MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 1898, 19 June 1890, Page 41

MULTUM IN PARVO

— Stout officers are unknown in the United States army. No man weighing over 1601b •can join a cavalry regiment, while officers in the general service are liable to be retired for obesity.

— A law for the insurance of ailing woikingmen, after the plan of Bismarck, was recently submitted to the people of Basel at a special election. Under its provisions all men with less than £80 annual income were tto be regarded as bound to its obligations and benefits. The proposed law was rejected by a vote of 5015 against 229. — It is said that successful experiments Tiave been made in welding steel to brass by the electric-welding 'process, and in such a manner that the steel will split longitudinally without affecting the welding. The aim is t© weld brass boiler flues to Bteel safe-ends, which is of much importance, as steel will stand a higher degree of heat than brass. — Mr David JChristie 'Murray in a recent lecture in Auckland said : — He himself was born in the heart lof Jmid-England, in that Black Country where the trees weep ink, and the canals smell foul and are smeared over with oils, where there is a continual shuddering clank in the air, where machines take in iron and belch out nails, take in wire and spit out pins on cards, where the sky is lurid all night and all day with signs of toil, and where it is labour, labour, labour, ever and always.

— The recent persecution of the Jews in Vienna became so dangerous to all shopkeepers that the city recently appeared covered with such signs as " I am a Christian tradesman," "Christian Brandy Shop," "Christian Cheesemonger," "Christian Old Clothes Shop."

— A judge of much experience says :" I have never had a breach of promise case before me in which the mother of the girl did not know more about it than her daughter. She always suspects the fellow is a rascal, and accordingly gets ready for him."

— Fifty locomotives are being erected on the Clyde for the South Indian Bailway Company, Limited; the whole are to be shipped within the next six months. It is further stated in regard to Indian railways that a proposal is under consideration, by the East Indian Council, to convert all the narrow gauge lines of railway into broad gauge lines at a cost of about £20,000,000. — The Oriel, a new* twin screw steamer built in England for the " Russian Volunteer Fleet," or merchant ships liable to military requirements, is among the fastest ships afloat. She is 425 ft long by 48ft beam, and with 9000 h.p. and natural draught she shows a speed of 191, and 2025 knots with forced draught.

— Steam tramways are very common in English cities. They are speedy, emit neither smoke nor steam, run noiselessly, and altogether give general satisfaction. The engine and boiler is of an ordinary type and is boxed in. The exhaust steam is condensed by being passed through about 300 copper tubes on the roof of the engine.

— No man in his senses denies the lineal transmission of good and evil tendencies from parent to child, or even the contagion of good and evil between mere companions and friends, which has so astounding an effect as well on the regeneration as on the corruption of social groups. — Spectator. — There are nearly 6,000,000 acres of waste land in Great Britain which are quite capable of successful cultivation.

— An order has been published by the German Emperor stating that in future tbe officers' corps will not be completed solely from those who are of noble birth, but also from those who are noble in character.

— Sir Henry James has taken the widows under his protection. He has introduced a bill which if passed will prevent a good deal of suffering. Sir Henry proposes that if a man dies intestate, and his estate does not exceed £500, the widow shall take the whole, and if it exceeds £500 she shall take £500 for her portion before any distribution is made.

— It is calculated that during the working years of life— that is to say, between the ages of 15 and 65— the average time during which a man is incapacitated from work through illness is a fraction over nine days in the course of every year, while with women the loss is a trifle greater. This means that through illness" the men of Great Britain lose 9,692,505 weeks' work per annum, the women 10,592,761 weeks work.

— A usurer at Aschersleben, Germany, has been sentenced to six months' imprisonment, 2000 marks fine, and five years' police surveillance for charging an army officer 180 per cent, interest on money loaned.

— A number of London medical men have united to form a hypnotic society, thepurpose of which will be to prevent by law the public exhibition of mesmerism and hypnotism. Another object will be to study privately and in a scientific manner the phenomena of those morbid states.

— The rank and file of the Royalist party in France care very littJe about the principle of monarchy. They are Eoyalists because they think that a good government is only possible under a monarchy. — Spectator.

—On the last day of February 78 strikes in different departments of labour were going on in Great Britain.

— Just 100 years have elapsed since the inauguration in Europe of the high silk hat, and the centennial anniversary thereof has been celebrated within the month by the hatters of the Old World.

— An average of 1000 pigs are eaten in London daily.

— The new- process rawhide, which is being introduced for gears so satisfactorily, is also being made into chisel handles and mallets. In this shape it finds admirable adaptation, being handsome, receiving a fine polish, light, elastic, and may be turned or moulded into any shape.

— The Black Prince was just 14 years of age when he won his golden spurs at the battle of Crecy.

—Last year the Corporation of Birmingham was able to announce a net surplus of no less than £70,336 on account of the gas supply of tbe city, which is in its own hands ; and not only has the corporation made all this profit— it has also reduced the price of gas in Birmingham from 3s Gd to 2s 7d per 1000 cubic feet.

—One hundred and ten thousand tons of cabbages are used yearly in London. -Sheet iron is rolled bo thin at the Pittsburg mills that 12,000 sheets are required to make a single inch in thickness. Light shines as readily through one of these sheets as it does through ordinary tissue paper. — The drain on the wealth of China by the purchase of foreign opium amounts to 20,000,000 taels annually.

— Drunkenness is not regarded as a punishable offence in Russia, and the inhabitants drink to a fearful extent, especially at church festivals. Russia is said to be more demoralised by drink than any other country.

— American inventions have cheapened and facilitated canal construction, both as to excavation and locks, to such an extent that the Nicaragua Canal will be completed in half the time and at half the cost that the same work would have demanded 50 years ago. — Inventive Age.

— The astonishment expressed by some English newspapers that the Prince of Wales should speak German fluently is really too idiotic. In the royal nursery German was almost exclusively talked until Albert Edward was 12 years old. That he should speak French so pertectly as he does is a most extraordinary fact.

— The finest collection of pipes in the world is to be found in the English residence of Captain Bragge. He has clay pipes from the sixteenth century, whea Sir Walter Raleigh introduced the weed in Europe, and curious and antique specimens of smoking paraphernalia from every country in the world.

— The value of church property in New York City amounts to not less than £16,000,000.

— The Manhattan (Kan.) Republic exposes a fraud which is practised by sharpers with a double fountain pen and two kinds of ink. An agreement is made out with a writing fluid that fades, and signed by the victim with ink that does not fade. Then an entirely different agreement is substituted, and the dupe finds himself confronted with a promise to pay.

— It is not generally known that the United States possesses nearly one half of the total railway mileage of the world, and when it is considered that four-fifths of the present gigantic system of railways has been constructed since the close of the war, tiiis fact is the more significant.

— In Switzerland a working day must not exceed 11 hours, with one hour's interval, comprised between fche hours of 5 a.m. and 8 p.m. during the months of June, July, and August ; and between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. during the remainder of the year, the time to be regulated by the town clock.

— It is well-ascertained fact that constant association with lunatics will often upset the balance of the sanest and clearest mind. Asylum attendants and nurses generally receive a liberal allowance of holidays as a precaution against this danger; and a wellknown mad doctor assured not long ago that if he did not give himself three months in a year away from his parents, he would before long be as insane as any of them.

— The average number of passengers carried daily by London cabs is 80,000, and the average fare is la 6d. It follows, therefore, that the daily sum expended in cab hire amout to £6000. It baa been estimated that if all the cabs of London were placed in one rank they would stretch in an unbroken line for more than 45 miles.

— There are no hod-carriers in Japan. The mortar is rolled into balls weighing about 61b and thrown to the bricklayers.

— Relic hunters are carrying away piecemeal the Egyptian Sphynx and pyramids so rapidly that an archaeological society in England will endeavour to check the vandalism.

— The Persians have a different name for every day in the month.

— A small but doubtless enlightened body of Japanese enthusiasts are organising a crusade for the rescue of the world from the snare of Christianity. They have got so far as to start a newspaper — The Bijou of Asia.

— An acre of tobacco plants yield about 1400cwt of tobacco.

— There are many things in public life at the present moment which the observer, however little connected with politics, or even, save in the broadest sense, interested in them, cannot but remark with astonishment, alarm, and sometimes horror. It is a tremendous question to ask: — Since when did it become possible that one English gentleman should charge another with a lie ? — Spectator.

— The Hamburg Nachrichten asserts that the Emperor of Germany has purchased the private diaries of the late Emperor Frederick from Frau Krus, widow of the former Major Domo of that sovereign, paying her a large annuity for life.

— Snow clouds are frequently as much as 3000 ft in thickness.

— The paid-up capital of all the railway companies in Britain at the end of 1888 was £864,695,963— their present market value is probably about £1,000,000,000. In 1888 the gross earnings, from passengers and goods, were £35,132,558, or 4 06 per cent.

— Great Britain is the only country in Europe where the doctrines of Mormonism can be promulgated in the public streets. Elsewhere it is a punishai-le offence for an elder to be found "on the stump" at a street corner.

— The most heedless politician knows that so soon as the House of Commons is again swayed by a Radical majority— an event all but certain to arrive within some 30 months — there will be collisions between the Houses, and that these collisions will soon be made by that majority an occasion for striking at the House of Lords itself. — Speaker.

— The latest reported discovery in connection with the cotton seed comes from Germany, where it is said a process has been discovered for extracting sugar from cottonseed meal. The sugar is of a very superior grade, but cannot be sold in competition with the ordinary article. It is said to be inclined to ferment or sour, and hence better for use in preserving fruits. It is said to be 15 times sweeter than cane sugar.

Catarrh, when chronlo, becomes very offensive. It is impossible to dp otherwise healthy and at the same time afflicted with catarrh. This disagreeable dissease can be cured by the use of Ayer's Sarsaparilla.