MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1934, 19 March 1891, Page 37

MULTUM IN PARVO.

v — A large Edward Bellamy appartment-house is to be built in Omaha, Nebraska. It will contain 25 apartments, and the plan of living will be co-operative, all the cooking being done in one kitchen. r —Mr Norman Peatßon is a believer in animal immortality. He gives his reasons in the pages of the Nineteenth Century for January. 'j*~ tf Pig-iron" is a mere play upon the word sow. When iron n melted it runs off into a channel called a sow, the lateral branches of which are called the pigs. Here the iron cools, and is called pig-iron. —In 1803, when Jerome, the youngest brother of the great Napoleon, married Miss Eliza Paterson, the wedding was solemnised by the Bishop of Baltimore, who was then the only Roman Catholic Bishop in the United States. To-day there are 80. — A cynical Italian journalist has been telling his countrymen how to make their fortunes. All they have to do, he says, is to go to America, work as labourers until they have saved £.90 or £100, and then return to Italy, buy a title, and again go to America and marry an heiress. — Crows were anciently employed as lettercarriers, as carrier-pigeons are in modern times. —The houses of London are calculated to be worth £212,000,000. The land upon which they are built is calculated to be worth £418,000,000. Upon the last sum the landlords of London receive about £17,000,000 every year in rent; and sooner or later, under the operation of the leasehold system, the house property of the above enormous value will fall into their hands. — There is a custom in Germany that apprentices, after the expiration of their term of service, shall travel two years before becoming masters — hence journeymen. — The Queen has bought a lock of hair which belonged to Charles the First's head^before he lost ifc._ — " Eau de vie " (brandy) is a French translation of the Latin " aqua vitss " (water of life). This is a curious perversion of the Spanish "aqua de vite " (water or juice of the vine), rendered by the monks into " aqua vitre " instead of "aqua vitis." — Mr Sherman, a wellknown American statistician, states that in the United States 70 people own together £540,000,000, and that half the national wealth is in the hands of, 2500 persons. —The conferring of the freedom of a oity or burgh on an individual means nothing more nowadays than a compliment. Formerly it meant something more substantial, inasmuch sb it enabled the recipient to carry on business within the city or burgh without paying the qualifying fee exacted in old times. — The origin of the expression "Standing Sam" (paying the reckoning) arose from the letters U.S. on the knapsacks of the United States soldiers. The Government of Uncle Sam has to pay or " Stand Sam " for all. — Fogs are more general in autumn, because at that time the ground is still comparatively warm, and the lowest air strata, which are I saturated with water, ascend into a colder atmosphere, with the result that the moisture is condensed. —Good Friday is one of the best and most musical of the forms which the name of this day in Holy Week has assumed. In Bohemia it is called "Great Friday," in Southern Germany •'Black Friday," in Denmark "Long Friday," and in Wales it is " Friday of the Lesson of the Croas " In some places also on the Continent it is called "Still Friday." —A 'square inch of the sun has as much luminous power as 200 ordinary electric lights of eightrcandle power, and in every second of time it gives forth as much heat as would result from the burning of 12,000 millions of millions of tons of the best coal. — The Chinese have no word which will compare with our English ° Amen " ; they say instead four words meaning " The heart wishes exactly so." — The insurance of houses and goods against fire began )n London in 1667 — the year following the Great Fire. — The title " Reverend " was, until the 16th century, addressed to many others besides clergymen, such as to judges and eminent writers; but from that time its use has been strictly confined to the clergy. — Mr Parnell, when a litfclo boy, was playing one day with his sister at a game of " battle " eaoh child having a regiment of little soldiers and a pop-gun to fire at the enemy. One after another the little girl's soldiers went down, whilst his, although repeatedly hit, stood firm, and he was proclaimed the victor. Ultimately it was found that he had glued his men to the floor . — Great Britain used the first postage stamps in 1840. Brazil followed in 1845, and the United States in 1847. —"Shell out" (i.e., out with your shells or money} is probably derived from the fact that in Southern Asia, and many other parts of the world, shells are used instead of coins. — " Bravo I " (" Well done ! " " Excellent I ") is an Italian exclamation of praise, the superlative form of which is •• bravissimo." It is commonly used in England without distinction of gender or number, but the Italians say " bravo " to a male singer or actor, " brava " to a lady, and " bravi " to a company of actors or singers. —A striking feature of the Japanese system is that of heredity. Skill runs in family lines. Not a few of the famous artisans of the present decade are descendants in the ninth, tenth, and even twentieth generation of the founder of the establishment. A carpenter in Fukai can boast of his ancestry of wood-workers through 27 generations; and the temple records show such boasting to be true, though often adoption interrupts the actual blood line. At a papermaker's establishment in Awotabi, in Echizen, the proprietors' ancestors first established the industry a thousand years ago. — The last kings of the Isle of M?in were the Dukes of Atbol, who sold their rights of sovereignty in 1765 to the British Government for £72 000, but they did not give up their manorial rights, &c, till 1825 ; since then only has the Isle ot Man been an actual dependency of the British Crown. The Government paid to the Athole family for their manorial rights, &c . £416,000. — Hari-Kari, or " the happy despatch," was a Japanese mathod of execution. When an official of rank was condemned to death, a sword was sent to him; he took leave of his family, performed certain religions rites, and then plunged the sword into his bowels, drawing it down and across. If a - gentleman had been insulted, he would commit hari-kari on the doorstep of his enemy, who, by the Japanese code of honour, ,was compelled to do the same. Only old-fashioned persons perform the " happy despatch " nowadays in Japan ; it has been shelved, along with many other old customs of that empire. — Janus — from which the month of January is named — was the Roman sun-god. He is rppresented as having two faces — one aged and the other youthful ; the one looking backward and the other forward. His temple in the Forum had two doors opposite each other, which in time of war were open, and in time of peace were shut. The latter happened only thrice in Roman history. !