MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1298, 17 September 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Unfortunately there are very few libraries or reading-rooms open in NewYork on a Sunday. The Young Man's Christian Association Library is open that day as on all others from 2 to 9p.m., and so are its branches; and there are reading-rooms in connection with various circulating libraries, which are. accessible to subscribers on Sundays as well as week days; but the largest library and reading-rooms available for Sunday readers are those of the Cooper Union, and, says one of the reporters of the Tribune, " few of the churches have larger or more attentive congregations than may be seen there on a Sunday afternoon or evening during half of the year. The hours of admission on Sundays are from noon until 10 p.m., and the average attendance during the last winter was 1600 on Sundays, though on several occasions.it reached 2400. The average daily attendance during the week was 2100, the largest number being.present in the evening after working hours. There are nearly 800 daily papers on file, and the leading magazines, and a large and well-selected library. No restriction is placed on the reader, and all respectable persons are ad mitted . These represent the trades and vocations in which Sunday is the only day of leisure. A large number are men of 80 years and upward, some with white hair and bent figures that tell declining yeara No record is kept of the ages of the readers, but at least one-third appear to be under 30. One room is given solely to the use of women. Though many of the men appear of American birth, foreign traits are traceable in the features of the majority. Of these the English and the Scotch-Irish types were most numerous on a recent Sunday. German faces were frequent, and there were Hebrew countenances, a few Italians, several coloured men, and one Japanese. The librarian said 400 books and 200 magazines were taken out on a Sunday. About half of the books were works of fiction, but nearly 25 per cent, were books of travel, history, and general literature. Pilgrim's Progress has been translated into nearly all the languages, of India, and it is as popular with Asiatics as with Europeans. Archibishop Croke, in laying the foundation stone of a new Roman Catholic church at Ballyneety, near Limerick, stated that during the last six years, in twenty out of forty-six parishes of the diocese of Oashel and Bally, £73,350 had been expended on, the building and renovation of churches. TFhe late William Chambers of Edinburgh left a personal estate of £91,816. The sum of £20,000 is devised for the restoration of St. Giles' Cathedral, and the remainder is divided among numerous relatives and friends. The Empero" of Germany has offered to give 250,000 marks to found a large German hospital on the islands of Norderney in the German Ocean, provided an equal amount be raised by private subscription. Mrs Mackay, the wife of the bonaza millionaire, is accompanied whenever she goesin public by a private detective. The duty of the hireling is to screen the diamonds that they shall not dazzle the eye of persons with light purses and lighter fingers. Another important discovery was made in Junein the State prison quarry, at Carson. A few yards from the alleged prehistoric tracks, ten wellpreserved teeth were found, about five inches long, recognisod as baring belonged to the spices known as the rabrefooted tiger. It is stated that a movement is on foot to restore the birthplace of Daniel O'Connell, which has been a dilapidated ruin for many years. The impor ance of teaching dressmaking in schools has been recognised by the French Government, which does all in its power to facilitate the spread of such instruction. An Italian woman was arrested in New York the other day for street begging, who was proved to be worth •lO.OOOdoL Since her arrival in that city ; some years ago, she has njade two trips to Genoa, Italy, her native place, and on her return the last time brought a deformed child, with which she had been travelling about Professor Battler, of Munich, claims the distinction of having solved the problem as to thpyear in which Christ was born, and of having demonstrated the fact that the current year is probably 1888 instead of 1883. He bases his proofs mainly on three coins which were struck in the reign of Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, and which date, consequently, from the first half of the -first century, of current era. London covers 72,000 acres of larid, on which dwell 3,814,571 inhabitants. It contains 89 almshouses ; and an average of 28 new streets are opened and good houses built every year.