MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2209, 2 July 1896, Page 53

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— Bibles containing piotures of negro angels are finding a ready rale in the Southern States of America. They are published ab a cost of 6s, but are Bold for £1 12 a. — A red dinner was given recently at a London hotel by two gamblers who bad won 3So.ooofr at one sitting from the bank at Monte Carlo by playing ou the red. The xoom waa draped in red, red shades were placed over the electric light?, red geraniums decorated the tablep, and the waibora wore red ties, red shirts, red gloves, and red buttons on their coats and veabs. • — i The web of the commnn garden spider is bo fine that 30,000 of them, laid side by side, would tob cover lin in width. —Ib is a curious feature in human nature - th&t tho man who lias continual y exaggerated some episode of. his life eventually believes ib to be true. Similarly, an actor who has made a success in apart is in the end convinced that he wrote the play in which it occurred, — Sketch. — Ib is assorted that two-thirds of the grown | male population of the glebe either smoke or chew tobacco. ■ — The silk that comes from the locm3 of Japan compare] in gloss and fineness with any in the world, and Japanese crape 3 have a reputation in almost every market for softness of beauty and harmony, of colour; but for substantial wear, for lasting quality, the silk goods of China aro most favourably known to the merchants ot all lands, — Gun-springs are now tempered by eleotri- , city. The process i 3 rapid and satisfactory. — Cats can nn^H evren during sleep. When a piece of meat is placed immediately in front of' a sleeping cat's, uose, the nostrils begin to work as the scent is received, and an instant later tbo cat will wake up. — Medical men are allowed to arivert'se in the press of the United Stite.", and the result i 3' thab the most highly qualified men have mure pf&ctico aud the qu&ote and the sham lees. — Saturd iy Review. — The flower which has the greatest diversity in Fhades-.c-f colour is said t j ba the carnation. , Its bkss ;nw may be pure .white, lemon, yellow,. salmon, terra cotta, pink, scarlet, rose, ted, rmroon, brown, b'uiah, purple, grey, . and all intermediate shade, besides the inuumer- . able combinations in the-yamg&ted fiowerj. — The gross 'income of tho Arcl bishop ofCanterbury is £15,871, of which nearly a half is derived from lands belonging to tbe Arctmpiscopal See and the bilance from the titbecharge, house property, and dividends. The 4-toho.shcp'a two raUces ab Lambeth and Addington are rented ab £2173. ■— Japan is going to build up her commercial navy by giving subsidies to shipbuilders for every ton above 1000 and to shipowners tor all ships of ICOO tons that can make 10 knobs an hour, the subsidy being increased for every 500 * toe's additional burthen or every knob additional »pted. -«- There is no locomotive running which has such a tragic history attached to ib as ths North British engine which r&n tbe lust train over the ill-fttad Tay BridKe in December 1879. After lying ab the bottom of the Rive.- Tay for three months, it was recovered and partly rt built, and may now be seen at work on the Glasgow and Dunfermline traffic. — The tnsks of the walrus were the first ice anchors. The instruments of this description used by seamen in Arctic legions are modelled after walrus tusks. - — 'If teeth were not provided with enamel they wou'd bo constantly breaking, their nerves would become irritated, and the whole human animal kingdom const quently be afflicted wi'.h a never-endifg toothache. — In,Nspies there exifits a race of cats which live in the ctiureb.es They a-e kept aud fed by the authorities on purpose to tat tbe mice which infeat all old buildings, there. The animals imy often be seen' walking about among the cpugregabion, or sitting gravely btfora the! altar daring time of Mass. — .When my father sent me a message I used, to fly in a tremor to oieoate it. Now and then I propose to ■ send oy children on acrei-rand, and, apclr gig& for doing so. They ac jepb the apology, but do nob go.—F rederick Locker. ' ■ ,-r Every flry the Thames has scooped oub of its b&rjbs 1500 tons of matter, or more than half, a. million tous a' year. • - — In soma portions of Upper Egypt rain is absolutely u&knowu, and in Lower Egypt there is Boroetiines no rain for yearj. ' — Nice for 200 years has been famous for its violet extracts aud pjrfunies madd from mignonttte. -— Some 150 different colours sre now obtained from coal tar, and these have almost entirely uuppJauted vegetable and animal dyea. In fact, only two of the vegetable class, indigo and logwocd, a'e still of any considerable importance. Coal yields a large smounb of colouring matter, the angenta oßtained from a ton being sufficient to dye 500 yards of flannel. — "Ib has been argued," bays an English contemporary, "that, owing -chiefly to the introduction of knives .and forks, and the consequent partial disuse of tbe beebh asagents for disruption, bhe ja« bones of civilised peoples are gradually uudergoiog-a'teuuttion." r- The firsb impaise of the move of civilifation in Corea retultitg frcm sha China-Japan war ii noted in a royal decree which was recently issued .(sfc&blbhipg a system of schools in that country. — The. most curious-made scap in use is that supplied to the stations of the London and North«we3tern Railway Company, which is muds from -iiwiob- and grease washed out of their meat cloths. ".' . '„' . <— A great elephant-catcher is authority for the statement that "but; 24 white elephants have betn caught .since the commencement of 'the Christian" era. " ' . — A now use- is reported to"njave-b£en;dis-covered for hops — namely, the curing of bacon. Ibis found-that a sprinkling of hops in the brine when bacon and hams are pat in pickle adds greatly to the flavour of both, aud enables' them to be kept &n indefinite period. . ._ .— It is well known among oculist experts th&t the opera glasses which us ay be hired in moet theatres frequently become bhe medium tec Bpre&ding very serious eje diseases,

— New York consumes 3500 green turtles per annum, the lob weighing together about 250,0001b, Some turtle exported weigh from 3501b to 4001b apiece, and have shells more than sft long and nearly 4fb wide. — It is said that on every voyage of a firstclass ocean steamer about 3000 pieces of glassware and crockery aro broken. — The B:itish Houses .of Parliament are parbly lighted by 40,000 electric lamps, which number ie being constantly increased. Fifty experienced electiieians are employed to keep the syste.nl in order. Bat there is still a yearly gas bill of over £20C0. •f — The olive has b?en grafted on ajuuiper, apples on plume, a rose on an orange, peaches on mj rtles riud mulberries, and red aud white grapes with peaches arid apricobs on the same *tero, for, as the buds are distinct, the stem furnishes uutrimeut for all. *• — This odd wish is csmmonly expressed ab Japanese festivals— '• May you live to such an age that your back is »s baub as a looter's ! " — The emalleftt Prime Minister iv Europe, if not in the world, is M. Stoiloff, of Bulgaria. He is only 4ft 6in in hoight, _ 1.4. — In Japan the flowers of chrysanthemums constitute a popu'a? di-h. Daring the mouths of November and Decembar buuebes of them, washed and cartfully displayed, may be seen in the' stores of all the dealers in vegetables. Almost all the varieties are edible, strictly speaking, but bhose to which preference is, usually given luve deep yellow flower-heads. — Goldfiah tha> swim in globes of water are very sensitive to changes in the weather, and an observant; peruou may learn ta rely on them to foretell the coming of a Btorra. At such time* tbe fish sre reitlcss. They darb fromplace^ to place, and never remain loDg in one spot a?T they do in mild, pleasant weather. — Living is nearly 40 per cent, cheaper in London than in Nbw York. — Among the Sultan's gold plate there are dishes of solid gold lar^e enough for a baby's bath, and there are plates, cups and saucers, tureeus and pitcher*, massive and heavy, made of this samo pfcicais metal. — In Sebnitz, in Sixony, experiodtn's .are being made to cover real flowers and leaves wibh a mtbillic coating by means of galvanic electricity. A way of doing bhis ' has been invented, and the question now is. how to mike such yreather-proof flowers, available for millinery purposes. , — Thb popularity of osbrich plumes has lab^ly slighbly diminished the slaughter of birds of song and sea. ; bub the wings and plumes of wild, birds are now in great favour ouce more, and this year will see the- death of a huge number of our fmtbered friends to meet the demand. — The spider producej silk of a fair quality, bub the difficulty of rearing- spiders and the small quantity of prcidacb from each insccb has caused the abandonment; of all tfforts to produce spider silk. — British rock-fowlers are paid, as a' rale, 5s anight for the frigltfuliy perilous work they have to do ; but they also recsive a bounty of 2d a bird, and, as an old hand at rock-fowling can take st'leasb SO in a hard night's work, they are not so bidly paid. Accidents sometimes .occur, bub nob often, for these ui-.n are sbroognerved atd hardy. — Someone has calculated thab the postmen of London walk, together, something like 48,360 miles per day, a distance equal to twice tbo circumference of the globe. The greatest singing teachers will not allow their pupils bo sing anything in public which requires from them boo obvious on effort. Madame V.ardob occe said bo a young girl who had jmb got thiough—^and^very credibablj — a rather difficult song : "Ah^mydear, you must pub thab aside for three months, till you can sing ib without going on the tips of your toe* ! " The tiptoe screams 0? the singer who doesn't recognise her limitations are abominations. — World. — Tha present Colonial fieorebary once remarked to a member of the House of Commons, who was notoriously lazy and vacillating, •• My dear boy, observe the postage stamp ; its,usefulness and. value depend upon ibs ability to stick' to' one thing." . — The shovel- fiih uses his ness as a tool .to mftkelfe livicig. By means of his nas&l protuberance h&>turoß over tho mud of tbe bbbbom of-the eeaand unsarths the worm 3 and small shellfish on which he feeds. . . ' ' , . — Although I never heard a man " whistle a duct" (/ajs a' writer), I knew one at Cambridge who cou'd do s.inetbing like ib. He could whistle an air and hum the accompaniment in perfect tuce. The pieca X especially remember was "Adeste Fidele?," where tho accompaniment in the filth line (in contrary motion) and tbe imitative phrases at the end were faultleisly rendered. — Almoßb the most difficult part of the delicate work of making a wax model is that of placing the hair in tbe head. To make this natural only one or two hairs can be stuck in the wax at once, and tho process is a secret known to only a few persons. Indeed, ib is said nob to be known at all outside the Tassaud family. — If you call for tea at a restauranb in Caracas the proprietor will send to the nearest drug store for ib, and express a regreb that you are ill. The native Venezuelan regards tea ai a most unpkasanb beverage, and to be used only medicinally. Ib is not kept; in any of the hutels, and when ib is especially ordered tbe quality is simply abominable — for all the world like a dose of terms. — Oysters are provided with eyes, bub the oyster's eye is not located where public opinion places it. What is called bhe eye of bhe oyster is bhe great muscle which holds the shells together, and which is separated by the knife of tbe operator.