INTERESTING ITEMS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 354, 22 April 1911, Page 7

INTERESTING ITEMS.

JQ —& London's first Lord Mayor, Henry Fitz-Ailwyn, held office for twentyfour years. The first University boat race rowed in outriggers was in the year 1846. when Cambridge won by two lengths. As shnwing the antiquity of the art of glass-blowing, painted representations of glass-blowing have been found upon ancient tombs dating from before 2000 B.C. The colour of French official books — equivalent to the English Blue Books —is yellow; Spain red; Germany, white; Italy, green; Portugal, white; and Austria, red. Lord and Lady Howick have the distinction of both being descended from Prime Ministers; he is the great-grandson of the second Lord Grey, who held that office from 1830 to ISS'I, while she is a granddaughter of the late Marquis of Salisbury. With such a heritage it follows that Lord Howick has a strong interest in politics. Some crowned heads who do not think it beneath their dignity to add to their revenue by trade are the King of Servia, who is reputed to own a flourishing barber's shop in Belgrade, and to be the agent for a famous firm of motor-car makers; the King of Wurteinberg, who owns two flourishing hotels; and the Queen of Romania, who a few years ago opened a bookshop in Bucharest. A good story of the English general election is going the rounds. It is told on the authoritv of one who was present when the incident occurred. In illustration of his great devotion to truth, the would-be M.F. stated at one of his meetings that he underwent a severe thrashing when a boy for telling the truth. Imagine the sickly feeling which came over him when a gruff voice called out from the centre of the audience, "I guess it cured yer, guv'nor'" Sir Charles Macara, the recognised head of the cotton employers of Great Britain, and the founder of the lifeboat Saturday movement in England, is a purely self-made man. One of the secrets of his success lies in the fact that he believes in working, not only for himself, but also for the community, and, like Sir William Hartley, has inaugurated a scheme by which his employees share in his pros- j perity. He was born and spent, his j early days in the kingdom of Fife. i

A German anti-alcoholic journal, "Der Guttentplar,'' relates that two Germans, who were crossing the Luxemburg frontier, declared to the Customs officials, "We have with us three bottles of red wine each. How much is there to pay?" "Where is it?" was asked. "Well, inside us." The official gravely looked at his tariff book and read, "Wine in casks, twenty shillings; in bottles, fortyeight shillings; in donkeys' hides, free." Then looking up, he added, "Gentlemen, you can go!" They were talking at rehearsal — the greatest "producer," the greatest "character actor," and Mr J. M. Barrie. The actor averred that anything and everything could be expressed facially. "I can tell it to the audience without speaking," he said. "Then will you kindly go to the back of the stage," said Mr Barrie quietly, "and express in your face that you have a younger brother who was born in Shropshire, but is not staying in a boarding house on the South Coast!"

The : most curious method adopted to traverse the Atlantic was probably that of a Professor Miller, who proposed to cross the ocean on foot. He used a pair of special walking shoes, which each measured five feet in length. They resembled miniature canoes in design, with a small orifice in the centre to admit the foot, and they were furnished with corrugated soles. Full of confidence, he started on his curious journey, but soon realised the folly of his idea. He was unable to maintain an upright position. Tennis is a game of foreign origin. It was invented in the Middle Ages, and first played in the fosses of the great fortified chateaux in France and Italy. It came to England about 1350, and covered courts were already in vogue at that date. Lawn tennis, its direct descendant, is, however, purely English. Its inventor was Major Wingfield, who called it by the rather absurd name oi "sphavistike." It was first seen on English lawns in 1574, and in less than ien years had become the most popular garden game in Britain. The Master of Elibank is a capital raconteur, and among the stories he tells is one concerning a Highland farmer who once handed a parcel in at a small Scottish railway office. "Do you think" he asked the man in charge "that it's well enough tied to trust going in the van?" "Weel A'll see" answered th-> porter dropping it with a crask "It'll get that hero air it'ii get that at the junction"- giving it another bang on the floor —'an' it'll get that at Dundee" knocking it about so furiously that the contents wen 3 strewn all over the floor. "If it be goin' farther than Dundee," he remarked at last, "it'll no' dae at a'." When Mr John Ward, M.l'., was only seven years old he worked for a farmer at half-a-erown a week. He tried to run away to sea, but the Navy refused to have him until he had obtained the consent of his mother, and this was not forthcoming. Then he wet with a bad accident and was taken to the workhouse, and eventually some kind-hearted visitors paid his fare home again. His mother refused her consent to the boy joining th" Navy, and so he returned to his farm work, and afterwards became a navvy, fought in the Soudan, helped to make the Manchester Shin Canal, took a leading part in tinfoundation of the Navvies 1 Union, and eventually entered Parliament.