EXTRACTS FROM OUR MAIL FILES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2087, 21 November 1885, Page 4

EXTRACTS FROM OUR MAIL FILES.

The following items of general news arc taken from exchanges received by the Mail :- The amount annually paid to the foacheii of tho United States U sfiO.OOO.OOO, an atcrngo <if .tboiit *400 apiece. There arc now seventeen largo bteanitM-' lying in Lett!) dock*, which luve been pud off in consequonea of the unprecedented 1> low freights wine!) are offered at foiti^ti port*. There are 157 professors at the German umverbitiPH tutu fen 70 and 00 years of age. Of these 122 delivered their lectures* as usual. The oldest is the historian, Yon Kanke, who is now in his 00th year. Rich pilgrims and zealous men of God have changed things ho much at Jerusalem, laMy, that land thore had doubled in and imny modern dwelling huntics have Ik'cii eroeted. The deepest coal mine in the world in the It(ne f'lidge Colliery at Wigan, Lancaxlnrc, England, which is 80tf yards deep, or almost a half mile. There is plonty of coal further down, but the heat in the solid .struta u 'J'M degrees Falircnhcit. "The gold and aearlot of the ion " is rivaled m tho cupolas of St. PotoiV Cathi'dr.il just finished at Mwcow. There are dye of these cupolas and no les> tlrm nino hundred pounds of gold weic used in (Hi'il.iyinfC them. liomojupathiiiU claim a new pi oof of tlie col irctnwH of their thene* in tlio discovery that the fatuous tree fiom the baik of which riuininn n obtained, funmhtw no quinine nules-i it ia grown in a uml.uul rpgimi A I'runico Statue, incaAuring nno metie •ixty-five centimetres in height baa been discovered in the bed of the fiber during the prosecution of the works for i«inkinc the foundations »f the new bridge at the KogoU. The process of fumigation forced U[>on travelenby mitno Spanwli towns, in conHequence of the cholera, it to levorc th.it torn* people have to be carried off on Ktretcheix, ami ouu worn.in, who begged lianl to be, 'et off, dii'd fiom the effects. Will tho Kntflish languaccD become nuiver^.il ? The (puntion h decided in the nfhnn.itise Ijy Candolic, u(>cneva nciontist, who re.HniM fnmi the rapid spread of English s|ie.iking people thr mghout the world, and their almost imatiableictcntiou of their native tongue. A f!!i->rlcston, S.C., inventor lini devised a kn'.li, which may bo made highly muiiiient.il, to bo affixed to a lady a bolt, vi that her partner in dancing can "M\>ng partiifti" without thatofTenbnefarmli.nity which has thrown « gloom oter the festive dance. With another knob on tho shoulder, dancing might be as piopcr m swinging i, uevthe snath. Although the apple crop of England is largo tins year, yet for certain varieties of the Anui ican fruit there is a constant demand, at a fair price. Tho Newton pippin lias for many yeius been a favouiito among our English cousins, and red apple*, firm and of good flavour, always sell well in the British market. Florida has an* increase nf 0-1,053 in population since 1-580, making .v total of ftil.lKi. The assenrtcd value of real and personal propel ty ban riaciti in hvu yarn fiom 831,000,000 to S<i0,."»!»8,000 ; number of acr.-s n«'«'^od, 17,103,000; value of live stock, .<y>,->87,000. ihsastnrtwi floods, covering an area of 35C0 Kjimro miles, hpve vieited the pie»idency of Mongol, tho largest and most populous of tho 12 main divisions of Ihiliih India. A great amount of prnpcity lins bron destroyed, and nninbcrrf of lives lost. The Argentine Government has pn«hcd its l.cine railwny up to within 140inilen of Chilean honndary. On the Pacific »idi» the rnilway from Vftlpor»i«<i to Los Andes covers 100 mile*, with a pnwjM-ct of its extontion through the mountain pas o«. As soon ax this transadino line w completed, Han T'ranciM.o will be :.ble to pu-h any Ani'MK.iii gooi.'a in the Argentina markets.— ]Apoitcr.

R »cent statistics demonstrate that England has «;,") square miles of crionv to the -')ii,ire mile of h'T own area, Holland 51, lWugtl 20, Denmaik l> 30, Franco 1.90 and W|> un 0 81 > squire unit 1-.1 -'. J'.oty pedigree bulk weie dispatched from liiisflto New York, recently, by >i ln.at especially prepared foi tlu-ir eoimy,i mi 1 , They wrro consigned to vaiion* br .nchps in the Western States, and valued at about S13">,000. It is estimated that evciy year about 50,000,000,000 letters are posted in tin* world. Ameiici leads with about 2, "(00,000.000, and England follow* with 700,000,000. Fapan, which eotablKhed a iv>stal service only ten year- ago, now mails annu illy '.r>,ODO,OOO lotu rt. Mi'Mcin officials estimate th it the yearly loss to thu treasury of Mexico by smuggling along tdo northern frontier is not loss than M, 500,000. The United States Consul it (In lyinas, places the value of goods smugirb'd acro-s the Arizona frontiei at .^200,000 annually. A Montreal butcher attending church at I!u Perot a few Sundays* ago, finding him self un ible to knurl on both kiiecn, knelt on one only and slightly bent the other. A churchwarden insisted upon hin gotting down upon both knees. The butcher vainly pleaded that he was doing the bent lie could. He wak .arrested, charged with having committed an act of irreverence, and hned. The Japanese Government constituted a mixed commission of native and Kuropnan scholars, with the object of finding the way of c, pre^Bing the immense mass of Japanese symbols in European letters, and of tixmg rules for "polling Japanese words in our alphabet. They have so far bhccceded that they ha\e compiled a Japanese dictionary printed m Koman character. The congiegation of a chapel in \Vest Cornwall m*t the other day to consider ulietbei the old building »houUl lw repaid or rebuilt. A wealthy member offered towaids the proposed repairs, but just as he had spoken a piece of plaster fell from the ceiling on nis head, whereupon he mcieased his subscription to-^oO, on condition that the work wan at once taken in hand. On this an old miner shouted out, " Hit him again, good Lord." The belief is becoming general that th« busine-s of wooden barrel making w ill hink into in«igmhcancc in the future, and that tho band of the future is the paper barrel, uJiilli is stioiiger and bettei than the common bin el. A company is now being foimed in Minneapolis to build a three-hundred-thousand dollar establishment, with a manufacturing capacity of ten thousand barrels a day. It ought to be generally known that a man's hat will serve in most cases as a temporary life pre«ervei to those in danger of drowning. When a person finds himself m the water he should lay hold of Ins hat between his handc, keeping the crown closo under his chin, and the mouth of the lint under the wat«r. The quantity of air contained m the hat will keep the head above the water a long time— sometimes for several hours. American trade leports show that the textile mills aruallnnployed. The iron industry is impioving. Pa i)im, shoes, hardware sue all on the iim\ Tlie building hade returns aie much improved. Coal is on the rise, so fai as demand is concerned. Kvcellent reports from the south as to business and manufaetuiing enterpi ises aie being re- | cetsud. The outlook in the leading industries fiom all paits of the country is hopeful. P.|-,MAIU'k lias fulminated an order to his own people, which might witliad\antagebe imposed upon the whole world tli it write tl'cir names. He demands th.it henceforth eveiy one nli.ill Mgn his name in such a cleai, distinct and legible way that it shall be readable at a glance, and not have to bo studied " .is if there was something valuable to be found in it when discovered." — Court Journal. Prince Bismaick h.is recently conic into po-ses-ion of the chair on which Napoleon 111. sat convening with him on the day after the battle ri Sedan, in the wea-ver's cottage at Donc'ieiy. This historic relic had already passed through seveial hands, but was at la->t puichaurd and presented to the Chancellor by one of hU admireis. The Emperor ->at on the chair, but Bismarck sat upon the Emperor. A Pat is journal idatcs a donif-tic incident at the Ci>nit of Koint' which reminds one of the misadventure of Tittlebat Titmouse in Samuel Warn-n'-i well known htory. King Humbeit, although only forty-two years of tj," 1 , is almost gray, and (^neen Marguerite, thinking to improv e the pervmal appearance of her husband, sent to Paris for a box of lr|iii(N, »vlnch the mveiitoi i)retended would lestoie hair to its ougtnal colour. The '^uoen frave the remedy to her husband, with a request that he would Use it. The ne\t morning, while walking in her gardens, slio was .sui prise 1 to *cc that her white spaniel had been tratifformcd to a beautiful apple-green colour. The king explained to hci that befero using her restorer ho had made experiments on a dog ; "to-inoirow," he added, "I will tiy jt on your favourite white cockatoo." The next evening the box of dye-> had dUappe irod fiom Im room. A Bristol paper publishes the following: -Tho Key. E. (r. (Jange, s|>eaking at litistol, said he believed in careful preparation at home of hermons foi the Sunday, instead of "gadding about from house to house visiting." Jnliis early career he was earnestly requested by a deacon to visit a member of the congregation who was very ill, and it was stiggc-ted that he should call .it eleven o'clock in the mi ruing. He did -o, and found th« poor woman very much bettei, but gieatly out at his visit, as she had hei ban in curl paper, h»T rlecves tucked up to hei elbows, and was doing a. hit of household -weeping and ducting. He begged her not to mind him, .is he was "'used to tlut soit of thing." He would have a shoit piayer— he would not be long —they knew he never was long about anything. He selected a chair and knelt down; she Hclccted another ; and lie commenced tho pmyer. He hcaid tho dooi opened once ; ho heard it opened a -econd time. He concluded an earnest piayoi on the poor woman's hohalf— and on looking unind — lo ! a pei feet ti.nisfoiiiMtion. While ho was. piaying s|h> had slipped up to her bedloom, washed hui hands and face, cut led her hair, changed her attiie— and there hhe was in her vuiy be>t silk, fittingly prepnn'd to recuMu company, while lio had been pta^mg aniong the empty chairs.

THK CHOI.KIW. IN SPVIN. Thn following extract from n letter, which liiii just been published in a Swiijs paper, written by tho wife of n- Svvhs merchant Hftttknl in Spam, beside* Riving a \iv id idc.i of tho condition of th.it 1111-foitnn.-itc countiy, «hown how much medic. il men and fiov eminent officers h.ivo to contend with in their offorts to combat tlio plague th.it in working »nch ternble havoc throughout the Peninsula : " The other day time died in a house not f.ir fioin ours a widow, tho mother of two daughters. She liad been "uffeiing for a long time from an affection of tho chest, nnd shoitly before her death a doctor was called in, who prosci ibed mudiciuc and gave «uch dueetioiis for her treatment a« he thought necessary. Thii wan on a Satin day night, and on the following morning the poor woman breathed her lii*t. No hooncr was thin know 11 than a rumour went abroad th.it the medicine pi p. Kcnbcd by the doctor contained poison, and wast given to tho widow in order that sho might appeal to have died of eholei.i. The older daughter ran into the stroot like a tiinninc, finicking 'Scoundrel, -coundrel ! where m tho wretch that poisoned niy mother?' That w.is a teinblo day for mo, especially as Karl (tho writer's husband) was n.>t here. A great crowd gathned beforo tho house of tho dead and our*, calling for the judge, and thieatening th« doctor with death. Then tho body was taken into the clnuchyard in ordor that it might be oponrd. Jn"t think : Soino of the people (us was afterwards puni'd) killed a labbit, .and hdkl it had died oftei being given Mime of tho physic pirscnbed for the widow. After the body was romo\ed there came the judge, and aUo the druggist who had mixed the mndicine, and to show how hannlesH it was the drnggnt took, at « dnnght, all the physic left, in tho bottle. The doctor also testified tint it contained nothing whatever of a huitful nature, and was no moie than a refreshing drink. When the widow h body was opened, moreover, it presented no choleiaic symptom*" whatcM'i, but the lungs weie \ery much diseased, and tho cntt><» of cl>*.ttlt wa-> t»io\cd l»>yoiid rli«puti> to be con-umption. i'lif c .citenicjit and uproar were, howevrr, soiiti'thin« temblo, particularly amonuthe hwer orders ; th<-V persisted in believing that the woman had been poinorifd, And paraded the street*, declining thnt thny would foice nil the doctors to drink their own physic ; and most of the p!>tirnN of Dr. Antonio l'^pinosa (who prpscnbfd for tho widow) have thiown his medicine ■im ay, and he is bringing an action against the daughters for defamation of chaiactrr. In the wiuwhilo th? authorities have ro-ci">n-.mr > n'led the doctors to preccribn only pilN, thp popnlnr belief beinpr that pilk cannot bo poisniifd. This will give you loina idea of what the people hero are like."