INTERESTING ITEMS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 317, 3 December 1910, Page 3

INTERESTING ITEMS.

•—» There are said to be 130,000 foreign waiters employed in London. Cigars form part of the daily rations served out to Italian soldiers. In China a father cannot leave more property to one son than to another; all must have an equal share. Mr Charles Rothschild, who ia a younger son of Lord Rothschild, has a most curious collection of pets. It consists of fleas. The largest Ilea :n his collection is the mole ilea, which is the fifth of an inch long.

King Alfonso of Spain has a unique museum, consisting of a collection of articles by which his life has been endangered. Amongst them is to be found the skin of a horse which was killed by a bomb flung at his Majesty. The Marquis of Abergavenny was for many years one of the most active workers for the Conservative cause. Lady Dorothy Nevill recalls in her "Reminiscences" that his devotion to his party earned for him the name of "The Tory Bloodhound." On one occasion, when .sentencing three boys at Bristol Assizes to a nominal imprisonment for breaking into a shop and stealing sweets and cigarettes, the late Lord Denman said: "And now I hope you will be good boys for the rest of your lives, and good men after."

Mr Jack London, the American author, who has just been engaged in a quarrel with a Californian magistrate, has the following notice on the door of his residence: "No Admission Except on Business. No Business Transacted Here." On the back door the caller reads: "Please do not enter without knocking. Please do not knock,"

Mr Albert Chevalier tells an amusing story regarding a Hyde Park theologian. This gentleman had for an audience a nursemaid with two children, a sleepy tramp sitting on the opposite seat, and a hungry-looking dog. "Now, ladies and gentlemen," said the orator, "wot I s'ys is true, as any Egyptiologist in me distinguished audience can prove." Of Mr Justice Jelf the following story is told: "Why do you weep?" he once' asked a lachrymose prisoner, who appeared before him when he was Recorder of Shrewsbury. "Oh, my lord, my dear lord," came the tearful answer, "I have never, never been to prison before." "Don't cry, prisoner at the bar," came the cheerful response; "I am going to send you there now."

In the window of a rcKtaurani near one of the rajiway stations in Paris is i\ placard bearing the words. "All languages spoken here." A customer, drawing the attention of the waiter to this said: "You must have quite a number of interpreters at this establishment?" "No, sir," was the answer, "we have not a single one." "What! Who, then, speaks all languages here?" "Why, the customers, of course, sir," was the reply of the unabashed waiter. The Earl of Ranfurly was ;\ very, popular Governor of New i-leaaind. He has invested n large sum in Australian land, and has himself worked hard at, fruit-growing there. He is described as "one of those men who can plough a field one day and act as lord-in-waiting to his Sovereign the ne:-;L" The Maoris worshipped him and dowered him with many ennobling names, and the Colonials generally esteemed him so highly that they petition for a renewal of his term of office.

Sir Francis Bertie, the British Ambassador at Paris, was very popular with the late Queen Victoria, and when he was Assistant Under-t'.eere-tary for Foreign AlTai'T, he had often to visit her Ma-er.fy at Windsor. "Mr B.erlie.," iJavl the one day, "I must ask you to be good enough not to sign yonr telegrams announcing your arrival 'Bertie,' as it makes me exited my y. on. the Primv of Wales, and causes ;ne disappointment." Afterwards, the telegrams were always signed "Francis Bertie.''