The World.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2286, 5 March 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

The World.

[Thk following paragraphs are extracted from the London sooioty papers and other journals.] A factory is ,'ibout to bo started at Inverness by a French firm, where sprats are to bo converted into sardines. Throefourths of the sardines that are now sold are really sprats. The peppermint, spearmint, tansy and wormwood oil crops of St. Joseph and Cass counties in Michigan amount this season to eighty thousand pound*. Mrs Langtry describes her present tour as the host she has over had, and says she has been clearing 5,000d015. a week since .-lie started this time in America. That the average soiling price of agricultural land in England should have fallen from 260d015. per acre in 1875 to lGOdols. per acre in 1885 is a startling fact. There is some possibility of the Sebright case being tried over again by the intervention of the Queen's Proctor. There are no less than thirty-nine morning papers in I'aris, not countiug a dozen or so of afternoon or evening sheets.

Mrs Lucy H. Hooper has been investigating the condition of American girls who go to Italy to learn to sing, and who desire to show their vocal gifts on an Italian stage. Of the hundreds that she has known during the' last twelve years, some few are making a prccarious living,

ill-paid, working hard. Others have gone home tired out.

Two New Haven, Conn'.,'dry goods firms ware determined to undersell; each* other in disposing of prints culled crazy cloth, for which each hud paid cents a yard. One at last sold the goods, at one cent a yard and the other reduced the price to five cents for teu yards. . There are 5,000,000 Indians in Mexico; making 35 por cent, of the ontire population. They speak 3ci idioms and 69 dialects-. They are nearly all grossly') ignorant and live by themselves a wild, half-savage life in the country districts. A census has been for the fir.st time taken of the carrier pigeons' in Paris. Tho ret urn shows that these birds have increased and multiplied in an astonishing manner, inasmuch as they number 2,500 of which 1,780 have received a high traiuing, and can be trusted in all weather to go great distances. ■ They are each trained to go to some particular locality from Paris, and others to come to Paris from different strongholds "and great towns. An Allegan, Mich., merchant keeps what he calls a " chief account." In this book he records everything missed, and the first peivou discovered stealing goods is required to pay the entire bill to escape prosecution. Recently a lady was detected stealing a pair of 50-cent leggings, and she was called on to square the novel account, which amounted to $5. The Emperor of Austria has hitherto been one of the greatest smokers in his empire, consuming some 20 cigars daily. But this excessive use of tobacco has injured his health, so say the doctors, and has produced. the facial neuralgia from which he often suffers. So the Emperor has been obliged to give up his favourite habit altogether.

The polio at Budapest have been dispersing an encampment of sixteen persons who had teen driven from their homes by the cholera, and who, having no shelter, had established themselves under canvas near the Danube. In the course of their researches after other vagrants, the police made the astonishing discovery that thirty persons of both sexes were lying undressed iu a dirty but warm stream of water that flowed out of a mill. The water was shallow, and the poor creatures had got into it for warmth. They had taken stones for pillows, and had prepared themselves to spend the night comfortably iu this strange bed. Some of the vagrants stated that they had had no other resting place since the cold weathari set in.

A great ice cavern has been discovered on the southern slope of the Dachstein, or Schneeberg, the very conspicuous lofty mountain in Lower Austria, which is visible from the ramparts of the capital. The general direction of the cavern runs from south to north, and it has been explored for a distance of 600 metres, a sharp precipice seemiugly 14 miStres deep haviug stopped for the time further progress. The cavern is from five to six metres broad, and very lofty, giving the impression that the ice is enormously thick. The explorers are of opinion that a subterranean lake will be found in the cavern.

Labouchere says: I hear from St. Petersburg that the health of the Czar is far from satisfactory. He is suffering from sleeplessness and congestion of the brain, chiefly brought on by want of exercise. It should be remembered that congestion of the brain is a family complaint of the Romanoffs. The Emperor Nicholas was greatly troubled with it, and had to be very careful as to diet.

The American families of distinctionhave not returned to Paris this month in their wonted number—they arc wanted ; but it is hardly to be wondered at that they do not come, for they have to put up with scant civility for their much-, covetcd aud much-spent coin. The water of the so-called medical lake near Spokane is so charged with certain salts that it is like lye and is used in making soap. When the wind blows the waves soon make soapsuds of the water, the froth, or later, piling in masses along the shore.

A ring with four pearls and three ruby stones were recently fouud in the back of a herring caught at Dunbar. The herring was cooked and being eaten at breakfast by a woman in Edinburgh when the discovery was made.