MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2087, 22 February 1894, Page 38

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— " Usury in Italy," says a British Consul, "is now extended to such a degree, and is so perfidiously exercised, that a sum of about £120,000 is employed in small loans at rates of intf n-sb paying between 40 per cent, and 1200 per cent, per annual. — Two conductors on Denver and Rio Grande trains happened recently to put their heads out of windows on the respective trains at the same time, and their heads struck together. Both were knocked senseless. — The Russian eoldier is more heavily burdened tban auy other. A foot soldier in the army of the Czar carries over 681b. — The most extraordinary derelict ship of which there is record is the barque Marie Celeste, which was found in the middle of the Atlantic, deserted, with every sail set, dinnor half cooked in the galley, and nob a soul on board, though she had every appearance of having been occupied immediately before. The weather was fair, and there was a gentle breeze. She was towed into port, but no explanation of the my&tery surrounding the vessel has ever offered itself. Paris hai at the present time about 130 females as medical students. Hope is a feeling that causes you to expect something that you know won't happen. A single sponge has been found on the coast of Florida with a circumference of sft 6in. About 40,000 tramps, it is estimated, are travelling over Germany all the year round. This army consists mostly of mechanics, temporarily unemployed, who are looking for work •— Water liiies are used for food in India, China, aud Japan. A Roumanian lady is at her own expense constructing a railway from one of her estates to the nearest town. — It is now announced that the India Office and the War Office bave been iuformed that the Indian military authoriU- s have taken steps which will ensble India to supply her troops with ammunition of her own manufacture. The difficulty with regard to makiug smokeless powder — namely, the heat of the country — has been overcome. — Jewish soldiering in England is far from being the mushroom phenomenon some people seem to imagine it. As far back as the Protectorate -we find a Spanish Jew named Caceres laying before Cromwell a plan for the conquest of Chili, and proposing that he should command the expedition. — Germany and Austria have about 150 cookery schools. A four-years' course is necessary ero a diploma is granted. Most of tbe hotel chtfs have diploma? from those schools. — Cremation is becoming increasingly popular in Paris, and the crematorium erected ab the cemetery of Pcro la Chaise has already been found to be too Additions are being made, and a third furnace, a large hall, and a columbarium will soon be ready for uso. The latter somewhat resembles the Campo Santo of Genoa, and will contain 10,000 receptacles for ashes. These niches are closed with slabs of marble, on which inscriptions may be cut. — Widows seldom re-marry in China, and widowhood is esteemed as a condition of the highest respectibility. When a widow attains her fiftieth year tho Government supplies her with a tablet on which her virtues are emblazoned. This is displayed over the door of her house. — Although the true wild cat is still to bs found in some parts of Scotland, it has already become very rare. The numerous cats that are so well known to every gamekeeper in England are all either domestic ones that have taken to a wild life, or their descendants. The chief obvious distinction between them is to be seen in tho tail, which in the real wild cat is more abruptly rounded off. — Million 1 } of trees have been felled to the ground in Scotland by the recent great storm which swept over tho United Kingdom. The Duke of Sutherland lost about 500,000 trees of various kinds. — There are over 400 deaf and dumb children on the roll of the London School Board. In these cases special instruction is giveu by a staff of male and female assistants. — California carries on a large business in eea shells, which are gathered on its coast and shipped to Europe. One firm has a contract to ship 40 tons of shells every 60 days. They are •worth from £140 to £200 a ton. They are used in all kinds of decorative industries, returning to the United States, from France, vastly increased in price when transformed into pearl buttons, brooches, shawl clasps, knife handles, or turned to account for various descriptions of inlaid work. — The whole amount of gold actually in circulation is estimated to be £110,000,000 sterling, or about 865 tons. — Venice, -where oysters were years ago cheap and plentiful, has been compelled to offer a reward for the conviction ef persons found dredging out of season. The oyster merchant of Venice has almost disappeared. — At Gagoya, in China, a merchant, who in his 65th year, has just divorced his 26th wife, and is about to marry his 27th. He had resolved when he was young to marry 30 wives, and is delighted that ho has now only three more to marry to keep his vow. — The rice crop of Japm is 5,000,000 tons. — The little toe is disappearing from the human foot. At a recent meeting of the French Academy of Science ib was demonstrated that in the last three ceuturies the average size of that toe has decreased so much that instead of three joints ib has most frequently only two, aud that, in addition, the nerves and muscles controlling it are slowly becoming useless. — Rapid-firing fluid guns, repeaters such as the mitrailleuse, were firsb used with marked success in the France-Prussian War. Im : meuse advances have been made iv perfecting the weapons 6inca that time, aud now we have a new Gatling gun which can fire 3120 shots a minute, and, worked by a small electric motor, 5000 shots. — Liverpool hotel is fitted up with a penuy-in-the-slot gas fires. This system is applied to the gas supply, so that a fire in the grate can be turned on when needed. — In Ashanteo parricides are tied hand and foot to stakes driven in tho ground near a large ant hill. Tbe ants are then irritated by sticks thrust into the entrance of their dwellings, a guard is set at a respectful distanca to prevent rescue, and thi prisoner is left to be eaten alive. In 48 hours nothing is left of the criminal but a neatly-cleaned skeleton. — Tho rliamoJid, in a sufficient heat, will burn like charcoal. — There are about 4iy ds of sewing on a lady's kid glovp. - — A Frenchman of Rome literary distinction, after studying Euglibh for a few months, wrote to an American friend : " In small timo I can learn so many English as I think I will come at the America and go on to the scaffold to lecture." — Eugene Baldwin, an amateur electrician of Montreal, has devised a wind wheel which, in connection with a dynamo and storage batteries, furnishes all the lights he needs in his bouse.

— Turkish women eat rose leaves with butter to secure plumpness. — A French vegetarian society, like ancient Gaul, has become divided into three parts. One wing calls itself cerealite, to indicate that it believes only in eating cereals ; another will be known as fruitarian, because it thinks fruib the only proper food ; and another has been dubbed tuberile, because it believes in eating roots. Each wing thinks that the happiness and stability of tho human race depend on the adoption of its views. — There are no fewer than five Irish peers who take their titles from places that are not to be found in tho map of Ireland. Theae are the Duke of Abercorn, the Earl of Sheffield, the Birl of Darnley, Viscount Bangor, and Viscount Hawardeu. — Duriug the most violent gales the sea is disturbed to a depth of 500 ft. — The first Jew who held a commission in tho British army was the gifted but erratic Joshua Montcliore, uncle, of the late Sir Moses Montefiore. He was by turns notary, author, explorer, soldier, and journalist. In 1803 George 111 offered him a kuighthood t but he declined it. He was in charge of the military arrangements connected with Philip Beaver's unfortunate expedition to Bulawa on tho West Coast of Africa, and in 1809, as au officer in tho York Light Infantry, participated in the taking of Martinique and Goudaloupe. On retiring from the Fervico he settled in America, where he practised as a lawyer, and edited a weekly Loyalist organ. The Art of Killing In tnc Good Old Times. Tho Rabbis say Cain killed Abel with a club. Projecting engines were first inveuted by the Greeks The first armour used was of skins and padded hides. The military flail came into nse in the tenth century. The crossbow came into use in the twelfth century. Spears are found in the earliest hieroglyphics of Egypt. Mixed chain and plate armour was used from 1300 to I*lo. Damascus blades were famous all over the world n.c. 500. Greek infantrymen were always trained in stone-thro winpr. The quarrels thrown by crossbows often weighed 61b. Military hammers were first commonly used in the tenth century. The Crusaders stormed Jerusalem with the aid of wooden towers. In the fourteenth century axes were fixed on the shafts of lances. Pic' ures of helmets appear on the Egyptian monuments v c 300. The battles of Crecy, Toilers, and Agincourt were won by the archers. The bow appears among tho earliest sculptures of Egypt, n c. 4000. The morning star, or spiked club, came into use in tho eleventh century. Ancient battering rams were manned by 100 or 150 men, generally captives. The double-handed swords of mediaeval times often weighed 30lb. PliDy ascribes the invention of the sling to the Phoenicians, about v.c 2000. The battle of Hastings was won by the superior skill of the Norman archers. The crossbow was introduced in the ninth century, and was made of the best steel. Military hooks were used in the siege of Tyre, 713 n.c, by Nebuchadnezzar. The Greek and Roman ships of largest size had two towers filled with archers and catapults. The Roman galleys wore provided with a sharp iron prow for running down an adversary. The loDg bow was brought into Western Europe in the eighth century. The bows were 6ft long, arrows 3ft. The Amazon Indians use a blowpipe, with which they throw an arrow 200 ft with wonderful precision. The Turks, in tho final 6iege of Constantinople, employed catapults and balisters side by side with cannon. Ab the Battle of Bannockburu, 1314, Robert Bruce clove an Englishman to the waist with a battle axe. In the Greek phalanx the soldiers stood as close as possible to each other, their shields overlapping. Some of the wooden towers erected to attack a besieged city were 10 storeys high — about 100 Ft. The armour of the fourteenth century was so heavy that a fallen knight could not rise without assistance. Pole-axes were first employed in the ninth century ; the short, heavy-headed babtleaxo from very early times. Stone arrow points and hatchets have been found in every country in the world. The catapult was invented in Syracuse, 406 b c, in the reign of Dionysius the Elder. Egyptian bronze swords made b c. 3200 were from 2fb to 3ft long with double edges. Military maces — clubs with iron heads — came into Western Europe in the seventh century. The ancient Mexicans used wooden swords in war that they might not kill their enemies. Richard I built movable towers of three storeys high and capable of holding 500 men. The battering-ram was a beam suspended in the middle drawn back and thrown forward. The Mexican flint knives were made so sharp that they could bs used for trinimirg hair. The mac?, once used by tbe cavalry of all nations, was a spiked club hung al tho saddlebow. The largest catapults threw beams 6ft long, weighing 601b, over a quarter of a mile. Representations of slings and stingers appear in Assyrian and Egyptian monuments and paintings at least 2500 b c. In the twelfth century a hook was attached to the footman's ppoar, to enable him to drag a knight from tho saddle. At the siege of Jerusalem the Romans had a catapult that threw a stone weighing 1701b a distance of 500 yds. The army of Sb. Louis in Egypt w-"v? p^nicstriokeu when Greek fire was thrown among the men from the Saracen catapults. The lasso is an invention of the South American Indians, and was in use when the country was discovered by the Spaniards. Metal balls, filled with burning oil aud combustibles, were used by the Romans, and afberwards by both Turks and Greeks. The battleaxe was originally a Celtic weapon. The ancient Irish carried axes, as the meu of other nations carried swords. The misoricorde was a small dagger with thin blade made to reach the vicals of au antagonist between the joints of th« armour. B'jillug oil, hob water, melted pitch, and sulphur were always in readiness during a mediieval j^iege, to repel storming parlies. Duricg tho sieges ia the twelfth and two followiug centuries flaming arrows were discharged from crossbotvs into the beleaguered town. Gideon defeated the Midianites v.c. 1245 through fright at tbe sound of crashing earthenware and the flash of lamps during a night attack. — Detroit Free Press.