MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2565, 13 May 1903, Page 58

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— A curious habit nas recently sprung up a:neng tho undergraduates of Cambridge Ya iversiry— viz., goir.g to their games in the afternco'.! with no revering on the head. To a <rirai:g'er it presents a most ununual spectacle, more especially if it be raining, but nothing deters the enthusiast, who maybe seen in all weathers making his way on foot or by bicycle to the %enue of the game. Ti;e habit, however, is cemfined to these who play football or heckey — the boating man. has not yet fallen a prey to the craze. What is its origin no one seems able to determine, but that it is extending cannot be denied. — Some of the residents ir the village of Wardle, near Rochdale, have formed a Tree-planting Association, with the object of improving the appearance of their streets and the approaching roads.. It has just been discovered that there exists at Rapperswyl, Switzerland, a fund consisting of nearly £10,000, which has been subscribed by Poles iD various parts of the world for the purpose of waging war on Russia when a propitious time shall arrive. —In the Arotic regions there are 762 kinds of flowers, 50 of whioh are peculiar to the Arctic regions. They are, curiouely enough, all either white or yellow. — Police «tatistice show that the arrests fcr drunkenness in London ar<* at the annual rate of one to every 175 inhabitants; in Birmingham ona to 153 ; iv Manchester one to 71 ; and in Liverpool one to 50. — Norwegian seamen are entitled to vote before leaving their country, if the polling day > within three months of their departure, or they can vote at «< foreign port within the same time by having their votes sent home through a Norwegian cccisul. — Bats in the Philippine Islands are r.s big as cats, and with tho wings spread measure three feet from tip to tip. A bite from one of them is said to b» poisonous. — Most of the- black, hair used in wigs and "switches" comes from tho Italian and Spanish convents; most of the blcr.de hair from the heads of. Swedish, Danish, Russian, and German peasant girls. — The proportion of married people to the population is highest in Hungary, where ♦07 per 1000 of the people are married. Portugal stands at the other end of the list, witli only 310 married per 1000. — A bill has been introduced in the Missouri Senate to make it a misdemeanour, punishable by a fine of mot less than £5 or more than £10, to flirt with boardingechool girls, their principals, or their teachers. — Restaurants on wheels are- the latest ideas at Stockholm, The cars, with a variety of hot dishes, perambulate the streets. On a customer coming a little table is let down, on which the meal is served and eaten with "quick lunelr' rapidity. Intoxicating liquors cannot be- sold from the cars. —Mr Robert Leadbctter, of Hazlemere Park, near High Wyeombe. has cmc of the leading private menageries in England. He also boasts the handsomest full-mane African lion in captivity. Its name is Sultan, and its bill of faro for a week is 1751b of beef and horseflesh, or 251b per day. — Among the latest inven-ticm ii a doorknob which r?nders a latoh-key superfluous. Fy rotating the knob in the same manner aa a rafe lock until the proper combination is secured Jie doer can be opened. The lock is susceptible of 100,000 combinations, and he who knows not or has forgotton the propor cne cannot obtain admittance through that door. — When two Negrito.?, a people of the Philippine Islands, arc unked. the whole tribe is assembled, and the affianced pair climb two trer* growing near each other. The eklnrs th<"n bend the branches vmtil the heads cf the couple meet. When the heads have thus come into contact, tho mnrrin^e is legally accomplished and great rejoicings take place, a fantastic dance oomploting the ceremony. — A novel method of ploughing the soil has been invented in California. It is well known that dynamite strikes downwards when it is exploded. The Califbrnian fruitgrower lets in or on tho soil a scries of dynamite- charge;, and by filing these thfi ground w broken up easily cod quicblv, and more cheaply than by any other method. — The weaving of stone into material for clothing, the making of flexible and lasting granite trousers, black marble coats, aud fancy onyx waistcoats may be a possibility of the future, says one of .the scientific papers. Already curtains are made of asboFtog and cloth mrniufactured from chalk, while a certain spinner has an arm-chair covered with a soft and silky fabric of Titian red which he wove toilsomely out of a rook-red zhel!. — The- remnant of a strange tribe of Esquimaux has been discovered on Southampton Island, at the north end of Hudson Bay. These people had ciever seen a white man until recently. Their huts are built of the ereat ja.ws of whales covered with .'kin 1 :. In the. middle is an elevation, on which in a stone lamp used for lighting, heating, cooking, melting snow, and drying clothes. Th? tribe Is almost extinct, cnly some 16 being left. — The famo.is West Mailing stoup hrf been fold for 1450 guinea';, to benefit tho church funds at West Mailing. Kent. It was disrovored in a mpboard of the church somo 40 years ago, and until recently the church authorities had no idea of its value. When it was found to he wortli foino hundreds of pounds, however, they decided to sell it. The juer is only 9iin high and sin in diameter, and is one of the finest specimens of its kind in existence. It is at least 322 years old, beano; dated 1581. — The 'attempt of Edwards, the Cambcrwell murderer, to evade capital punishment by feigning mac'mess has drawn attention to similar ca-es. The New York authorities be-lievp that there is a whool for teaching Anarchists how to simulate the ineane, to twitch and twist their fingers and moan, and otherwise play upon the feelings of a jury to obtain a commutation of the sentence or a commitment for insanity. An Italian stated some years ago to an American prison doctor that a man had offered to make him "crazy" for £2. — Many are the substitutes used for tobacco. Dried holly leaves, the bark of *h« willow, and leaves af the stag's horn sumach ire used by the American Indians. In Switzerland a weed called mountain tobacco is smoked in great quautitiee. It causes the smoker to become a mental and physical wreck. The natives of South Africa are rendered nervous? imbeciles by emoking the dried leaves of the camphor plant. The wild dagga, another South African plant, poisons slowly anyone using it.