General News

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4731, 6 March 1884, Page 2

General News

Tbe consumption of gold for other than monetary purposes in Europe, America, and Australia has more than quadrupled in 30 years, and has quite trebled in 20 years (observes tbe North American

Review). It is more than fire times what it was half a century ago. The great mass of gold which has flowed from the mipev has been absorbed in the same opulence and luxury of the times which hare swa^^wed up the. flood, of,; .gems.; tjtxn* ,- *- "sixffis of the current production of gold it" absorbed in the arts and manufactures in the western world and in British India. Apart of the remaining sixth is lost id the wear of coins,; and fires, shipwrecks, and forgotten hoards.

The American interviewers and reporters are very unfortunate with Lord Coleridge. They can get very little out of him bat "bland smiles," and bland, smiles "do not go Very Far towards filling up a newspaper.... They hare, in despair, been obliged to fall back upon praising his "immaculate shirt front," though one would think that that was a matter which redounded more to the credit of his lauadres's than his Lordship. Even the Falls of Niagara failed to induce the " silver tongued Coleridge" to.clothe;his.. thoughts in words. The only statement he" appears to hare made was the somewhat unsatisfactory assurance that he could say The astute Chief Justice seems to have taken the sailor's parrot as his model during his transalantic tour; he doesn't talk much, but he thinks a great deal. : When the Prince of Wales was making, his American tour, a rery similar taciturnity distinguished him. At a magnificent banquet given him at New York some of the reporters of the leading New York papers dressed themselves as waiters and stood behind, the 'prince's chair, in order to hear and report his conversation during dinner. When they came to compare notes afterwards they found that the only sentence whicli hai fallen from the lips of the Heir Apparent to the Empire on which the son never Sets was, "By Jove, these are duced fine oysters!" Commercial travellers are known to be as a rule volatile and practical jokers. One of them, Mr Adshead, was recently bathing in the river at Bourke, N.S.W., but prior to going in he told some com* panions he could not swim a stroke, and asked them if they would help him should he be in distress in the water. They promised to do so, evidently, as events subsequently showed", believing that he was joking as to the matter of not being able to swim. Finding himself sinking, Mr Adshead called out for as-. sistance, but be vvas merely laughed at, the onlookers considering he was playing a good joke. Finally, a youth named McColl, seeing that there was really no sham in the matter, courageoasly plungedin, and, by placing one hand under the drowning man's chin, brought him to the bank quite exhausted. Nantucket is a place where the women are not entirely ignored. They outnumber the men 16 to 1. The post of flagman at the railway crossing is acceptably filled by a woman, as are many other positions which are usually occupied by men. On a recent Sunday three of the six pulpits were filled by women. The Rev. Mrs Phoebe Haniford preached in the Unitarian Church, the Bey. Miss Louis i Baker in the Congregational Church, and '" tbe Rev. Mrs F. El/is (colored) in the Colored Baptist Church. A young officer in the Fourth French Engineers, unstrung at the idea of having to face a court-martial for some trivial fault tied a belt, filled with dynamite, round his waist, applied a match, and was literally blown to pieces. Weils' " Bough ok Corns."—Aik for Wells' «Rough on Corns." Quick relief, complete, permanent cure. Oorm, warta-bunionß.—-Moaof, llofi and Co., Sydney General Aatnti,