The World.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2298, 2 April 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

The World.

[The following paragraphs are extracted from tho London society papers and other journals.]

In factories whoro pencils are made in numbers, a simple method of counting has been devised, with a view to saving time and money. Strips of wood are employed, having in each 144 grooves, and the workman, taking up a handful of pencils, rapidly rubs them aloner the board once and back, thus filling all the grooves in which the pencils lie, similnr to pens on a rack. In five seconds <i gross may thus be counted, without the least likelihood of making a mistake, and much time and labour are saved.

Tho Regent of Bavarin (Prince Luitpold) Is a devout Catholic, and Ultramontane influences consequently preponderate at Munich. Clerical scruples have just caused the prohibition of Molbee.h's drama, " Dante," for which some of the principal members of the famous Meiningen company had been engaged; and Heigel's " Hohensclrwangau ■' has also been condemned because the priests object, to its rplijriouH tendency. Miss Isabella Burns-Begg, the last relative of Robert Burns, died recently at her thatched cottage near Ayr, where she had lived for half a century. She was a niece of the poet, being the daughter of his only sister, who died in 1858 at the age of ninety, and Miss Begg was eighty: one on the day of her death. She was a clever, shrewd woman, and her conversational powers were remarkable, considering her humble station in life. The export of light beer from Germany has rapidly increased within the last do':en years. In 1573 the total exportation was only 6,400,000 gallons, but by 1834—85 the'• total had risen to nearly 25,400,000 gallons, an increase of nearly 300 per cent. Both in England and India these light kinds of beer, in spite of their high price, arc superseding the heavier and stronger English ales. The Court Journal say.s : Tho latest fashionable accomplishment is whistling. A few weeks ago the banjo was all tho rage, but now a gentleman who can not only accompany on the banjo but can also whistle well is an invaluable ally of any hostess. There are teachers who make a considerable sum of money by teaching the art of whistling, but the lesson is said to be not eaoily learned. General Lloreute, a planter in Florida, has trained a chimpanzee to wait at table, and reports that his aps does the work of four negroes. He wears a livery, carries his napkin under his arm, and would bo perfect but for an unconquerable tendency to take toll of the sweets aud nuts. M. Alennier assures us that in many cases apes have been successfully trained for household work. Nob content with introducing European toilettes and jewellery at her Court, the Empress of Japan is going entirely to revolutionize all the usages of her '• society" by establishing a system of European etiquette, based on the rigid codes which prevail at Berlin and at St. Petersburg,

Is is said that 4,000,000 be-d of cittlo have been starved to death in the Western Sta'es of North America in consequence of the severity of winter, from drought in Texas, and from other climatic causes.

The babv King of Spain is a fine, luindso'ne child, who enjoys robust health, and does credit to the immense amount of care with which he is surrounded.

It is prop )sed to organise a national pil<rrim'iige trom Ireland to Rome on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the Pope

next year

According to a Yokohama paper, noteworthy efforts are being made to develop the Japanese copper trade. The Ashio mine yields about 14,000,000 pounds of copper per annum. The copper was formerly exported by foreign merchants, first to Calcutta for refining, and then to London. During the last two years, however, a copper-refining factory has been at work at Honyo, in Tokio, and the copper for London has been sent directly. The importance of the trade has consequently increased. Complaints have been made of the brittleness of Japanese copper, aud this defect has been attributed to the imperfect method of refining. Last spring the company succeeded in improving its process ; the silver and bisrr nth contained are now extracted, and pure copper is obtained.

Of the corn raised in this country, says the Chicago grocer, 180,000,000 bushels ure used iu human food, 62-1,000,000 for working animals, '20,000,000 for seed, 100,000,000 for the production of spirits and trlucose, 65,000,000 for export, and 900,000,0 0 for the food of meat producing animals, inakiuir altogether a consumption of 1,889,000,000 bushels. Ouly about one-twentieth goes into spirit". The animals get the bulk of it.

The honour, says the Court Journal, of being , the first banjo player in England, not meaning thereby the extreme best, is being disputed among the distinguishel performers on that instrument. Of course this would be a great deal to be proud of, considering that the banjo is creeping up high in society and becoming royal,

" Why, I am told, my friends," said a New York temperance orator, in an earnest tone, "that there are 16.000 liquor saloons in sight of Triuity C-iureh steeple. What do you think of that?" A voice replied: "L's wuth cli nbiu' (hic.couirb.) up to see." — R ililiir iu Vinitj , Fair.

In imitation of the German innovation, dogs are being trained in the French army for <: special services." What are those special services ? Surely they will not make them fight. That would be ennobling dogs indeed, and make them the equal of man.

The Louisiana orange crop, which has just been harvested, is said to be less than one-tenth of the average, and the fruit is retailing at New Orleans at 30 to 50 cents, a dozen, against 10 to 30 cents, at the corresponding time last year.

Ohio will have a centennial in ISSB to commemorate the first settlement on its territory, at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers. Aα exposition may be held. A French Commission has just returned from America witli machinery which will make 30,000 repeating rifles a month. During last season twenty thousand bushels of onions were raised on one farm in Warren county, N.J.

NEVKK GIIOW OLD. I looked in the tell-tale mirror And saw the marks of care ; The crows' feet and the wrinkles And the grey in the dark-brown hair. My wife, looked o'er my shoulder— Most beautiful was she—' " Thou wilt never grow old, my love," she said, " Never grow old to me. " For age is the chilling of heart, And thine, as mine can tell, Is as young and warm as when first we heard • The sound of our bridal bell!" I turned and kissed her ripe, red lips, " Let time do its worst on me, If in my soul, my love, my faith. I never seem old to thee." In a Western town lately, Mr Day married a Miss Week-. The editor of the local paper, a poet, in noticing the event, ended thus : — A Day is won, a Week is lost, "But we should not complain ; If or soon there will bo Days enough To make a Week again.

The Ages of Crowned Heads.—Here, according to the Almanach de, Gotha, is a table .showing the ages on January Ist, 1887, (if the various crowned beads,ifce. : — The Emperor of Germany, 89: the Pope, Leo XII 1., 70: William II I. , King of the Netherlands, (10 ; Charles 111., Princo of Monaco, (iS ; Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, (>7 ; Peter 11., Emperor of Brazil, 01; Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria, s(i; Leopold, King of the Belgians, 51; Louis, King of Portugal, 48 ; Charles, King (if Roumania, 47; Abdul Hainid, the Sultan, 44 ; Humbert, King of Italy, 42 ; Alexander 111., Emperor of Russia, 41; George, King of the Greeks, 41: Milan, King of Servia, 32; the King of Spain, a few months.