MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2320, 18 August 1898, Page 40

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—Tn tho estimation of coin-collectors the most valuable of all the American coins today is the perfect silver dollar of 1E.04. Ihe highest auction price is £200, and there is a record of £240 having been paid for one at a private sale. One of the causes of discontent among the Italian peasants is the fact that for the last two years tho olive crop has been a hopeless failure. This means more to them than the incro loss of money, a3 tho olive oil takes with them tho placo both of milk and butter, bread and oil being their staple articles of food. The whale's noso is on tho top of the head— at least, his nostrils aro situated Uioie, through which ho expels the columns of water known as " spoutings." Whales spout only .when they are feeding. — So difficult is the art of cutting gloves that some of the principal cutters arc known to the trade by name and by fame. --The little blade spots on green leaver,, which do not seem to arise from any discsuo cf the plant, are caused by burning ; the rays of tho sun get focussed by the drops of morning dew

- Any man may make a mistake, but none but a foo) will continue ii. One of the rao^t attractive spectacles iii the new London Exhibition at Earl's Court is the naval display in the Empress Theatre. Hero are shown, in a way that is just suited to tho warlike spirit of the day, 12 types of warships modelled to scalo. The tongues of the cat family are covered with recurving spines. In the common domestic cat tlieso are small, but sufficiently well developed to give the tongue a feeling: of roughness. But in the lion and jger the spines are strong enough to enable tho animal to tear away the skin of a man's hand :«orely by licking it. ' — The Marquis Carsano. an Italian nobleman, owns tho smallest horse in the world, which is named Leo. This lilJpulian Bucephalus is 21in high, and is a beautiful, wellproportioned choctrmt, whose tail sweeps the ground. lie was bred on the marquis's stock farm.

— Beauties of to-day are commemorated in fading photographs, terribly touched up, while their great- grandmothers live in miniature and mezzo-tint. — Longman's — A play was recently given in Berlin by a company of deaf mutes to a large audience of deaf persons. — Of the old people in the United Kingdom above the age of 65, one in seven is at. the present moment in receipt of parish relief. — Contrary to a widespread belief that hard woods give more heat in burning than boft varieties, it has been shown that tho grcaie-sl power is possessed by the wood of the luider. tree, which is \evy boft. Fir stands -•''Xt to linden, and almost equal to it.

— The fiying fi-og of Borneo Las long toes, which are webbed to the tips. Its feet tl i;s act a^ little parachutes, and enable tho lrog to leap from lofty trees and descend gradually to the ground without injury.

— If all the tobacco smoked in the ii.-iLish Empire last year were rolled into a rope on p inch in diameter, it would foim a snakelike "roll which, following the line of the aquator, jwould go 30 time? round tho eartb.

—In fasting feats the sect of Jains, in India, is far ahead of all rivals. Fasts of 60 to 40 days are common, and once a year t l .oy are said to abstain from food for 75 days.

— 80-called cork legs contain no cork whalever. The name arises from the f<tet that, years ago, nearly all the artificial kgs Übed in Europe came from manufacturers whose places of business were in Cork street, London.

— The broad-headed horses arc the cleverost. In tho Household Cavalry the horses with broad foreheads learn their drill more rapidly than the others.

— A very important alteration is to bo carried out in connection with tho revolving light at Cape Gri^nez. A new lighthouse is to be erected, much higher than the present i ne, so that the light will be seen at a distance of. 4-8 miles. It is to be an electric ight ha* ing a white flash every second, and the candJepower will be no less than three millions.

— A novel uso has been found for tho cinematograph, which has recently been employed in the Imperial Institute for the purpose of ilustrating farming operations in Canada.

— An authority on miscroscopy states that, the hair of a woman can be distinguished by its construction from that of a man. '

— More cases of consumption appear among ncedlemakers and filemakers than among i>ny other class of labourers.

— The Shah of Persia has a privilege which ho guards jealously— that of having the lorg taik of his horses dyed crimson for 6in at the tips. Only the ruler of Iran and his sons have this privilege.

— Prisoners when arrested in Morocco aie required to pay the policeman for his trouble in taking them to gaol.

— ft is said that the woman inventor who devised vlie fireproof helmet now worn by firemen in the United Slates is urging the Government to put the soldiers into aluminium armour. Tho weight is inconsiderable, and the metal will turn a rifle bullet except at a very short distance. Aluminium is cheap, and an entire equipment would weigh about 51b.

— With how many of the millionaires who o few years back were brilliant stars in the armament of finance would a man with a moderaco competency change places to-day? Murder, suicide, sudden death, penal servitude, and bankruptcy have been tho fates of many of them. — Gr. R. Sims.

— There are 7000 hawkers of newspapers in ■London.

— Under the name of dynammon a new explosive has been introduced into Austria for blasting and other purposes, which is said to combine the explosive power of dynamite with absolute safety during storage and transport. ■It is impossible to explode it by means of any ordinary mechanical impulse, such as an accidental blow or friction.

— The legend of Romulus and Remus being suckled by the she wolf passes for a fablo, but tho researches of naturalists lend it colour. In India native children have been nursed by (wolves and lived with them. Negroes aver that anthropoid apes have suckled babies. — The costliest fur is that of the sea otter. 'A single skin of this animal will fetch as much as £200.

— The recent Ashburnham Library sale realised £62,712. This is the largest sum ever obtained for a sale of books in England, except the £73,551 brought by the Beckford Library, k which was double the size of the Ashburnham.

— It will take a snail 14- clays 5 hours to travel a mile.

— A curious accident wa=f reported from 'Dayton, 0., recently, in which water caused a fire. The Craig-Reynolds shops in North Dayton were flooded with 10ft of water, which reached somo packages of carbide of calcium. This formed acetylene gas, capping several explosion* and a fierce blaze. The fire dooartmeufc had to fiaht the flames from Loatd*

— More sleol is used in tha manufacture of pens than in all the swords and gun factories in the world.

— Carpets can be cleaned without removing them from the floor by a new machine which has metal strips set inside a casing to beat the carpet as the cleaner runs over the floor, a fan being mounted in the top of the casing to draw tho dust into the water compartment, which has an air passage covered by a moistened screen to retain the dust particles.

— In Persia among the aristocracy a visitor sends a notice an hour or two before calling, and gives a day's notice if the visit is one of great importance. He is met by servants before ho reaches the house, and other considerations are shown him according to his rank.

— Travel on the Bulawayo railroad is exciting. Tho Shashi River rose recently 4ft above tho bridge tracks, so that engines could not cross. A train was made up as long aa the width of the river, pushed across by one engine, and taken up on the other side by another. Soon after the bridge was washed away.

— An apron is tlic Royal standard of Per.=ia. Gos, a Persian, who was a blacksmith by trade, raised a revolt which proved successful, and li 13 leather apion, covered with jewels, is still borne in the van of Persian armies.

— A red sunset indicates a fino day to follow, because the air, when dry, refracts more red or heat-making rays, and as dry air is not perfectly transparent, they arc again reflected in thp horizon. A coppery ov yellowy sunset generally foretells rain. — The oldest match factory in tho world is in Sv. cden. Matches were made there long before the old, roughly-trimmed bplinter of wood, tipped with sulphur, was discarded, with the tinder boxes for which they were used.

• — At Welbeck, in Germany, a decree has been proclaimed that a license to many will not be granted to any individual who has been in the habit of getting drunk.

— The Sultan of Turkey has just built at Mecca the biggest house in the world. It is intended for the accommodation of pilgrims, and is capable of sheltering 6000 persons.

— Experts have come to the conclusion that what kills trees in London is not soot-fiakco, or the want of air, but the sewer gas, which attacks tiie roots, so that the tree soon withers and dies.

— It sceins that 25 per cent, of the women of England earn their own living, but one would scarcely believe that there arc something like 100 female blacksmiths in the country.

. — The interior of a gold-bearing rock was inspected in an Oregon town by moans of t'-'O Iloiitgcn rays, and veins of auriferous metal woro plainly visible as if they were on the surface.

—In the French quarries of St. Triphon si one is tawed with steel wire cables moi stoned with wet sand, and passing in an endless rope over a series of pulleys The wire, which runs from 1000 ft to 12001 1 per minute, is charged as it enter- the cut with a }et of water and pilicioim sand, which forms the cutting material. A running cable of sCoft can make a cut 100 ft long.

— The risk of being struck by lightning is five times greater in the country than in cities, and 20 times greater at sea than on the railway.

— True humour is only found in the deadly scrioi'.s. Tho native homo of humour is Scotland. Witty -people arc i.ever humourous ; the Irish are as devoid of humour as the Scotch are of wit. — Idler.

— It is stated that in the West Indies the lizards, from the large iguana downwards, run erect on their hind legs when hurried. Picture-:; on rocks at the watershed of Guiana show lizards running erect. The Mexican iguanoid lizard and the " frilled lizard " of Australia also do so.

—In Cyprus the first article of gold of ancient workmanship discovered on the island has just been found. It is a plate of gold 3in long by l^in broad, and on it are the figures of a sphinx and two beardless warriors.

— Paper is being used, instead of guttapercha, by the telegraph department of the G.P.O. in the construction of the underground cable between London and Birmingham. The cable consists of copper wires insulated by means of paper casing, which is cheaper and possesses many advantages over gutta-percha, which was formerly used.

— The great rage for instruction in the English language in Japan has naturally led to a growing demand for English books. Over 100,000 English books of all classes were imported last year, as against 50,000 in 1896.

— The porspectroscope is a new American instrument for giving a single photogroph or picturo the appearance of solidity as if seen in a stereoscope. It is an arrangement of lenses and a pair of mirrors set at an angle such that tho image of the picture is reflected into both eyes. The picture is at right angles to the eye glasses.

— The latest lifeboat, which is said to havo been approved by the Admiralty, carries three long cylinders into which a million cubic feet of air can be compressed. This air will drive the boat 15 miles an hour for six hours.

— The Coldstream Guards took their name from the little village of Coldstream, near the borders of Scotland. They were originally known as the Colds treamers, which is the correct way to speak of them, and not as the Coldstreums. The regiment was firot raised by Monk, the " Sing Maker," from among the harcly bordorsrti, who followed him anywhere and overywhere, caring very little whether they fought for Cromwell or King Charles. When the former died Monk marched the Coldstreamers to London, and restored King Charles. The 3rd Battalion has just been added to the regiment.