MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2171, 3 October 1895, Page 38

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— Pa'.nting the front of Buckingham Palaoe coats over £3000. — Tobacco is issued to the crews of <ha Boy a! Navy in the form of unmanufactured leaf. t — One hondred wod fifty thousand pounds' worth of diamonds are found ia Kimberley every week. ' — The intriDßic value of an Buglish penny is less than a farthing. — There aie six Englishmen in India to one Englishwoman. — The annual death roll of su'oides at Monte Carlo amount*, on an avernge, to 40. — Between 2000 and 2500 oonvicla are discharged yearly on ticfcet»-oHr*ve. — The jLCome of |be English National Seciefey for the Prevf ntion of Cruelty to Children last year was £53,977. A " canning " Bte«ner Is the latett Ainelican novelty. She is designed to cruise about fn southern waters, and preserve froifc, fi'h, turtle, guava jelly, &c , on the spot. jy — l n the Biitieh army 12 years is the longest Veriod a man can be enlisted for ; but after uervii g that t ; me, and if his cUaracUr is good, lie can be enlisted for another nine ycai-a. • i — There are only 58 prisons in EngUnd. I^ss than 20 years ago there were 113. Abaofate unrforroity prevails in them all, alike in regard to diet, discipline, and clothes. ■ — The distinguishing features of the Italian battleships are powerful armamonts, in whioh th*t spf cies of modern-sißed gun known n,ow as the quick-firer holda a very important place, jMgh fipeod, great ciae, and scanty armour protootiou. — It takes over 300,000 living horse power to Kovo Ibe wheels along the roada of London ; •nd if the horses stood in single file they would roach from St. Paul's to John-o'-Groats. I A Wtst Bind milliner declares that a lady Who 18 a recognised leader of fashion ia obl'ged to exf end at least £5000 to £6000 a jear on her nttire alone. I — The cheeks become pale from fear because Jbhe mental emotion diminishes the action of the heart and lunge, and so impedes tbe circulation. r > — A good purse, a good cause, a good attorney, a good counsel, good evidence, a l fiood jury, and goad luck are tbe requisites for going to law. — Abraham Rimes, of Pcun^ylvania, has i)een granted a divorce from hi« tenth vrife. jHis last wife also bad been his first bride, but Wtween his u r s% and latt divorce from her be tad married eight other women. , — Msny a man goes away from homo for a Vsetk aud imagine* that hu is missed by the who'e community, aud whr-n be c.iinea borne be finds that there ian'fc a person iv towu that knew he bad been ar.-&y. — Portland pnsou i$ the largest E-.glish priton. Nearly 2000 convict* are located jthc-re, being employed cliiffly iv the " Crown qu»rrif s," from nbicii eomethiug like 50,000 to tiO.OOO tona of Portlaud stone are annually exported. — Though the P«ince of Wales and most of jthe Royal Family are martyrs to indigestion, *he Qu< en has never suffered from dyspepsia. She attributes this to her eatiug little, but oft«D, and to her taking weak whisky-and-wafcer at meals. , — Avoid monotoDy. A man onca gave as »n exenfo for committing suicide that the uccdßEity of rising every morning, making hie toilet, sod retiring every night had rendered lifa todioa* to him. This may cob be an exaggerated statement. — During tho last seven years over 13,000,000 mineral water bottles, worth more than £50,000, |\a,ve been rccOTcred from tbe du»t yaids of Hjoadon. — Sit William Oubitt, wh^n the treadmill was first introduced into Brixton Qto\ in 1817, openly declared that he had taken tbe idoa from the Chinese, who have a similar contrivance for ramiug water for the irrigation of their fields. — • The balbon by meaps of which M. Andree, Hie Swedish engineer, will endeavour to reach lha North Pola will, it is said, be capable of carrying three persons, four mouths' provisions, a sl&dge, and a sailing boat, and will be jmfficietitly gas-tight to hover in the air for 30 days. — Probably the largest excursion of the year which had i(s terminus in Liverpool was that o£ the employees of Me 4r« Bass and Company, teurton, who visited the city upwards of 9000 gtrotig. The excursionists occupied 16 trains, "which if placed together would have extended over a distance cf two and a-h»lf mites. — In Warwickshire and Staffordshire a discordttßt singer is called a M Bromwich throstle." If a stranger, ha possibly flatters himself on the appellation ; bat to say to a native that he sings "like a Bromwioh throstle" is a decided insolt, For the title, like that of " Jerusalem cuckoo," really signifies donkey. — A writer in a magaz'ne says tbe earth would be heated more than l9o,ooodeg by being suddenly stopped — that is, it would at once be- ! come more than 60 times at hot a« melted iron. vtlny man who, knowing these facts, attempts \'io stop the earth ought to be severely dealt 'with. i — The editor of a newspaper that has adopted phoneiio spelling in a measure received it postcard from an old subscriber in tha country, which resd as follows .— " I hey tak yoar paper for tevan yeres, but if you kant spel enny hetter than jou hey been doin fur the las to months you may jes stoppib." — Not long ago it was observed that deaths Trere more frequent among the draught horses that went forth along a certain road leading cut of London than iv any other locality. On snvestigalion it was found that the road was on a dead level, with nothing to break the monotony of (he way. There is no doubt that _itreet-car hor?ea suffer from a nxnilar infliction. Men aud animals both ueed tomethiug besides a dead level. — Family Doctor. — A carelessly-worded contract often means a loss of hundreds. For instance, Florence fefe. John was engaged by H. J. Leslie for the opera " Dorothy.' Unfortunately she waa taken ill, and was actually never able to play in tbe piece at all ; nevertheless the manager tfas compelled by thfl wording of the contract fc> pay her £60 a week for nearly 12 months,

— Tbe railway tunnels of the world are estimated to number about 1142, with & total length of 514 miles. — The following table shows thft number of pieces coined in 1894 :—: — JK Sovereigns 3,820,450 Half-sovereigns 3,715,300 Crowns 144.036 Half-crowns 1,500,048 Fiorina 1.H52.280 Shilling* 5,940.000 Sixpences 3,4(51.040 Four;ienDy-pfece3.., 8,316 Threepences ... 1,577 136 Twopencea 9.504 Punniea (silver) 15 840 Ppnn en (bronae) 3,870,720 Halfpennies 1.793,000 Far&ings 2.5u8,800 — Taere is now a proepeel th«t the supply of gut'apercba will become porwuient. The old nativo method of cuttii g down r tree to get tbe gum, and thin killing the gooso that lftid the golden eggs, is giving pl»oa to that of plucking the leaves and extracting the gum from them. The gum from tho leaves is not only purer, bub there is more of it. — The Dutch are not fond of lazy people, and they have a very good way of coring persons who oan but won't work. If a pnupor who is able to work refuses to do so, they pat him in a cistern, te which a pump is attached, and turn on a stream of water. This stream flows into the cistern Jos'; slow enough to enable the lnzy person, by lively pumping, to keep the water from getting up over his head. — Electricity is now employed largely by dentists in America er.gßged in extracting teeth. To the battery are nt* ached three wires. Two of them have handles at tbe end, while the third is attached to the forceps. The patient grstpa the handles, the electricity is turned on suddenly, and the dcntint frimnltaittoaely applies bis forceps to the tooth. The instant the tooth is touched it, as well aa the surrounding part*, becomes insensible to pain. A jerk, and it is out.