MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2396, 1 February 1900, Page 52

MULTUM IN PARVO.

■ — One of the masterpieces of musical clocks has just been completed for the Emperor of China, in whose palace, besides pointing out the correct time, it will play selections with a fully-equipped automatic orchestra. —It is estimated that there are in the world's oceans 7,000,000 cubic miles of salt, and the most astonishing thing about -it is that if all this salt could be taken out in a

moment the level of the water wmild no

drop one single inch. ." ' — The first Australian newspaper — the

Sydney Gazette — was published March 5, 11806, 15 years after the rise of the colony. The delay was caused through there being no printers among the convicts, who represented every profession, including the legal. — The romantic poetry of Shelley, or of Victor Hugo, moves in a world of expression, as well as feeling, to which classicism is deaf, and which arose out of its ashes. — Oliver Elton. — Coal was' first used at Newcastle-on-Tyne about 1230. About 50 years later it became an article of trade between that place and London. It was generally considered 'so injurioiis to the health that it was

regarded as a public nuisance. — Language is but a poor bull's-eye lantern wherewith io show off the vast cathe

dral of the world ; and yet a particular

thing once .said in words is so definite and memorable that it makes us forget the ab-

sence of the many which remain unexpressed : like a bright window in a distant view, which dazzles and confuses our sight of its surroundings. — It. L. Stevenson. — Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are the favourite days in the week for marriages — Sundays in rural districts and Saturdays in towns. Sunday weddings seem to be generally less numerous than they were, while the number which take place on a Saturday are greatly on the increase.'

— Lord Rosebery is a force, and one not easily got rid of or escaped. He does not attack, but attracts. He is never so dangerous as after a retreat. He can watch, and he can wait. — Telegraph.

— Anaesthetics were known in the days of thfl ancient Greeks, and the Chinese 2000 years ago had a preparation of hemp to deaden pain — something similar to our modern cocaine.

— About 10 persons commit suicide every day in Paris. — How Bret Harte conveys the impression of charming women is always something of a mystery. They are quite unlike anyone else's — a few strokes and the thing is done. The effect is never missed. — Morning Post. — The most costly Parliament of Europe is that of France. The Senate and Chamber of Deputies eat up annually £300,000. The same item for the other chief European nations is as follows: Spain, £89,200; Italy, £86,000; Austria, £52,000; Great Britain, £51,920. - <— A club i 3 now being formed in Paris, the members of which swear never to shake bands with anyone unless wearing gloves. — A petrified forest, covering an area of 100 . square miles, has existed for centuries in Arizona. Thousands and thousands of petrified loss strew the ground, and represent beautiful shades of pink, purple, red, grey, blue, and yellow. One of the stone trees spans a gulf 40ft wide. —It may not -be generally known that many of the soldiers at present engaged in South Africa are members of the Gleaners' Union, an organisation of helpers of the Church Missionary Society. Several belong to the King's Royal Rifles, the regiment ■which so distinguished itself at Glencoe, whilst others are in the Ist Gloucester, one of the regiments in the Nicholson's Nek disaster. The "Warwickshires, who were to the front at the battle of the Atbara last year, also contain a goodly number.

— People marvel at the mechanism of the human body, with its 492 bones and 60 arteries. But man is simple in this respect compared with the carp. That remarkable fish moves no fewer than 4386 bones and muscles ever}- time it breathes. It has 4320 veins, to say nothing of its 99 muscles.

— Bigamists in Hungary are compelled to submit to a queer punishmonl. The man who has been foolish er. ugh to marry two wives is obliged by law .o live with both of them in the fame house.

—In the canary-breeding establishments of Germany, the method of training the birds to sing is to pul them in a room where there is an automatic whistle, which they all strive to imitate. The breeder listens to the efforLs of the birds, and picks out the most apt pupils, which are then placed in another room for further instruction.

— Brazil produces on an average 360.000 tons of coffee per •annum — that is, about four-fifths of the whole amount consumed in the world.

— Golf lias been introduced into Constantinople by the English residents there.

— The dramatic profession is the only one open to women in which social position has its value. — World. '

— President Kruger is accustomed to sleep eight hour? cadi night. No matter how tired he feels upon retiring, he nightly sets an alarm clock to allow him just that amount of rest.

— The Czar of Russia has far fowor subjects than the Queen. The British Empire is, roughly, 9,000,000 square miles, with 350,000.000 inhabitant.?. The entire population of Russia in Europe and Siberia is just under 135,000,000, distributed over 8,500,000 square miles. Russia and England own between them one-third of the whole land surface of the inhabited world.

— German locomotive factories number 18, and have a capacity of 1400 locomotives per year, part of which output is exported. •

— A little time before his death Millais met Philip Calderon in Kensington Garden^. "Tt will kill me," he said, pointing to his throat, and gasping his words. " But." he added, "I am ready, and not afraid; I've had a good time, my boy, a very Rood time!" That is Millais's biography. What a good time he had ! — and he knew it. — Academy.

■ — There are certain lucky creatures? which never feel the pangs of thirst, for they are co constituted that drink is unnecessary to them, and they never swallow a drop of water in their lives. Among these animals are certain gazelles of the Far East and the llamas of Patagonia.

— The fighting ships; of the British navy lire of an estimated value of £90.000,000, or about £20,000,000 le« than a year's national income. Our bnttle.ships arc worth £40.000.000, ' and our protected uruisero about £26,000,000.

— A novelty in church translation has just been carried out in the ca^e of St. Bride's Church, Glasgow. It was lately decided to remove it to another part of the, district, and it was resolved to remove the ihurch bodily and set it down on its new site in the fashion ofiHUßfm *Q America. The building

was first raised by means of "bottle" and hydraulic jacks, and pulled along on heavy wooden planks covered with black soap on to the roadway. It was then fitted with heavy broad-rimmed iron wheels, two being placed forward and two aft. The work of transferring the building — for which three road traction engines were employed — was considerably delayed by the heavy rains. — London has a purer, fresher self, revealed only to those who are early abroad. Loveliest in the first summer days, when her robes of leaf and blossom are still unsoiled, even in the sweltering dog days, when the sun has set luridly on a jaded and feverish city, seething in a cauldron of dust, wan with long draughts of polluted air, she will step forth at dawn with the dew of the morning on her locks, radiant and vigorous, a London that has bathed in Lethe, and awakened to forgetfulnes? of her daily treadmill of toil and pleasure, rejoicing in the innocence and young vigour which the kindly hour of daybreak unfailingly renews.