The Bossier banner., 1893-05-25
FOREIGN GOSSIP.

The wealth and station Of Mon
golian are told by the number and ele-
gance of the gowns which he carries on
his back. Some Chinese are known to
wear no less than eighteen heavily en-
broidered coats on state occasions.
In some parts of Norway cattle and
horses are fed on fish during part of
the year, and enjoy it greatly. Pigeons
have been accustomed by Spallanzani
to feed on meat only; when their for
merly favored seeds were offered them,
they turned up their noses and stalked
off.
The Royal aquarium, London, is ex-
hibiting Princess Topaze, born of French
parents at Buenos Ayres, sixteen years
old, weighing fifteen pounds, and show
ing height of only twenty inches.
Her figure is symmetrical, and strange
20 say, her father was giant, and her
mother tall and robust, while all her
listers and brothers are of full size.
Out of 100 men whom you will meet
in Tobasco, Mexico, scarcely ten are
able to read, and two out of every three
are held by their creditors as slaves for
Cebt. There are about 500, 900 Mexicans
in this form of slavery. The people
often fall into debt through paying the
exhorbitant marriage fee asked by the
priest, and another large fee is exacted
at the baptism of each child, each bap-
tism requiring the entire wages of at
least two weeks.
The Manderaggio, which is one of
the quarters of Valetta, the capital of
the island of Malta, is one of the most
crowded spots on earth. In Valetta it.
self the proportion is $4,000 to the
square mile, but in the Manderaggio
S,544 people dwell on a surface "a
acres in extent, and this gives no less
than 636, 900 to the square mile, or 1915
to the acre. In the most crowded town
in Britain, Liverpool, the proportion is
only 1894 to the acre.
Prizes ranging from $3.50 to 1925
have been offered for designs and mod
| els best adapted for mule carts for the
| transport use of the British army in In
| dia. The competition is open to all
nations and full particulars will be
furnished on application to the director
| general of stores, India Office, West
minister, London. 1t is suggested that
| the cart be made entirely of metal or a
combination of metals, in order to be
very durable and to harmonic with
the mettle of the mule.
The question of whiskers is agitat-
ing the British army journals. The
regulation governing the point is clear
and decisive. Officers and men of her
majesty's army are not permitted to
shave the upper lip at all, though some
enlightened commanding officers per-
NIT young men to shave on the strict
understanding that it is done for the
purpose of stimulating the growth of a
backward moustache. Some officers of
high rank are said to disregard the
regulation, and so set a bad example to
the service by going clean shaven.
One of the first dynamite factories
was founded at Isleton, Switzerland,
about twenty years ago by Xavier Ben
der on the suggestion of Louis Fabre,
chief engineer of the st. Gothard tun-
mel, in order to obtain means for blast
ing the rocks. The mechanical opera
tions are mostly performed by women
and girls with simple machines which
are worked by hand. In dealing with
the powder, which contains a sort OF
dry mixture of nitric acid, sulphuric
acid and glycerine, three women work
at table on which the apparatus is
placed. The first woman, by means OF
a vertical handle, forces the powder
from the reservoir into small cylinder
Out of this the powder, in the shape OF
sausage, issues and the second woman
cuts it in pieces about three inches
long; the third woman wraps it in oile6
cartridge paper, carefully covering i
to exclude the wet, and the instrumen
is now complete.