News Items.

Te Aroha News, Volume XVI, Issue 222038, 18 January 1900, Page 3

News Items.

A New York medical man recently announced that the reason Americans suff l r s-> much from dyspepsia is because they do not km w how to sit. correctly. Owing tli - bad positions in sitting tiiA 'm ica adopt the stomach is : r ‘d ‘t of position and cannot readiy room its proper functions. A surgeon of Philadelphia suggests that appendicitis is more comm .n in Am riea than in other countries because of the Yankee habit of habitually sitting with one leg thrown over . the other, thus restricting the action of the digestive apparatus. The superstition of talisman is one tliar dies very hard and crops up in the most unexpected places. Some particulars of the talismans worn by crowned heads at the present day are interesting. The Shah of Persia wears as a prolecrion against assassination a belt set with a superb emerald and filled with peelings of onion, the latter being, as he says, evidently intended to move the tears of wouldbe assassins. The Emir of Afghanistan wea s with the same intention a silver - ring, while the King of Greece has had the bullet which lodged in the panel of his carriage the last time he was fired at mounted as a charm for his watch-chain. Perhaps the most curious of Royal or quasi-Royal talisman was the Abiaxas gem, showing the cock-headed deity of ths Gnostic heretics, worn by Charles Edward Stuart. Although it ru iy have preserved him from assassination, it did not prevent him from dying of drink and dissipation Sir Henry Irving, the eminent tragedian, has his almost exact counterpart in a certain London gentleman, whose dearest delight is to be mistaken for his famous facsimile. As the double is a man of means, and resides in a fashionable part of (he West End, he enjoys every facility for riding his bobbv. Possessing a really remarks'. Io f ••.••ai bk-nr-s o Sir Henry, he

P-U > 'Ring -which may serve to increase the striking similarity. H.s clothes arcs ordered of the same colour and cut, and oven the actor’s characteristic gait and intonation are imi ated. A few months ago this ingenuous imposter was discussing lunch at a certain smart restauran in the Stiand, and was the cynosure of all eyes and the subject of most of the table-chat, when Sir Henry Irving happened to stroll in. With a slight start of surprise, the tragedian stopped short, took his eyeglass from his pocket, fixed it in his eye, and flashed upon the trembing pretender a frigid glance, which so discomforted the recipient that he overturned his bowl of soup, thrust the serviette into his pocket, reached his hat, and throwing down a sovereign, vanished through a side exit with a great deal more haste than dignity.