MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2603, 3 February 1904, Page 58

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— An electric "talking machine" for mutes has been invented. Two persons, each encasing the thumb and forefinger in metal thimbles connected with positive, and negative wires to a battery, aid using the Morse code in striking the thimbles together, can talk very fluently im light or darkness and at a good distance from each other. By carrying pocket batteries peicons can talk thus while walking or riding. — A wealthy South London omnibus proprietor who takes a great interest in his horses is iai the habit of personally christening each by name, and although it sometimes occurs that he does not see an animal for over a year he neve* fails at once to re-member its name. A s he is the owner of 500 horses, this may be acknowledged as a remarkable feat of memory. #?— A good authority on horsei. says that thi grey will live the longest, and that the roan? come next in order. Blf.cks seldom live to be over 20, and creams rarely exceed 10 or 15.

— The highest bid ever made at auction was the sum of £400,000 offered by Mr Lister (now Lord Masham) for Swinton Park. At the Fonthill sate £8000 was taken for the sale of -the catalogues alane.

—In 3.2 months Yarmouth derived a revenue of about £2859 from its beach. The sale of sand and shingle produced £504, and payments for the right to nlace stalls on the beach £700. / — There are 26,600 Fremeh in Great Britain and Ireland, more than three-fourths of the number being in London. The busine-s most followed among these is cookery. As English laundresses are prized in Framce, so French cooks are valued in England.

— The whole pcetal service of a rural parish in Dumfriesshire is performed by a single family. The mother of th& family — a widow — is the village postmistress ; her eldest eon, who is a cripple, delivers the" correspondence of one part of the parish with the assistance of a donkey and cart ; her two daughters, both of whom are girls under 16, carry the letters to ither parts of the parish ; and the postal wp.nts of the remaining part of the parish are attended to by he^r son, a boy of fifteen. The combined wages of the family .lo not amount to £150 per annum.

— Statistics issued by the Imper al Health Office at Berlin show that the total amount spent on alcoholic liquors in the German En.pire in 1902 was £125,000,000, averaging £7 per head of persons over 15. — The largest telegraph pole jn England has been erected a f Ilfracombe. It is t> be used for wireless telegraphy experiments between the Mumbles and Ilfracombe. The height is 116 ft 3in. It has been placed at a depth of 6ft im solid rock.

— There are now 2000 hotels and pensions in Switzerland, employing something like 35,000 oersons dur-ma: the ■summer season. It is estimated that 331,000 people visit Switzerland in the season and spend about £4,000,000 there.

-T - The publications issued by the King re entitled to enjoy the benefit of copyright fof over. The King, in his capacity of publisher, issues all charts to be used by mariners, and no one else has the right to publish those charts. It is the. same with the ordnance 6urvey maps; these arc issued by the King alone. — The Chelsea Guardians have made it their practice- to supply tobacco to such inmates jf the workhouse as expressed a desire for the fragramt weed. Almost without exception, the male mmates professed themselves inveterate smokeis, and received the regulation quantity of tobacco. Now the Guardians have discovered that many of tho /C'cipients have been in the habit, not of smoking the tobacco llipmselveis, but of elling it to mteidor at l^d per junc-e, or iu=t about half what it ccsl the ratepayers In fvtur© greater car is t. be taken t< a-ccitaui whether tho applicants for tobacco are b-ona fide smokers or not.

* — A guild or umion of women chimneysweeps has been started in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Its founder is the widow of a sweep blessed with six daughters. All seven belong to the guild and are active members. No woman chimney-sweep is to be less than 14 years old nor more than 35, but girl assistants may be admitted at eight years. As soon as a sweep marries she nrast leave the guild. All must sign the temperance pledge and be members of the Orthodox (Greek) Church. —Ln South American waters mullet are taken in enormous quantities by beats which, go out with wire baskets at the bows filled with blazing pitchpine. For the purpose in view, the craft is so loaded as to bring the gunwale on one side down nearly to a level with the water, and the fish, attracted by the light, jump on board by hundreds. — The North-Eastern, Railway Company pay taxes at the rats of £230 per mile, the Midland at the rate of .3256 per mile, and the Great Northern £249 per mile, and the Lancashire and Yorkshire £363 pei mile. — Most of the black" hair used in. wigs and ''switches" comes from the Italian and Spanish convents, and most of the blond-? hair from the heads of Swedish, Danish, Russian, and German peasant girls. — The largest winged insect in the world is the Atlas moth of Central Brazil. Its wings extend 14in from tip to tip. —In the canary-breeding establishments of Germany only the male birds are valued, for the females never sing. The method of training the birds to sing is to. put them in a room where there is an automatic whistle, which they aH strive to imitate. The breeder listens to the efforts of the birds, and picks out from amomg them the most apt pupils, which are then placed by themselves in another room for further instruction.

— Doctors state that after the age of 50 the human brain loses weight. The railways of the world give employment to something like 6,000,000 persons.

— Some of the large ocean steamers can be converted into armed cruiser* in 30 hours.

— Since Mexico was freed from the Spanish yoke she has passed through 260 revolutions.

— The larg-est hotel in the world is Ansonia, New York, which contains 2500 rooms, with 34l distinct suites above ground. There are nearly 200 mile* of piping concealed within its walls and floors and extending below the surface. Running icewater is available in every suite, which con^ tains a complete refrigerating box. There are 18,000 electric lights. An apartment may be rented o\ 600dol, or as high s 6000dol, a /ear. The tenant may keep house and have his own servants. v _ The Belgian Post Office authorities have hit upon rather a good idea. Every postagestamp has a slip attached to it, which may or may not be used, ..t the. option of the person who posts the letter. This slip is worded to the effect that the communication to which it is attached is not to be delivered on the Sunday. On all stamps of every denomination this notification is to be found, and the consequence is that there is growing up in Belgium a tendency in the direction of having no letters or newspapers — for newspapers are mostly delivered by post — on the Sunday. — The island of Malta is the only corner of the globe where the remains of dwarf elephants are found. One of these, whose teeth and bones showed it was a full-grown specimen, was ]ess than two and a-half feet in height, and could not have weighed over 6001b when in the flesh. -Fire is an essential in some wedding celebrations. In Persia the service is read in front of a fire. In Nicaragua the priest, taking the couple each by the little finger, leads them to* am. apartment where a fire is lighted, and there instructs the bride in. her duties, extinguishing it by way of conclusion. In Japan the woman kindles a torch, and the bridegroom lights one from it, tho playthings of the wife being burnt then and there. — There has been discovered in the forests of India a plant which possesses astonishing magnetic powei. The hand which breaks a. leaf from it immediately receives a shock. At a distance of 20ft a magnetic needle is affected by it, and it will be quit© deranged if brought near. The energy of this singular influence varies with the hours of the day. At the height of its powe_ about 2 o'clock in tho afternoon, it is absolutely quiescent during the night. In the village of Mittenwald, in .he heart of the Bavarian highlands, live men. who manufacture the greater part of the world's violins. Mittenwald has taken the place of Cremona, although it may be another 200 years before its violins can be mentioned in the same breath with those oi the famous Italian town. Of the 1800 inhabitants of the village, over 800 are exclusively occupied with the manufacture of violins, and the output reaches the incredible figure of 50,000" violins per annum. They are exported to all countries in the world, the better instruments going to England and America. One organisation of makers alone exports 15,000. — There are various reasons for admitting "dead-heads" into theatres. In some cases when a play has not been a succeed at the start orders are distributed far and wide in the hope that by having a full house every night the piece will get talked about and ultimately attract the public. When theatregoers see only beggarly rows of empty seats, they at once ;onclude that the entertainment is worthless ; jonsequently if tickets of admission cannot be sold, it is sometimes wise to give them away. Further, ome actors find it so difficult to perform before a meagre audience that "dc-ad-heads" are brought in expressly for their benefit. — Professor Dexter, of the University of Illinois, has compiled a curious volume of statistics relating to "successful" people, and containing 8602 names. It is shown that musicians sain success it the earliest age ; ohc. ciecntists at -n early age ; the actor and ',ho author next ; the inventors gain their place slowly, no one below he age of 40 being .ncluded in the book. Women reach success in all callings, except in music and on the stage, later than their male competitors. It has before beem. noted that musical gifts, tend to develop more quickly than almcet any othe<-. As for the business men, it "& interesting to learn that 84 per cent, of the succesful men of business did not entec college, while 12 per jent. completed it. Of jhe financiers 18 per cent, are college graduates. — The Rusian Wai Office has deoided that in future grey horse shall be exclusively used for artillery purposes, the /eason for the innovation being that animals of this colour have been found by experience tc be .tronger and more enduring than brown ones — A hippopotamus's jiido jn. some parts is two inches thick.