INTERESTING ITEMS.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2334, 16 December 1914, Page 6

INTERESTING ITEMS.

! GATHERED FROM THE PAPERS Mr. Stephen Howard, of Warton, near Blackpool, a native of Waleall, has attested, by special permission, for active service with the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, stationed at Fulwood Barracks. Mr. Howard, who is 71 years of age, served with the colours , for 34 years, enlisting in 1865, and retiring as a quartermaster-sergeant. He lias smeo acted as sergeant-uistructor to the Lythain Rilles. ■There are many Gorman princes iu the fighting line, but probably only one Royal priest.' This is Prince Max of baxouy, a brother of the Kiug of that country. His Royal Highness must nave- mixed feelings regarding the' conflict in which he has been called to take his part as a man of religion and consoler of tho wounded. Prince Max laboured for: a time in the East End or London, and his work among the poor in the crowded districts of ■.White-, chapel is still held in memory. The Prince, was popular in England, and was always looked upon as essentially a poor man's- priest. ' . Sir Gilbert Parker recalls Hohenzollern precedent for contempt for "a scrap-of paper." Frederick William IV, in the Speech from the Throne to *ne first' Parliament of Prussia .in 1b47, said:—"Never will I allow a sheet of written paper to come like a second Provideuco between our Lord God in heaven and this land, to govern" us'by its paragraphs." _ The report that a grandson of Charles •Dickens-is serving with 'the Red Cross in France recalls an interesting association of the great novelist with the last Franco-Prussian war,: which broke out within a few weeks of his death. Forster records that when Jules ■• Favre went to meet Bismarck outside the walls of Paris in the fruitless hope of persuading him not to attack the city, a silent figure sat in one corner of the room, reading intently, apparently undisturbed by the discussion. It was Moltke, and the book 'that absorbed him was "Little Dorrit." ■'" The military commander of the territory of Lorraine ordered the immediate suppression of all French inscriptions. The use of the French language is also forbidden in'■ business, under penalty of 1 the closing of tho shops.. 'Those inhabitants Who , cannot speak German must learn it sufficiently well to understand it and make themselves understood in it.

Associated with the First and Sqcond Australian Goiieral Hospitals at the front , will be 186 skilled nurses, selected on a proportional basis from each State, as follow:—Victoria, 45; New South Wales, 45; Queensland, 27; Soulh Australia'/ 27; West ■ Australia, 18; and Tasmania, 18; Six matrons make up-'the full total. The Victorians, Qiieenslanders, and West Australians will bo attached to the No. 1 Hospital, and nurses' from • tho remaining States to the other. -The difficulty experiencud by the acting director-general of medical services (Colonel R. H.Fethcrston) was not in securing the necessary complement, but in eliminating because practically the whole nursing profession, besides many hundreds of. women, who had no practical experience, wanted to go to the war in a body. . ,i ■•' ' ' ■ The destruction of Venice, declares Grand Admiral Montecuccoli, of the Austrian i fleet, would bo the first , act of tliq Austrian Navy should war break out with Italy.; ... Scotland has done .well in the matter of recruiting. Somo of her methods are novel. A special recruiting car, ..tastefully decorated with the flags ;of the Allies, and hearing in front tlio words, "To Berlin via France," is running over, the various tramwiiy routes in lidiiiburgh; On the top of the car U a _piperj and oil tlie footboard a recruiting sergeant, and young men w'hb wish to join the army are asked to "jump on." '■.'■'■ ' ■ .: ■ ■

A , Russian stretcher-bearer who was wounded in the fighting stated that a pack of wolves :was continually hovering round, pouncing upon the dead and wounded and devouriu"them. ■.'-,'

It was the-secret.of crucible steel, bequeathed by Frederick • Krupp to his son, tliat made the Krupp Works. Its incomparable qualities and purity have enabled perfectly homogeneous, uniform, and dense blocks to be cast, lliese -characteristics caused the Prussian , Government to give the works their first order for 300 cannon, and from that day the connection between the Government and the works has never been severed. of Sheffield, had also discovered the secret of making crucible steel some hundred years : before'Krupp, and he manufactured it for some time. Unfortunately the secret was buried with him, and lay dormant until revived by Krupp. In the "Scottish Bankers' Magazine" for October an interesting table is given of the number of Scottish banks officers absent , on military duty, The Bank of. Scotland heads the list with 117; the British Linen Company comes nest with 113; the .National has 112 the Commercial ] OS, the Union 105,- the Royal and the North of-Scotland and Town and' County 100 each, and the Clydesdale 75—making a gross total of 830. This represents a high percentage of, the eligible staffs, and it is exceedingly creditable to , the various banks that they have in. most cases granted their officers leave , on full pay. ■, ■ - ■ .

Cracow possesses the most picturesque Ghetto in existence. So early as the fourteenth century a large part of its population consisted of Jews driven from Germany; owing to the persecutions inflicted on them. Certain quarters of the city were assigned to the' refugees; but, being;pushed from these in course of time by the growing flo'od of Christian population, they chose the suburb of Eazimierz for their habitation, and founded an almost purely Jewish community. There they etill have their.old synagogues (one of which dates back 500 years) and their own hospitals and schools. They dress in tho same way as their forefathers, and epeak among themselves a bewildering mixture ttf Hebrew, German, and Polish. Were this a normal year deer-stalking would be in full swing in that portion of the Carpathians now being traversed by Russian troops. Here arc te be found the finest stags in Europe, excelling even the Bavarian stags in weight and strength of antler, and far larger than any Highland red deer. When out stalking at Bukowinda, in the Carpathians, in September, 1896, Mr. Edward North Buxton shot' one of tho largest stags ever seen. It carried a head of 18- points, the antlers at their greatest length measuring 62in.