NOTES FROM VARIOUS SOURCES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12637, 26 October 1905, Page 8

NOTES FROM VARIOUS SOURCES.

A German publicist, who spent a part of July in a boarding-house at Teignmouth, discourses in the " Frankfurter Zedtung" on the cookery and conversation of English seaside boarding houses, a* exemplified by his own experience. Of the former he speaks well; the table at his hous-o was inclined to be monotonous, but the food was good and plentiful, and the charges were moderate. The conversation ol: his fellow guests, however, suffers severely at his hands. " English seaside visitors," he remarks, " display remarkable mental ingenuity in sustaining a lengthy conversation founded on "no other topic but the weather. Whan this is exhausted they turn to their aches and pains;-.each individual .adduces some, striking example of bodily suffering on his or her part, and the combined ailments of the company afford themes for endkss discussion. '

A hundred eyeless fish have been brought to the surface from one of the well of the Crude Oil Company, Whittier, California. Although birds are not placed near the summit line of evolution, their ability to fly gives them advantage over nearly all the mammalia. Their mysterious power of changing their polarity or weight, in order to dive in water or fly, has been "often discussed, and the almost incredible velocity of their motion when migrating, sometimes amounting to four miles a minute for vast distances, has no parallel among other animals. A series of careful trials with earlier pigeons reported from France shows apparently without doubt their possession of a highly developed sense of direction. It was supposed that homing pigeons depended on sight to find their way, but these experiments have been conducted 'between Ceremes1 and Roann in the darkness of night. In twenty minutes the first bird, despatched at 10 p.m., reached its. roost, a distance of 17 miles 'being traversed. Half of the number arrived before • midnight, amd the remainder followed in a few hours.

The terrible evil of sweating prevalent in England was recently brought under the notice of the Stonehouse (Plymouth) Board of Guardians by a poor woman who applied for a continuance of relief. Her story was that she was engaged by a firm of Government contractors in making military trousers from kharkee cloth. 'Her duty was to completely make trousers, including buttonholes, as the firm possessed no button-hole machine. For comp'let'SJly making the trousers she received only 3d. .per pair, and had to provide the cotton herself. It was only possible to make two paim per day. The architects and builder must share the blame for the difficulty expjerienced by the housewife in providing herself with servants. From the " Lancet" comes a reminder that the accommodation provided in high-priced houses and flats for the workers of the household is of the mosfc meagre'and unhealthy kind. There is ho sunlight, the rooms are almost in darkness, and the conditions generally are such that none need wonder at the " pale-faced, anaemic appearance sometimes seen in servants in the employment of the better off class." The domestic servant is the family worker, and it is to the interest of her employer no less than of herself that she should be well accommodated. The time has gone by when " anything will do for the (servant."

After a courtship of more than 45 years, the marriage was celebrated recently at Constance of a Swiss named Herzfeld, aged 66 years, and Mile. Steindelt, who ds 65. - The couple became engaged befecre they were 20, and soon after young Herzfeld left for America, telling his fiancee that he would not return without' £20,000, amd asking her to wait for him. During nthe" 45 years the lovers exchanged nearly 3000 letters and 50 photographs, and they recognised each other without difficulty on meeting again. The newly married pair will live at Chicago, where Mr Herzfeld has a large business.

The U.S. War Department proposes asking Congress to increase the American standing army to 250,000. The strength of the forces is how 60,000 men, with an extreme war footing of 100,000. The new plan contemplates the establishment of a "regular reserve" of 40,000, each man of which will received as wages 126 a ano-nth while following has regular ■occupation. The regular resrve will be subject to instant marching orders The scheme mc udes the formation of a second line, to consist of 100,000 men, called the national reserve. They will he paid 8s a year. The balance of the required men, it is recommended, should be regularly enlisted.

Count Edgar yon Wolffskeel, scion of an ancient Bavarian family and lieutenant in a dragoon regiment, has been sentenced by a court-martial at Munich to 45 days arrest ,in a fortress for marrying without the consent of his superiors. The lady of has choice was an actress in a Munich theatre, of more beauty than ta ent. The count employed his resent furlough to travel with this lady to London, where the marriage ceremony was performed. The count, who is thirty years old, pleaded in extenuation, first, his youth; secondly, the inordinate influence exercised over him by the lady; thirdly, that at the time he was labouring under constant attacks of "bodily and mental depression." He who has never had massage sous--I'eau at Vichy has yet to learn what a bath can be. You lie down on a couch of canvas. Over you there is an iron which looks like a long tin bar. It really as a series of small holes in a hollow tube from which the water trickles on to you—a series, so to speak, of small fountains. Underneath you in the canvas bed there is warm water. Thus lying in hot waiter and sprinkled with (hot water, you are at the same time being massaged by two attendants. This is massage sous l'eau. In the recent " referendum" in Norway 368,300 persons voted in favour of the dissolution of the-union with Sweden, and 184 against it. Then, by 104 vote to 11, the Norwegian Storthing [empowered the Government to enter upon the negotiations with Sweden for the dissolution of the union.

■ The Swiss have not a grasp of English grammar, as the following examples show. The proprietor of an Alpine hotel addresses his clients thus:—" Misters the venerable voyagers and mesdames are requested earnestly not to take the clothes of the 'bed to see the sun rise for the colour changes." Recently the following advertisement appeared in an " English" guide book published at Berne:—■" The hotel is a very favorite resort of people fond of solitude and resit. Those who are in' search of loneliness are, inveritable fact constantly flocking to the hotel from the fore quarters of the globe." " Strang gentlemen will to please not io,dress for dinner, etc., as this costume flutters the souls -of the maid folk and no work is resulted. Humbly asked." Such is the announcement posted in the bedrooms of an inn in the Jura Mountains.