GLEANINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 932, 10 January 1890, Page 5

GLEANINGS.

MYSELF. As I walked by myself I talked to myself, And thus myself said to me— Look to thyself, and take care of thyself, For nobody cares for thee. So I turned to myself, and answered myself, In selfsame reverie, Look to myself, or look not to myself, The selfsame thing it will be. —Curious Epitaphs.

JOHN SMITH THE WORLD OYER. In Latin he is Johannus Smithus, the Italians smooth him off with Giovanni Smith, the Spaniards render him Juan Smithus, the Hollanders adopt him as Hans Schmidt, the French flatten him oat as Jean Smeet, the Russian sneezes and barks as he flays Ivan Smittowski. In China he is known as Jovan Shimmit, in Iceland as John Smithson, in Tuscaroras you forget all about Pocahontas and Powhatan when you hear them call Ton Qua Smittia. In Wales they speak of him as Jihon Soinidd, in Mexioo he is Jantli F’Smitti, among the Greek ruins the guide speaks of him as lon Smikton, and in Turkey he is utterly din. guised as Yoe Self.

In a severe sprain of the ankle immerse the joint as soon as possible in a pail of hot Vrater, and keep It there for fifteen or twenty

minutes. After removing it, keep it bandaged with hot cloths wrung out of water.

Dr Busey says that school children should sing an hour a day, as a preventive of consumption. Vocal music is gymnastic exercise of the lungs by development of the lung tissue itself.

‘ln a few years,’ says Mr Edison, ‘the world will be just like one big ear ; it will be unsafe to speak in a house until one has examined the walls and furnitnre for concealed phonographs.’

A pioture painted over a thousand years ago (in a.d. 859) by Kanaoka, the father of Japanese pictorial art, is reported to have been discovered in a pawn shop at Tokio. It is said to be a masterpiece and in a’ wonderful state of preservation. It is a figure about two feet high, representing a priest.

The Duke of Edinburgh has practically expatriated himself, and will hereafter visit England only occasionally. His disgust with the Prince of Wales for permitting the Princess Louise to marry the Duke of Fife is the cause. He is a cantankerous person, and has never been popular in England.

One of the most successful ministers of Boston has inaugurated the follt wing practise in taking the benevolent collections'; He reports by name from the pulpit every donor, with the amount given. He also designates the names of his membership specifically, and those who have not made any subscription are fully reported by name, with a cipher appended.

The sardine and other tins, of which so many thousands are thrown away, go to support a branch of industry in Paris which is deeply interesting to the youthful part of the population ; for, after being stamped into shape by maohines of simple construction, they reappear in the form of countlesß armies of tin soldiers, which are sold at prices so low that the manufacturer could not possibly afford to buy his material new from the tinman.

German school life is a serious business. It begins at seven years old, and the two subjects of study which are specially in favour with all classes of people of any pretensions are French and the piano. ‘I do net think it is an exaggeration,’ says the writer, *to say that 95 per cent of the daughters of parents in easy oircumatances play the piano and 90 per cent speak French.’

The chariot drivers of the ancient Egyptisvns invented harness prior to 1703 B.c. The powers of steam were first employed by Hieio of Alexandria about 250 b.c. The saw is a tool of very great antiquity ; it Is figured on some of the oldest Egyptian monuments, and is mentioned many times in the early books of the Old Testament.