NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2050, 4 November 1919, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Birds of prey-are not endowed with the gift of song.

San Antonio, Texas, has the only municipal polo held. The first typewriter was invented in 1807.

Nearly 30 per cent, of all flowers are white. A ton of* steel will make about 10,000 gross of steel pens.

There is a law in Norway-which prohibits any person from cutting down a tree unless he plants three saplings in its place.

Medical authorities 'stale that if takes 15 days for the average human body to recover fully from the, loss of two consecutive night’s sleep. The ink with which the Peace dodument was signed is reported to be a special fadeless brand, the invention of a New Orleans man.

At Quito, the only" city in the world located on the exact line _of the equator, the sun sets and rises at six o’clock all the year round. Only about 25 out of every 1,000 elephants in India can pass (he tests for courage which are put to (hem before they arc used in elephant Inin ting. “Drawingroom” is an abbreviation of “with-drawingroom,” which was originally the apartment in a house now exceedingly .scarce. The unite which the ladies withdrew’from the hall, which was the usual living and dining room. The custom of withdrawing after dinner is derived from-the Norsemen, for the Vikings always dismissed women from their drinking bouts. T%e hare sleeps with its eyes open, for the simple reason that its eyes are unprovided with eyelids. Instead of these there is a thin membrane, which with certain birds folds like a curtain in the corner of (he eye, and, by an instantaneous action, flies back when sight is required, leaving the eye immediately and fully open for the exercise of sight. Who invented sweetmeats and confectionery? Diving deep into the story of the ancients, an English writer has come to the conclusion that some, if not all, the credit must go lo Noah, fie it was who first hit upon the idea of boiling down the starch of the wheat and the juice of the grape. The result was a pasle, said lo be (he original of our present-day Turkish “delight. ’

The hub of the perfume industry is at Grasse, not far from Monte Carlo. Here the animal crop of blooms alone, not counting stems and leaves, averages over 12,000,000 lb. Of Ibis vast quantity, about 1,250,000 lbs. are jasmine flowers, about 1,000,000 are violets, 50,000 jonquils, 3,000,000 roses, in addition to 4,000,000 lbs, of rose petals, and of orange flowers about 4,500,000 lbs.

It was not until 'about a century ago that the homilies of the howler hat wore discovered by an Englishman. It was William Coke, a nephew of the famous “Coke of Norfolk,” who first had such a hat designed by William Bowler, a wellknown Southwark hatter, and made it fashionable in clubland. The early bowler weighed as many pounds as an up-to-date type does ounces.

What is declared to he the lines! and largest skin rug in the world is that of the Kadiak bear, the largest carnivorous animal in the world, and now exeoedinkly scarce. The animal was shot in the wilds of Alaska by Mr A. S. Reed, an English sportsman. The skin measures 9ft. -tin. in length, from end of nose to tip of tail, and nearly Bft. 2in. in width. It would completely cover a goodsized room.

Elephants foot is declared by explorers to lie the greatest delicacy in the world. When this dainty is to he cooked a hole is dug in the ground, into which the elephant’s foot is placed. A lire is then lighted ahove the hole,-mid allowed lo burn for three hours. At the cud of: that lime the foot has been perfeelly cooked, the flavour being delicious and the flesh so delicate that it may he eaten with a spoon.