Miscellaneous.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 301, 29 August 1908, Page 3

Miscellaneous.

A man who is eighty years of age, but has slept through half that number of years, is being visited at Kieff by many doctors. Since his eighth birthday he has slept for entire months at frequent intervals, and has not wakened now since Easter Sunday.

After being married a year, a young man named Hahn, living at Volosca, Dalmatia, discovered that he had not married the girl he intended. When bo proposed he mistook her for her twin-sister, who so resembles her that they can scarcely be distinguished, and he did not realise his error until he began calling her by her Christian name instead of by the terms of endearment he had hitherto used.

The French Premier, M. Clemenceau, leads a simple life at his house in the Hue Franklin, rises at 5 summer and winter, takes an hour’s Swedish exercise, a substantial meal at 7, and works without stopping till 8 at night. He rarely accepts invitations to lunch or dinner, and hardly ever entertains. Official luxury has no attraction for him, He has written novels and plays, but his favourite study is Greek archaeology, which is at present his only intellectual recreation. •

A strange story comes from one of the turbulent Balkan States, where commercial morality is still in its infancy. At a recent banquet given at the house of the Prime Minister, a distinguished diplomat complained to his host that the Minister of Justice, next to whom he was sitting, had taken his watch. The Prime Minister said, “ Ah, he shouldn’t have done that. I will get it back for you.” Sure enough, towards the end of the evening the watch was returned to its owner. “ And what did he say ?” asked the guest. £{ Sh-h ! He does not know I have got it back,” said the Prime Minister.

Investors in gold mining securities will be interested to learn that an American lady computed not long ago that in the United States alone half a ton of pure gold, equivalent--to 500,000d015., is annually put as filling into the teeth of the li ring. Inasmuch as none of this precious metal is ever extracted after death, the shrewd calculator further reckoned that at the rate stated a quantity of gold equal to all that is now in circulation will, in the course of three centuries, be lying in the ground again. It is strange to think that' one digger—the sexton, to nut—is constantly returning, to Mother Earth nearly as much gold as the other digger is constantly extracting from her bosom.

The Chinese are trying hard to stamp out the opium-smoking habit, and a non-commissioned officer of the Sixth Division of Leichun, who w r as detected in the act, was sentenced to decapitation. The condemned officer w r as removed to the execution ground, and when he was about to be beheaded the whole of the troops belonging to the division knelt down before General Wang, and begged him to spare the life of the unfortunate man, as he was only using the opium as a medicine. The general, in commuting the death sentence, said that the use of opium was strictly prohibited among the military, and he informed the assembled troops that if any man were found using it he would immediately be beheaded. In this case the offender was sentenced to 3600 blows, and dismissed the service.

Two soldiers invited their sweethearts, two sisters, to spend the day with them at Sainghin Fort, near Lille, France, on July sth. After picnicking on the grassy slopes, the party went into the guardroom, where one of the men named Ledoux, showed his sweetheart a Lebel cartridge. He then loaded his rifle for fhn. and aimed it at the two girls, who clung together terror-stricken. “ Don’t touch the rifle,” screamed Caroline, but suddenly there was a flash, followed by a sharp report, and the two sisters fell dead. The same bullet had passed through both their heads. The two soldiers were arrested, and Ledoux, who was mad with grief, tried several times to commit suicide.