The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-04

and changed his raiment" How he did It Is another question:
 Shaving probably originated in the dis eovery by early warriors that long beard offered an enemy what was equiva- lent to an excellent handle to grap him by in the course of personal encounter. It was for this reason, perhaps, that Alexander the Great ordered his warriors to shave themselves his order being one of the earliest recorded proofs of the an- tiquity of this prevalent modern prac- tice. Later when hand to hand encounter became less characteristic of warfare mustaches became essentially military, but they were certainly no part of the equipment of the Greek or Roman sol dier.
 The early razors, before the day of steel implements, were undoubtedly made of shells md flints, the remains of which have been often found and classified by archeologists. Shaving under such con ditions could hardly have been an all together pleasant operation. It admitted of even less variety than the three kinds Of slaves that a modern traveller re- gently found marked on the barbers sign in a small French village-"ordinary shave" Careful shave" and shave in which every care is taken the last, of course, being much more expensive than d SAAdNS u lile OIulndry KlnQ.
 One of the most remarkable orchestras in the world-not so much, perhaps, on account of the character of it's music as Of that of its musicans-has been re- gently organized in Noumea. New Gale donia. Noumea is a penal colony of France and the orchestra has been or ganized in the convict settlement. The players therefore are all of them crimi- nals; but what is even more curious, most of them are murderers. The leader, now under sentence for murder, was once member of the Paris opera house orchestra. The man who beats the dram is imprisoned for having fatally beaten an fnsistent landlord. The first cornet Killed with robbery as a motive and the clarinet player once kept a tavern and indulged In the habit of killing his guests when such a proceeding seemed likely to prove profitable The cymbalist killed an officer of the French courts and the assistant bandmaster killed his own wife.
 This miscellaneous group of murderers discourse sweet music on frequent occa- sions in the public square of Noumea, where the inhabitants are reported to be highly delighted with the new organiza- ton. Under the circumstances, however, one might imagine that it would take an unusually bold critic to express anything but delight.
 According to the statements of some of the German papers one of the most remarkable clocks In the world Is now owned by the German emperor. This re- marl<able clock Is a combination of the alarm clock and the gramophone-its pe- culiar virtue being that it verbally re- minds the emperor of facts and appoint ments that might perhaps be forgotten in the general routine of his busy existence. If the emperor, for example. proposes to meet such and such a person at such and such an hour of the afternoon he tells the clock. And as the hour of the en- gagement approaches the clock repeats the message saying, to all intents and purposes See here, your highness, don't you know you've got date with so and so at 4:3O. Don't you think it's about time, you were getting ready?' Where upon the emperor proceeds to get ready and the clock steadily resumes the bus mess of time keeping until it is necessary to speak up concerning some other ap- pointment.