CHATTY MOMENTS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 14, 19 February 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

CHATTY MOMENTS.

A beautiful painting of Queen Alexandra has had a surprising adventure. At tlie outbreak of the war the picture was in Berlin, in the studio of Miss Alice Hughes. When 6he decided to return to England, this was the only one of -her possessions she was able to bring with her carrying it in her hand the whole way until the German frontier was crossed. Curiously enough, she (ras never challenged as to what it was she was carrying. The picture was painted by her father, the late Ldward Hughes, always Queen Alexandra s favourite portrait-painter, and a movement is now on foot to purchase it ana present it to the nation.

The island of Lewis has surely created a record in the matter of volunteeiing for service. A correspondent ot a Scott;sh newspaper points out that the first Lek practically all the men on the island answered the call to take up arms in one or other branch of the serice. One in eight of the whole population of 23,000 is already under arms. It the whole country contributed proportionally to the services, we shoulcl have to-day between five and six million men in arms The island of Lewis and its neighbour the island of Skye havea ]ong military tradition which dates from the days of the elder Pitt.

Few people know that the inventor of shfapnerShich has done such terrible execution in this war. was an English officer, General Shrapnel. WeUington stated that the most important battles in the Peninsular War. and lt " self, were won by shrapnel. The secret of its action was unknown outside England until 1834. Like manyo or nventors, General Shrapnel d'ed. ® J a poor and bitter old man The Govern fent never repaid him the capital ne had .pent »l 1 SfIiJSS: H« /on had toe.llUto family estate of Midway House, in Wiltshells and a British battles which they helped to win.

Germany's supply of lead for the manufacture of bullets to causing some anxiety in Berlm and Ken and to maintain the upply the GovS3 have <— d 7l?'d t ino- of the plates, and th; classical works of the great masters have gone into the melting pot &«Sac|f^the of the great music, publishers of Berlin

Memories of bygone days mU be revived by the following Admiralty have ordered e « upon a brass p Arethusa: — spicuous place in H-M.S-

Come, all ye Whose hearts aie cast m While English glory 1 Huzza for the Arethusa! Her men are staunch Tn their favourite launch. On board of the Arethusa.

a nd now we've driven the foe ashore, Sever to fight with Britons more, Let such fill his glass Md alTth'at belong lo the jovial cte.v On board of the Arethusa.

AH the ships which took part in tlie acp"itd in s«™ eonvenient place.

The prohibition of tobacco-smoking in Zion. in the State of Sid iTzta, one had to £ snuff or hire a balloon, the citizens fris - * sacrifice Zion's reputation and his own of praise mingled with tobacco smoke rise from the streets of /ion.

The vintage in Switzerland reported to be abundant and good. In ) it wa-s also abundant during the wai, and, according to an old Swiss custom it was named after the person most in the public eye then-Bismarck. 1 o-da> it is " J off re ; but many want French included, and a compromise is being arranged. The wines will be named Jorfre " and tho liqueurs "French, in tlie canons of Neuehatel, Vaud and Geneva. where the vines flourish, and also in parts of Savoy. "A bottle of Joffre nnd a glass of French ' will therefore become a common order soon and will probably be abbreviated to Joffre and French."

Mark Twain wrote nearly all his latei hook* in bed. So persistent a "sluggard "was he that he had a speciallycontrived bed-desk fitted up. so that he could write, without trouble or exertion, while propped luxuriously among his pillows. He used to aver that most oi his liest thoughts came to li'm in bed, and that tho trouble and worry of gettin" up. shaving, and dressing dispersed them all and left him in no mood for commencing h s literary labours.

One of the most notable industries gained by England from refugees wa« manufacture of hats. Tn 1- ranee it had been almost wholly in the hands or tji* Protestants; they alone possessed the secret of the composition of the water used in preparing the beaver-skms. and tliey alone furnished to the commercial world the superfine hats of ( audebac. so much in demand in England and Holland. After the revocation the greater part withdrew to London, carryng with tlioin tho secret of their art, which was loss to France for upwards of forty years. It was in the middle of the eight, lenth century that a French baiter named Mattlneu. after having long woked in London, found out the secret carried away by the refugees, took it back to his own country, generou-ly communicated it to the hatter-; ot Paris, and founded a great manufactory in the Faubourg S' . Antoine. H l . fore this fortunate theft the French noblesse aud all who nretended to elegance wore onlv English hats from ihe celebrated manufactory in Wandsworth established bv the refugees.