MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1885, 6 January 1888, Page 6

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The London Telegraph finds 113 out of 550 Peers worthy to sit in Westminister. The balance are black sheep, and they are hopelessly eccentric or congenitally stupid. The Telegraph suggests that the Peers pick out a small minority and let them do the legislating for the crowd, and thereby remove a genuine obstacle to real Irish reform.

— The excellent tools of modern times make the boring of tunnels a less arduous matter than such work was a few years ago. Last month 430 ft were bored in the Cascade tunnel, in Washington Territory. This is the greatest distance ever accomplished in a single month in tunneling.

— The superstition about Lilith, to whom Adam was wedded before Eve was created, and who bore him all the demons that vexed the ancient world, is as strong to-day among the great body of believing Jews as it was 4000 years ago among their ancestors in the Plains of Shinar. — Spectator.

— James Williamson of Toronto, Ohio, captured a live crow in his cornfield. While carrying it home he was attacked by hundreds of other crows. He first tried to run away ; then he made a vigorous attempt to defend himself with a club ; next he sought shelter in a shed, where the besieging crows kept him a prisoner for more than one hour.

— Although glass pipes of large diameter have not been sucessf ully produced, it has been predicted by several large glass manufacturers that it will not be long before some method of casting these pipes successfully and cheaply will be devised.

— India is, for its poor, an untaxed country; and one of the grand difficulties of our rule is that under it the population increases at a rate which in some provinces overtasks the fertility of the soil. It is the goodness of our rule, not its badness, which causes such hunger as there is ; but Englishmen enjoy selfcensure, as Frenchmen enjoy self-glorification, or Irishmen self-pity. — Spectator.

— It is encouraging to learn from the report just issued by the directors of convict prisons that the number of convicts in British jails has considerably decreased of late years. In 1885 the number was 9151 ; in 1886, 8379 ;

and in 1887,7835.

— Measurements of 100,000 Russians were taken of both sexes working in different industries, and it was found that workmen in the textile branches were smaller and had narrower chests and less weight than those engaged in other works, the spinners being the weakest in every respect. •

— The mass of mankind, after their infancy, see little or nothing of the reality and beauty of things, because they believe only in what their understanding teaches them to expect to see or to think they ought to see and, when seen, to comprehend ; whereas reality and beauty are always unforeseeable, surprising, and more or less unaccountable. — St James' Gazette.

— In Italy 140,000 persons die every year from illness caused by the unhealthiness of their dwellings, and yet the poorer classes often pass six months of the year sleeping in the open air.

— A railway through the Jura Mountains is propose. In order to shorten the distance between Genoa and Paris the line will pass through the Faucilles Range.

— To answer a violent man with violent language is the very worst way in which to deal with him. To remain firm with a good grace is just as important as to yield gracefully. There is no such effective answer as silence, or else language which shall be as violent a contrast as possible with the intemperance of the attack to be met. — Spectator.

— Signor Serpieri, Prefect of Messina, lately fell a victim to the cholera after devoting himself most heroically to the care of the sick and relief of the bereaved. His last words were: " I am dying contented, for I have done my duty." The King will care for his family.

— Short sight is more common in town than country folk, for the simple reason that townspeople have less need for long sight, they have fewer opportunities for exercising their sight on distant objects, and their occupations favour its development by training or selection ; but it is not in the majority of cases, a proof of physical degeneracy, as we see among the Germans, who are a notoriously short-sighted people. — Saturday Review.

— There is a great change regarding the position of woman in Japan. Many who, a few years ago, looked with contempt on woman 2-re now anxious to raise her to the same levfci as in Western nations. The desire to have girls educated has worked in favour of Christianity, ssince it is not considered safe to send girls to any except Christian schools. All the mission schools for girls in Tokio are overcrowed.

— All the foreign^ officers present at the autumn manoeuvres* of the French army received decorations, except the English and the Germans.

— The German alliance is now one of the axioms of English policy, and Lord Rosebery admits it as fully as Lord Salisbury. — Pall Mall Gazette.

— For some years the authorities of a Roman Catholic Church in Lucerne, Switzerland, have allowed Presbyterian visitors to Jiold two services on Sunday during the harvest season in their church.

— The old Egyptian year began on the 26fch February ; the lloman year began on ihe Vernal equinox, as did also the Jews' sacred year; the Athenian year began in «3 one.

— The late Herr Krupp's income for the prese&fcyear was about 1,250,000d01. The late Baron Charles Eothschild's was 700,000d0l and his 'brother's 650,000d01.

— Besides the peerages enjoyed by the descendants oi Mac Calian More, there are no fewer than 28 Campbells in Scotland, each possessing 5000 acres and upwards ; and the total extent of their estates is 538,891 acres.

— The estate of Baron dc Stern, who died iv the beginning of November in London, is estimated at £6,000,000.

The Public Museum at Nantes, France, lhas just acquired the casket in which was placed the heart of Anne of Brittany. Queen of France and Navarre. It is of solid gold. — - Anthony Trollope used to declare that a vipe greengage was the best fruit in the world, just as Izaak Walton affirmed that ihough, doubtless, tho Creator could have designed a better fruit than the strawberry «* He doubtless never did." -->

— The crematory in the Pere la Chaise Cemetery, Paris, is nearly finished, and may begin work next month. Before being applied to human remains, however, the municipal authorities are at present testing its efficacy on garbage of various kinds.

—The present consumption of sulphur in Europe is estimated at a little over 1,000,000 tons per annum, of which Sicily supplies about 250,000 tons of natural brimstone. The rest is obtained from pyrites.

— The cruel punishment of slow death by hanging so as to stand on the tips of the toes i 3 still extensively inflicted in China. The barbarous custom, of conferring honours on widows who commit suicide is also continued.

— According to the Paris Figaro, the result of the recent sojourn of the Czar of Russia in Denmark was the formation of an anti - German alliance, embracing Russia, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, and Denmark, with others in anticipation, for the control of Bulgarian affairs. — The number of periodicals issued in Russia amounts to a little over 600. As the population of the Czar's empire is 105,000,000, it is evident that it takes 175,000 Russian subjects to support one periodical. There are only 55 daily papers in entire Russia. — The population of 15 provinces of China in 1885 amounted to the enormous number of 319,383,500. The returns from five other provinces have not been received, but they are estimated at about 60,000,000, raising the total population of the empire to about 380,000,000.

— With the aid of science even. the desert of Sahara is becoming inhabitable, and colonisation is encouraged. The Lower Sahara is an immense basin of artesian waters, and the French are forming fresh oases with skill and success, so that the number of cultivated tracks is increasing rapidly. After a period of 30 years 43 oases have 13,000 inhabitants, 120,000 trees between one and seven years old, and 100,000 fruit trees.

— The Chinese have an idea that the humming of telegraph wires will interfere with the rest of their ancestors in the numerous cemeteries; they therefore stoutly resist the erection of telegraph lines. The line from Pekin to Europe will run across the Gobi Desert to avoid the cemeteries.

— Chicago has just celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation, the city having been formed in 1837, with 4170 inhabitants. The rapidity of its growth is without parallel, even in the United States. In 1840, 4479 ; 20,963 in 1850 ; 109,206 in 1860 ; 298,977 in 1870; and 503,185 in 1882— such has been the growth of Chicago. — Edward Montgomery died recently near Americus, Ga., aged 102 years. He was an African chief of the Askari tribe, and was taken to Virginia from Africa in 1807, when he was a stalwart young man. He had a large family in Virginia, and when- he died he left his third wife and 25 children in Georgia.

— The oldest tombstone in Germany was hitherto supposed to have been one at Worms, dated 900 A.D. But at Zahlbach, a village near Mainz, a tombstone has just been discovered with a Hebrew epitaph, and dated 806 A.D.

— A horrible story comes from Lisbon, through French channels, that an actress, Laura Tempy by name, becoming jealous of two young artists, between whom had been divided some of her parts, invited them to a dinner at which poisoned mushrooms were served. She was soon rid of her rivals, but she has been arrested for the murders, and has acknowledged her guilt.

— The Court Journal remarks that a French journal now discovers that all the internal troubles of France arise from the motto, " France for the French," not being strictly adhered to. It says : "We nurture too tenderly the men of English blood. Boulanger has an English mother. Wilson had an English grandfather, and Waddington — the chief supporter of Greyy — has an English name and English education. And the degeneration of the French. nation began with the adoption of English manners."

— In the peninsula of Abeheron, in the province of Shirwan, there is found a perpetual, or, as it is there called, an eternal fire. It has risen from time immemorial, from an irregular orifice of about 12ft in depth, and 120 ft in width, with a constant flame. The flame rises to a height of from 6ft to Bft, is unattended with smoke, and yields no smell. The inhabitants have a veneration for this fire, and worship it with religious ceremonies.

— Geneial Sumpt, the new Governor of the Invaiides, wears artificial arms which, owing to their perfect mechanism, admit of his making a series of natural - looking gestures. Both his hands' are gloved. The general distinguished himself in Africa, in the Crimea, in Italy, and in the war of 1870. In consequence of his terrible wounds at Sedan his arms had to be amputated.

— The question has often been raised what proportion of balls exchanged by hostile armies ,will hit their mark and kill. Difficult as it is to solve it correctly, some approximation may be arrived at from the number of balls— estimated at 20,000,000— which were fired by the Germans in the war of 1870-71. The French army lost, in dead and wounded, about 140,000 men. According to this only one ball out of 143 fired hit its man, and assuming that on an average one man out of seven hit was actually killed, it would seem that only one rifle ball in 858 proved fatal.

— The Russian peasantry appear to be sunk in ignorance and superstition. During the recent eclipse of the sun three famous Russian savants descended in a balloon at a village iv the neighbourhood of Moscow, whereupon the peasants rushed out of their houses, shouting — " Let us shoot these evil beasts that have darkened the sun." The savants were lucky to escape with their lives, but the balloon was destroyed, being regarded as an instrument of the devil. This eclipse threw the peasantry into paroxysms of terror and apprehension wherever it was visible.