General News.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4775, 29 April 1884, Page 2

General News.

Quite a sensation in feet is reported from America, a Boston paper stating that Messrs Perkins and Joyce, of Brockton, had received an order from a Tennessee coloured preacher, Mr Farnham, for a pair of shoes measuring 21| inches in length, or 39's, according to shoemaker's measurement. The joint measure is given as 19 inches.

The boring of the Mersey Tunnel has been successfully completed, and thereby direct communication under the bed of the river established between Liverpool and Birkenhead. The event is the consummation of one of the most important engineering works yet carried out in England. The tunnel under the Severn, which is being made by the Great Western Railway, exceeds the Mersey tunnel in length; but the latter is at ['present the longest roadway under a tidal river. The tunnel has been driven i through the red sandstone, and is about thirty feet under the bed of the estuary. It has been worked from both ends, and i the driftway, which v was completed last week has still to be excavated to the full dimensions of the tunnel. The Beaumont boring machine, by whose aid the work has been done, marks the great progress made since Brunei. The latter had of course a very different- soil to deal with; but the length of the Thames Tunnel is only 1300 feet, whereas that of the Mersey Tunnel is nearly three times the length, or 1230 yards. It is expected that Railway communication between Liverpool and Birkenhead will be established in about eighteen months.

There is (writes a Home paper),a new portent for the flockmasters of the Highlands. It is the rapid development of the New Zealand wool trade, thejbeginning of which on the blackfaced and the Cheviot clipa is already obvious. Scotch-bred wool is so much out of favor with the manufacturers as to be nearly unremunerative. It is feared in consequence of the enterprise of the shipping Companies in London, who are fetching over from New Zealand the superior fleeces that are bred there, it will ere long be entirely so.

Mrs Langtry's house is No. 120 West A Thirteenth Street, near Sixth Avenue, New York. Vefour, of Paris, is her chef de cuisine. Her butler is six feet, three inches in height. Her coachman and footman dress in livery of white cloth, with sable capes and cuffs. Bugs presented by the Khedive of Egypt are - noticeable in all parts of the house. Examples of oak carvings by Verbrugen, of Antwerp, whose work enriches the St. I Gudule Cathedral of Brussels, ere seen in the drawing-room.' Her dinner service is from designs from Millais; and there is a sterling silver teapot among her choicest treasures, which was presented to her by her company on Christmas Day last, which bears the 1 inscription :—" Presented to Lilian Langtry by her loving and loyal company, Christmas. 1883." The Jersey Lily is reported to have £6,C30 cash in one bank to her credit, representing her season's | profits tip to this time, over and above everything, including her large personal expenses. The scenery employed in " Peril "at the Fifth Avenne Theatre is her private property! She paid £300 for painting it, exclusive of the cost of the materials.

'" Forget thee ?" wrote a'young man to his girl; " forget thee ? when the earth forgets to revolve, when the stars forget to shine, when the rain forget to fall* when the flowers forget to bloom—then, and not till then will I forget thee." Three months later he was going to see another girl with a wart on her nose and some thousands of pounds in the bank.