One Thing and Another.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 839, 30 March 1888, Page 6

One Thing and Another.

It is customary in Sweden to hang the door-key up outside the house to show that the family is not at home. The Collector at Bombay has among his curiosities a Chinese god marked : ‘ Heathen Idol, ’ and next to it a gold dollar marked: ‘ Christian Idol.’

Potassium, a remarkable metal, was discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy, who first succeeded in separating it from its oxide, potash, in 1807. The general average of the human pulse, though the exceptions are numerous, may be put at birth at 140; two years, 100 , from 16 to 19, 80; at manhood, 76 ; and old age, 60. It is said that the rain falls alike on the just and unjust. In the case where the unjust has appropriated the umbrella belonging to the just this does not hold.

The latest idea in automata is a machine to tie fixed in churches and chapels. You drop a penny in and pull a hymn or prayer book out—on loan.

A brisk trade in gooseberry champagne has sprung up iu the district of Hedemarken in Norway. The production of this luxury now takes rank as a national industry. The article is largely exported to the United States.

Herr Kunz states that, in the preparation of ammonia from its salts, frothing may be prevented if a little hard paraffin be added to the boiling liquid. It melts and forms a ring round the edge, and boiling proceeds tranquilly iu tbe centre. To act with any people with the least degree of comfort, I believe we must contrive a little to assimilate to their character. We must gravitate toward them, if we would keep in the same system, or expect that they should approach toward us.—Burke. A peculiar feature of Long Lake, iu Wex. ford county, Mich., is that it gradually rises and subsides once every few years. Lt has been rising for the past four or five years, and the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway has been obliged to abandon its old roadway along the shore. *

Five years ago tho increase of wolves in France had become so serious that the Government found it necessary to raise the awards for killing them. In 1882, 423 wolves were killed ; in ISB3, 1316 ; in 1884, 1035 ; in 1885, 900; and in 1886, 760. The awards are now 200 franca for the killing of a wolf which has attacked human beings ; 150 frauos for one in young ; 100 francs for a male wolf, and 40 francs for a eub.

A would-bb suicide in Paris the other day, after taking a dose of poison, leaped off the top of the Arc de Triomphe, but when half way down caught his trousers on a projecting hook and there hung in mid-air by his nether garments for an hour before being rescued. Taken to the hospital it was found he bad- received no injuries, aud a strong antidote counteracted, the effects of the poison.