The Opelousas courier., 1889-05-11
GOSSIP.

The population of Africa Is
eighteen to the square mile; in Europe
there are lightweight to the sane
space.
in Liverpool the rate of mortality
is 1873 per cent. Every fourth funeral
is that of q child under one year old,
and every second funeral is that of a
child under five years old.
Princess Eugene, Of Sweden, has
borne the expense of establishing a
mission house for the benefit of the
Laplanders in the northern part OF
Sweden. 1t is over two hundred miles
north of the Arctic Circle.
A Russian officer who has made a
tour of observation through India,
concludes that English rule there is
star from tottering to its fall. 1t has
struck out so many deep roots that to
disturb it would be nc easy task"
1t has hitherto been the rule in
Japan that all persons visiting gov
ornamental offices must alight from
their horses or vehicles at the outer
lMate; unless they were of certain rank.
Nis relic of feudal times has now
been. abolished. Every Japanese is
nowSat liberty to go where he pleases
on foot.
Thorough tillage, combined with
irrigation and drainage, enables Japan,
from only ~, 900, 900 acres under till
age, to clothe and feed SO, 900, 900 peo-
pie, to say nothing of exporting an
nually 40, OO0, 900 pounds of tea, sew
eral million dollars worth of silk and
large quantities of tobacco and rice.
The German Empress is not a
woman of dress, but whs1 she does
array herself in her stateliest robes
she presents a marvellous spectacle.
The other Sunday she appeared in a
gown of white silk, with a train sew
eral yards long, embroidered with gold
and silver. The material cost $500.
It took twelve girls two months to make
the embroidery.
The Emperor of Russia has dis
tributed small tokens of gold to all
those who were with him in the i'm
perial train at the time of the railway
accident near Borki, in memory OF
their miraculous escape. The keep
sakes are miniature copies of a sacred
picture which was found quite un-
damaged after the accident in the din
ing saloon of the train.
1t appears that land grabbing has
been going on at a lively rate in the
South Pacific. Official reports at
Washington are said to show that up
to 1856 foreigners had laid claim to
694, 600 acres in the Samoan Islands,
which have a total area of $40, 100.
Thus aliens asserted ownership OF
"a, 900 acres more than the entire king
dom possesses! During the past two
wears the Germans have filed addi-
tional claims amounting to many thou
sands of acres.
Queen Victoria is so fond of fresh
air that she is in the habit of sleeping
with open windows even in the dead Of
winter. The Empress Maria Theresa
of Austria was more Peculiar in thi:
respect Her writing-t bile, even in
winter, was close to the. open window,
and the falling snow often drifted il
and fell on the paper on which she
wrote. It frequehly happened thai
the hands of the hairdresser were
partly frozen while attending to hel
maiesty's couture.
The rapid increase of the foreign
4 population in France is causing great
concern to the government. Since
1886 no less than 492, 600 Belgins, 1885,
900 Italians, 100, 900 Germans, 5000
Swiss, and $4,000 Spaniards have gone
into France in addition to the foreigr
population previously resident there
In 1851 there were but 381 900 foreign
ers' in a total population of nearly
thirty-six millions. In 1886 the for
eign population exceeded 1000, 900
while the native population remained
nearly stationary.