Something of Everything.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2086, 11 January 1908, Page 8 (Supplement)

Something of Everything.

There are no newsboys in Spain; women sell newspapers in the streets. An orange tree in full bearing has been known to produce .15,000 oranges. Two locomotive engines could pass ouch other in any one of tho four funnels of tho Mtuirotania. Returns of the Railway Clearing House dliovv that 1000 parcels a day are lost on- the railways of the United Kingdom. Tho length of a peeress’s train varies with her rank. A duchess may have her train oyds long, a marchioness 2.lyds, while countesses are lini.it- . d to 2yds. Huront Yolinski, a Jew residing in Yew York, is 10-j years old. He was married twice and has 27 children, and they, will his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, number 92. A well-known officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps is reported to have proved that cold tea is capable of destroying the microbe of typhoid fever (bacillus typhosus) within 24 hours. Red seems to he the most popular of national colors, if Hags may bo used as criterions. Of the 25 leading national flags 19 have red in them. The same cannot be said of- any other color. What- is -reported to tie tho largest apple tree in the Unified .States is in the garden of Air. Charles Waterhouse, at Southington, Connecticut, it- has yielded 50 bushels of apples this season, and tho upper branches are still bearing fruit. Finger-print identification has been extended to commercial uses by tile Postal Savings Bank of the Philippines at Manila. This hunk lias recently issued a series of stamp deposit cards on which are spaces for stamps of different values to he affixed. When the depositor has stamps to the value of one peso on the card it is exchanged at the bank for a de-posit-book showing the amount of liis credit. Opposite the lines for the owner’s signature and address is a square ruled off for t’he reception of his thumb-print; so that, even if illiterate,, depositors may readily no identified.

Ihe maintenance of the pride, pomp, and circumstance of civic state costs the Corporation of London a yearly sum of close upon £IB,OOO. The Lord Mayor receives £IO,OOO, and the income-tax on that sum is paid for him, while he is allowed £IOO for the supply of new furniture, and liis robes cost close upon £2OO. Then tilic rates, taxes, and tithes payable on the Mansion House total upwards of £3OOO, the lighting involves nil outlay of upwards of £570, tho water supply costs £IBO, and fire ami boiler insurance absorbs £135. Next, structural and other repairs represent an expenditure closely approaching £2OOO, and periodically there is a heavy “call” for special redecorafcion —the amount spent- last year, for instance, on the Egyptian Hall being £560.

Josef Szazkas, aged 106, hanged himself at Szatonar, on the Hungarian frontier, because, as he had told a, friend previously, lie feared God had forgotten him, and he was condemned to remain on the earth for all eternity. Air. Andrew Carnegie lias informed the Lord Provost of Aberdeen that lie intends giving the last £IO,OOO required towards the building and equipment of the Technical Collego of the Granite City.

A farmer at Ditch ling (Sussex) dropped a halfpenny, ami in searching for it in the dust of the road ho found a sovereign. Anyone can have the halfpenny for the finding. An English agricultural laborer has made a claim under the Worker's Compensation Act for injury to his rye, caused by a cow switching its tail.

Last year 55,665 persons visited Burns’ monument on the banks of tho Doon, and 53.814 visited the cottage where he was born. The highest number for one week was during vno second week of July, when 9388 visited tho monument and 8166 paid for admission to the cottage. July also holds the record for the highest number of visitors in any one day. On Monday July loth, 2826 visited the monument, and 2310 visited tho “auld clay biggin’.” A large number of the visitors were Americans. Tho incorrigible Corelli. The tale is being told that Aiiss Marie Corelli was asked the other day why sllio does not marry, and replied:—“No, I have three pets at home which together answer the same purpose. I have a dog which growls -all the morning, a parrot which swears all the afternoon, and a cat which stays out -all night.” At Watford (Herts) last month, a man was fined £lO and costs for assaulting a policeman in 1886. The culprit disappeared after the assault, and the long arm of the law failed to reach him. He returned to Watford recently, and the long memory did what- the .long arm had failed to do twenty-one years ago. It had got to come —-the Limerick birth notice. A Bristol newspaper has tho following advertisement in its “Births” column:

A story to you I will tell. To Mr and Mrs Folwell, On Saturday morn A -baby was born, Young Teddy—as sound as a bell. This metre would be a dangerous one for a “Death” notice.

The stage is encroaching so much on tho pulpit by its numerous moral plays that a parson expresses the i elief that it will soon be necessary to introduce mild comic opera in 'ihe church to make tho services popular Tho one in throe. Tynemouth (Eng.) Town Council has a. nr quo municipal van. Its primary use is to carry prisoners to gaol, but it is so arranged that in an emergency it can he used as a fire-engine or an ambulance waggon. Irish. A young lady visitor to Dub--1 iii tells how she stopped one void, web evening to buy a paper from a ragged little newsboy, and -remarked as die gave -him an extra copper, “Poor little fellow, are you very cold?” “J was, ma’am, until you smiled,” was his gracious reply. . Argentina lias 245,000,000 acres of unoccupied land whcili is suitable for cattle grazing. Tli© cheque for a million which Mr Pierpoiit- Morgan is said to have sent to Air C'ortelvou is in keeping with the Western tradition of big things, but it does not entirely “whip creation.” The world's -record cheque was the one paid over the Bank of England counter to the Japanese Minister for the sum of £11,008,875, being the first instalment of -the Chinese indemnity after the war of a dozen years ago. An ordinary cheque with the usual penny stamp carried this lingo, sum. The next instalment of the indemnity was paid by means of a cheque for £8.225,000 Is lOd. AYlien tlie De Beers Consolidated Alines bought tho property of the Kimberley Central Company t-hotran-,suction was settled by a cheque for £5,338,050. Air Pierpoiit Aforgan has not even beaten bis own record, lie one© wrote out a cheque for £4,620,000. ami six years ago, in connection with the' disposal of .Mr Carnegie’s holdings, lie drew one for £4.781,754 2s Bd. Tho smallest cliouue ever known is that drawn by the United Stales Treasury in favor of Afr- Cleveland, ill whose Presidential salary a discrepancy had been detected. ll was for one cent only. Air Cleveland was not in urgent need of money, so he -had the cheque framed as a curiosity.