SCISSORS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4168, 29 November 1884, Page 4

SCISSORS.

Paris has 82,000 trees in her avenues. London suffered from a plague of mosqriitos in September-' The London minimum charge for waterBupply is eight shillings per annum. London bakers never give full weight; against tho trade rules. Egyptians formerly swore by the leek, now at the bondholders.

Taglioni introduced the polka into England.

In Japan eveiybody takes the first of January for his birthday. What a drunk. Exports from France are steadily decreasing. f- England and Wales havo upwards of ono thousand co-operative societies. The cheapest English beers are exported to Germany, France, Belgium, and Holland. Police regulations in Holland compel every household affected by any infectious disease to put up a notice to that effect. There are 1403 schools of art in the United Kingdom. Twenty years ago there were only 70. - _ In France the gas in railway carriages is regulated by the passengers by means of a tap. Austria has passed a law prohibiting the sale of patent medicines unless they are beneficial.

- The making of two of the finest streets of Paris cost upwards of three million pounds sterling. Femaio students are to be allowed to compete for positions as surgeons in tho Paris hospitals.

Thirty thousand ponnds is estimated as the sum spent daily in the 25,000 beershops of Paris. There are said to be more than a quarter of a million women in Loudon who work with their needles for a bare subsistence.

Fifty-two young American girls are " doing " Europe with hobnailed shoes and Alpenstocks. A dispensary is to be built at Bombay, where medical relief will be given to women by doctors of their own sex. A very common tavern sign in British India is—"Animals of all kinds stuffed on the shortest notice."

There is being tried in France an electric bellringer agate opener at rail way crossings, to be opened by passing trains. Toy pistols are a popular German favor at some of the resorts. The girl holds tho target and the man the toy pistol, and the best marksman finds the girl his partner. Tho entire expenditures of the United States Government are being carefully indexed in great volumes. Tho work is being done and done well by a £100 a year woman clerk.

A ship that will scud on tho surface of, instead of ploughing through the ocean, has been devised by a Leeds, England, inventor, who enthusiastically claims that it will cross the Atlantic in three days.

An Ohio farmer says that a cow can be cured of kicking "by catching hold of her leg whilo in the act." This is probably true, at least those who have tried it never saw the cow kick again.

Subscriptions towards a Mozart monument at Vienna were being offered freely in Germany. 10fl,000fl. are needed, and 00,000 of these had been promised up to the beginning of October.

Jumes Wilkinson, of Delhi, who is considerable as a scientist, recently committed suicide by a very ingenious method. He drank half a quart of fluid dynamite, and then swallowed a seidlitz powder. The explosion was terrific. Tho wages of a gang of Italian laborers near Saratoga were recently cut down 10 cents a day. Instead of striking they cut an inch off their shovel blades at night. The boss asked what it meant, and one of the men replied—" Not so much pay, not much dirt lift; all right, job last the more long ; Italian no fool like Irishman ; he no strike."

Describing the filthy state of old Naples, the Opiniono (Rome) said:—"Alongside now Naples thero still continues to exist old Naples, dirty, without light, without air, wherein 300,000 human beiugslivc inhabitations that resemble caverns. There cholera has established its headquarters, and thence it is diffused. It is no exaggeration to say that that part of Naples is a perennial outrage to civilisation." A bachelor farmer in Arizona advertised in San Francisco papers for| a wife. The rexdy that pleased him most came from a young lady employed in a dry goods store. He hastened to the city, presented himself, was accepted, and teu days later the pair was married. Soon after returning to his home in Arizona the farmer took his wife down to Ahneda to visit his brother, when to the amzement of all, it was found that his brother's wife and his were sisters.

Tho New Zealand Mothodist has the following editorial comments on the recent adverse decision of the Wesleyan Conference at Christchurch with respect to the proposed "union of the various branches of Methodism in New Zealand:—"Wo do not affect to conceal our disappointment. In our judgment, the separation asked for was necessary for securing a most promising development of Methodism in this colony, and it is a source of no small regret to us that by tho action of Conferenco our hopes of a movement forward urgently called for, as we bebeve, by the necessities of our position, are held in check."

A swimming feat of no ordinary kind took place on August 23rd, when Lord Frederick Hamilton and Mr Cecil Baring swam across Niagara just beneath the falls. They jumped into the water at the foot of the American Falls, on tho American side, and struck out diagonally across tho stream, Lord Frederick, unluckily struck his kneo against a rock on entering the water, aud this partially disabled him. They both swam safely through the rough water, being carried some way clown by tho current, which is very violent there, and reached the smooth water on tho Canadian side. Lord Prederiok with his crippled knee, failed to reach the bank, and was hauled into v boat some twenty yards from the shore. Mr Baring swam ou, however, and landed 100 yards below tho new suspension bridge, none the worse for his adventure.

The young postmiister of a village iv the district of Znaira whs busy at -work in his office when a gentle knock camo to the door, and in stepped a buxom young couutry lass. Walking up to tho desk sho handed the official, with a bashful smile, a post-oilico order, which ho closely examined, and paid the young woman the sum inscribed. At tho same time he asked her why she had not detached tho coupon from the order, as tho sender had written on it a further communication for her. "Indeed?" said the girl, "well, you see, I can't read: perhaps you'll bo so kind as to read it for me." Tho postmaster read as follows : "I send you herewith three florins and a thousand kisses." Glancing rapidly at the young person, he added with his accustomed official gravity : "You have now the money and I am ready to give you the kisses at once." Tho young peasant woman accepted the balance of her order. On rea :hing home sho said to her folk : "Eh, but it's a grand concern— this post office : you can now got kisses sent along with your money-or dors."