Something of Everything.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2104, 1 February 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

Something of Everything.

More than 6,000 women nr© employed in the Russian iSeoret Service. Some draw a salary of £2,000 a year.

The longest perfectly straight railway track i.s on Die Rhodesia Railway from Bulawayo in the direction of tho Victorian Falls. It extends for seventy-0110 miles without a curve.

For the past five years the dividends of that great trust, the Standard Oil Company, have averaged £9,000,000 a year.

It is quite easy to pick a good investment; some people never Jail, but don’t invest where you know nothing of the business, and only hope you will win.

Greece is only a small spot on tlie world’s map, but she produces more and better currants than any other country. The last crop amounted to 250,000,0001 b.

Miss Rose Fritz, of New York, lias beaten the world’s speed record in typewriting. The young lady copied from manuscript 5,019 words in one hour, or an average of just over 931 words per minute.

The secret of most men’s failure is mental dissipation, wandering energies, squandering energies upon a distracting variety of objects, instead of condensing them into one.

It is the duty of every business man, no -matter how small Ins business is, to make investments, from time to time, and have his money planted and growing in different localities.

The Ylysoro Government, with an eye to the further exploit iiian of tiieir waterfalls, have deputed I ho Stato geologist to visit Italy and Sheffield to study the electrical process of iron smelting discovered by Dr. Stepliano, of Turin, and offer smcltiug processes.

AA’e are beginning to se tkat money, after all, is not tlie main thing. Tlie real values cannot be bought and sold. AVo are really here to ho happy and to make others liapuy. It is a great mission to live si nippy and honestly with the times—New York “Times.”

Ylr John lYlargerison, who was for half a century employed by tlie Hornby family at the Brookhouso Cotton Ylills, Blackburn, lias left the bulk of his fortune, valued at over £5,000, for the erection of a statue of Ylr AVilliam Henry Hornbv, father of Sir AV. H. Hornby, M.P. ''

AVhat a canary eats has been the subject of research by a scientist who weighed a canary and found it rather over Aoz. 'He also weighed all the food, and found that the bird consumed thirty-two times its, weight every month, or actually more than its own. weight every day.

During her latest record-breaking voyage, early in November, the Lusitania, while running from Queenstown to Now York, was struck by a gigantic wave, the liner feling the shock from stem to stern, as if she had been an ordinary vosel of 15,000 tonnage. “That one wave,” said Captain AA’att, “lost us 25 miles. It was the most formidable I ever saw.’

Germany -has the largest labor organization in the world. This trade union—the Dentscher Yletallarbeiterverband, which represents all 'branches of tlie metal-working industry—has a membership of no fewer than 335,075, of which 15,000 ire women. During 1906_ a total of £17,500 was spent by this organization to maintain strikers.

A young woman has iust arrived in Vienna who claims to be the tallest woman in the world. She is only twenty-seven years old, but stands 7ft Sin and weighs 26st lOlbs. She is spare rather than stout, is hard of feature and voice, and altogether somewhat of the masculine type. Her father and mother are not above the ordinary stature.

Two thousand acres in the Kentish coalfields have, been acquired by a German syndicate, and arrangements are being made to start work at once between Dover and Canterbury. The site selected by the Germans will be the nearest pit to tlie port of Dover, the area being only about two miles inland.

In recognition of the importance of her railways, Russia lias, even during tho war and times of trouble, distress, and scarcity of funds, continued to enlarge the mileage. The latest additions embrace oigjht wuw roads, with- 2123 mileage. Further, 284 miles of second lines wero -laid on present roads, and a- road -to- go around Moscow was energetically pushed. A great deal of work -remains to be done even in connection with the existing railroads.

A Polo iianid- Stepliano Berezinsky, whose health ha-cl 'been undermined by his 'treatment as a. political prisoner in Russia, knowing lie was dying, persuaded his sweetheart to marry him at Berne. He was carried to church on an. ambulance, and feebly responded to the usual questions, his young bride most of tho time in tears. After the ceremony the bridegroom was carried back to his bed. .lie died oil the following day.

The costliest flats in London have been .built on the site of tho late Duke of Cambridge’s house at thecorner of Park Lane and Piccadilly. There are six Hats in tho building, ind it is -said that the rental of each will bo from £2,000 to £2,500. Heavy as this is, it will yield little more than a■ sufficient interest on the expenditure, which has been somewhat over £120,000. The flats aro unusually large, consisting of four receptionrooms and ten bedrooms.

British shipmasters have not failed to -notice and approve the -action of the- Kaiser in conferring a decoration upon Captain Polack, of the Kaiser Wilhelm der G-rosse, for .bringing his vessel practically across the Atlantic without a rudder. It is felt that the constant interest which the Kaiser displays in the progress of the German mercantile marine is to a considerable extent responsible for its rapid development.

Every country seems Lo have a craze for disparaging some system it has and knows, and praising another national system which it knows nothing about (remarks a Loudon crit'c). In England we talk of the Gorin in nationalised railway system as

a solution of our own difficulties; -et the German railway administrators have to do very much—to the dissatisfaction of traders—what our own railway directors have to do here.

I _ The. King's train, specially built I for His Majesty bv the London and I North-Western Railway Comp any, I was used for the recent Royal jour--1 ney from Balmoral to London. It is I interesting to learn, apropos of tin's I train, that whereas some Continental I Sovereigns have bad railway coaches I built for them at the expense of the I State or of their own privy purse, I the Royal trains provided bv this I railway and two or three of the other English companies have been conI struoted at the companies’ own exI pen so. They then remain the nilway's property, the members of the Royal family paying their fares like ordinary passengers, with merely the usual charge for a special train! The ! most elaborate precautions are taken to ensure the safety of the King's train, a pilot engine running fifteen minutes m advance throughout the entire journey. The train .itself contains a saloon designed for Hi-s Majesty, with a smoking-room, a day s .- loon, a bedroom, and dressing-room, I all equipped with handsome fuciii- I turo. , 1