GENERAL NEWS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8790, 18 April 1907, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

"Even flowers and fruits are i faked," said one of the judges at a ; flower show. "If we are not careful, we award a gold medal to peaches made up like a lady's face, or to carnations crimped and curled like a Marcel coiffeur. Some of these exhibitors—and they may be good men, too; they may be gardeners for multimillionaires—deepen their flowers' colour by dying them. If there are not quite leaves enough on a plant, they glue on extra ones; To violets and other odorous blooms Miey give a stronger perfume by means of a spray laden with tb.9 costliest scent. It is the Earne thing with fruits. To apples, peaches, and grapes a lovely delicate bloom is given with rouge and powder." Few, if any, of the world's million aires have had a more romantic career than Mr John Wanamaker, the "Department Store King," who has lost so many treasures of art in the fire which has done such havoc to his palatial home near Philadelphia, Half a century or so ap'o the boy who was destined to win millions and a seat in tho United States Cabinet was tramping barefooted in the Philadelphia streets. His father and grandfather were both struggling brickmakers, and it was a proud day for tho family when young John found work in a book

store at 6s a week. Later he secured

[ a position as clothing salesman, and proved himself.so capable that his salary was rapidly raised until, in 1860, he was able to open a shop of bis own on his £4OO savings. Thus modestly wa3 cradled the gigantic business which has made the name Wanamaker known the world over. To- day the ox-street boy' can scarcely count his millions on the fingers of both hands, and he pays premiums on life insurance policies for £595,000.

The cocky's child has weird escapes aa well as weird aceidonts (yays the Bulletin). Not long since, the infant offspring-of a New South Wales selector balanced itself carefully on the edge of a large tub of water and fell in. Then the selector's two cart horses, which were mooching about close at hand, wandered across and drank all the water from off the top of the child, and didn't drink the child, but just left it in the tub, wet, scared, astonished, and howling. Two Parisian policemen observed an abnormally stout man being helped along by two friends in'the Rue Letort, and as he seemed to be in great pain the officers advised him being taken to the hospital. At the policemen's first words the man's companions too}? to their heels, while ho collapsed on the pavement. The police helped him up and found that he had 60ft of copper cable wound under his vest.' He proved to be an escaped convict named Lnlune, and had stolen the cable.

The fact that houses in which consumptives have resided hat-bos the germs.of the dread disease, and thereby increase the risk of conta-

gion in others in tho building, has. been conclusively established. The practice in dealing with such build-

ing?, vvhon they are of comparatively modern construction, has been to thoroughly fumigate them, and thus destroy {he bacilli. With old buildings, however, a more thorough. p?e-

i ventive has been adopted, and this ia ! found in, the destruction of Euoh infected places by lira. At "Waimatukn the other day (says the Southland Times') aa old seven-roomed house was thug destroyed. Several eases of consumption had occurred there, and the owner.' acceded to the request of'the Health Officer to sacrifice it to the flames, The remarkable suecesd achieved in gunnery practice by . H.M.S. Powerful in Norfolk Bay, Tasmania, recently, when all the records of the; world's navies were beaten, bag created intense interest in naval and other circles, not alone in Australasia, but a}so at Home, and probably on tb9 Continent, writes the Sydney Morning Herald. Speaking on the subject of the gunnery competitions the other day, Vice-Admiral

Fawkes said : Several of the ships have done very well, and I will Eay

that while in Tasmaniau waters the Powerful has made a record which will bo very bard to beat in accuracy. Pour years ago my late flagship held the record with 40 pr-r cant, of hits;

last yenu tlie fjrst ship in the fleet had 8Y per cent, of hits; but lam glad to say that the Powerful ihi3 year has 96.5 per cent., which leaves very little margin for defeat." The Powerful, while steaming a zig-zag course afc a speed of twelve knots, scored 113 hits out of 117 shots fired from her six inch guns; 'Jhi range was ever varying, but the! main distance was 1650 yards,— nearly a mile. The target measured but 31*fj; by 14ft, the size of the bull's eye being 10ft by Sit. Not J only vvaa the percentage of hits— | 96 5 - unprecedented, but upwards of 60 per cent, of the hits were actual bull's eyt s, An r extraordinary shooting pro peity case has jus-t been concluded before the Courts of EgQi*, in Bohemia. It seems that Captain de Yolina, of the Eussian Imperial Guard, had rented from M. Aristide de Baltszssi, vice-president of the Austran Jockey Club, a sporting estate, for which, after taking possession, he refused to pay on the ground that there was very little game. The vendor then brought an action for recovery, and called evidence to show that the ciptain and three friends had spent five weeks on the estate, but had passed all their time in drinking. 'l'hey had consumed 1280 bottle 3of eham- | pagnei On these facts a compromise was effected.

Woods' Great Peppermint Cure for Coughs and Golds never fails. Is Gd and 2s Gd.

No better saving can be effected anywhere than at our stocktaking sale now on at Co-op. Stores, North Broadway, Marton.*