MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2057, 27 July 1893, Page 38

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The foreßts of the North-west of America, ■ which a few years ago were deemed a source of almost inexhaustible supply, are showing signs of exhaustion. Already there is talk of transporting lumber by rail from Oregon, Washington, and the Southern forests to New York". An aerolite is said to have fallen lately at St. Louis, Missouri, breaking off the left arm of the statue erected in honour of John Brown, the well-known martyr to the cause of the abolition of slavery. — Daring the last four years murders in the United States have almost doubled in number. In 1889 cases of homicide numbered 3567 ; in 1892 they reached 6792. Yet there were only 107 legal executions last year. The result is an increase in the number of lynchings. — In China a traveller wishing for a passport is compelled to have the palm of his hand brushed over with fine oil-paint; he then presses his hand on thin damp paper, which rttiins an impression of the lines. This is used to prevent transference of the passport, as the lines of no two hands are alike. The Medical Record shows that according to rocenb statistics more physicians commit suicide than any other class of people, and that lawyers come next in the catalogue of victims. It is also claimed that suicide inoraases with education and civilisation. — Russia has about 1,000,000 titled personages out of a population of 100,000,000. — Monte Carlo seems to have prospered this year more than ever it has done. The shares are now worth five times their original value, and plans, are being made for increasing operations. There were nine suicides last year on the premises. — A despatch from the Hague says that Queen Wilaelmina is developing symptoms of consumption, and the Queen Regent, who is now in the country with her, and the royal physicians fear the worst. — The latest fad to be indulged in at the seaside this summer is "ponthomancy," or fate by footprints. It has superseded palmistry, and now it will be possible to tell by toe joints and curves whether yon are amiable or not, why you are not happy though married, and all the rest. — Alexander the Great is the only celebrated man of history of whom it may be truthfully said : He was born in Europe, died in Asia, and is buried in Africa. — There has never been a Prime Minister of England since the time of Queen Elizabeth who has worn a beard, with the single exception of Lord Salisbury. — One of the oldest houses in America is generally reputed to be located at Santa F6, N.M. The building was erected before the Spanish Conquest, and it is traditionally reported that Coronado stopped there in 1540. —A good royal story is going rouud society about the Queen's Highland servants being short of snuff when at Florence, when a loyal Indian said, "Let de Scotchies tickle dare noses with enrrie powder." — The Marquis of Londonderry has the smallest pony .in ( the world. It weighs only' 161b, and at its birth it was bat 19£ in high. ' — Many a good book has been written in prison. Socrates, Cervantes, Bunyan, Defoe, Lovelace, Tasso,. Beranger, Raleigh, George Wither, and James Montgomery all continued their literary labours while suffering from a curtailment of liberty. — The Blue Grotto, on the Island of Capri, in the Bay of Naples, is absolutely unrivalled for the vivid splendour of its colours. Owing to the peculiar nature of the refraction of the sunlight on its waters, wall, roof, and 88a are tinged a beautiful ultramarine, which shades into a deep violet in the furthest recesses of the cavern. — ■ Machinery, it is said, produces 90 per cent. of the manufacturing labour of the United States. — Phosphorus is now being made by electricity. The principal manufactory is in England, where it is anticipated fully 1000 tons will he made annually. — Black, pink, and golden-yellow pearls are more valuable than white. — The present tendency in English pronunciation is to throw the accent as near the beginning of the word as possible. In French the reverse. — A Paris sculptor says that the day will come.when women will be ashamed of too small hands. — A violin dated 1734, and said to have been made by Sfciadivarius in his ninetieth year, was sold in London lately for £800. Daring the last 20 years this- violin has changed hands three, times, on the first occasion being bought for £400, and on the second tor £600. — The" Kaiser, it is said, has ordered a perfectly modelled steel fortress from Krupp. This has been erected at Potsdam as a plaything for the Crown Prince and his brothers. This toy, which; iB destined to stimulate the military ardour of the princes, has, it is said, cost no less than 1,000,000 marks. — At' least £144,000,000 worth of British property is always on the sea. — Daring 1892 no fewer than 1513 newlyqualifiedVpraotitioners registered their names in Great Britain against 1345 in the preceding year, and the total number of practitioners in the United Kingdom, which at the beginning of the year 1876 was 22,200, has now risen to 30,590. — An English journalist, Lascelles Carr, who recently visited the city of Washington, writes to his home paper that Washington's natural advantages make it, perhaps, the finest laid-out city on the American sido the Atlantic, or, in fact, in the wide world. Indeed, it is laid out with such skill aa - Baron Hausmann might vainly have attempted to imitate. — Napoleon prohibited the use of the mous- . taohe to all the infantry in his army except the grenadiers of the old guard. -J» — The longest single telegraph wire span in the world is that across the River Bi3tna, between " Bezorah and Sectanagrun, India. Stretched from one mountain to another, the wire ie more than 6000 ft in length. —In the Massachusetts Reformatory for Women good behaviour is rewarded by permitting the well-behaved ones to wear dresses with smaller checks. The bad ones wear very big checks. — In London the omnibus horse is worn out in five years, the tram horse in four, the post office horde in six, and toe brewers' in from six to seven, while the vestry horses last eight years. The post office horse costs £36, the vestry horse £75, and the brewers' at least £90 a-piece. - — Ths dromedary parcel post service in the German territories of south-western Africa has given results better than were expected. The dromedaries are adapted to the climate, are not affected by the prevalent cattle diseases, are not made footsore in stony regions, and do not suffer extreme thirst when deprived of water for a week. They travel, each carrying a weight of 2501b, as fast as an ox team. — The War Cry, the weekly organ of the Salvation Army, is printed in 30 different languages. Mr Spurgeon's semens were published .v 23 different languages every week.

—In Borne there is much talk about an old beggar who used to frequent the doors of one of the principal churches,' and who, dying lately, was found to be possessed of £37,000, which he had left by a properly drawn-up will to his three children, who were completely ignorant of their father's wealth. — By a short passage of 148 miles the Languedoo ship canal in France saves a sea voyage of nearly 2000 miles by the Straits of Gibraltar. — It is stated that there are 80,000 barmaids in .England, whose houre average 14 daily for a wage of 10s per week. — There are 577 different editions of the Bible in the publio library of Stuttgart, printed in over 100 different languages. — The oldest prelate of the Church of England is the Bishop of Chichester, aged 91 ; the youngest, the Bishop of St. As»ph, who is but 43 years of age. The ear-rings worn by Italian women indicate the part of Italy the wearers belong to ; the longer the ear-rings the farther south the women come from. In the extreme south most of the ear-rings hang close to the shoulders ; in the far north they are quite short. — A man's full mental power is not reached before the age of 25, and the development of talent is most marked"between the ages of 30 and 45 years. "> „ ... — Professor Garner has written from Africa that he has hypnotised a gorilla. Some curious applications are made to the Lord Mayor of London, who is expected to give advice. One of the latest instances was a letter received from a lady who had lost sight of an uncle ,for 50 years, but he was now believed to be dead. What was asked was where the man died, when he died, and what were the terms of his will. — The route from England to India is strewn with treasure, owing to the many shipping disasters. An industrious statistician reckons that £fully £800,000,000 . worth 6f gold, and jewels lie at the bottom of the sea on that freouented way. — The gardens of the Vatican have been almost entirely turned into vineyards, whico the Pope personally superintends with the greatest interest. Leo XIII has a strong liking for the English language, which he is said to speak perfectly, and which he uses conversa-tionally-in preference to any other when occasion permits. — A horse can draw |on the worst kind of earth road about four times as much as he can carry on his back. Oa a good macadamised road he can pull 10 times as much ; on a plank road, 25 times as much ; and on a street railway, 58 times as much. — The diadem of the Russian Empress Anna contains 2536 large diamonds and a ruby valued at £80,000. — A single mahogany tree in Honduras was recently cut' into boards, which, when sold in the European market, realised over £2000. —In the Medica^ Museum, Washington, there are two skulls cracked like a couple of egg shells that have been knocked together. They formerly belonged to a couple of Virginian negroes, who butted each other to death because a woman couldn't decide which of the two she liked the better. — There are 552,720 telephones in use in the United States, while almost 10,000 people are employed in the telephone exchanges. The total miles of wire is 440,793. — The latest cure for drunkenness is the invention of an Ohio doctor named Tyson. > It is entirely of vegetable origin, and is taken into the stomach in the ordinary way. Dr Tyson claims that by his treatment he has implanted a positive loathing of alcohol in no fewer than 15,000 persons who were formerly heavy and habitual drinkers. — Female fish of all species are considerably more numerous than males, with two single exceptions, the angler and the catfish. — Mrs Philip Newman, of London, is the only woman designer and jeweller in all Eagland. — The other afternoon a remarkable sight was witnessed off Sandgate and Hythe. The whole of the coast between Sandgate and Lydd appeared reflected in the sea not a stone'sthrow from the spectators. After an hour or so the illusion disappeared. At the same time the French coast appeared reflected within 50yds of the English coast. Such a mirage had not been witnessed for over 40 years. N — Tippoo Sahib, the renowned Indian insurgent, in order to gratify his hatred of the British, had at his dinner table a life-sized represantation of a tiger attacking and eating a British officer. The cries of the unfortunate victim and the roaring of the tiger were produced by hidden machinery. h — The burning tree of India is a sorb of nettle, which, being touched, leaves the effect of a bum from hot iron, and the burn lasts for weeks. — During the past century the City of London Corporation has expended, on 28 separate ocoasions, something like £30,000 upon gifts to Royalty. This is exclusive of the grant of £2500 which was voted fora marriage, present to the Duke of York and Princess May. — Canon Farrar says there are now 4000 clergymen of the Church of England without employment. ~h— The greatest steeple climber in England is said to be William Green. He has repaired 50 or more steeples and spires, and is sent for from all parts of the kingdotn. His great achievements have been in repairing the spire of SalisburyJCathedral', 404f thigh ; Louth, Lincolnshire, 350 ft; Granthani, 320 ft; and a steeple in Cambridgeshire, 280 ft. — Negro graves in South America are sometimes curiously garnished with the bottles of medicine used by the departed in their filial illness, and the duration of the malady is easily guessed by the number of bottles. Often these are the only things to mark the mound, and everything about the graveyard bears the marks of the haste characteristic of a superstitious people in all matters concerning the dead. — Roscoe Coukling (according to the San Francißco Bulletin) used to say that the simples!; way for a person to stop the habit of tobacco-chewing was to keep a package of crystallised candy in his pocket, and substitute^ a lump of it for the " weed " whenever a desire arose for the latter. This way, Mr Conkling said, he had broken off tobacco-chewing, but he had never been able to abandon smoking. — A patent automatic stamp-clock has been introduced. In the handle of an ordinary handstamp is fixed a reliable timepiece, which moves geared rubber dials, showing the minute, hour, year, month, and day. One impression accordingly records the exact time of any transaction, in addition to the ordinary business signature. ________^___ Advicb to Mothers I— Are you broken in your rest by a sick child suffering with the pain of cutting teeth? Go at once to a chemist and gets bottle of Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup. It will relieve the poor sufferer immediaely. It is perfectly harmless, and pleasant to the taste ; it produces natural quiet sleep by relieving the child From pain, and the little cherub awakes "as bright as a button." It soothes the child, n, loftenß the gums, allays all pain, elioveg wind, regulate! the bowels, and fi the best known remedy for dysentery and diarrhoea whether srliIng from teething or other catuei. -Mw Win■low's Soothing Syrup Is sold by medicine dealer* everywhere itli lid per bottle.— [Advt.]