MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2239, 28 January 1897, Page 54

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The largest cab rank iv the world is situated in London — namely, at Waterloo Btation, the terminus of the London and South Western railway. It is a quarter ot a mile in length. More than 1000 cabs are called in the course of 24 hours. , ! — An average of 26,000 letters are posted without addros6es in England every year. — Some of the largest ocean steamers can be converted into armed cruiser* in 30 hours. — Twenty-four Governments, including the United, States, Japan, China, Persia, and neatly 'all the European countries have given official notice that they will exhibit 'in Paris in 1900. " " ' — A serpent in confinement has been known to refuse all food for a period of 21 months. A viper will live 10 months without food, and a bear six months, while even a horse will live 25 days without solid food, merely drinking water. — Smokcra always have n co^ed tongue, and people who keep their mouths open a groat deal have brownish tongues, caused by the dusb of the atmosphere. When a person Bwallowa au acid poison the tongue shows what, kind the acid was — carbolic noid. making it white, sulphuric acid blackening it, nitric acid staioiug it yellow. The longufl may be coated from serere pain, worry, anger, fear, or overwork, without indicating bad health. A" — The numbar ot' persons in the United Kingdom who use Gaelic as their native language is much Ittrgor than is ocmm-inly «upposed. It include 660,000 iv Ireland, 350,000 in Wales, and 230,000 in Scotland. — '• Ginger bucr au<i lutHOuu.de both contain ■alcohol," said a maker of temperance driuks ; "but only a small percentage is used ia the j manufacture of these two beverages. Winter j cordial? contain a much larger quantity of the j pure spirit." — It is not generally known thafa the ' parchment used on the best banjos is made from i wolf skins. [ — Tbu Prinno of WaWs celebrated " Nor- j wioh Gate*" a', Saadringham are considered I the finest specimens of wrought iron in tbe ; kingdom. , — Wrecking was a calling upon which thousands of Eugland's coait people once depended. • — It is estimated that the German Emperor hap, during his 'career as sportsman, killed 25,372 head of g&nia. Tho list includes ono wnale — if a whale counts — two buffaloes',* throe reindeer, seven elk, and three bears. Among the birds which have fallen to the Imperial gun thero is, strange to say, only one brace of snipe. — A child just born has less chance of living a year than has na octogenarian. — Tho clerk to tho parish council and registrar of deaths at Laugholm, in Dumfriesshire, committed suicide by taking poison. He had potted all bis books up to dato, and even registered his own death, evidently calculating the time the poison was to take to operate. In this, however, he was not quite correct, as he entered his death at 7 p.m., whereas his body was found at half-past 6. — The rato of pulsation is 120 per minute in infancy, 80 in manhood, and 60 in old age. — A leap year wife, who proposed and was accepted, applied to a London magistrate for a separation order two months *fter marriage. — A fine " Strad " violin will fetch £1200. — The Emperor of Germany has over 1000 different saits of clothes and 800 pairs of trousers. — The new British army magazine rifle will throw to a distance of over 4000 yds. — What are known as " gianb " rabbits are bred in Bslgium, and from a French journal, "Ohasse et Peche," it appears that at a restaurant at Bruges, in Belgium, a giant rabbit weighing 211b was exhibited. Of course this specimen had been fattened. — The Queen has takeu 447 prize* at English cattle shows for products at her stock farm. — Onions are more nourishing than any other vegetable. —On a recent occasion a photograph was taken by the Swansea police of Ellen Sweeney with 280 conviotioDS, Ma<l Maggie with 192. and Sarah Norman with 106. They happened for once in their live? to meet in court. — Thackeray wrote most of his best work before breakfast. — The int.riusic value of one penny is less than a farthing. — An Indian official report states that in the year 1895 2893 persons lost their lives through tigers, panther*, bears, and other wild beasts ; 21,538 died from serpent bitea, three-fourthi of which wore caused by cobra*. Quite 97,000 domestic animals were killed by tigers, panthers, , and serpents , 1 — The British Gjvernmont is the owner of over 25,000 camels. S.-vci-aI thousands are used in India to cary storos and equipments when companies are changing quarters by line ] of march. ! — Tbe automatic postman is a new invention which may do wonders in post office work. [ A pneumatic tube is laid underground so as to pas 3 directly below letter boxes. By this means letters are automatically propelled to the head office as soon a« posted. — The sound of thunder may be heard for 20 or 25 miles — with the ear to the ground much farther. Lightuiug is reflected for 150 to 200 miles. — Ten thousand pounds' worth of pearls were in three years' time, during tbe- last century, taken from mussels iv the Tay near Perth. — A bill-potting machine, which sticks bills on walls, oven so high as 50ft, without the use' of a ladder or p-\ste pot, is doing successful work on the Coutinent. — The sound of a boll which can be heard 45,000 ft through the water can be heard through the air only 456 ft. —It is estimated that about 250,000,000 bricks are u*eii rn-Miilily iv Gren,t< Briri«.ia. — The machine guns in tho British service are the Maxim end-barrel, the Gardner one, two, 3ud fivo barrel, the No/dejufeldt three and five barrel, and the Gatling 10-barrel. Tka Maxim is probably the brst as regards adaptability, as it fires itself, and the man laying it has no other duty to think of. — Tbe blacking manufactured and sold in England in one recent year amounted to tha [ raloe of £560.000.

— The bide of tho hippopotamus in certain parts attains a thickness of 2iu. — It it estimated that one-twelfth of tho population of Great Britain suffer from gout. A Berliu physician, Dr Feblaner, nays that fcbin maUdy is often due to the .excessive use of meat. — On« hundred and twanty flftmea ar» ra« quired to foed the furnaces of a flrafc-olass Atlantic steamer. V In heraldry nine different varieties of the crown are recogniied ai inaignia of rank— the Oriental, the triumphal or Imperial, the diadem, the obsidional crown, the oivio, the orown Taller?, the moral orown, the nwal, and the orown oeleiti*l. * — Ginger essence contains twice as aiuoh alcohol as whisky. — A North Sea codfisher carries a let of lines 7200 fathoms in length, and having the amazing number of 4680 hooks, erery one of which must be baitad. — France is the beat cultivated country in Europe. —No fewer than 600,000 children are insured ih Great Britain every year. — Eight experienced divert -are carried on every British flag ship, and four on every cruiser. • , — A line of gun cotton reaching from Edinburgh to London, it is said, could be fired in two mittutes, no rapid is the transmission of detonation from, one part to another. — New York will shortly boast a business I block rising to a height of 386 ft from- the pave* ment. Thiß immeuse establishment will contain nsarly a thousand suites of ' unices, giving accommodation by day to 3000 or 4000 people ; while its stupendous facade will show, through- ' out its width, no fewer than 27 storeys. Three . more storeys must be added for the towers ' which will ornament either end of the blonk. | — From Arabia, which has been a country of perfume* for more thau 1000 years, still comes | the bulk of roses grown for their extract. — Over a million pairs of boots and shoes are made in England each week. — The proper distance between the eyes is I the width of one eye. I — Not long ago a railway workman was ! walking along the Manchester Bridge, Crewe, ; when he picked up a small parcel whioh, on j being opened, was found to contain notes, I cheques, *nd securities of the value of £60,000. { Inquiries showed that the parcel belonged to { Sir Baldwin Leightou, aud that it had been I lost in tr*usib between Ludlow and Knntsford. j — The Post. Office of Great Britain now ;em pi 03 8 over 1300 lady clerks. Tho largest • number of these clerks are, of oourae, to be j found in the London Post Office, where the > bulk of them are paid fairly remunerative salaries, while what may bo regarded ss 41 plums " fall to the few. — A postcard recently travelled round the j world in 70 days — the quiokest time on record. ; — Fiity-ene metals are now known to exist. ! Four buudred years ago only seven wera i kaown. ' — Four hundred thousand tons of vegetables, ) valued at £7,000,000, were sold in London last year. , — The oldest person in Paris is Madame Slmcuuet, who was, according to well-authen-ticated records, born in Paris in 1793, and has now reached the great age of 103. years and five months. - Her memory is still good, and. she > loves to tall of having seenNapoleou, Jonephine, Louis XVIII, and other great people of the , early part of this century. ! — Tho uumoer of haira on the human scalp varies from 90,000 to 120,000. A single hair can support a weight of 2oz, and is so elastic that it may ba stretched one-tuird of its entire length, and then regain its former size and I condition. — The marshy district called " The Fens," whiob oocupies the northern half of Cambridge" ' shire, the south-easteon corner of Lincolnshire, and parts of Norfolk, Suffolk, Huntingdon, and Northampton, extending 50 miles from north to ' south and 30 miles in its greatest breadth, and covering an area of 750,000 acres, is the lowest , land in England. The surface of "The Fens " is, oil the average, Bft below the level of the North Set, varying from 4-ft to 16ft below ; the level of highwater mark. 1 — The idea of personal power' does not shock ; Frenchmen as it does a people like our own. I They never forget that they conquered the 1 world under a Dictator, and to conquer it j again they would let the cause of Liberty wait, I it not fur ever, at least for a good many years. ; They prefer the Republic, no doubt, with one ; side of their heads, the sensible side ; bat there { is an emotional Hide too, whioh very nearly < induced them not 10 years ago to allow a ' plebeian soldier, who had done nothing particular, to placet himself in the saddle and proclaim him«elf, until the next defeat, master of Franco. If General Bonlaoger had won a great victory in the field, n. victory which effaced Sedau, the. French would have let him rule for his life without' feeling' tfiat; France was either humiliated or oppressed. — Spectator. , — The latest thing in playing cards is tfaa substitution of the heads of the Queen and other reigning sovereigns for those of the Btenii if viwl. ki«g* and qufens ho fanailinv to m all. Our own Gracious Sovereign appears us . tbe Queen of Hn*res, ttie Euiueror of -Germany > as the King of Clubs, the King of Italy as the Km g of Diamonds', and bo forth. Lifelike portraits of eminent politicians figure in the four " knave " cards ; but the excellent gentlemen thus portrayed may console themselves with the reflection that, after all, the j " knave " is merely old English for " boy." ! — Perhaps the strauges'. specimen of locai ' nomenclature in the United Soates is furnished by South Carolina, which has a post office ; named Catarrh. But the following are not j bad in their way :— Grubgulch, Pulltighb, Yum i Yum, ShoulderbUde, Ink, Mud, and Gotup. There are a Romulus and a Remus, a Borneo and Juliet, one Truly and 11 Rnrals, but no combination of both Georgia has its Paynp. , aud Rhode Inland its Quonochontaug ; and I Kentucky has its Rabbit Hash, Te-ttearsvillc, I Tarheel, Pope, Maddog, Taffy, Jamboree, and ; Nazareth. Here nre a tew other strange name* 1 —Gunpowder, Huff, Casn, Difficulty, Quid Nunc, Gin, Wildcat, Thunderbolt, Jug, Judy, Jingo, Bigbug, and Biglick — A very confusing practice is thut of i changing nimts by virtue, of legal decree. In i most cases the change is made in deference to I testamentary stipulations, property being be- ■ qu-athed on condition that the legatee assumes the name and the armorial bearings of the testator. Thus, there are at the present moment no less than four pairs of brothers bearing different -surnames sitting in the House of Commons. Sir James Fergntson, who is a , baronet, is a brother of Sir Charles Dalrymple, r/ho is likewise a baronet. Sir Ellis AsbmeadBirtlett is a brother of Mr Bardett-Coutts. Sir Henry Campell-BannermMi, who was ScoreI fcary of State for War in the Roscbery Cabinet, ! has a brother in Parliament who bears the ! name of Dr James Campbell. The brother of j Captain Richard Challoner is Mr Walter Hume j Long. , Seven out of the eight are Conservatives, Sir Henry Campbell-Banaerman being the only Liberal. Consequently Parliamentary " pairing" by brothers is possible only betweeß Sir Henry and his brother.