MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, 14 December 1893, Page 38

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— East Lothian is the most celebrated farming district in Great Britain. — Vignette means properly a likenesß having a border of vine leaves round it. — At a meeting of the peculiar secb who call themselves Faith Healers, held at Sunderland, it was announced that the Holy Ghost was presiding, and accordingly no visible chairman had charge of the proceedings. Over 120 persons teslided to having been cued of various diseases by the laying on of hands. — The first English cookery book was printed in 1498. — Tbe Engluh Channel at its smallest breadth is 20^ miles across. — One-halt the population of Mexico are fullblooded Indians. — The Puritans, for good or for evil, have left an indelible mark ou the English character to the present hour. As Matthew Arnold put ifc, in his usual happy way, the English middle class "entered the prison of Puritanism and had the key turned upon its spirit there for 200 years." — Even those who are not Sybarites in taste will sympathise with the schoolboy who, according to the Spectator, writing home to complain of tte fchcol fare, said, "There are black beadles in the kitchen, and sometimes they cook them in the dinner, which can't be holesome when you are not strong." — Ichasbeencompuled that about 36,000,000 babies are born into the world eaoh year. — Neither the Hindu Kush nor the Suliman Mountains have ever prevented large armies fr,om invading India. Both exhibit a respectable number of passes adapted to military requirements, which cannot but still further increase the inherent superiority of the assailant. — Joseph Popowski. — Only 43 men per 1000 in the British Army have a chest measurement of from 39in to 40in, and 491 per 1000 is the proportion of men under sft 7in in height. So saya the " Annual Return " for the year 1892. But the number of men in the ranks has increased duriDg thelasi 18 years by same 31,000. — Taken all round, and excepting the Irish members and the Labour members, the House of Commons is an assembly for the most parb of comparatively wealthy and distinctly elderly persons. It is surprising, indeed, to mark the vast preponderance of grey beards and bald heads which it discloses. — World. — It; ia a facb of cuiious interest that 24 of the 6100 murderers arrested in the United States in 1890 were blind men. — " You sea hf re," e aid Heine to a comps nioD, as they were gazing at the Cathedral of Ainieng, "the difference between opinions and convictions. Opinions canr.ob build such cathedrals ; convictions can." — Saturday Review. — Ib havirg come to the knowledge of Pope Pius IX Jfcr at a certain landed proprietor had, to the exclusion of his family, bequeathed his fortune to the priest who should happen to say mass ab a certain church ou a certain day, the Pope went to the church on the day stated in the will, and performed the sacred rite himself, aud then assigned the fortune bequeathed to him to the natural heirs. _ , — The free consumption of watercress is said to be an effective cure for the cigarette habib. 'Lettuce has been used as a substitute, and ia some cases has been fully as efficient. — There are just 40 inhabitants in the little French hamlet of Aumone, and 24 of them are over 80 years of age. — The death rate among the intemperate on beer is about 46 per 1000 ; while that of intemperate on spirits reaches the high average of 60 per 1000. — Smallpox has been known for at least 2000 years, and is one of the most dreadful scourges to which our 'ancestors were exposed. It is so constantly present in India and the Soudan that those parts of the world are generally regarded as the home of the disease. — A collier states, according bo a Home paper, thab a curious effect of the long strike is that after their first day's work the men's joints and limbs are so stiff and sore that the pain resembles that of acute rheumatics. By the third •day, however, it wears off. — The largest waves are seen off Cape Horn, between latitude 55deg south and longitude 105deg west, rising to 46ft in height, and 765 ft long from crest to crest. — The first game at cricket, then known as club ball, was played in 1300. — Ben Nevis observatory is 4407f b above the level of the sea. — As an instance of the popularity of thirdclass compartments in EDgland, it is stated that the other day, on the Highland railway, two earls, a countess, two Cabinet Minisbers, and an admiral, with bheir respective families, were third-class passengers in one train. — Siam and its dependencies have an area of 300,000 squara miles, or little more than twice the size of Great Britain and Ireland. The total population of Siam proper and its tributary States i 3 about 12,000,000. — A tiny elephant, three years old, 36in high,3ft long, and weighing 1681b, is on exhibibion in Berlin. The dwarf phenomenon is from Sumatra. ' Its normal kin weigh, at the same age, from 3 tons to 3£ tons. — Most of ths greab struggles of the world have been fought oub onca and for all. The Roman Empire cannot fall agaiu; there can be no second Reformation or French Revolution. — Macmillan's Magazine. — The origin of the title given to Worcester — i.e., " The Faithful City " — lies in the historical facb that it was the headquarters of the Royalist*, and proved staunch aud faithful to Charles I. — It takes about three seconds for a message to go from one end of tho Atlantic cable to the other. —In speaking of "foreign sundries" as impoits the English Consul at Chungking ob3erves that " pins seem to be unknown." and the remark applies to the whole of Chiua. Neither pins nor walking sticks are desired by ihe Chioeso. — The R_v. Alfred Mace, an English evangelist who went to the United States four year 3 ago, is the son of Jem Mace, a once famous pugilist. Ho ii nob unlike his father in personal appearance. — It is believed that whales often attain tbe age of 400 years. The number of years these huge creature 3 have lived is ascertained by •counting the layers of lamina; forming the horny substance known as "whalebone." These lamina? increase yearly, just as the "growths" do on a tree. — Since 1840 the world's production of meat has increased 57 per cent. , that of grain 420 per cent. — London has 40 restaurants in which only -vegetable food is served. — The Russian soldier is more heavily burdened than any obher. A foofc soldior in the army of the Czir carries ovcGS'b. The weights borne by tho fool soldiers of tae other principal European nations *re as follows : — French, £21b ; British, 621b; Germari, 611b; S.vise, ■59!b ; Italian, 531b ; Austrian, 471b. — Window glasa was first used in modera times in 1557. Now tie annual consumpti m of plate glass alone exceeds 6,000,003 squaro feet ia England,

— A " wild hair " is the most annoying freak of nature a man can be afflicted with. It grows in from the eyelid instead of out, and constantly brushing against the eyeball, sometimes causes an irritation that results in loss of sight. To pull it out gives only temporary relief, since in a few weeks it comps back, as well grown and strong as ever. The only way to kill it is to destroy the sac from which it springs. — The island of Lewis and Harris has not oaly two names, but is in two countries, Lewis (the larger portion) being in Ross-shire and Harris in Inverness-shire. — Several thousands of hairpins in many styles have been recovered from Pompeii. — An average of sft of water is estimated to fall annually over bhe whole earbh. — Ib i 3 probably nob generally known that in the State of Wyoming women have had the franchise for over 20 years, that there is less drunkenness and ci'ime there than in any other State in the Union, and that there are very few illiterate voters. — Nabure has a strange way of hiding her gifts. Many of the most precious have lain unheeded for hundreds of years- in barren plains, on inaccessible mountains, Or beneath the wave, while others are thrown ab the feet of savages who know no use for them. — Cornhill. — The inhabitants of the Malmysha district in the Government of Viataka, iv Russia, are still hopeless pagans, and quite recenbly offered up a human sacrifice to their gods. They are the only people remaining in any part of Europe whose religion is thejpaganism of their forefather?. — The game of quoits is said to have originated with the ancient Greeks. — The number of foreign residents in Spain is small, numbering only about 25,000. The emigrabion from Spain has been in some yeara as high as "125,000. Four-fifbhs of the emigrants settle in Spanish America, and the remainder in the Spanish African possessions. —As I grow older, I am more and more ready to take the good there is in men and authors without concerning myself aboub the bad.— Walt Whitman. — The word "joss" used by all Chinese in the colonies and America for " God," is not a Chinese word at all, but a corruption of the Spanish missionaries' term — " Dios." — The motto of the burgh of Inverary is ••Always to bhee may a herring hang." j — During the war with France at the end of last and beginning of bhis century the island of Skye supplied the Britioh army with 71 generals, lieutenant-generals, colonels, and lieutenantcolonels ; 600 other commissioned officers, 170 ! pipers, and 10,000 foot soldiers. j — The filthy water of the River Nethe is purified for use in Antwerp by being passed through revolving cylinders which conbain small pieces of iron, aud ib has been ascertained that 151b of • metallic iron will purify 1.000,000 gal of water. It is stated that germs, bacteria, and other objectionable matters are complebely- removed from the water thus treated. — Sir Walter Scott was a striking example of bhe Scotch character at its best— a mixture of shrewdness and nobility. In the end of the day it was shown that the nobility was more than the shrewdness. 'One or other of these characteristics he has pub inbo nearly all his characters. — British Weekly. — They have a queer method of judicial procedure in parts of the kingdom of Siam. In the absence of trustworthy witnesses, the learned judge orders the two contestants to dive in deep water. He who is able to remain below the surface the longer time is the winner of the suit ! If he remains down altogether, he is conBidered to be so superlatively good that he has betaken himself to heaven. — The debt which civilisation and liberby owe bo the Dutch is greater than that which is due to any other race — size at discretion. There is scarcely a department of science or learning in which Holland has nob led the way, and England, beyond all obher nations, has reaped what this sturdy, gallant race of thinkers and workers has sown. — Speaker, — Our revered ancestors were neither tender to animals nor to men. As they flogged pigs to make them tender, they flogged men in the army and navy and in the*-plantations, while in prison they flogged both men and women unmercifully. Hagarth's picburee, realisbic and terrible, show all this with dreadful distinctness. Kate Hackabout and Tom Idle pursue their task urged by the cane of the overseer, as the galley slave tugged at the oar under the la3h of the garde chiourme. Soldiers' drill was conducted by rule of cane. Soldiers were "picketed" — that is, suspended in the air by one hand, with a sharp spike for the foot to rest upon. — World.