MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 279, 26 June 1886, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

One of the highest judicial officers of Siam having been charged with accepting a bribe, the young king ordered him to be publicly flogged and suspended from office. The latest American prodigy is a "cowboy" pianist. He appears on the platform in leggings, flannel shirt, pistol belt, and sombrero. But there is no doubt in New York as to his

genius, and he is said to have the " touch of a Rubinstein and the

memory of a Pachmann." A Japanese inventor has discovered a means of making paper from sea-

weed. It is thick in texture, and from

its transparency can be substituted for glass in windows, and when coloured makes an excellent imitation of stained glass. Professor Young, in a lecture in Boston, remarked that there is no

patch on the moon's surface of half a mile square that is not accurately mapped, while there are immense tracts in Central Africa and the northern part of America which have never been surveved.

Mr Labouchere recommends people to sip their medicine as they do their wine. This, he thinks, would prevent people from swallowing poison by mistake and also cause less medicine to be taken, which would be almost as great an advantage as not swallowing any poison.

Mr Broadhurst, as a mason, actually helped to build the Home Office, where he is now second in command. The United States have 8000 more miles of railway than all Europe. The Russian Government have decided upon a thorough examination of the Crimea and its capabilities.

Last year 23,428 inventions were patented at Washington, mostly time, labour, or money saving devices. Investigation by ship owners shows that the oldest merchant vessel afloat is the True Love, of London, built in 1764.

Buffalo, New York, 1500 telephone instruments are supplied from elec-

tricity made by the water power of Niagara falls. The Railway Companies of Great Britain pay £I3OO a day for injuries done, through their culpable neglect, to passengers or merchandise. The Japanese are putting their house in order for the great experi- I ment of a parliament elected by the people, which is to meet in 1890. Eight thousand ladies of Cork County have sent a petition to the Queen against Home Rule. One thousand of the signers are Catholics. The Chinese Government is reported ! to be discharging the German naval and military officers in its employ, and ( substituting English officers. Gambling has grown to be so common a cause of ruin in the smaller Massachusetts cities that a powerful movement has begun against the practice. The east wind, a medical authority points out, could not do us much harm if we carried in the mouth something to keep the air-passages moist. The Rev. J. Benson Hamilton, of New York, illustrates his sermons by means of a blackboard at the rear of the pulpit. He is drawing large audiences. There are now 200,000,000 German carp in the United States, the descendants of thirty-five fish brought to the United States less than a dozen years ago. A recent obituary column of the Times was, perhaps, the most extraordinary ever published. The deaths numbered 81, and of these 44 averaged 78 years each. Cases of lead poisoning in Paris have been traced to bread and flour, certain holes in the millstones which ground the grain having been filled up with lead. The Cock, a famous tavern in London, two hundred years old, has just been closed prior to its demolition. Its mantels and benches are to be preserved for exhibition. Manv of Chicago's streets, for distances of 1500 to 4000 feet, have been already entirely cleared of telegraph poles, and the burying of the wires is said to be progressing rapidly. In Leipsic, a Danish captain, one Sarawn, has been found guilty and sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment for having sold German military secrets to agents of the French Government. The microscope has been brought to such proficiency that four million shells .have been discovered in an ounce of chalk. Living specimens one millionth of an inch in length can now be detected in a drop of water. The substitution of glass flooring for boards continues to increase in Paris, this being especially the case in those business structures in which the cellars are used as offices. »