Varieties.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 426, 9 June 1904, Page 2

Varieties.

ITEMS OF INTEREST. KBSjTHE most brainy of creatares are i psM, ante; their brains are larger in \JNI& proportion to their size than that of any living beings. Stockings were first used in the eleventh century. Previous to that cloth bandages were worn on the feet. A Japanese bride gives her wedding presents to her parents as a slight recompense for the trouble they had in rearing bß'. Doors made entirely of paper are now being used in France. They are finished to resemble wood, and neither warp, shrink, or ciack. Decrease in the human stature begins about the fiftieth year of life, and at the age cf eighty a man has lost about an inch and a half in height. The West Indian crab is decidedly an oddity. Though it is born in the sea, it comes to maturity in fresh water, and spends the greater part of its adult life on land. Most of the black hair used in wigs and 'switches' comes from the convents of Italy and Spain, while the fair and red hair comes mainly from the heads of Eussian, Swedish, German and Danieh peasant girls. Co-operative wedding presents are now quite the fashion. When a couple are about to marry their friends combine forces, and give them one or more handsome presents instead of a number of smaller ones. To avoid duplicates, the biide-elect is often asked to say what she would like to have. When Chinese parents are about fiftyfive jeers of age, their affectionate sons and daughters unite in giving them each cb handsome coffin as possible. These presents are received with gratitude, and are often need as wardrobes, until such a time as they are required by their owners for the purpose for which they were originally intended. The dog, the friend of man, is said to have acquired the habit of barking in its efforts to imitate its master'd speech, and that in its wild state the only vocal sound that it made was howl or yell, Such as one Learß hounds give vent to when after their quarry. There are three varieties of dog at the present time which do not bark — the Australian dog, the Egyptian shepherd dog, aud the 'lion-headed' dog of Thibet. DO OLD MEN DIE FBOM IDLENESS r Th6re is certainly far more evidence for belief in the drearinesß of old age after active work has been laid aside than for -the shortening of lifo which results from the enforced activity. Two notable instances, and perhaps freer from doubt than most as to whether it is ennui alone that kills and not the disease of old age or a more specific malady, are those of Napoleon the Great and Bismarck. The one lived six pears in St. Helena, the other eight years at Friedrichsruh, each 'eating out his heart.' A wise man, if not too dyspeptic, will never lose touch with actual life. There are old men with young hearts, and the patriarch when he has a young heart is perhaps the most delightful type humanity can show us. HOW TO PBESEEVE AMD MOUNT FISH. • In stuffing and mounting fresh water fish first cover with muslin the best side of the fish/and place it with the other side up on a table. Cut along from the head to the tail, ana through this long cut remove the fle3h of body. After clearing a*ay the eyes and any flssh left round the fins, head, etc, dress with the preservative, which is an arsenical soap, composai? of 3 parts of camphor, 32 parts white arsenic, 82 parts of white soap, 2 parts of salt of tartar, aad 4 parts of chalk. Now pad round the fins, head, etc., with putty, and proceed to stuff the skin by replacing the natural body with an artificial one, made of tow, paper, etc, upen a wire foundation, or by well ramming in sawdust or bran, as the sowing up is being done. Now turn the fish over and fasten it temporarily to a piece of board, by means of wires left projecting through the cut. Arrange the fins and tail in the desired position, and clip them, by means of pins, between pieces of cork. Insert the ejes and close the mouth, using pinß and cork, and then leave the whole to dry. Colour carefully to imitate nature, and varnish to represent wetness, CUEED BY A Li UGH. A few nights apo I called to visit a friend, who, I heatd was lying very ill with quinsey. He is a respectable farmer, who lives in good circumstances, and jast in the prime of life, I was shown immediately upstairs by the servant, who opened the door, and in the sick room I found his sister and a youthful gentleman, their cousin, sitting by the fire near the bedside and spsaking in low tones. They wre glad to see me, nd on taking a seat, I inquired for the patient, fho appeared to be asleep. I saw at once by the deep shadow on the lady's countenance that she was in great trouble. She told me the doctor had been there a short time before I came in, and that he had bad hopes of her brother's recovery, aad that if her brother died she did not know what aha would do, inasmuch as she could not manage business without him. I tried to comfort her as best I could, and her cousin, who was light-hearted aad thoughtles8 r and always eaid what was uppermost in his mind, suggested a great many planß ia case her brother should die. But they were all rejected, and she appeared to derive no consolation from them. At iength he arose to go, and she got up to show him to the door. Ha was a youth of between seventeen and eighte«n yeara of age, and she a portly lady of between twenty-eight and thirty. When etanding oa their feet he gazed pensively into her sad oouatenance and said—'Well, Kate, if Tom dieß I will marry you, and won't you give me the fftraip' I could not help smiling, and before she had time to reply the patient, who in the meantime had awoke and heard all, broke into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, buret the abccs3 in his throat, and recovered, thereby putting an end to his juvenile cousin's future matrimonial prospects