MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2433, 31 October 1900, Page 53

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The tea. used in the Chinese Eoyal household is treated with great care. It is raised in a walled garden, so that neither man nor beast can get near the plants. At the time of the harvest those collecting these leaves must abstain from eating fish, that their breath may not spoil the aroma of the tea ; they must bathe three- times a day, and, in addition, must wear gloves while picking the tea for the Chinese court.

— The King of Spain is not the only boy King. He shares this distinction with the Maharajah of Nepaul, a mere lad, who is at the head of 2,000,000 of people, and commander of a standing army of 15,000 men.

— The Duke of Cambridge, who is fond of collecting swords, always wears on State occasions the diamond-hilted weapon which was presented to him by the Shah of Persia.

— The tortoise shows a greater dislike to and fear of rain than any other animal. Twenty-four hours or more before rain falls the stortois9 usually makes for shelter. On a bright, clear morning, when not a cloud can be seen, all the shellbacks on a tortoise farm may be noticed making for the nearest overhanging l'ocke. When that happens the people know that rain will come down during the day.

* — In "Vienna" telephone call-boxes, or "booths," are provided with napkins, bearing the request "'Wipe, if you please." These cloths are frequently changed, and the practice of wiping the mouthpiece of the transmitter is a sanitary precaution. - — The army death-rate is lower in Great Britain than in any other country. In France it as nearly six times as high.

— A railway with wooden rails has been constructed near Quebec for ihe transport oi persons and light goods. The rails are of ircaple wood, the lme is about 30 miles long, and the running is smooth. — "The following plan for the tempering^ of tools has been recommended by a French technical paper: — The tools ure heated to dull redness, and are then plunged two or three times into a mixture made by dissolving 10 parjs by weight of resin in five parts of fish oil, and stirring in two and a-half parts of melted tallow. The tools are then reheated to dull redness and plunged into cold water.

— Newmarket claims the record for quick conversion of corn to flour. On a recent Monday morning a farmer cut a small field of red wheat, threshed it in the afternoon, and sold it that day for 25s a, quarter to a milling firm which ground it that evening and delivered the ikrar in the morning. — One of the heaviest-insured men in the world k< Mr F. H. Peavey, who has recently taken out a policy of £200,000 with an American company. For this he pays an annual premium of £9670 lor the rest of his days. With one exception this is the largest policy ever issued by a single office. This solitary exception was a policy of like amount written upon the life of Mr G. W. Vanderbill, who pays only £7000 premium.

— ffhe honour of building a temple without the sound of hammer has hitherto been held by Solomon, but the architect who designed the vitrified clay church in Chicago competes pretty closely with the learned king. There is not an inch of lumber or a nail in the whole structure. The entire, ceiling is of brick and tile vaulting, the keystones being of terra-cotta, and tho ribs of the arohos and groins of moulded brick.

— Twenty years ago a man of 80 at Reading purchased for £300 a life annuity of £104-. He has just died. "For his £500 he received over £2000.

—In the village of Millbeck, nerr Keswic'k, is a most curious freak of Nature. Two trunks rise on each side of a spring of clear water, and join together 3ft above, forming one tree.

— From Philadelphia comes the very latest story of commercial enterprise. Mr Jacoburi Hope, of that^cLy, has cornered tho snake market, and pythons, anacondas, boa constrictors, ribbon snakes, adders — all are coming into his net. He buys them, not by the snake, but by the foot or the yard. He will supply zoological gardens and sliows all over tha world, and says he cannot fulfil his orders fast enough.

— Canton, China, possesses the queerest street in the world. It is roofed in with glazed paper fastened on bamboo, -and contains more signboards to the square foot than any street in any other country. It contains no other shops but those of apothecaries and dentists. Physic street is its appropriate name.

— In Luxembourg the practice of planting fruit trees along tho public roads is extensively carried out," the principal being apnles, pears, plums, and cherries. It was started in 1870, and theie are now 12,308 treer. Before the fruit is quite ripe it is sold by auction. During- the first 20 year-s this undertaking was •unprofitable, but from 1891 it began to pay, when the cron was sold for £160, whilst last year tbe sale price was something apToaehin'g £2000, or an income of abcut 3s a tree. — All the soap iised in Paraguay is made of cocoa oil. - — The amount of gold coin in actual circulation in the world is estimate by the Bank 'of England officials to be about 865 tons. — Among the exhibits 'in tho Petit Palais dcs Beaux Arts at the Paris Exhibition is a white marble clock, for which an offer of £50,000 has just been made. The clock is by Falconet, and is composed of statuettes of three nymphs standing, and is called the " Clock of the Three Graces." They are connected by festoons of flowers, surrounding a broken fluted pillar, which serves as the ba&e of a twa-handled vase decorated with festoons of oak leaves. This vase contains the works of the clock, to the dial of which one of the nymphs is pointing with her finger. The owner of the clock is Oomte Isaac de Oamondo, and an offer of £50,000 was made through M. Jacques Seiigmann, the great dealer in curiosities. As the clock is among the objects which Oomto de Camondo intends ito leave to the Louvre on his death, the offer was declined.

— The game of cricket once saved two English missionaries in Ohina from the Boxer?, and they were the well-known Steole Brothers, excellent players. They established a mission at l?ang Soe, on the Yang-t.se River, i, wry isolated spot. On. the occasion of a risihir of 'the Boxers, their position was <in exceedingly dangerous one, and one day it was repnitd that a band of 500 of the rebels wins marching down in their directron. Ihe missibn.iries iad no one to help them. They liad taught sotou of the native boys to -play th f> game, and at this critical moment they pitched the stumps in front of -the mission house, made up s;de,s, and began a game. When the Boxers .rrued the brothers advanced to meet them and «xplained that it was such games as that which had mad© England so great and so powerful, and they were giving to Ohina the secret of theirNmight. If the Boxers dared to touch a cricliet player they would be doomed. The speech had a wonderful effect, and the missionarieo and their converts were spared*