St. Landry democrat., 1888-02-11
FOREIGN GOSSIP.


The women of Russia do all the
harvesting; the grain is cut with
sickles, as it was 5000 years ago, and
is threshed with fail.
1.-THE great American deer
stalker" Mr.. Wiman, now controls
$4,000 acres of deer forest in Scot
land, and employees several hundred
keepers.
1t is stated that more than 2.00O.-
900 glass eyes are made every year in
Germany and Switzerland; while one
French house manufactures 800, 600
of them annually.
The city of Buenos Ayres, with a
spirit of enterprise superior to that OF
many cities of greater pretensions. is
about to establish a pneumatic postal
serv;ca on the European plan.
Sea otter has only been known TO
Europeans as q fur for about one hun
dred and fifty years. 1t is the rival of
seal in fashionable favor Minever, or
gray squirrel. is very old fur and
was at one time the special favorite Of
royalty.
There are whole towns in Germany
that do little else but make dolls for
American children. They are mostly
simpe country folk. England's chill
dren spend almost a million dollars
for French and German dolls, and
Americas children almost double that.
An Englishman has invented n
brake by which any person in a COM
partment can turn a lever and stop
the train. At the same time white
disk will appear outside of the COM
partmeut to notify the conductor in
which carriage the brake has been
used.
The heir presumptive to the Bel
gian throne. Prince Baldwin of Flan-
aers, receives with the new year sep
arate and independent court and
household. and officially takes his rank
and place as successor to the crown.
The Prince is now in his nineteenth
year. and is son of Prince PHILIPPE,
Count Of Flanders, the only brother of
siae present King.
The oyster trade in France has un-
dergone q remarkable extension dur
ing the past few years. Over six hum
drei million succulent bivalves, ten
times more than in 1876. were har-
vested from beds belonging to France,
and they have become so easy to OBJ
tain that even laborers eat their oys-
tiers daily, and every wine shop in the
poorest quarters has Its oyster stand
outside.
"A sewing machine of solid silver
and enriched with sapphires was re-
GENTLY received by the Empress of Rus
STA. 1t was present from the So
eiety for promoting the use of Russian
M tterials. The Czarina has taken
great interest in this organization.
Her enthusiasm, however, will not
cause her to use the sewing machine
in all probability.
1t il rather interesting to observe
that tine little baby Princess who has
just made her distinguished arrival at
Balmoral Castle is the first scion of
royalty born in the Gray North
since 1000 Our Scotch cousins will
be charmed, no doubt, at this event;
which. taking place earlier than was
expected, seems to have produced
something very like a furry in the |
Royal household. = Table Talk in Leeds
Mercury.
To q grand dinner. given recently |
Mt Belgrade, by an august parsonage |
TO some foreigners of distinction Wis |
ting the Servian capital. several MEM
bers OF the Skuptschina Tor national |
parliament) had been invited. One of
the alien guests. well-known French
ananoier happened to sit next to |
Seryian NJ F.. and was. considerably
diverted by his quaint expedients for
lealing with certain attributes of civ
lization obviously unfamiliar with
him. Toward the conclusion of the
east the Frenchman selected tooth
,ick from small tray lying near
him and politely passed the recepta-
lie on to his neighbor who. however,
,cremptorily declined his offer. ex-
claiming: mo, Gospodin; I have
llready eaten ten of the things aud
want no more"