MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2412, 24 May 1900, Page 52

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— A young engineer has invented a phonoCryph which will record telephone messages on a steel band. When the message has been delivered it can be washed off.

— When a camel wauts -water it nioans continually. It is pitiful at night in the de=ei i to hear the ceaseless moaning of thirsty camels.

— Wall paper having an apparent value of £82,000, but in reality worth nothing, decorates ihe study of a New York business man. Jt is composed of thousands of 6 per cent. bo> d-s, engraved and punted at a cost of £500 or a company which, failing to attract 'investor:*, died before it could be floated.

— .An y.moricaa railway official m a recent lecture st '.ted that it costs his company each year abo. t £200 for pins, £1000 for indiarubber b.v-.'!s, £1000 for ink, £1400 for lead pencils, *:*•> that it costs nearly as much for stationer. - , ' carry on the business as for hon.

—In B: jium all automobile vehicles must carry, bo* '\ in- front and behind, a number largo enough to be seen at a distance, and after sunset each number must be lighted by a lamp. - Automobiles and bicycles must be provided with a, braie. All self-propelled carriages -muvt also bear the regulation number of the" city and the owner's name and acltifess. v Rubber-tyred carriages must carry bells.

— The Kaffirs live in peculiar balloonshaped hutd, made by" planting" long, slim branches or trunks of trees in a circle and bending their top? to the centre, where they are fastened. Native grasses are then woven in and cut between these branches.

' — Divers in the British Navy, before being passed as proficient in their craft, have to be able to work in 12 -fathoms of water for an hour, and 20 fathoms for a quarter of an hour.

?- It seems that there is really a whistling language. It is in the Canary Islands that people whistle instead of speaking when they hold converse witty each other. The language is compopad of words, as it were, like any other language, and the inhabitants attain great proficiency in it, so, that they can converse on all sorts of subjects. — The Gre? ! < Wall of China was recently measured by Mr Unthank. an American engineer. His measurements gave the height as 18ft. Eveiy few hundred yards there is a tower 25ft high. For 1300 miles the wall goes over plains and mountains, every foot of the foundation being of solid granite, and the rest of the structure solid masonry.

— Tree and shrub planting along tho Suez Canal to protect it from drifting sand is in progress. Reeds have been placed along about nine miles of waterline of the canal proper.

— The consulting surgeons at the -seat of ■war are being paid at the rate of £5000 a year, with free- passage to South Africa and back. There are no remarkable problems in surgery in this campaign. The best surgeon of all -is, the South African climate, which ccots us nothing. We hear constantly of wounds which heal almost of their own accord.

,' — The lead pencil originated with the ciocoyery of the graphite mines in England in the year 1654, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. ' — While our soldiers have been facing the Boer cannons the servants of the astronomical observatory in another part of South Africa have been peacefully gazing through their telescopes. The astronomers have discovered a little star of only the eighth magnitude, and consequently far too faint to be seen with the naked eye, which is nevertheless the swiftest traveller that has as yet been found among the stellar hosts. ' — Generally speaking, races living "at high altitudes have weaker and more highlypitched voices than those living in regions where the supply of oxygen is more plentiful. Thus, in America, among the Indians living on the plateaus between the ranges of the Andes, at an elevation of from 10,000 ft to 14,000 ft, the men have voices like the women and the women like children, and their singing is a shrill monotone. 4 — It appears that when Tommy Atkins arrives in 'India he has one rupee per month stopped out of his pay until fifteen rupees have teen collected for a coffin. This fifteen rupesis invested in the regimcntatl sodawater machine, and should he die the machine provides him with a- coffin and buries him decently; hut, should he survive, when he leaveo_ lndia he receives back his fifteen rupees and his share of the profits of sodawater. — Lord Charles Beresford's latest- China story illustrates the vileness of the roads- in the Celestial kingdom. Complaining on the^ subject on one occasion to an American gentleman resident in China, Lord Charles says he received' the reply. "Yes, a mule was drowned the other day in the road outside my house."

■ — One of the most curious plants in the •world is what is called the tooth-brush plant of Jamaica. It is a specieb of creeper, and has nothing particularly striking about its appearance. By cutting pieces of it to a puitablo length -and fraying the ends, the natives convert it into tooth brush; and a tooth powder to accompany the use of the brush is also prepared by pulverising the dead stems. — A Belgian pavings bank has recently adopted a process of .sterilising all bank notes which pass through its hands. The money is disinfected by being exposed for several hours to the vapour of formalin.

— The largest cargo of tobacco in its raw state ever imported into Great Britain was that brought by the Waverley in 1866. It carried about 1,200,0001b, valued at £85,000. To give some idea of the enormity of the shipments of the leaf and "weed" which arrive in the old country, we may mention that the Customs get over £9,000,00 a year duty. — It is curious to find that there is a eo\mtry in the world in which it is considered a crime to smoke. Abyssinia is the region, and the law forbidding tobacco dates from the yeai 1642. It was at first merely intended to prevent priests from smoking in the churches, but it was taken too literally, and nowadays even foreigners have to pmoke sub rosa, as "if they were still Fchoqlboys. — A remarkable instantaneous photograph is in the possession of a Bristol chemist. ■From some cause or another, while he was ..crossing the river, his camera fell over the side of the Clifton Bridge, and, as was afterproved, the shutter flew open as it The camera happened to alight against the sail of a passing ship, and was subsequently recovered uninjured by the owner. A plate which was in the camera at the time the fall was developed, and turned out a very clear negative of the under part of the suspension bridge.

—At a meeting of the Paris Academy of "Medicine last week, Dr Bonnior explained a method of testing for deafness by applying a tuning-fork to the knee or other part of the bony structure. The important statement, made fes that the note of the tuning-fork oould not be heard by a sound ear under these conditions, but could be'diutinctly heard by an ear in which disease had commenced.

— A barber was summoned in England under the act of Charle3 II for plying his craft on Sunday. The Divisional Court has decided that he is not a base mechanic, or sordid tradesman, but a professional gentleman, who at one time was authorised to bleed his clients, and is now legally entitled to practise his art when, where, and how he likes. There !

— Fertility of race, -says ths Hospital, is at the root of many things. Our merchants complain that in ©very lar<<i they find themselves met in the keenest competition by the übiquitous German. The reason lies with German mothers. They are now producing 36 children a year for every 1000 of the population; just what English mothers were doing 25 years ago. Now the English mothers are content with 29 per 'loo0 — one more nail, as one would say, in the coffin of the Empire. ■ — A company of the 3rd African French Battalion stationed a,t Ker (Tunis) has just enjoyed the most gigantic omelette ever made. At the request of the farmers in the neighbourhood the soldiers were sent on an expedition to annihilate the swarms of sparrows which were playing havoc with the crops. Their work finished, they brought back as spoils of war 5000 eggs, which the regimental cook mixed with many pounds of other ingredients, and made into an omeleile nearly 7ft in circumference

—It is now a rule of the White House at Washing-con that no bird shall be allowed to warble, or even lire, within its walls. The wife of President Hayes made this rule years ago, and it has been observed as a-sacrett precedent. When Mrs Cleveland first went to the White House to live after her marriage she had a pet canary. But the rule against birds was explained to her, and she gave the bird away. Mrs Harrison also started to bring a couple of canaries home from Indiampolis before she learned that birds were tabooed inside the White House.

— Superstition is rife among the Boers. One old burgher, who fought at Majuba, carries about with him a button which belonged to the tunic of an officer who fell on that bullet-swept hillside. He asserted that the button had consistently given him luck in shooting big game, and he saw no reason whyit should not be equally efficacious now that his boy was going out to shoot men. Therefore, before his son left the farmstead to join Commandant Cronje's force._his father hunted out his precious button and" sewed it cecurely on the lad's belt, with many injunctions to him to take care of the sacred relic.

— A letter that has travelled around the world in post-bags for the last 27 years has at length beep delivered, to the addressee for the last time. In 1873 two clerks in Indianapolis, Indiana, set it going on its journey. Tho lettei- was addressed to o::c of them in a far-distant part of the globe, and the correct address was written in the corner with the legend, "To be returned if not delivered." The postal authorities have always done their duty with respect to sending it back. Both of the clerks are now vice-presidents of American banks, but they have always found time to "keep the ball — or rather letter — rolling." — There has just been erected in the south choir aisle of York Minster a mural tablet to the memory f of the late Duke of Clarence, who for a long time was a familiar figure at the minster services. The tatblet is of white Carrara marble upon a slab of Belgian red marble, and has been designed hy the Dean of York. It represents a ehaplct of bay leaves, suspended from a coronet beneath a cross. Within the^wreath of bays is the following inscription in gold : "To the "Honoured Memory of H.E.H. Albert Victor Christian Edward, K.G., Duke of Clarence and Avondale, Major 10th Hussars, and stationed in this city 1887 to 1891. A loyal Churchman. A gracious Prince. A constant friend. This tablet is placed in the Cathedral Church of York by the Dean. January 14th. 1900.'" The work has been executed by Mr Milburn sculptor, York.

— Twin sisters celebrated their eighty-ninth birthday at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, the other day. Both were married at the a<je of 20, and each has survived her husband. With thj exception of two younger brothers they are the sole survivors of a family of 11 children. There ara twin brothers in Boston, Massachusetts, who have been inseparables since their birth 66 yeors ago. They married sisters, and the weddings took place on the same day.