MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 300, 20 November 1886, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Queen Victoria is building a private chapel at Balmoral, which is intended for Presbyterian services only. Cardinal Newman is now becoming enfeebled by age, and has lost the power of using his fingers in writing. It is reported fjtliat Bishop Field Flowers Goe, of Melbouree, has a brother named Wild Flowers Goe. Great Britain has more than 12,00 total abstinence societies for youn people, with a membership of about 1,500,000. In New York a careless handler of the whip has been made to pay S4O for bespattering and ruining a lady's dress. In England there is a Bird Society composed of 100,000 children. Its aim is to encourage protection of birds and animals. The chamber in the White House occupied by President Garfield after he was wounded has, it is said, never been opened since he left it. Henry George writes many books to prove that property should be held in common, but he copyrights his books, so as to retain their ownership. It is rumoured that President Gr&vy will retire from French politics on account of declining years and failing health. He is now nearly 80 years of age. Queen Victoria has denounced the lift" at Buckingham Palace as "that hideous thing," and ordered its removal, notwithstanding it cost her Majesty nearly £2OOO. A rosy-cheeked maiden of 15, Miss Minnie Wilson by name, runs a stage route between Hamline and Milnor, in Dakota, which is said to be extremely popular. The King of Portugal, who is visiting London, is not a handsome man, and is said to offend the taste of the Britishers by wearing unfashionable and antiquated garments. The first African city lighted by electricity was Kimberley, with 42 Brush lamps, each of 2000-candle power. The current is also utilised there for the killing of dogs. Oliver Wendell Holmes' summer residence' at Beverley Farm is a fine old place, surrounded by spreading elms and orchards. The house is filled with old Colonial furniture, portraits, and souvenirs. When the Texas people get ready to build a town they do it in a hurry. Ballinger, a new town in Runnels County, is less than one month old, but it has 2000 inhabitants and is still growing. ' The Pope is said to be an abstemious liver. Generally for dinner he eats light soup part of a fowl, sometimes roast meat, a fish and a little boiled vegetable. A couple of glasses of Perugian wine are added. The blue fox fur 3 presented by the Czar to the Sultan are described as two magnificent pieces, made up of the finest skins and measuring each three meters square. Their value is reckoned at 150,000 roubles. The Japanese Government are now arranging to place very large orders in England for the engines, rails, bridges and plant required for the railway development which they have decided to execute immediately. Stepniak, the Nihilist and writer, is said to have a prodigious memory and a vivid imagination. He speaks all the European languages with more or less fluency, and his knowledge of history politics, aijd national economics is marvellous. President Gr&vy's health is again the topic of much consideration in the French press. His admirers are trying to make him out a " Grand Old Man," while his enemies gracefully and considerately refer to him as a " galvanised cadaver.*' The first negro to be ordained in the Roman Catholic Church in this country is Augustus Tolken, who was born a slave in Missouri in 1854. He has spent six years Rome studying, and is to have charge of a coloured congregation in Quincy, Illinois. Captain Shaw, Chief of the London Fire Brigade, has arrived in America, on a tour of observation, bent upon giving the London Department the benefit of any results of American ingenuity he may find in the system in the chief cities in the country. The historic ear. Abraham Lincoln," which was used by the war President during his travels, and in which his remains w re conveyed to Springfieid after his assassination, is now used as a section hands' boardingcar on the Central Pacific Railroad. They have a hotel for domestic pets in New York, wbere these creatures are cared for while their owners are out of the city for the holidays. This is now full to overflowing. Canaries are charged 25c. a week parrots 50c. monkeys 75c. cats, $2 5Cc., dogs from $2 to $4 50c.