WORLD-WIDE NOTES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 455, 10 April 1912, Page 3

WORLD-WIDE NOTES.

I THE DRUG OF SLEEP. Opium, so well known, even in remote times, for its valuable sedative properties, is the dried milky juice or latex obtained from the walls of the unripe seed capsuls of several varieties of the opium poppy. It is prepared chiefly in Turkey, India, Persia, and China. The industry is of great importance in India, where, except in the native .States, it. is trader strict Government control. The method of collecting the lat:x is practically the same in all countries. While the capsules are still unripe, incisions are made in their walls, and the latex immediate"y exudes and soon begins to consulate. The high price of the drug n itura 1 - ly results in its frequent adulteration. Besides seeds, charcoal, and ground poppy petals, such crude adulterant; as shot, sand, mud, and pieces of metal are sometimes added to increase the weight. The bulk of the opium reaching England is imported from Persia and Turkey. Practically all the Indian drug exported, goes to China. —"Magazine of Commerce." MACING THE RATTLER. At Blackpool, a gentleman getting into a third-class railway carriage found the only other occupant was a travelling minstrel with a large harp in a green baize covering. Presently the station where the tickets were taken was reached, and as the train journeyed on, the gentleman was startled by hearing a sort of muffled whisper issuing apparently from the harp. Seeing him looking rather curiously at it, the man in charge of it remarked, "I'm sure you are a gentleman who won't cause trouble. The fact is, when I haven't made much money it comes cheaper for my little girl to travel inside with the harp ;" and, hastily undoing the baize covering, out stepped a business-like young damsel of about ten. A BOGY IN A BARREL. The captain of a North Sea trawling boat tells of a curious experience. On one occasion, on drawing up the trawl net, it was found to contain an apparently empty barrel. On its being rolled out on deck the skipper took an axe to break it open. The bunghole was uppermost, and as he struck the barrel he remarked, by way of a joke, "Now, if there's any- j one inside come out of it."

The words were hardly out of his mouth when a big conger eel suddenly shot straight out of the bunghole into the air, and the crew were so surprised at this sudden and most unexpected apparition that they let the conger escape through one of the scupperholes into the sea before they recovered from their fright.

THE COSTLIEST CLUB IN THE WORLD.

The home of luxury aptly describes the new Royal Automobile Club, in Pall Mall, which will be ready for Dccupation in January. The Grecian swimming-bath, 00ft. long and 30ft. wide, will, together with the walls, be encased in white marble. Adjoining, there are to be found a Turkish bath, a fine gymnasium, and squash racquet courts. Prom the entrance hall, one proceeds to a magnificent vestibule with a domed roof. On on? side is the general club-room—a compartment 100 ft. by -10 ft. The lounge hall, which is 30ft. high, has a musicians' gallery at one end am! a stage at the other, in all. there will be nine floors. The total cost of the building will be £230,000, and ;ome £30,000 will be spent on ngHOW OSTRICHES ARE PLUCKED When the plucking-t.ime comes round it is necessary to collar thi: troop of ostriches. This is done b> sending about half a dozen men ink the enclosure on foot, and a coupK .->n horseback, to bring the stragglet> ,n. The birds are driven into a small iraal, about forty yards square, ami in this kraal the plucking-boxes stain: The birds arc then caught, ami, as quickly as possible, small linen bag.are slipped over their heads--a pro cess which immediately conjners tin Dird, for, landing himself in darkness, he will staud trembling, an 1 readj to be pushed in say direction. With the bags over their heads, the birds are pushed into the plucking boxes. A man standing outside tin box at each side gets hold of tin '.ving, and clips the feathers from it then, walking round to the tail clips the tail-feathers also, until t'.u whole troop has passed through tin plucking-boxes. Six men will piucl 150 birds in one day. A REALM OF ROMANCE.

Africa has been full of romance fortunes have been made ami squaii dered in a day. The history of tin Farvic Mine, situated not far from Gulwayo, Rhodesia, is most romantic.

Not long since, this mine was given up as worthless, and changed hands: for a ten-pound note. The purchasers commenced work in earnest, with most gratifying results ; so much si that Rhodesia, Ltd., declared the output of the Farvic Mine, aftei thirty days' working from a sixstamp battery and one grinding-par to be : From 819 tons of ore crushed 2,180 ounces of gold ; also 23 oz. fron: 125 tons of cyanide sands : and .1.6". oz. from 544 tons of cyanide slimes as well as 290 oz. of silver. The total yield of gold was valucc at £'J,977 14s, - 1250.