THINGS WORTH KNOWING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 252, 17 October 1908, Page 3

THINGS WORTH KNOWING.

— ' ,v »p k FACTS ABOUt'thE •• HTCfHEST " BUILDING,-, •■>&.' . Uncle Sam is not contented with the astonishing height of the new Singer building, which is at present the tallest in the world, but beiore that monster lias been completed another still hi»li«;ilias been projected by the Suitable Lite Assurance Society. This rcitakable sky-piercer, wliicii is designed to knock creation, is to be actually twice as high as the famous {singer buildin". The building itself will rise to an alhtudeof iiotnt. into the air. and with its massive steel llagpoli. on liie top of its dome toueli the giddy height of l,i)o\)ii.\ —Hearing a quarter of a mile.

The plans of this building alone fill seventy pages of drawing-paper, each -heel oi ivlnch is sft. long and 4ft. wide, liuiik ol it! Fourteen hundred square (eel of paper alone is required to plan i Ins new structure. One hundred ami nity men were forced to work every miy for nearly eight months withoutinterruption in order to complete the drawings, and it will take the Covemment ollicial exactly a month to inspect the plans. The building is to have sixtyiwo storeys, and the number of rooms will total many thousands.

■these large buildings, however, are swayed with every wind and are consliiu.y on the swing; this produces a sensation akin to seasickness until thh occupants get Used to it. This pnjeefed building, however, will be aide to withstand a Hurricane, for it is to be built on the principle of wind-braces. DRIXKIM.: BY THE HOUR.

I In Catania an enterprising wine dealer has initiated a novel scheme of drinking by the hour ad libitum. For 7'/ ; d one may drink wine for sixty minutes, and the current price of wine is 2'/ s d nl litre. The chances are, however, :n favour of the merchant, for we learn that it requires a strong stomach to drink three litres of Etna wine in Due hour. At- a neighbouring town the charge is 3d for the first hour and 7M>d for two.

The fashion seems to have '• caught on,'' and at Bologna, where the nines are belter, the charge is Is Sd for the first hour, Is 3d for the second, and I .Id for the third. The result of these :n----ducenieius to drink is said not to be enchanting. SHKDS HIS SKIN LIKE A SNAKE.'

For the twenty-eighth time in the I last fifty-three years William U. Cake, a linoleuni printer, of Trenton, Kew Jersey, is shedding hi s skin as a snake ; does. Instead of periodical casting 1 aside of the cuticle, Cake is likely 'o shed his skin at any time. Cake has been affected with this skinshedding malady since childhood. First he is taken with a chill, then the skin dries up, cracks, and peels off entirely within two weeks. During this period he suffers agony because of itching. But as son as the skin, has been shed Cake is all right again. He has several children, but none of them have manifested any symptora s of skin-shedding. Specialists have treated Cake many times, but none of them has ever done him any good. The nearest they have got to his disease is to call it Dermatitis cxfoliatina.

The longest interval that Cake remembers in which the malady did not manifest itself was nine years, but his skin generally conies off once in two years. A few years ago he -had a sevwe attack of inilucn/..i, and his physician prescribed beMadon:..'. ' His skin came off three times wi'hbi the next fourteen weeks.

Cake enjoys good health except for this strange malady, lie is now in the hands of physicians, who hope that they may discover what the disease is.

•FAKING" OYSTERS. "Yes. there are a good many scereis in the oyster trade,'' said a vendor of the luscious bivalve recently to the writer. "For example, 'faded' oysters are freshened up by dipping them into what in the trade is known as the 'Tank,' filled with a salty mixture which freshens them slightly. They are then placed in shells again and put into the window. |

"A running stream of water has a marvellous effect upon oysters, fattening them to almost three times their size in a few days. Thin, starveling b ; valves, which, left alone, would never lie sold, can be made to look quite large by this process. -Oysters can also be improved by being kept in a sandy-floored cellar; a blanket is laid over tL.-ni, and this ; s daily sprinkled with sea-water and oatmeal. The fish will live for a long time in this way in cool weather and grow nice and corpulent. The flavor is al o greatly improved." QUICK-SMOKING COMPETITIONS.

Started in one or two small places a few years ago, "Smokers' Clubs" lore proved most popular institutions in Germany, and are now fo be found in ii'".-r----ly every village The members meet in the local taverns once a week, and drink much beer and smoke many pipes ol tobacco.

The must interesting feature of t'" ,; >' clubs, however, is the annual festival,' tu which members of neighbouring elu'is, are Invited to take ]iart in a smokers' competition, held under precise and elaborate rules and conditions. Tim contestants ate divided into two parties of ten each, and are seated on a pkitfoiin at the end of the. room. The president then weighs out with great exactitude five grammes—about one-sixth of it a ounce—of tobacco for each man, who rams it into a new pipe. At a given signal matches are struck-, pipes lit, and all begin smoking furiously, so that they are soon hidden m clouds of smoke. Meanwhile the judge counts aloud the seconds and minutes as they ily, and before three minutes have passed most of the pipes have been smoked out. Each man's time is duly entered on a sheet as he hands over his pipe, and the tobacco ashes in it arc carefully examined to see that his pipe has reallv been smoked out. The prizes consist for the most part of beer "steins" and smokers' articles, such as pipes and tobacco jars and eases. Music plavs a prominent part in the entertainments, which arc becoming ■increasingly numerous and popular. SIXTY-XIXE YEARS MARRIED. Samuel and Pbvllis Rischrow, two old. folks in humble life, have just celebrated the sixtv-ninth anniversary of then wedding at Xorthreppe, Cromer. Ihe proceedings were graced by the presence of Earl and Countess Harrington. Lord Wendover, and other members of Ue Carringtoii familv. Uiscbrow was ninety and his wife eighty-seven last Marc. Thcv are natives of. and have never lived out of, the parish in which, m 1 IX'.W, ihcv were married. Of their family of eight sons an. eight daughters, live of the former i.irl seven of the lattei are living. At th" ecleln-ation four generations were represented There were 11» grandchildren and great-grandchildren, exiiellylifly. »f each living, there being in all Hi living, defendant-. _ KiM-bvow and his w-;.- ; chiding'a bouquet from l",ady Caning-! 1 t,,,,. In the c.uv-c ..fa cmgratu a o, > ' speech, fiord Carrington remarked that ' t U of died lighting ' for theiveountry at Waterloo, and thai ' 1!i-ebrow had shown that m huniblc lib: .' he also could do his duty.

if yorD UXR I/)XG,

The secret of long life evidently b'-sj in the selection of a trade or profession. That at anv rate, is the conclusion one is forced to come to by a study of a recently-published report by the Kegiv trar-General. He points out that, on an avorag". the shortest lived are those engaged ;.=• "eiicral lalH.urers. tin-miners, liawkeis, costermongers, and hotel servanls. | On the other hand, clergymen, gardeners, gamekeepers, farmers, railway engine-drivers and stokers, tarn, labomers" and brick manufacturers have every prospect oi reaching advanced years. 1 InUeepers and .publicans gene.al .i,„-,1.-,.ei>eis and seamen, must not ev while railway guards, porters, and platelayers, coa inercba,,.--. -ivil Service .dlieials. and sehoo„,as-s are usuallv blessed with altogether Ijottl-"' I "' nUl '" , , , 1 „c, Domestic servanls. doctors ami «<•>■'- mercial Iravellers live only the average number of vears: and cal n. |,lumbe.s., painters, and cotton-worker- not imi.c S0 I""!-'- , , i, 1 1 1,.r H his been noted, 100. thill doctors. „, ~v , ,,v ,t of life, die mine rapidly than lawyers, owing ioi!i-easis "I l.l"< d and nerves.