GENERAL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2205, 1 June 1908, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

Over 20,000 moil wore temporarily thrown out of work by tho annual Hood ill Pittsburg and vicinity. Thousands of people were compelled to live on the second floors Of their houses and policemen in skill's were distributing the necessities of Jifo. Cautious estimates place the dauiugo done at £400,000. What is probably the most venerable piece of furniture in oxistonco is deposited in tlio British Museum, London. It is tlio throne of Queen JLutasu, who reigned in the Nile valley some 1000 years before Christ, and twenty-nine years before Moses. This now dilapidated object seems to ho of lignum vitae, the carving of the logs being inlaid with gold, and those of tho back with silver.

At the Reformation, when tho Church of St. Nicholas, at Yarmouth, was despoiled, tlm carved stones of many of the monuments, both in tho church and outsido in the graveyard, were shipped olf —some to Newcastle to be turned into grindstones, and some on board the ships of tho Royal Navy of the day to lie used in scouring the decks, whence, it is interesting to know, tho seamen’s term, “lioly-stoning tlio deck,” takes its origin.

Tno foundation of lifelong dll-health may be laid for young girls by failure to keep their strength and health up to normal. Stearns' Wine is best for them becauso it is a true tonic,

Glass buttons aro chiefly made in Bohemia, where children aro largely employed. The children get od a day, woinoii Is 3d to Is Sd, and men from Is 8d to 2s. Pearl buttons are almost exclusively a Vienna product, but shirt buttons are made chiefly in Birmingham, which is also tho seat of the metal button trade. The most extensive kind of button manufacture is that of the Parisian and Berlin novelties.

liadstock, in Essex, -possesses what is probably a unique water supply. It is entirely derived from a deep Veil in the parish churchyard. The well is 800 years old, and is known as St. Botolph’s Well. Tho inhabitants of liadstock declare that it contains the best drinking water in the kingdom, and, as the village in question- is ono of the healthiest places in Essex, thoro is undoubtedly some truth in their boast.

Zyinolo Trokeys aro handy to carry and aro invaluablo to all who talk or sing. As a stimulating antiseptic for the throat they aro unequalled. A. strange and alarming state of things • prevails on tlio Dorsetshire coast, east of Lyme Regis, England, where the cliffs are all alight, -:jnd pungent sulphur fumes are ascending. The spectators who come to view tho 6ceno number thousands daily, and many speculations are rife regarding the cause and consequences of tho affair. Tho visitors 4re amusing themselves by lighting cigarettes from tho fare that shows through tho innumerable crevices in the rocks. Expert geologists say that tho cliffs are of pyritic formation, and that they havo probably caught alight from a chance accident, such, as the dropping of a lighted match. Some years ago a similar occurrence aroused superstitious wonder in the same neighborhood. °