CLIPPINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1819, 4 March 1884, Page 4

CLIPPINGS.

It is only when a woman's age reaches beyond 100 years that she is willing to have it accurately stated. An Agricultural Conundrum. — What kind of fruit does an axle-tree bear !— lt depends what is in the vehicle above the axle-tree. A Boston commercial traveller was paralyzed when a young lady asked him, 14 When are you going peddling again ?" Two farmers saw a couple of dudes on a street in Troy, when one exclaimed : "Gosh ! what things we sco when we don't have no gun." The manufactnic of textiles in the United States is over 600,000,000d015. a year, while the importations amount to 125,000,000d015. In England, Scotland and Wales there are more than 74,000 persons employed in preventing, detecting and punishing crimes. The Imperial Government is still paying a pension to the widow of a naval officer who was killed at Trafalgar 78 years ago. California offers peculiar advantages for eloping couples. They are sure of a Pacific slope, and that is a great deal. — New Orleans Picayune. A SPORTSMAN" was boasting that he had once killed three dozen hares before breakfast. "Zounds! sir," said a wit, '• you must have been firing at a wig." The house of Carlyle, at Chelsea, is now empty, and looks dilapidated. In Glasgow a committee is being formed to buy the building and make Ifc a Carlyle Club house. As an instance of the bitter hatred between France and Germany, it is said that the ladies and leaders of Berlin society have resolved to buy no more dresses in Paris. It has been estimated that 5,959, 140,000 cigars, weighing 37,563 tons, and 36,570 tons of smoking tobacco, were consumed in Germany during the year 1882. Tiik Church of England Temperance Society at Home includes all the bishops, several thousands of the olergy, and 432,672 mcmbeis. Fke.vck silk manufacturers are reported to be very hopeful as to the capabilities ot a big spider lately discovered in Africa, which weaves a yellow web of great strength and elasticity. In the English school at Cairoa, Egypt, there are 700 scholais. There are Amencan and German schools, with 400 and 100 scholars respectively. The Catholics also have clerical establishments of considerable influence. Sir Joshua Reynolds' works, to the number of nearly 200, are to be collected and shown this winter at the Grosvenor Gallery in London. It will be the only collection of the kind since 181.3. When a man's wife cornea in and sees him, razor in hand, and with his fo.ee all lather, and asks him : "Aie you shaving?" it's a pi ovoking thin" for him to answer: -'No, I'm blacking the stove," but it is human nature, to so icply. A Mr H , a coxcomb, one day hearing people speak of age and appearance, said, "Jenold, don't you think I look much younger than I am?" The replj was, "It is not your 100 l s, my boy, it is your conversation." Germany has 500 mills for the manufacture ot wood-pulp. Such a, degiee of perfection has been attained in the treatment that even for the better qualities of paper the wood-pulp is substituted for pulp made fiom l.igs. It constitutes seventy-five per ceut of the paper stock used throughout Germany. Ax ingenious English manufacturer has, by a simple and wotkable invention of coiled springs, succeeded in dispensing with the need of driving sewing machines by hand or foot. A few turns of a handle winds up sufficient power to keep a machine going at full speed over an hour. It is completely under contiol as to the rate of stitching and stopping, and can be applied to any existing machine at moderate cost. It is said that large importers of American cotton in Genoa have found matchboxes and even handtnls of matches artfully dispersed here and there inside the bales, with the evident intention of setting the cotton on fiie, through the action of that development of heat which is otten caused by the cotton being insufficiently dried hcfoic it is packed. Tjik rubber industry of the United States has little livalry in foreign countries. Thereissomethinglikc 615,000,000 invested in the business of manufacturing mbber goods, E1>, 000,000 of which is confined to the rubber boot and <-hoe industry. The total number of employes is placed at 15,000, and the total number of factories at 120. According to a recent census bulletin, the value of the annual product ib £50,000,000. Til eke is no question (says the San Francisco Bulletin) that the Pope's authority over the church is greater to-day in France and the United States than it is in either Spain or Italy. In New York the magnificent cathedral in Fifth Avenue, situated in the veiy heart of millionairedom, far surpasses that of any other church edifice ou the continent, not excepting the noted cathedial of Mexico, while the notable institutions of charity spread over the Union, under the Catholic influence, far surpass both in number and excellence those of any other denomination. Sir Musks Montmiori; sustiinsnatuie entiiely on milk and old poifc wine, of which he dunks two or thice glares every day, \ancd with soup, and a little bread and buttei .sometimes. In middle life he smoked, but lias given up tobacco for many years. He rises at 11 o'clock, having had his letters read to him in bed, then drives out for some hours, and retiros at 9. He has a likeness of Mr Gladstone, of whom lie is very fond, over his bed. He wcais. a blue coat, frilled shirt, and goes about in the old-fashioned sedan chair. A Jkwi.sk synagogue in Philadelphia has taken a new depaitme of great significance on the woman question. Hitherto in Hebiew congregations women have had no voice in the election of labbi or any of the church business, but the Philadelphia synagogue has accorded ot them equal privileges with the nnle members, except the holding of official positions. It is expected that other synagogues will follow the example of this progressive congiegntion. The defeat of Sir Stafford Noithcote by Lord Randolph Churchill for the piesidency of the Central Tory Union Mould seem to indicate that the Consei \atives arp tiled of Sir Stafford's moderation, and willing to embaik on more spirited, if less dignified, Pailiamentary tactics. The rapidity with w liich Lord Randolph lias come to the front is largely due to the way in m Inch he has been ridiculed by the Press, and pa\tienlaily by Punch. His father's influence has no doubt been useful to him ; but it is his ow n pluck, or " cheek," which has enabled him to assume the mantle of Elijah. Ridicule nowadays is not so poweiful to destroy, as useful as an advertisement when there is real ability to deal with. A coRKESro\i)E\T of the Times, in an interesting article entitled "Science and Safety at Sea," calls attention to the dangers which exist in mid-ocean from the presence of icebergs, instancing as the case in point the collision of the steamship Arizona with an iceberg in the autumn of 1879. This fine ship was steaming along at the rate of 15 knots an hour, when in the darkness of night she ploughed into an iceberg and was nearly lost. The writer points out that science is able to minimise these risks, if not obviate them altogether. Both Langley and Edison have devised heat-measurers so delicate that a change of temperature quite unnoticed by the ordinary thermometer or the far more delicate thermopile, is readily recorded, The writer of the article suggests that ocean-going •team erg should use the principle of these inventions, so that, by proper apparatus placed at the ship's head, any sudden redaction of temperature indicating the near, presence of a mass of ice, should automatically to give a Bound warning, or in some other way to announce the coming ganger, 1