MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2413, 7 June 1900, Page 49

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— No fewer than 40 times has Cecil Rhodes stood as sponsor lo ihe children of his friends, and it is stated that now Kimberley has been relieved Mr Rhodes will act in this capacity for the youngster of many of the humblest people iv the Diamond City.. The Prince of Wales has acted as godfather 75 times, but the German Emperor beats the record, as he stands in a similar capacity to ever}- seventh son in the Fatherland. — A new stretcher for army purposes has been introduced by Dr Chavernac, of Aix. It allows a wounded man to be lifted, carried, and laid in an ambulance cart, or bed, without touching him. With the present system in Franca four men are required to lift a wounded man, but the new stretcher only requires two, and the sufferer is raised without shock or pain. It is suitable for any country, however rough. It is rigid and made in two halves, which close together under the body of the patient, and when loaded it is mounted on a light 13107016 carriage. — The means b}* which the various departments of Hie War Office are nightly illuminated are curiously significant of the constant struggle which is being waged — aven in the War Office — between old systems and new. Gas is used in the lobbies and other places open to the public, but in the rooms where the officials work there are strange contiasts. In some of them clerks can be seen poring over musty papers by the dim light of two tall candles ; in others paraffin lamps make darkness visible; to some gas has penetrated : and in the remainder the light of other days has been superseded by ■electricity. The result is a strange mixture. — The great goldfish farm of the world is at Indiana, where thousands of goldfish are reared and exported to England every year. Among the many specimen^ produced in the ponds are some possessing from two to five tails, and at rare intervals six. These curious freaks are most valuable, and invariably bring high prices. — The possibility of the ostrich being used for a kind of two-legged saddle horse, as the natives of Abypsinia are said to have employed it, was demonstrated at Pasadena, California, recantly. A man not o;ily mounted a fullsized male ostrich, and rode hundred yards on its back, but also had a photographer take a picture -of him on his feathered steed. — A noted physician has met with great sucoess in his treatment of persistent cases of " norvous " headaches, and he has finally disclosed the secret. In each case, he says, after the patient had laid bare a long tale of woe — of sleepless nights and miserable clays — he prescribed, briefly, a simple hair-cut. The curative property of the treatment is based on the fact that the tube -which passes through the entire length of each single hair is severed in the process, and the hair "bleeds," as the barbers say, thereby opening a safety-valve for the congested cranium. — Professor Johann&en, of Copenhagen, has published a pamphlet on the exposure of growing plants to the vapour of ether, "which kills the leaves and promotes the development of the buds after the plant is removed from the. ether. His experiments were chiefly made on' lilac. ; — Mr Benjamin Teale, a Yorkshireman, who was born in 1818. has just been celebrating at Aberford his diamond -wedding. " Old Bob," as'he is familiarly called, has acted as clerk of the parish, and is still a member of the church choir as a tenor, a position he has occupied for over half 'a century- He was, tnri.il four years a^go, free from all ailments. H« -was then prostrated by influenza, but has now fully recovered, and both he and his wife are in the best of heath. —It has been calculated that a minimum pressure of the finger of £lb is needed to sound a note on the piano, and that at times a force of slb is thrown on a single key to produce a single effect. Chopin's last sdudy in C minor has a passage, taking 2min sseo to play, that requires a total pressure estimated at three full tons. -f" — The window now in progress of erection in the north end transept of St. Paiil's Cathedral is the gift of the late Duke of Westminster. Sir W. B. Richmond, R.A., K.C.B , has executed the design, the subjects being the archbishops and bishops under whom the new faith was introduced or restored under the Saxon Heptarchy — viz., for Kent, Augustine, Theodore; for thp East Saxons, Mellitus, Cedd. Erc'onwald ; for Northiunbrla, Paulinus, Aidan. Chad ; for Wessex, Birinus, Wilfrith; for Mercia, Diuma ; for East Anglia, Felix. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, is included in the sei'ies, his great work of organising and welding Christ ianity justifying his admission. Tn the pouth <= n d transept window (also given by the late Duke) are '-epre^entations of the kings of the Heptarchy. — An official statement issued by the In--dian War Office of the "wars and military operations on or beyond the borders of British .India in which the Government of India has been engaged since 184-9 " gives so'mc surprising information. On no fewer than 110 distinct occasions have the British soldiers been called üßon for active service, which shows an average for that period of. rather more than two wars per annum. In this list all wars and expeditions in Africa and China, including the Egyptian campaign, in which Indian- troops were employed; are counted. —In Germany, Franco, Russia, Austria, Italy, and Spain large grants of money are annually voted for the systematic training of pigeons to carry messages from place to place. In the first-named country, for instance, as much a£' £2500 a year is set aside for this purpose, and the result is that the German War department can at any time have the ' services of some'thins; like 200,000 carefully trained birds. In France the number of pigeons available for the name purpose is probably much larger, for in JB9l it amounted to 250,000, and since that date it is practically bcund to have increased. Both Russia and * Italy have had cotes established in different parts of their territories* since J872. but nei-tl-er of these countries hap yet had an opportunity of testing their systems in time of war. —At a meeting of the council of the British Chamber of Commerce of^Paris, held on '"the 17th March, the following resolutions v, ere passed unanimously : — (1) That this 'meeting desires to express to the president of 1 the Trench Republic its warm appreciation of ■ "the kindness and consideration always shown her Majesty's (Subjects residing in , France by the various members of the French Government, and deplores that attempts 1 should have been made fco raise >up a spirit of animosity between the French and British peoples. (2) That this meeting desires to convey .to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales its gratification at the iact that he consented to acl as president of the British Commission for -the Paris Exhibition, and trusts that every effort will be made through *he press and other public channels to maintain and stimulate the feeling of mutual rested and goodwill 'between the nations of France and -Great