Facts and Fancies.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 712, 14 October 1914, Page 3

Facts and Fancies.

Wagner and the Number Thirteen. Richard Wagner was essentially a child of the number thirteen. He was born in 1813- Add the numbers 1, 8, 1, 3 and we have again thirteen. Wagner had thirteen letters in his name. He composed thirteen great works. He finished "Tannhauser" on April 13th, and it was produced on March 13th. And Wagner died on February 13th.

A Musical Mouse-Trap. It has been ascertained that most animals are sensitive to music, and it appears that mice, like lizards, are particularly so. An inventor has hit on the idea of profiting by this artistic taste on the part of mice to make them prisoners. He had substituted a musical ,mouse-trap for the ordinary apparatus. Instead of placing a piece of cheese or bacon in the trap, the manufacturer has concealed, in a false bottom, one of those little musical boxes which play various tunes automatically. The mice are irresistibly attracted towards the musical box, and, to hear better, they go right into the mouse trap, from which they cannot escape.

A Pyrenean Tradition. The Desert de Carlitte,, in the Pyrenees, close on ten thousand feet above the contains no fewer than sixty lakes of varying sizes. These, according to local tradition, were left at the time of the Flood. When the waters subsided, it is said, Noah and his family landed on the Puy de Prigue, one of the highest peaks in the district. Proof of the truth of this tradition is found in an iron rintf to which, the peasants declare, the ark was moored when the landing was Effected. Backward Mexico..... Acapulco, Mexico, with one of the finest harbours in the world, is one of the most wretched towns in the country. It is poforly built, the houses being, for the greater part, composed of adobe with tiled roofs, while the majority of the poorer class can afford nothing better than rude huts built with poles stuck in the ground, the fronds of the cocoanut palm woven into the sides, and the whole, thatched. Numerous earthquakes have damaged the buildings, and scattered ruins and cracked walls give the town a wretched appearance. There are no improvements of any kind, no seWers, waterworksj telephone, or electric light.

Lora of the Hand. Originally, shaking hands in greetin was taken as evidence that each person was unarmed. When a man kisses the hand of a woman he expresses his submission. This is also the idea when kissinjj the hands of kings. .When an oath is taken it is done by raising the right hand, or laying it on a Bible. A Bishop gives his blessing with the thumb and first and second fingers, the three symbolising the Holy Trinity. The wedding-ring is placed upon the third finger of the woman's hand to show that after the Trinity, man's love, honour, and duty are given to his wife. Besides the deaf and dumb, there are many people, notably of Latin and Semitic races, who talk with their hands.

Ingenious Sun-Dials. Parisians have always been extremely devoted to sun-dials, and it is probable that the French capital possesses a greater number of these timeindicating- devices than any other city in the world. Even in the eighteenth century the sun-dial-was most popular* in Paris; and fashion singled out for its choice the sun-dial of the Palais Royal. Every day at noon this was the centre of interest of an eager crowd in the corner of the Palais Royal garden, standing motionless, with their noses in the air." Each was waiting for noon, having his watch in hand, ready to set at twelve o'clock. When the Duke of Orleans was altering the palace in 1782 the Parisians were much disturbed, thinking that they were to be deprived of their favorite snn-dial. But the Duke did not only preserve the sun-dial, but added to it a little powder magazine; which was so arranged that it exploded when the sunlight fell upon it, thus notifying everyone who heard the explosion that the hour of noon had arrived. Later a canon, which was discharged by the sun at noon, took the place of the little powder magazine.

Napoleon's Coronation. t For weeks before Sunday, December 21 st, 1804, the day of the Coronation of Napoleon I. as Emperor of France, people had poured into Paris in ord'2:. to be in the city on the eventful day. Notre Dame was decorated magnificently, the centre piece being an immense throne erected at the west end for the Emperor and Empress. Napoleon, arrayed in robes especially designed by a famous painter, and wearing a golden crown of laurels, drove from the Tuileries to the cathedral in a carriage nearly all windows. When the Pope—who, at Napoleon's request, had journeyed from Rome in order to be present on this occasion—had blessed the sword and sceptre and annointed the Emperor-elect, he turned to take the crown and place it upon Napoleon's brow. Without a moment's hesitation the imperious little man waved him aside, and crowned himself first and Josephine afterwards! For a moment the vast crowd were speechless at this audacity; then a cry of "Vive I'Empereur!" arose, and echoed and re-echoed among the pillars of the cathedral, the thunder of many canon at the same time announcing to the in habitants of Paris that Napoleon j sat' crpwped Eixineror oj France. I