MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2667, 26 April 1905, Page 59

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The reason that the two towers of Notre Dame, in Paris, are not of equal 6ize ie a curious one. "When the edifice was erected the cathedral of a suffragan bishop was not entitled to two towers of equal size, and for centuries the Bishop of Paris was suffragan to the Bishop of Sens.

— A scientific journal decides that women aro literally more wide-atvake than men. They are not only early risers, but they are much more easily aroused in the morning than men. A woman may go to bed late, she may have retired physically exhausted, but when it comes to getting up she completely out-distances men. —Twenty years ago the wages of Nottingham lace makers were as high as £6 and £7 a week, and' th.c profits of the employers ranged up to 100 per cent. To-day if a man is working full time, he may earn from £2 10s to £4 a week. —In boring at Altona, Victoria, with the object of finding the trend of coal measures near the sea, artesian water was struck, and it has been sending up a column above the surface 20ft high. The water is perfectly fresh, and it is suggested that it should • be utilised to irrigate some of the farms in the direction of Werribee. —The inhabitants of Francs insure more heavily against fire than any other nation. Compared' to Great* Britain end Russia, the total amount insured for averages at too per inhabitant for France, £39 Great Britain, and £1 for Russia. —It is interesting to learn that the true blush cannot be induced artificially. A French scientist made numerous experiments, but was unable to devise any method, electrical or otherwise, by which to simulate the effect. A blush, he explains, originates in the brain as the result of mental impression. Under its influence the sympathetic nerves affect the muscles that control the small blood vessels, and the blood rushes to the surface of the body. It is always an involuntary performance. It js not surprising that more people live, to be over 100 years old in warm climates bhan in the highest latitudes. The Gorman Empire, with 55 million inhabitants, has 778 centenarians ; France, with 40 millions 1 , has 213; England has 146, and Scotland 46: Sweden has 10; Norway, 23; Belgium, 5 ; Denmark, 2 ; Spain, 401 ; and Switzerland none. Servia, with a population of 2,250>000, has 575 people over 100 years old,

— Polish women are renowned for their beauty and the perfection of their hands and the smallness of their feet They place fineness of the hands above all other charms. "I .regard my hands, not my face," said one,- and it is reported in Warsaw that the Vienna shce dealers keep a separate x-ase of shoes for the delicate feet of their Polish customers. Polish ladies maintain that when they shop in Vienna and show their small feet with the high instep to be fitted, the tradesmen exclaim, "Ah, those, are Polish feet!" — The authorities in Norway have discovered a novel way "of curing- drunkenness. The "patient" is placed under lock and key, and his nourishment consists in great part of bread soaked in port wine. The first day the <lrunkard eats his food with pleasure, and even on the second day he enjoys it. On the third day he finds that it is very monotonous, on the fourth day he becomes impatient, and at the end 1 of eight days he receives the wine -with horror. It seems that the disgust increases, and that this cure gives good results. — There is a church in the quiet little village of Mumford, near Niagara Falls, which is composed entirely of fossils. At first- glance the walls appear to be constructed" of rough sandstone, smeaz-ed with an uneven coating o! gritty coarse plaster, but a closer view reveals the error of this first conclusion. Instead of plaster the eyee behold traceries of delicate leaves, lace. worV of interwoven twigs, bits of broken branches, and of all kinds of vegetation turned into limestone. As a matter of fact, every block of stone in the four walls is a closely-cemented mass of dainty fossils.

— The British and the inhabitants of the land of Cousin Jonathan are not the only countries to possess millionaires. There are some in Prussia, even. But what a difference ! Over there a millionaire is one who owns 1,000,000 marks, equal to less than £50,000. There are exactly 2344- who have more thai 2,000,030 marks— £9s,2oo ,- 522 who have from 4,000,000 to 10,000,000 marks, 143 from 10,000,000 to 25,000,000, and 24 from 25,000,000 to 100,000,000, or £4,760,000. These figures are- taken from the income-tax books. In England a millionaire is the possessor of £1,000,000. The French millionaire measures his wealth in francs, equal to £40,000. The Babylonian Midas was the richest kind of a millionaire. He had 1,000,000 talents, or £400,000.000, each talent being £400.

— Sir Jarr.cs vJrieh^on-Browne, who has bren on a missioa of inquiry to the West Indies in connection with the Colonial Office, has just returned to London, bvinging with him. . delightful impressions of his tour. During his sojourn at Jamaica he had rather an amusing encounter with a coloured but very humble official. Sir James, as an ardent Scot, was keenly interested in the Scottish associations of Dunedin, Argyle, and Hamilton, and on inquiring if there were many Scotsmen now in those places, the darky candidly replied : "Not many, just a few — but quite enough." — The monks at the Hospital of St.

Jean de Dieu, at Ghent, have in their lei. sure moments decorated the walls with gorgeous landscapes, glowing with colour and 1 full of life, formed entirely by means of the postage-stamps of all the nations of the world. Palaces, forests, streams, and mountains are represented, butterflies flit about in the air, birds of beautiful plumage perch on branches, snake; and lizards glide about, and innumerable animals find places here and there. The pictures are most artistic, in the style of Chinese' landscape gardening, and already between nine and ten millions of stamps have been used.

— In Paris the pawnshop has quaint, halfpathetic humours which it would" probably be difficult to match in England. This is the time of the year for renewals, and the expiry of the date makes it possible to take an inventory of old pledges remaining or gone. This year a small object, pledged for the sum. of 11s 8d in the year 1869 has been withdrawn, after 36 yearly renewal*, involving a payment of £1 13s 4d. The champion "relic" of the place, however, is an ivory-headed walking-stick, on which the owner has paid 7£d each year since 18591

— The practice of drinking methylated spirits is increasing rapidly in the Isle of Man, and several deaths attributable to it have occurred. A t present the spirit • can be very cheaply and easily purchased. The Manx Government contemplate placing restrictions upon its sale. — There is a gamekeeper at TV lnchcste", U.S.A., who has a wonderful collection of cats' tails, which he obtained in the following way. He surrounds the coops in which he keeps his pheasants with a network of electric wires, and when the cats oomfi after his birds they are killed by the shock on touching the wires. In the morning the gamekeeper go&s round and picks up the bodies of the marauders and cuts off their tails, of which he has 255 specimens. He is not popular with his neighbours, who suspect that they have contributed to his collection the tails of their favourite cats. — The school banking system which has been in operation in Leeds for some timo has been very successful. The number of deposits in the Yorkshire Penny Bank from Leeds schools outnumber those from all the rest of the schools in Yorkshire put together. They total 1,598,861, and the amount deposited is nearly £40,000, or an average of 9s 4£d per head for every scholar on the roll. In several schools every scholar is a depositor. — The recent census of the natives in Ihe Transvaal was taken with beads. Each headman was furnished with a number of beade of different colours, and twine on wLich to string them. A big black bead represented an adult married native, a big yellow bead a grown-up single man, a big blue bead a married woman, and a white bead a single woman over 15 years old. A small yellow bead stood for a boy and a small white bead for a girl.

— The oldest man in Germany — or who is believed to be so — has just celebrated his one> hundred and eleventh birthday, or, t<> be more exact, the one- hundred and' eleventh anniversary of his christening, which took place, as is recorded in the official registers, on December 2, 1793. His name is Kaspar Griesser, and he lives at Lorsch, in Hesse, whero he follows the plough oven now. During the whole of his life he has never quitted his native place for more than a day. — Graham County Gaol at Clifton, in Arizona, is the strongest gaol in the world. It comprises four large apartments hewn from the solid quartz rock of a hillside. The entrance is through a box-like vestibule built of heavy masonry, and equipped with three sets of steel gates. Some of the most desperate criminals on the south-west border have been confined in the Clifton Gaol, and so solid and heavy are the barriers that no one detained there has ever escaped.

— The thimble was originally called a thumb b&ll, because worn on the thumb, then a thumble, and finally it obtained its present appellation. It was a Dutch invention, and was first brought to Kngland in 1695. Thimbles were formerly made only of iron and brass, but in comparatively late years Ih-ey have been mad-e of gold, silver, steel, horn, ivory, and even glass and pearl. In Ghina beautiful carved pearl thimbles are seen bound with gold, and with th& end of gold.

— The United States officials have made a special dispensation for sending matter through the post for the use of the blind. An order formally promulgated at the Poet Office Department reads as follows : — '"Books, pamphlets, and reading matter in raised character for the use of the blind, not exceeding- 101b in weight and containing no advertising- matter whatever, unsealed," and when sent by a-ny public libraries as a loan to blind readers, may be sent free, through the mails."