UNKNOWN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2111, 9 August 1894, Page 38

UNKNOWN.

Various are the cansps which contribute to t success at tbe bar. It is said than MiMarten, Q.C., owed the beginning of a large and lucr tive practice to the deafness woich, in the latter years of his judicial work, aftiicted Vice-Chancellor Bacon Of all the counsel in the Vice-Chancellor's cou.t, Mr Marten had the clearest and loude-t vo cc.

— A duke, during the Middle Ages, was an independent so'.ereign The fi si rules of Austria were dukes, the title lost it* idea of independence during the reign of Louis XIII of France. — Drs Yon Reuss, and Lorenz of the Supreme Council of Hygiene for Austria, recommend that in future children should be taught to write in ered characters. For in this form of penmanship the scholar faces his work, and is spared the twist of the body and neck which is al*a3S obs-rvable in those who write slantwise and the tendency to spinal indu-ed the eby. It is said that the gold conta net m fho medals, vessels, chains, and other objects preserved in the Vatic -n would make n ore gold coins than tho who c of the pres.nt European circulation.

— The collections in London churches on Hospital Sunday average £40,000. — It is cur ous that Scotland, where, not so long ago, the " kist o' whistles "' was the abhorred of a'l goo-) m n, should now possess ono of th>». largest " lusts "in tho «o-ld. This is the organ wlrch was in V c Albert Palace It Ins been purelnsei for th ■ new Abbey Church at Foro Augustus, Inverness. — Sycophant once inemt an Athenian * Government official who inspected the baggage of travel 1 ers to prevent tho expo tation of figs. The Jains of India are the champion fp.sters or long-distance do-without-food sect of the world. Fasts of from 30 to 40 clays are very common among this curious sect. — The cavalry was the aristocratic arm of the Greek service. All the horsemen owned and provided for their own horses. — Taking five sovereigns to the ounce, the £1,764,000 left by the late Mr W. 11. Smith weighs cxac ly 9 tons 6cwt 3qr 141b Students in Constantinople a r e forbidden to frequent theatres, music hall", aud similar public places. General Booth states that he has now under h ; s comnvmd in Great Britain 10,791 .officers and 200,000 unpaid workers Th' re are 21 law firms in America that are ■conducted jointly by husbands and wives. A representation of the bagpipe was found in tho ruins of Tarsus. The instrument wns in use 2000 years before (he Christian era, and its origin is unknown. — A singular aberration of the sidearms of marin-s on board English ships is reported. It appears tbat then- bayonets have, in many eas e s, become highly magnetised through contact with, or close proximity to, dynamos, and the result is that compasses have become affected by 6entrici passing nenr tbetn when wearing these sidearms. — Tre judicial statistics of Great Britain prove the existence of over 70,000 known professional thieves. — Diph'heria <s more fatal in summer than in winter. — The military salute required in almost all civil : sei countries is the same. Perhaps in Germany, however, the regulations are somewhat more stringent than elsewhere. A soldier on meeting the Emperor has to stand still, when he is 20 paces di-tant, face about, and remain with his hand raised until he bas passed. — The oldest known pottery is that of Egypt ; some of it dates from nearly 4000 j eu-s J) c. — The Eiffel Tower lms near its skyl ; ght a meteorological office, in which observations of the weather are ta 1 * en every two hours When a certain lady of fashion intends to take a drive *he inquires through the telephone what the weather will be for the next few hours. Her Co M,tume is regu'ated accordingly. This exab^ole is being followed. * On the body of a notorious brigand recently killed J' 1 Turkey were found £4000 and a notebook w.^h fihowed that he had killed 192 men. „ , — The annual v ':titova from America to >Gieat Britain have been estima'cd a|- 100.000 — The other day a .'et.'e* «as iv.cciv..d at the Xiverpool Central Post Office arhliesscd, ' Al •KeT-erend ssimo Signor Parrocco della Miles* «di OReros, Griuscoltrid, Liverpool, Inghilu r a. "Who .but an expert could have t anslated "OHoros" into " Holy Cross," and "Grinficoltrid" into " <Jreat Crossh 11 street"? 'J^e iletter, wit'; t c envelope marked m red in' 1 , • " Try Holy Cross, Great Crosshall street, was delivered on the d -y it reached the city. — The French law treats tbe frog as if it were i a fish, mid declare* all fishing for it by night to r he poaching. — The common cove is (he flower-bud of a 1 plant belonging to the myrtle family. — Blind people on first recovering their sight can descr'be a>i object better by feeling it than \ by looking at it. — Throughout the entire world th; re are vannua'ly about 180,000 suicides. \ — The Victoria railro.d bridge ov.r the St. Lawrence river at Monacal is two miles loiiff, cost over £1,000,000, and contains over 10,500 tons of iron, and 3,000,000 cubic feet of masonry. — Cincbona, from which we g>t quinine, is .one of the most important exports o! Ceylon, over £400,000 woith being pent out every year. — The annual value of the commerce of the jßritish Empire carried upont^e high Feas was, in 1891, 970 millions sterling. Six hundred and aiinety-six millions of this belonged to the United King 'om, and 143 millions to t" c self-govern nj: <.oloni s — Within three years the \ r'ce of platinum at the Ur->1 mires has incr asod fivefo d. This is due to the heavy demand for this m tal for e'ectrical purposes It is now nearly as dear a « gold, and, if the price ke ps going up, wll >oon be dearer. — From 1786 until 1851 successful ascents of Mont lllanc wer- comparat'vely rare, a vei aging o ly one po- annum, but since that per od upwaids of 1200 ascen's h ye b en made, making an a- crage of about 30 a yea-- . — Th ■ following table shows the revenue and population of the Uni'ed Kingdom and the self-governing colonies re-pc ti el\ :—: — Revenue. Population. United Kingdom ...£91,000,000 :is,u00.l)00 Self-governing colonies 43,000,000 11,000,000 — Ths Turkish Sultan's ki chen cos s the empire £50,000 annua ly. The ki'chen ext* nds 150 ft on tvery side. The dishes are sealed in the kitchen by no less a person than O-man Pasha, the hero of Plevna, and are unsealed in the Su' tan's presence. Of "he 100 med:cal missionaries in China, SS are women. Wages in England arc double what they are in Germany, aud higher than they arc iv any continental c ountry, while hours of work are very markedly shorter.

— The average number of working da3 r s in a year in various countries is as follows :—ln: — In Russis 267; in Britain, 278; in Spain, 290 ; in Austria, 295 ; ii Italy, 298 ; in Bavara and Belgium, 300 ; in Saxony and France, 302 ; in Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland, 303 ; in Prussia, 305; in Holland and North America, 308 ; and in Hungary, 312. -\ Physiologists declare that criminals usually lun o large ears. — There are 60 diamond-cutting establishments in Amsterdam. They employ together not less than 16,000 hand 1 , mostly Jews, who, notwithstanding the ingress of cheap labour, betray boycotting tendencies at times, and manage to keep up a steep scale of wages.

— All authorities agree 111 stating that the ancient inhabitants of Ireland must have been very familiar with god and well accustomed to its use. Native gold appears in geological deposits in many parts of the country. — Tiie only remain 1 ? of the onco splendid French possessions in India are five towns.

— Liverpool street s*;at ; on — now the largest in the United Kingdom — covers nearly 15 acres, and ther-) are 18 arrival and departure platforms. For the working of the traffic 376 s'gnalling levers are in use.

— A musical statistician has calculated that during the last week or two conceris have been given in London .at the rate of 12 a day. — Speaker.

— A distinguished botanist states that in the Philippine Islands there is a plant which bears a flower nearly a yard wide, and weighing 221b.

— Scientific men have demonstrated that a spoed of 200 miles an hour can never be attained by anything that moves on wheels.

— In the ye.r 1900 the Je < s p rpose holding an international Jewish githeriug at Jerusa em

— If all the oceans of the globe should bo t-uddenly taken from their beds, leaving them perfectly dry. it would lake a'l the rivers of tho world 35,000 je.-rs to fill them again.

— In 10 yeix-s tho British imports of dead moat rose from £12,500,000 to £22,000,000, while the imparts of iKtiy i roducc in the same period rose from £18,500,000 to £25,800,G00.

— A Russian is not of ago until he is 2.Q

— Only one sovereign of Europs — and his enapire is of a spiritual charact-r— has reta'ned Ihe old Roman f rm o ( homige of cxte idi g, not his hand, but Lis foot, to be kissi d. That is the Pope, who continues to accept tho s une species of salutation as that exacted by thiC;e ars.

— A. London merchant r quires all applicants for clerkship to hold convcrsatious over the tel- phone, i-nd forms his opinion of their ability from their answers Ho maintains tbaf the day is rapidly approaching when threefou ths of the business wi'l be transacted by telephone, and a clerk who is carcl> ss or indilicrent in replying to inquiries \vi : l drive customers away.

— In the United States some of the vessels used for racing purposes are maie from fibre pulp, principally compered of paper and submitted to great hydraulic pjossurc, afterwards being coated with a hardening subs! a* c, and varnished.

— Aluminium bank notes are advocated by Sir Henry Bessemer. He siys that wi*h the recent progress in the science of metallurgy these notes could be made in a fashion that would set all tbe arts of forgery at defiance.

— We are quite in agreement with Lord Salisbury when he tells us that a' o'her Gladstone will not soon arise to aid the Howe Rule cause — r any other cau-e. Men like Mr Gladstone aiv! the fabled wonder-flowers of po'itical l'fe that bloom only once in a century.— Daily News,

— Ibsen, the Norwegian dramatis l ", is an extraordinary looking man. Almost aowarf in height, the upper part of his body is immense compared with his lower limbs He bas a huge he d covered with bushy, while bair, and his keen blue eyes glare at hs interlocutor with a pieicitig glance. — The difference between rising every morning at 6 and 8. in the course of 40 3 ears, amounts to 29,200 hours, or three years 121 days and 16 h Airs, which are 'equal to eight hours a day for exactly 10 years, so that rising at 6 will be tbe same as if 10 years of life were added.

— Among the many experiments lately made for ut'lising th n rise and fall of the tides as motive power, one is reported to have bo n trif d on th" coast of Cheshire, where power for driving a dynamo and lighting a house by e'e tricity has been supplied by a tidal mill of about fourhorse power.

— A London second-hand bookseller recently adv< rti-e<) a lit' le book of religious consolation. It was published in 1630, and bears fn; consolatory title, >l A Handkerchief for Parent i' Wet Eyes upon the Death of Children."

"" — No cont'iiental r.ilwnyaccc ts the age of 12 as the limit for the issue of children's tickets at ha'f far s. In France the maximum age is seven and in Switzerland ten. On the French liurs parties of four adults can obtain special terms for long-di tanee journeys.

— V. hen the Queen ascended the throne more than 41 per cent of <l<e people in the British islands could not write their names. The proportion in lhat condition h u s now been reduced to 7 pc- cent.

— In a rcent salvage action in America a photograph taken with a snaj shot camera by a passenger on the bteamshi,) M-asd m when the steamshi > Winchester took he in tow after her shaft was bro' en was successfully us d in evidence, and negatived t^e j laintiff's claim that the Mnas'am w s at the time in great danger and the weather very severe