General News.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5018, 11 February 1885, Page 2

General News.

Ireland's population is now 5,103,000. 3,080,000; less than in 1841. Since the development of tree culture, the forests of Europe hare increased from one-sixth to one-fifth of the entire terri* tory. . There are 285 miles of telegraph tod telephone wires laid underground in Washington city. No trouble is experienced in working them. In the public schools of Greece the four gospels of the New Testament are usedai a reader by the children of the most advauced classes of the primary department, and the Minister of Education proposes to extend their use into the higher schools. A. Yorkshire butcher when married took his wife on a trip to Bolton, and spent a week on his honeymoon tour. As soon at he returned home the first thing he did was to put his wife into the scales and weigh her. Then the butcher took out his account book, and divided the expenses of the marriage and wedding tour by the weight of his wife. " Eh! lass I" said he, " thou'st cost me fourteen pence ha'penny a ponnd. Thou'st the dearest piece of meat that iver I bought." A lady having paid her hotel bill, sent away her box on a cab and sailed forth on foot. No sooner had she departed' than the landlord discovered that the clock had dissappeared from the mantlepiece of the room which his late lodger had been occupying, though he remembered to hare seen it there subsequent to her trunk having been despatched. Convinced {hat she must be a thief he rushed oat in hot pursuit, and overtaking her, he charged her with the robbery, and gave her into custody' the lady meanwhile protesting loudly against the traducer. She wad, however, taken before the Jugc d'instruction, io whom she resumed her torrent of indignant denial with tttefcxtra* ordinary volubility peculiar to the daughters of Gaul. Her indignation was at ita height, when lo I fcwelre o'clock rang forth, in clear tones from the region of madame!a> 1 dress improver. The expression of conster*7 > nation depicted upon the fair pilferer's countenance, together. with the apposite ness of the quaint phenomenon, were too much for the gravity of the officials, who burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. , Five minutes later a female warder re* * turned the telltale timepiece to its owner* Will Mr Oscar Wilde still insist upon " the utter uselessness of that hideoui monstrosity—the bustle? Feathebkd Guardians.—The swallow* swift, and nighthawk are the guardians of the atmosphere; they check the increase of insects that otherwise would overload it. Woodpeckers, creepers, and others are guardians of the trunks of trees. War* biers and fly-catchers protect the foliage* Blackbirds, crows, thrushes, and larks protect the surface of the earth. Snipe and woodcock protect the soil under the surface; and it is an undoubted fact that if all birds were swept off the face of th« earth, man could not live upon it, vege* tation would wither and die, insects would become so numerous that no living being could withstand their attacks.