MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2356, 20 April 1899, Page 48

MULTUM IN PARVO.

■-The great majority of tishes can change iheir coloura to adapt themselves to their surroundings. It is a striking peculiarity of the blind fish that it does not change its colours with its surroundings, and the uniform colour which it thus preserves is always darker than the normal colour of the other fishes of the same kind in the same waters. One of the latest converts to cycling is Xord Salisbury, who has had a machine speMally built and fitted with two brakes. The iPremier has not yet appeared on his bicycle In public, but confines his exercise to the jgrounds at Hat field. — It is proposed to sheathe sea-going vessel* jßrith glass plates to prevent fouling and corVosion. The device has been tried in America »nd found to be quite feasible. — Marvellous economy is practised by the Boor of Italy in looking after their wants. ! offee grounds from the wealthy man's kitphen are dried and |pld to the poor. In a Similar way oil is twice, and sometimes three, jfcimes used, the drippings after each successive frying- being gathered from the pan 'and fcold to the poor. -c-rOn one occasion the Prince of Wales had *, hearty l&jgb. at a Hindu schoolboy in MaBras. Tie /oungsters had been drilled into Ihe propriety of saying " Your Royal Highbesß " should the Prince speak to them; and xvhen tne Heir-apparent accosted a brightWed lad, and, pointing to a prismatic combais, asked, ''What is this?" the youngster, fell in. a flutter, replied: "It's a Royal comipass, your prismatic Highness." M. Denayrouze has invented a new form •tof spirit lamp by which it is claimed that jfche m^imtim amount of light,-with the miniof cost, is to be obtained; and by so cloing aas solved the long-contested question jwhether alcohol, properly treated, has or has iiot magnificent lighting qualities. — The art of cheerfulness should be taught in Lhe schools. It is far more valuable than JFrench. or German. — Mrs Humphrey. Bohemian "geese, which are driven long Histances to market, are shod before starting jon the journey by being sent repeatedly over featohes of tar mixed with sand. This forms b hard crust on the feet, enabling the geese ito travel over great distances. I In liOKdon the Chief Commissioner of iPolice has any number of men to let out Yon hire. All public buildings, such as the Houses of Parliament, the National Gallery, *he British Museum, etc., are gtlftrded by liired policemen, and every one of these instiSbutions has to pay over to the Chief Commissioner so much per head. Theatres, banks, »nd other private concerns engage a large 'number of the men in blue. I - Yawns are excited by improper aeration , : of the blood, and are akin to the unconscious, jtirtd sigh. " Both are evidence of mental fatigue, and sometimes are symptoms of brain ihsease. . j — Canada needs only 237,000 square miles .•%& be as large as the whole continent of •Europe ; it is nearly 30 times as large as Great ■{Britain arid Ireland, and is 500,000 square miles larger than the United States. —It has often been said of late that Spain iz in a condition of hopeless decadence. This bb not true. Spain is, as she ever has been, lbadly governed — infamously governed — fcut the .*ank and file are sound. Like Franco, tehe is Increasing steadily in material wealth ; 'And, unlike France, she is increasing 'teadily an population. The Spanish sailors who stood to the guns they had never been taught to fire, and fought their old tubs aB long as they fcould stand and see, at Manila and off SanJtiago, were too good stuff to be sacrificed for ,4he sins of their- incompetent officers and iraseally system. — Pall Mall Gazette. .—. — The greatest pilgrimages to the Holy hL&ad are undertaken by the Russians. It has been calculated that between 30,000 and 40,000 visit Palestine every year.

— Sakai, a seaport town near Osaka, Japan, promises to become the Sheffield of the East ; 'A company has been formed to introduce mew machinery into the cutlery trade there. She city always had a high reputation for its hardware. (• — The wooden bicycle used by Blondin in Jbls famous ride across the Niagara Falls on •c i!ope is still in existenc, and was sold in {{Paris not long ago for- half a orown. — One of the most curious institutions conluected with the navy is the office of " inspector of singing." "In all training Wiipß the boys are instructed in Wnging by tutors. In each of the Whips there is a tonic-sol-fa class, where the jfcoys are taught to sing patriotic airs. This jebility to sing stirring music has a very livenJsng and inspiring influence upon the crews. — A queen bee sometimes lays at the rate 'jof two eggs a minute. As she lives four or jfiye years, she must lay about one and a-half 'smilliong in the course of her life.

— The natives of the Moluccas have a very way of corresponding with their ■friends. They arrange flowers of different [colours in a bouquet in such a way that the :ireceiver understands, by examining the variejjtles and their shades, what his friend intended ptc say to him. t —in the arctic region a man who wants '* divorce leaves home in anger, and does jinot return for several days. The wife takes (the Ami and departs. — Women cyclists often find progress diffijtoult in the streets of Cairo, unless they aro mrecsded on foot by a dragoman, who cleara ,«. way by the aid of a very serviceable stick. — An eccentric wedding took place recently Vat St. Peter's Church, New York, when an artillery officer named Lalloway was married to a lady named Martha Washington. The happy pair, the bridesmaids, the best man, the pastor, Mr Roche, and 12 brother officers jof tha bridegroom, who were present, were pll over 6ft high. In order to preserve the in its completeness no others were ad«nitted to the ceremony.

— Alaskan babies rarely cry. When they Ho they are held under a little stream of runping water, usually UDaer a barrel tap, until Jthey stop. — Of the 19,658,400 acres of land contained lfin Scotland, not quite 4,500,000 arc under cultivation.

— The Prince of Wales, as Duke of RotheBay, is the holdei of tho first dukedom created £n Scotland, just "500 years ago. — _As Mr Loweil has said, a nation is tested, •tict by its character or its men of genius, but ■fcjr its imports and exports, as though they represented necessarily anything more than mouths and naked backs. Mouths jmust be icd and backs clothed, but if nations texist for nothing more than that, they are only fit, as Oarlyle said, to be succedaneum ]sfo; salt, and the curtain might almost as well jbe rung down. Attica and Palestine were (tiny lands, bur at are living to-day on harvests of which they sowed the seed. We need jto look at quality rather than quantity; in Jverj truth, .-ipeness is all."— Spectatoi. — The fly lay four times each summer, fend 80 eggs each time. Th descendants of one female fly in » single ceason may number 5.08(1220,

—In New York City there are more than 1100 churches, including all denominations. There are more than 15,000 congregations, about 400 of which hold services in rented halls.