Varieties.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 356, 5 March 1903, Page 7

Varieties.

.. —♦—— WHY WE SHAKE HAND 9. jf(flft'° . Bhak * hands with a person is I gjJW nshfcly regarded as a token of ; <J&s Ruaity, but very few know how | this custom arose. According to a French ethnologist ■ whenever two men met in former times tbey were accuitomed to hold up tbei*; right hands in front of them as a sign that' they had no intention of attacking each other.. This mark of confidence, however, did not prove sufficient in all cases; for .a. man may hold up Lia right baud and yet, if ha keeps it closed, may have a weapon concealed in it, and therefore it became the custom for tbe two right .bands to grasp each other, as only thus could full assurance be given that no weapon was concealed in either of them. Formerly, therefore, this gesture, now tbe token of loyalty and friendship, was one of reciprocal distrust.

MAKING BFBGLiB'S TOOLS 1 . There is a rich business man of ?Phihv delphia who got his start in life through the manufacture of burglars' tools. He said recently, confidentially: - ' In my youth I was a machinist, but the business didn't pay at all. A thickset man came to me one morning and showed me a jimmy. 'l'll give you jC2 for a duplicate" of this,' he said, 'and I took him up joyfully, for in niy innocence I didn't know what a jimmy was and, besides, I foresaw a .90 per cent profit in the job. So I made She burglar's tools', and afterward I made the thickset man some other implements, and after that again I fixed up an outfit for a friend of .his. •'.'* •Thus, in a year,* continued tbe man, according to the 'Philadelphia Record,' • I had more work.than I could do ; eight or ten villainous looking individuals.brought me in big orders every day, and" in tour years I had saved J83,800. Then I quit. I pulled out and went into my present line, which pays me well enough, though its profits are nothing to those that you will find in burglar tool making. I oft6n wonder who inherited my old-time trade.'

THE WHIRLING DERVISH. . Every circus has a ' Whirling- Darviph? for one of its attractions, and they, are certainly wonderful creatures Do you know where they come from P They are Mohammedans from Persia, a set of men who devote, or are supposed to devote, their entire time to religion, and are perhaps as nearly like monkeys as anything else. Fasting for days at a'time, with continual prayer, at last affects their minds and they see wonderful visions which they disclose to their superstitious brothers, over whom they have great influence. They are always miserably poor, living on charity, and earn what little they have by being hired to mourn at funerals, or tc conduct religious ceremonies. Some of these men perform most wonderful tricks, such as fire-eating, juggling and walking on broken glass. How they do them will never be known, but they are supposed to be invested with supernatural power, which is of course untrue. We aie all familiar with the 'whirling* dervish. This takes years of practice, but finally they become so expert, and are soused to it, that they" can 'whirl* for hours without becoming dizzy. ORIGIN OF 'UNCLE SAM.'

Immediate]; after the last declaration of war with England, Elbert Anderson, «f New York, then a contractor, visited Troy, on the Hudson, where was .concentrated, and where he purchased a large quantity of provisions—beef, pork, etc. The inspector of these articles at that place were Messrs. Ebenezer and Samuel Wilson. The latter invariable known as Uncle Sim, generally superintended in person a large number of workmen, who, on this occasion, were employed in overhauling the provisions purchased by the contractor for the army. The casks were marked' E. A., U. 3.' This work fell to the lot of a facetious fellow in tho employ of Ms6Bre, Wilson, who, on being asked by some of his fellow-workman the meaning of the mark—for the letters U. S. for United States were then almost entirely new to them—said he did not know, unless it meant Elberfc Anderson and 'Uncle Sam' Wilson. The joke took among the workmen -«nd passed currently, and 'Uncle Sam' himself, bein<2 present, was occasionally rallied by them on the increasing extent of his. possessions. Many of theee workmen shortly after enlisted in the army and their old jokes accompanied them. Before the first campaign ended this identical one appeared in print;.it gained favour rapidly till it penetrated, and was recognised in every part of the country. : <■■>■:. > : - QUESTIONS.

What is the origin of the saying' Eight foot foremost?' It is traced to the ancient Romans, with whom it was considered to be a bad omen to cross the threshold with the left foot oh entering a house, Accordingly it was customary with them to station boys at the entrances of mansions, to caution visitors and guests against the mistake. What is the significance of tho barber's pole?——ln former; times, when the barber united with his art that of surgery, or blood-letting, the pole had a real significance. The gilt ball at the top represented the brass basin used for lathering the. customers ; the pole represented the staff held by persons during venesection, while the two spiral ribbons painted on the pole represented—the one, the bandage twisted, round the arm previous to blood-letting, and tho other, the bandage used for binding up the arm afterwards. Now that the barber's art has fallen from its once high estate the pole has only an historic significance. To what does the saying 'sardonic smile' refer?—— The island of Sardinia, which consists chiefly of marshes and mountains, has, from the earliest period to the present, been cursed with a noxious air and an ill-cultivated soil. The convulsions produced by its poisonous plants gave rise to the expression 'sardonic smile' whieh is as old as Homer.