marks, whieh stun, since he and his entire retinue are the Emperor's guests, has scarcely been touched. Among other gifts the Shah gave 10.CC0 marks to the fund for the relief of the Martinique sufferers. Companlcna In Courtesy. lit arm was the Irish heart and winning the way of the late Lord Dufferin. Shortly before he left Canada, and while he was in residence at Rideau Hall, he was walking one windy d*y when be came upon an old Iriah labourer who was mending the roadA* was bis wont, the GovernorGeoeral stopped to have • chat, and

the old labourer stood bare-headed, the wind blowing his thin, white hair roughly about. "Put on your hat,” said Lord Dufferin. "Not before Your Excellency." replied the old man. "Then." said his lordship, taking off his own hat, "if you will expose your grey hairs to this wind out of deference for my position. I must expose mine to it out of respect for your grey hairs." In a Raek of FireBefore the day of electric lights Drury Lane Theatre was illuminated bv a great gasolser eighteen feet across the base. It hung en stout chains twelve feet long, and was fed bv pipes ensuing down through a uianhoie in the ceiling. Close to this manhole was a circular crcwu of burners; a larger circle ran round the bottom of the chandelier and in addition "baskets" of lights were grouped at inters aL> about the lower rimThe boy who lighted this glittering mass of jets and flashing prisms was Frank Parker, a youth of seventeen. As no automatic spark had then been devised, the method of lighting was a primitive one. Parker used to go into the garret above the ceiling and reach down through the manhole with a long pole. at the end of which was a spirit toren. In doing this he had to be very careful not to break of the glass pendants, which if loosened might under the great heat drop off <1 string a performance and kill someone in the pit. One night as Parker reached down to light the lower range of ligsits and the basket clusters be knocked the pole against a string of glass prisms, which came loose at one end and swung down supported only by a small copper wire. Then he remembered the words of th ■ manager; "If any of the crystals come loose break them off at alt costs. They are dangerous." So Parker without hesitation elimbed down through the manhole upon the interlaced rods and braces of the chandelier, whieh swayed slowly above the black pit. As he let himself down through the hoop of lights whieh formed the top of the chandelier, his lamp caught the circle of open jets, and the flame ran round in a succession of sputters. one light catching from another, as a row of dominoes falls. There he was imprisoned between fire above and darkness below. At first he did not notice his peril, for he was intent on breaking off the dangerous cluster of prisms. With great difficulty he reached it and knocked it into the pit. The pause before it struck told him how deep the chasm lay beneath him. Then he looked tip and realised his position, for there was the circle of blazing jets above him barring the way to the manhole. The heat and poisonous fumes of hundreds of lights rushed over him un through the ventilator. He called for help. The minutes slipped by. the rods he clung to grew hot. Then, when he had almost given up hope, the head lightman heard his cries and rushed up. over the grille, through the dark garret to the manhole. Turning off the lights, he lay down, as one does to puil a drowning man from a hole, reached through the opening and seizing Barker’s arms drew him up to safety.

To mny Atkins tn India. It is told of the late Sir William Olpherts that one day an officer came to him with a pitiful tale of his men's discontent with their vegetable rations; they were an Irish regiment, and they wanted potatoes. But in those early Anglo-Indian days, potatoes were not always available in remote districts. Mutiny was feared. "Hell-Fire Jack," in command of the district, promised -<o • wot ‘ an end to

the trouble. He ordered a full-dress parade of the potato-loving soldiers at noon, and rode up in the sweltering heat to inspect the ranks himself. "Now, my men,” he shouted. "I w ant you to speak out plainly. I hear you want potatoes —do you?" “We do, sir!" came from a thousand parched throats. "Then you won’t get 'em!” replied Sir John. "You’re good soldiers. I admit, but if you expect God Almighty to grow potatoes on the dry olains of India, especially to please you. you’re damneder fools than I take you for. Dismiss!" Hell-Fire Jack turned his horse s head and galloped back to his quarters. and there was no more talk of a potato mutiny in the camp. * * ♦ On “ Loving a Lord." Looking at the question as a whole, we can see only cue answer, and that Is that the majority of Englishmen — or. at all even's, enough to make a p:«-v.-rb sufficiently true to be gen .- rally accepted—do undoubtedly "love.” that is. instinctively respect, a title. If you try to see why that is you must go back to the days when men got their names from what they could do; when, that is. a man was judged by and respected for his capacity for inflicting trenchant wounds —when men were called Miller, or Taylor, or Hogg, or Pigg because they were renowned for milling (i.e., fighting), or cutting with the sword, or hacking, or piking. After a while, the men who could fight best got further distinctions, the capacity for knocking down other men. in early stages of the history of a community, being, as it were, the yardstick by which each man was measured. latter, the necessities of the community enlarged. ansi men were able to gain distinction, and were ennobled for other services and capabilities than those cf fighting, the names which were given them being the outward and perpetual signs of their achievements. •fr + dt True Story of a Servant Girl. A little time ago a girl engaged in service in one of our large provincial towns gave notice that at the end of the usual month she would leave her place. ■ Jeren't you comfortable, Jane?” asked the mistress, sorry at the prospect of losing one who had proved herself to be a perfect treasure. "Yes. ma'am. I'm very comfortable: but, please. I'm going to get married," was the reply. As the time drew near for the girt’s .departure she addressed her mistress one morning: "Please, ma'am, have you got a girl yet ?" "No. Jane, not yet." sai l her mistress. "But why do you ask?” "Because, ma'am, if you haven't I should like to stay, if you don't mind," explained the girl. "But, Jane," exclaimed the mistress. net a little surprised. "I thought you were to many the sweep!” "Yes. ma'am. I did think about it,” said Jane; "but when I saw him for the first time after ’is face was washed I felt as ’ow I couldn't love ’im any longer.” At Home in the Kitchen Viewed from a human standpoint—just now a popular one from which to contemplate Royalty—Queen Alexandra is the peer of any lady in England in housewifery. For her proficiency she has to thank her excellent mother, the late Queen Louise of Denmark, and toe exigencies of her childhood life, which was the reverse of luxurious. There were not many servants at the Gule Palace, says the author of a recent "Life of Queen Alexandra." •nd the young Danish Princesses were required to dust their own rooms and make themselves generally useful about the bouse and at meal times. A gentleman who one day was invited to partake of the informal family luncheon at the palace recalls that the family butler dish chanced to need replenishing, and the Princess Louise, instead of summoning a servant, turned to her elder daughter and said; ,

"Alexandra, will you fetch soma more butter?” *

And the future Queen of England departed willingly and gracefully on the homely errand to the larder. During a visit paid by her in ISS3 with the Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark the Princess of Wales, after inspecting every part of the Home for Scandinavian Sailors, said to Mrs Melln. the Superintendent: "I would like to see the Kitchen." It v.os dinner time and the cook was frying fish. "I can cook fish." said the Princess. "Let me show you if I cannot.” She went to the cooking range and deftly turned the fish in the pan till it had taken the requisite brown. The cook looked none too well pleased at -ladies in the kitehen. but when, as the visitors turned to leave. Mrs Melin whispered. “It is the Princess of Wales who has fried the fish.” the cook showed such astonishment that the Princess burst into a hearty laugh." •fr + + Th® Dummy Curat® in th® Stalls. It would be easy to quote a hundred striking proofs, says a writer in the "St. James’ Gazette." of the bridging cf the old gulf between the t htirch and the Stage, but it would be hard to find more significant evidence of it than the familiar deception practised with such success upon metropolitan, as well as provincial, audiences whenever opportunity arises. Every- journalist knows it. Half through thr play an elderly gentleman. whom nobody eoul-d imagine to be anything else than a clergyman, rises from his seat and begs permission to state that for the first time in his life he has come to the theatre that evening, and that he considers st his duty- »o declare that the. play is a great inspiration and a powerful sermon, a terrible proof of the degrading effects of sin. etc., etc. Week after week, during the provincial progress of a well-known play, the mysterious clergyman praised the play as naturally as if he were not a part of the performance.