FACTS AND SCRAPS.

Southland Times, Issue 1827, 5 December 1873, Page 3

FACTS AND SCRAPS.

■ ♦ There is a prospect of a decimal currency being adopted in India. Bunyan's ' Holy War ' has been translated into Tamil at Madras. The King of Ashantee is allowed to have 3,333 wives, bat not to exceed that number. Dr Mary Walker, finding the medical p rofeeeion anything but lucrative, has become a clerk in the office of the Treasury of the United States. The longest speech on record is that of Dr Kenealy, counsel for the Tichborne claimant. He began July 22nd and finished AugU6t 21st. Any of the ealts of ammonia will stimulate the growth of plants. An ounce of the sulphate, nitrate, or carbonate, to two gallons of water, applied once a week, is sufficient. Striking fob Head Geab. — A society writer in the New York Mail reports that the most stylish young ladies in the town have struck against the tyranny of the milliners, and make their own bonnets. Lady Lechmere, wife of Sir Edward Lechmere, of Upton-on-Severn, Worcestershire, has joined the communion of the Greek Church at Wolverhampton, She is said to be " well-known in Kitualistic circles." The most startling feature in the budget of Paris which has just been issued — the first that has appeared since the war — is a statement of the city debt. Its amount is, in round numbers 1,600 million francs — 64 millions sterling. The Pall Mall Gazette says:— "The day is probably not far distant when ladies in England will have to apply to their cooks for characters, and employers who obtain servants by means of false characters will be subjected to severe penalties." The story that the Prince Imperial is engaged to Marshal MacMahon's daughter is still credited iv some quarters. It is now said that the betrothal will not take place for three years, when the Prince will be twenty-one, and Mdlle. MacMahon eighteen. The Times of India tells us of a capital way they have in Persia of recovering debts. Some time since a suit was filed in fiushire against a man for debt ; the claim was proved, but the debtor declared his inability to pay. Thereupon the Prince Governor did not lock him up or let him go, but ordered him to sweep the streets until the amount should be forth* coming. The sentence was carried into effect, and in a day or two the amateur scavenger somehow found the cash.

" Mr. Buckmaster," the European Mail states, " has been lecturing at the School ot Cookery on 'Australian meats and how to cook them in a quick and simple form.' The audience who tasted the soup, stew, hotch-potch, and minced collopa to which they were treated evidently appeared to think them extremely savory. Of their nutritious qualities there is not the slightest doubt, and if the working and middle classes of England are to feed their children on meat diet, they must of necessity resort to the excellent food sent over in tins from Australia, the price of which is certainly not half that of English butchers' meat. The lecturer felt confident that the existing prejudice must gradually but surely die out. The meats are iv good demand just now."

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