Something of Everything.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2080, 4 January 1908, Page 4 (Supplement)

Something of Everything.

"As a matter of retrenchment, ’ twelve hundred men in the employ of the Trnnsvuil Government were discharged on the first of last inontri.

A Japanese paper declares that the Land of the Kising Sun doesn't cart' a button though all the American squadrons were loculi'll in the Pacific.

While a C.'hailey (Sussex) laborer was yawning, a wasp entered his mouth, and so severely stung h-'s tongue that his life was despaired of.

The royal antelope, a species of South African Steinhok, stands hut twelve inches high at the shoulder, aml is the smallest ruminant known.

Over seventy per cent, of the natives of India are tillers of the soil, hence the population is scattered, and their power of co-operation is greatly lessened.

A most useful brute is the sea serpent. Some of till* Home papers are Knocking leading articles out of the fact that it lias not yet appeared this season.

A Melbourne paper asserts that thi* French have failed to act up to the New Hebrides Convention, and are supplying the natives wtli intoxicants and tire-arms.

Decent discoveries are showing that Robert Burns, the Ayrshire Ploughman, was made i Freeman of as many towns as Dr Andrew Carnegie has yet been. But Carnegie is not dead yet.

An American paper states that "America, kills more people in railroads in a month than all the European railways do in a year.” One would scarcely consider this a matter for gratification.

Air Luther Burbank, the California horticulturist, has presented lo Stanford University seventy-thr-e varieties of apples grown oil a single tree The collection includes targe, small, sweet, and sour specimens of various colors.

A couple, age eighty-three and eighty years respectively, walked ten miles'to go through the marriage ceremony at Lititz, Lane., Pa. This w.is the fourth occasion on which each bail taken a leading part in a similar function.

Anyone in Dciunirk who nays lie State LG 10s when at the age of twen-ty-one is entitled to an annuity of £l3 (five shillings per week) on reaching tho age of sixty-five. If death takes place before that timo the State “scoops the pool.”

A solar halo and parhelia were sc-n rocontly in the south-eastern ;'cr;z:>h at Walton (Suffolk.) The 1i.i.0 formed almost a complete circle, anil the mock-sun was exceptionally • I’ l n;r-. Halos, like rainbows, are consider;/.! valuable prognostications of itiiuco weather.

M. Morel, lion, secretary of the Congo Reform Association, received a letter from an American missionary in the State, in which lie says that- the whole region is simply .1 slave district, and is so with the connivance and assistance of tho “powers that be.”

The Union Jack belonging to Nelson’s flagship, the Victory, which covered liis remains on the journey by water to Greenwich Hospital, has been sold for £1266. The Wliito Ensign which hung at the rear of Nelson’s funeral car on its way to St. Paul’s brought £2l.

Such is fame. A (Scotsman wheeled a barrow from Ayr to London, bearing the legend, “From tho Land of Burns to London and back.” When he was passing down the Strand, a Cockney was heard to remark: “Land of Burns? 131 i’ me, that ain’t far! He only comes from Battersea!”

The Scots ißolags (public-house trusts) are donating the balance (over five per cent.) of their profits to infirmaries, hospitals and charitable institutions. Tho Scots toper lias the satisfaction of knowing that the more lie drinks the moro money will flow into the coffers of these institutions.

A young lady was married in France the other day wearing a dress made of sackcloth. It was not- poverty, humility or religious devotion that dictated the innovation. It was purely self-interest, as the young lady's aunt had died leaving her a legacy of £6OOO on condition that such a dress was worn by her at her marriage.

The most remarkable method of delivering letters doubtless is that emB' d by steamers passing the isof the Tonga group in the Pacific. On account of many reefs, landing is extremely dangerous, and tho few letters to be delivered are attached to large sky-rockets, which are fired and reach tho shore in safety.

The new German brick's are made of sawdust. Tho sawdust is heated under high steam pressure until tho resinous ingredients become sticky when it is pressed into bricks. H this .system of brick-making becomes universal, ono of our most familiar colloquialisms will havo to be revised, 'as it will hardly be taken as complimentary, having regard to its constituents, to bo referred to as “a brick.”

“The “Limerick” has invadedd tno rinks of the vagroms. In South London a blind sailor man is doing well on the streets by discarding liis usual “I am blind” ticket, and hanging out a card with tho following lines: Through a boiler that busted at sea, When Y had just turned twenty-three, I’m blind as a bat And poor '.is a rat — Please help me, good folkswhocan see.

Tho “ATorgenhladet” of Christiania states that, according to a messago received from Tromso, Air AVcllman had ui) to August 26 made no ascent with liis airship from liis station ill Spitzbergen. After that date northerly winds, accompanied by fog and snow, prevailed, rendering ail ascent impossible, and it was decided that if tho weather did not improve before September 5 the attempt to reach the Pole by balloon should be abandoned until next year.

An important feature of the irritation caused in Persia by .the I <irkisli occupation of rontier districts is that tho all-powerful Persau c-e <.<- i.isties, who until recently had L,.:-c working for a closer understan l ug between their own Mohammedan sect of the Shiahs and the Sunnis, who predominate in Turkey, and rad included tho Sultan’s name in '-e cation delivered in mosques on Frio a vs. are now foremost in denouncing tm Sultan for the outrages committed by his subjects on the Persian Shiahs.

There exists at 'lotnes Market a custom which is beloved to be without parallel in the history of markets. A dealer chalks up the prie" lie gives for butter and eggs on :• stall, and all the other dealers nay the same. .This system hid gone on. and surprisingly little friction has resulted. Some time ago an attempt was made to break down the custom and induce producers to stand ill the market and'make the best price thev could. It was. however, shortlived, and the old system was reverted to.

M. Rodin bought recently, in a.” old curiosity shop in Paris, an cient marble bead of a man, and as the face was rather knocked about, he sent it to a brother sculptor lor repair. When the work was done til if, friend,got into a tub with the marble head, and drove towards M. Rodin s studio. On the way the cab came into collision with...a motor car, and was