INTERESTING ITEMS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 30 October 1914, Page 2

INTERESTING ITEMS.

An odicer in the British army, whose hobby is collecting miniatut.es, was returning from his club one evening, when a poor-looking man accosted him. Concluding he ' wished alms, the officer put a coin i into his hand. "Pardon me, sir," i said the man, "I wish to show you a very fine miniature." The officer, much surprised, took him home, i j The poorman*untied a small parcel, ' ; and disclosed a miniature of a i ,' beautiful woman. The ollicer looked I as it earnestly, then quietly asked ; the man where he got it. "It is my mother," was the.reply. "Have you I a scar on your left arm ?" asked j I the ollicer. "I have, sir," was the I j reply, at the same lime baring his | arm to provo it. "Then you are my In-other .lack," said the oil'icer, "and that is our dear mother's portrait." For many 3/ears King George has been an enthusiastic stamp collector, but, according to Mr. I). 0. Armstrong, a well-known authority lin "Chambers's Journal," the intrinsic value of his collection is by no means as great as is commoniy reputed, and certainly does not reach the £100,000 or so at which it is not infrequently placed. Is is limited to the postal emissions of the British Empire. The most highly specialised sections are those devoted to the stamps of Great Britain, Mauritius, Hong Kong, BrN tish Guiana, and certain of the West Indian colonies. Amongst yumerous desirable and interesting specimens in the King's Great Britain collection may be noted the artist's original pencil sketch of the celebrated Mulready envelope, and a pair of rough water-colour sketches showing the general effect of the first "Queen's Head," the penny black and twopence blue drawn by Sir Rowland Hill, and submitted by him to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for his approval. Wonderful experiences lie in store for the tourist in Bible lands within, the next year or two, when the great Bagdad Railway is nearer completion. Within the next two years it will be possible to journey from any of the great European capitals, Paris, Berlin, or Vienna, to Damascus, Nazareth, and .Terusa- | lem by rail over the Bagdad line, to .say nothing of taking a peep at the Euphrates, the alleged site of the Garden of Eden, and then on to Mosul, that flourishing little village which has sprung .up on the. ruins of ancient. Nineveh, whil'j Bagdad, near which lie the remains of Babylon, that mighty city reared amid such splendour by Nebuchadnezzar, will be reached, the engineers toil us, within three years from now. The line also touches on Tarsus, the birthplace of St. Paul, and si ill to-day no mean city, and Iconiuin, which was twice visited by St. Paul, once in the company of Barnabas, and once in that of Timothy.