Something of Everything.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2191, 21 September 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

Something of Everything.

In 1897 there,were only 16 motor cars in Britain. Now there are about 6000. The first astronomical observatory, was, established at -Alexandria 300 years B.C. The proportion of women who work for a living is largest in the United States. The longest span of life is that of tlie elephant, which will survive two centuries. By virtue of his offico, the Lord Chief Justice is tho principal coroner of England. Leather money was in circulation in Russia as recently as the. time ,of Peter, the Great. Tho first, liat-makers who plied their, trade in Britain.were Spaniards, who came over in 1510. The first street tramway was opened in America, in 1832, and ran from Now York to Harlem. A bird’s wing,, .in, proportion to .its owner’s, weight, ,is twenty times . as strong as, a man’s arm. Australia: lias, more places of-pub-lic worship in proportion to population than any other country. There are over 12.000 shops for the sale of milk in London. Of tho 51,000 breweries estimated to be in tho world, 26,000 are in Germany. A bridge between. England and France would, it is estimated cost £34,000,000. AYomen, .because they eat so much less,-only pay half rates in the more old-fashioned, of Sweden’s hotels. The largest Bible-class in Great Britain is at All Saints’ Church, Sheffield. : The average, attendance is 1,600. The cheapest municipal tenements are those owned by Dublin, where two rooms, can be rented for 2s a weefk.

Miss McGougli, sixty-one years of age, and Mr. Crissinger sixty-six, of Pittsburg, have just been married after a- courtship of twenty-six years.

The stairway leading to the tower of the Philadelphia city hall contains 598 steps, and is said to be the longest continuous stairway iu tho world. Miss-Edna- May (Mrs. Oscar Lewisohn) has- been chosen queen of the Ka-Noo-No Carnival, to- be held inSyracuse, N.Y., this month. The French Comedie Francaise is the only theatre which pensions its actors and actresses. After twenty years’ service they arc entitled to £2OO a year. It is tho custom in the Belgian Parliament, when a member is jnaking a long speech, to be supplied with brandy as a beverage, at the expense of the Government. After six years of constant work, tho pass of the St. Bernard, the terror of the Alps in winter, lias been finally conquered by means of a -welllaid road 21 miles long from the famous hospice to Osta. The gradiant is 6 per cent., and tho ascent about 6,050 ft. Mr. AVilliam Barbour, a millionaire, who landed in the United States fifty years ago a poor boy, tramped wearily a long distance to New' Jersey, and rested on a boulder while he ate his frugal lunch. He has now had tho boulder, which weighs a hundred tons, transported to Paterson, N.J., and will have it set- up on liis grave as a tombstone. The cost will bo £2OOO. Lady- Randolph Churhill, now Mrs. George Cornwallis AVest-, is engaged in writing her recollections. No woman of her generation has had such unique opportunities of seeing the most-interesting men and women of tho day at close quarters; and admirable as was the life recently published of Lord Randolph - Churchill, much was omitted which might find a fitting place in his wife and comrade’s memories of the most -exciting political episode of the later Victorian era.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s journey from Quebec to Montreal, on his return from the Imperial Conference, was a series of splendid ovations. Seven steamers and .a number of small yachts escorted the Government vessel carrying the Premier and his party. Montreal was reached at 9 o’clock, and, as night had fallen, the bonfires blazing along the shores of the St. Lawrence and the fireworks were seen to the best advantage. Montreal harbor was brilliantly illuminated, one of the designs representing the all-red route outlined in lines of fire. Immense crowds gathered on the wharves to witness the arrival of the Premier. At the City Hall replying fo addresses, he referred to the suggestion made that ho might end his career as Lord Laurier, and said his sole desire was to remain a simple citizen of Canada.

Marconi’s rcceut experiments with wireless telegraphy at Glace Bay,’ near Cape -Breton, have proved successful beyond all expectations. -He succeeded in sending scores of messages across the Atlantic to Poldhu, in Cornwall. He was to return to Canada after “tuning-up” the .instruments at Poldhu, and declares that when the Glace Bay instruments have been “tuned up” to a corresponding pitch the problem of speedy and uninterrupted wireless communication across the Atlantic will be completely solved.