MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2673, 7 June 1905, Page 61

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—It is said to be no uncommon occurrence on th 3 Siboria-n railway for fuel or vater to give oiTt. In the latter case a halt is made and snow collected ami meltad until enough water is provided *o enable the train to proceed to the next station.

— Four millions of special postage stamps were issued in Copenhagen to bo used as a voluntary supT.lemcnt by people sending Christmas letters and cards. The sum rea-Hf-ed by this scheme is to be devoted tc charitable purposes.

— The largest library in the world is the National Library of Paris, containing $0 miles of shelves, holding sonic 3,000,000 bocJks. There axs al.«o 200.000 manuscripts. 300,000 maps and charts, and 150.000 coins and medals.

— The Japanese are the most "bimanous"' of modern people} They use both hands in all their arti&tic work M'ith equal facility — not to mention their feet.

— The laws of Ita-ly arc strict with regard to theates and circuses. Every act or peformance announced on the programme must be given Any great exaggeration I>}' means of pictures, intended to mislead the public, is punishable. For each infraction a fine is imposed.

— Oats are held in great reverence in Persia. The Shah alone has 50 of them, and each one has an attendant of its own, with a -special room for meals. When the Shah travoN the cats go also, being; carried by men on horseback.

— iloist -> apour ]S constantly arising from the f-ea. and in the course of a year it amounts to a layer of water 14ft thick. This mass of moisture is borne to the clouds, and the winds drift a large part of it over the land, on which it descends in rain or snow.

— The average speed of professional typists ' who write from dictation is 40 words a minute.

— A scientist has been investigating the effects of weather on morals, and finds that the desire to fight rises with the thermometer, but stops at £sdeg, and declines after that as the mercury rises. Assault cases are, therefore, commoner in summei than in winter. Drunkenness, however, lessens with summer and increases with the coming of cold. Suicides are at a minimum on bright days with a high barometer, and increase as the wind rises.

— A remarkable instance of apparent mimicry has been noticed in Ceylon. A fish commonly known as the sea-bat strikingly resembles a decayed leaf, and a recent observer reports pursuing ono of these fishes with a small net, when the creature suddenly disappeared, and the pursuer raw what appeared to be only a yellow leal gently and inertly sinking fo the bottom. As he turned away, the supposed lealrighted itself and darted off. — The Bar is not unduly paid in France. Fees, in comparison with the English • courts, are remarkably small. One or two conspicuous counsel gain from £7000 ta ' £8000 a year, but the great majority even of those in the front rank have to" be content with much smaller incomes. The practice of the law is not nearly as remunerative -ie that of medicine, or, rather, • of surgery. Leading operators make their £20,000 or £30,000 s year. The late Mr ' Waldeek-Rousseau, however, made a, considerable amount at the bar.

-Dr Herbst, of Bremen, lias made * oarefui study of the ca.-e of the peasant'sdaughter who recently awoke alter having slept 17 years. The subject, he says, is - now 44 years of age, and u-i-Is s ione the worse for lying helpless so long. The" only injury she has sustaincc? i-s the ioss of her teeth, all of which, with the exception of three, fell otit. She spoke and walked with difficulty at first, but the use of her faculties soon returned to her.

— Ladies of high degree in Chir.a use the daintiest thimbles imaginable, some of them being carved from enormous pearls, ornament.d with bands of fine gold, on which all manner of quaint and fantastic designs are engraved. A mother-of-pearl case is ahvays made to keep the thimble in, and vrtib it the Chinese lady has a ' nair of delicate scissors of finest siesl. enclosed in a. sheath o' rnother-oF-r.earl. with a needle-case to match.

— The phonograph appeared as witness in a ease tried before the Berlin Second - Civil Court. Herr Jakobscn claimed a debt fiv>m Herr Gevson on the strength of a verbal agreement winch was denied on oath by the defendant. Thereupon Herr Jakobsen produced a phonograph, and] placing it on the table, set it in motion. . It repeated the conversation in question, _ the voices of both parties beinsr clearly' recognisable.

— Paris his its Jnfanr->' c-lub, where th<> babe about town may spend idle afternoon : but London come? a good se- ' co n.d with a hotel for children. This hotel is known as the Norland Nurseries. Hore, in suites of two ■ rooms, the children of the well-to-do may find a town address while pareuts are travelling of enduring imamiable climate. The guests range from atoms of a month or so to veterans of eight or nine, and each throe have a day and night nursery to themselves. There are - six of these suites, providing accommodation for sonic 18" children. The babe of, • the bottle period can be put up at a cos! -~, of fpom 15s to two guineas a week. Whet teething is past- the fees vary from £35 -tc £100 a year. . — Sr.aikes, according to the popular idea.

should be killed at- sight as utterly useless and positively dangerous creatures, but in Australia they a-re now being systematically reared for the sake of their skins, which have a considerable commercial value in London, Paris, and New JTork. Snake' skin is the fashionable, material for slippers, belts, begs, purses, card cases, jewel boxes, dressing-table accessories^ etc. Rabbit trappers supplement their moans considerably by catching young snakes and extracting the poisonous fangs. The blacks are also expert snake catchers. To them the snake is an agreeable article of diet. — Home paper. — New materials from which paper can be made are continually being discovered. Recently pine waste has been successfully manufactured into that universal substance without which *o many features of modern; civilisation could hardly survive. , Fine' paper be made from corn stalks "and from rice straw. Ir addition to spruce, pine, fir. aspen, birch, swv-et-gurn, cottonwood, maple, cypress and willow trees all contain fifue a-ui table for the manufacture of paper Hemp, cotton, jute, Indian 1 mil--lei, and other fibrous plants can al3o be used for this purpose, so that there seems to be no danger of a dearth of paper.

— Among the productions of ihe Philip2>ine Islands are two delicious fruits entirely unknown in the civilised world. One of these is the durian, which grows on a lofty tree somewhat resembling an elm, is about as large as a cocoanut. has a shiny shell, and contains a creamy puln which combines some of the flavours of a delicious custard with those of a fins cheese. The other rare fruit spoken of is the nianfircsteen, which was said to be the only fruit that Queen Victoria never tasted. The exquisitely-flavoured liquid it contains cannot b? preserved for shipping abroad. — Fancy being evicted from your last, resting place if your relatives neglected to pay the rent .' Yet this is what happens every day in Porto Rico. In the Oarnpo Shnto. the consecrated field, which lies on the cliff •edge, near San Juan, it is impossible to buy a grave right out, except at a price which puts it out of the question for ooof people. The gra\es are leased for a term of years, and if at the end of that time the leaw is not renewed, tbo remains aro dug up and the ground telct.

— There is plenty of buried treasure within the confines of tl'e British Empire besides that which a noble lord has failed to locale. For nearly 50 years people have boen searohinf; for the ill-gotten hoard of Captain Melville, a famous Australian bushranger, who robbed hundreds of gold-clip;-geis between Melbourne and Ballat"at, and is supposed to have accumulated a pile of £50,000. wlroh he so carefully concealed that nobody has so far been able to find it. He> diod in Melbourne Gaol. At the time of his arrest a curious map Avas found upon him. but even with its aid thp most skilful detecthss have failed to localise the spot.