MULTUM IN PAKVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2004, 21 July 1892, Page 36

MULTUM IN PAKVO.

— In five years the number of electric lamps working in the metropolitan area of London has increased from 6000 to 300,000. — The Salvation Army 25 years ago consisted of only two people — a Methodist preacher, ostracised by his own communion on account of his unconventional ways, and his wife. To-day it stands before _the world a fully equipped organisation with more than 500,000 adherents, 9000 officers, 2900 barracks, where services are held daily, and an annual revenue of L 750.000. — As far as we that write can ]udge, we Btaud just now between two absolutely opposite tides — a distinct revival of Roman Catholicism on the once hand and a steady spread of Rationalism on the other. To what do these things tend ? — Spectator. — Some of the fruits of the great revival which occurred in the Congo Mission of the American Baptist Missionary Union a few years ago, are evident in the fact that 30,000 carriers are taken from that very region for transport work into the interior. The influence of these men will probably be marked in the opening up of the couutry. — Cyclones originate in tho tropics, and are chiefly found in five localities: The West Indies, Bengal Bay and the Chinese coast, north of the equator, and in the South Indian Ocean off Madagascar and the South Pacific, near Samoa. — Parchment used for covering drums, banjoes, &c, is made from the skins of asses, calves, or wolves, those of wolves being considered the best. — Not more than two in every hundred of the population of Belgium have votes. — The first English Parliament was opened 627 years ago. — The Roman camp at Ardoch, about seven miles from Dunblane, is believed to be the most perfect of its kind in Britain. — In the presence Of her parents or parents-in-law a Chinese woman may not sneeze or cough, neither stretch, yawn, nor 101 l about when tired, nor may she presume to stare at them. She should wear a happy face, and a mild, pleasant deportment in serviug them, in order to sooth them. — Incitatus, the famous horse of the Roman Emperor Caligula, was actually consecrated as a priest, had a manger of pure ivory, and was never given a drink from anything but a gold pail. — Paris is now the best-lighted city in the world, and a model for all cities that are bent on introducing electric lighting on a grand scale. — In Germany 5,500,000 women earn their living by industrial pursuits ; in England 4,000,000, in France 3,750,000, in AustriaHungary about the same, and in America, including all occupations, over 2,700,000. — A watchmaker in Nuremburg, Bavaria, has invented a device which displays on the face of a clock, one hour before it is -about to run down, the warning word " Wind." —It is estimated that at the next Presidential election in the United States more than 11,500,000 men will have the right to vote. — There are 4200 men hard at work on the 14 buildings which are to be erected on tho World's Fair grounds at Chicago. — Weaving was practised in China more than 1000 years before it was known elsewhere. — In 12 years the city of Paris has expended over L 40.000 on statues, and over L 16.000 on ornamental fountains. — Naturalists say that a single swallow will devour 6000 flies in a day. — The Jains of India frequently undergo fasts of 40 days, partaking during that time only of warm water. — It is said that the way carrier pigeons are protected in Germany from the attacks of birds of prey is by fastening a number of light reeds to their tail feathers. The air passing through the reeds as the birds fly produces a shrill whistle which effectually scares away all winged foes. — A gentleman who lately visited a lunatic asylum near Sydney reports that among the inmates he found a near relation of a British peer, the brother-in-law of a baronet, a son of a dean of the Church of England, a Church of England clergyman acting as a warder, two captains and one colonel of the British army, the brother of a popular English novelist, and a member of tho famous Light Brigade of Balaclava. _ — The Czar of Russia knows how to brace up his military officers to their duty. A merchant of Kharkov was murdered by soldiers, and it was shown that had the officers of a regiment stationed in the town maintained proper discipline the murder might have been prevented. As a punishment for this they have been ordered to pay a yearly pension of 5000 roubles to- the widow of the murdered man. — Notwithstanding tariffs the United States are, next to India, Great Britain's largest customers. Exports of British and Irish merchandise to their six largest markets last year were as follows :—: — £ £ Inlia ... 34.000,000 South America 24,200.000 U. States 27,600,000 Germany _. 18,800,000 Australia 25,500,000 France *?.. 16,400,000 — A knowledge of the_ physiology of the human larynx has made it possible to supply artificial voices to persons who have been deprived of the ones Nature gave them, and certain cases exist where the cavity has been opened, and a larynx made of a suitable material with rubber membranes has been inserted and become " practically useful in speech. — In Switzerland, girls of 14 are employed as porters, carrying the baggage of travellers up and down the steep mountain paths. The limit to the burden often put upon them is their inability to stand up under anything more. But the burden increases with the age and strength of the burden bearers, till by the time the girls have come to womanhood there is no sort of menial toil in which they do not bear a hand, and quite commonly the chief hand. — A royal decree in Germany requires that when the health of the Emperor is proposed at any public gathering, any one who keeps his seat is guilty of treason, and is to be punished. Prominent lawyers declare that refusal to drink the Emperor's health is not treasonable, and it is said that the legality of the decree is to be tested in the highest courts. — It is extremely difficult to esteem others as better than ourselves, but we may safely suppose that they are at least as good ; as sorry when they are in fault, as anxious to be good, to think rightly, to do their best; that each is as sensitive to sympathy or blame, as full of kindly sociable instincts, as you and I personally know ourselves to be. We are too much in tho habit of judging ourselves by our intention'?, and our neighbours by their actions. — Leisure Hour. — The late Professor Couch Adams, one of the discoverers of the planet Neptune, goodnaturedly remarked to his old housekeeper at the time of his great achievement- "Janet, with the next planet I discover, I will give you

a guinea." Years afterwards the astronomer said to a friend, in response to an inquiry, "The only result of rcy rash promise is that now I never can go out at night but she suspects me of discovering planets on the sly." — Esjirit is essentially a French quality. It is impossible even to translate it into English. It is not exactly wit, it is not sentiment, it is not intellect ; and yefc it partakes of all threo. A witty woman without sentiment would hardly acquire the name. Esprit includes insight and sympathy, and wit pure and simple need not have either — below the merest surface of existence. — Spectator. — In Denmark, by one of the oldest laws on the statute book, a landlord is forbidden to accept a peasant as a yearly tenant, or even to grant to him a. farm on a lease for a fixed number of years. If he accepts him as a tenant at all, it must be for life. No matter how obnoxious the man may prove himself, the landlord has no means of getting rid of him so long as he pays his rent ; and, even when ho does not, the process of eviction is so costly and so unpopular that a landowner hesitates before having recourse to it. — Each year the enormous sum of 44,000,000fr is set apart by the French Government for the maintenance of the priesthood. The State also places at the service of the clergy free of cost, 29,314 churches, and 31,965 presbyteries, the annual rental value of which is estimated at 245,000,000fr. It also gives the prelates free quarters in episcopal palaces, representing a rental of 15,000,000fr. Counting everything, the Church costs the French Government about 304,000,000fr, or L 12,500,000 a jear. — Pagan and Christian alike present man, the image of his Maker, as exercising his highest function when he rises superior to fate. Thus Job rises, and thus Prometheus, (Edipus, Brutus, Hamlet, Wallenstein, Faust, Van Artevelde, and Gregory VII ; and likewise their fine heroic countertypes, Elecfcra, Alcestis, Antigone, Cordelia, Desdemona, Thekla, Jeannie d'Arc, Dona Sol, and all [the feminine martyrs of the grand drama. — W. C. Stedman. — At the age of 18 the German lad becomes a soldier — usually for three years. Throughout the fall and winter months of his first year he is mainly confined to exercises calculated to make him pliable, but as soon as the snow is off the ground in the following spring he commences a course of athletic training as rigorous and at the same time as carefully superintended as any undergone for a boat race or a sparring contest by our champions in the art of musclemanufacture. — Speaker. <