MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2732, 18 July 1906, Page 61

MULTUM IN PARVO.

' —If a servant in Germany fails .ii i«( mistress is not allowed to discharge her. but nrast pay 2s a day for her hospital ex* recces until she is perfectly well. — A Devon schoolmaster Las just complained to his committee- that hi 9 teaohinf la much hindered by parents who ddieule the children, for aping their betters -when ihey talk good grammar instead of bad. — Female servants were in request aE Dumfries fairing fair, -when farmers had to give what they regarded as "a, perfect Tansom," and kitchen girls, and those able ie milk, could dictate terms. — Many years ago the Dutch destroyed! every nutmeg tree in the Moluccas in order to enjoy a monopoly of the business, having planted trees in their own possessions-. However, the islands were soon restocked*. At last it was discovered that the doves had swallowed the seeds of the nutmeg*, flown aoross the wide stretches of sea, and land, and deposited the seeds, not only uninjured, but even better fitted for germination by the heat and moisture of the bird's system. This is another instance of the dispersion of seeds by doves. • • — There are some animals which neve* -drink; for instance, the llamas of Patagonia, and certain -gazelles of the Far East. A number of snakes, lizards, and othei." reptiles live in places devoid of water. A bat of Western America inhabits waterless plains. In parts of Lozere. France, there are herds of cows and goats which hardly ever drink, and yet produce the milk for Roquefort cheese. — The hearts of cold-blooded animals will beat for a comparatively long tamo after death or removal from the body (if kept; cool or moist), because of a powerful internal collection of nerves known as ganglia, whose automatic impulses cause the regulaa contractions of the muscles. Similar ganglia exist in man and other lyarmblooded animals, but their action =s less prolonged. A turtle's heart, after removal, has been known to beat 36 or even 48 hours; 12 or 14- hours :« £. common record. — A movement ias been on foot in Scotland for some time which hae as its object? the opening of churches on week days. Glasgow Established Church Presbytery discussed the matter with come thoroughness the other day. In the course o f the remarks made by Sheriff Gufchrie And others, it was stated that only one Established Church in the city had — and that for many years — been open for daily service and for the constant use of individual parishioners. A sum amounting to £100 ■has been subscribed, without advertisement or special pleading, to set the movement on foot in other churches of the city. — A pretty table observance in Danish families is for children, even little one* who can scarcely toddle, to go gravely after , dinner to- salute theiv parents and say, "Tak ?or mad" ("Thanks for the { T>eal"k Even visitors shake hands with Iheir hosb and hostess and go through the s&me for-- J mality. In German families that hold tto tradition the same custom prevails. ' When 1 the evening meal is ended the party stand - up around the table, and each, shakes hands with the neighbour, saying, "Gaseg- - nete Mahlzeit" — blessing the food. — The spider-web gown may ooon be a reality, foi' -the threads of thousands o£ " 6piders are being carefully gathered, _ unwound, and woven into shimmering silken 'abrics. On tha island of Madagascar this odd industry is carried on under the direct management of the Governor, who .has been appointed by the French authorities manager of what 13 perhaps the strangest factory in the world. Here spider* toil day and night and die from overwork and from ignorance on the part of the attendants. Therein lies the chief difficulty. The spider seems perfectly willing to spin out in the mango groves of its native land; but it grows sulky when transplanted* to ihe speeially-prepaTed eell 1 ! In the silk-spinning factory of Madaescar. — A machine hae been invented &!• *Jlo» ence thaf should prove a boon to travellers on the railways. The machine, w.hictt works automatically, prints the names oe departure and arrival stations, the price, floss, date, number of ticket, whether to? a single or .return journey, and the period during which it is available. Ac the sam« time it prints a duplicate, which ie rei,a:nc(J by the railway company The price of tha ticket, before it is delivered, is also indicated by the machine. The device is being tried experimentally on the railway between Rome and Naples, and if successful it :•> to be adopted on other Italian railways. — Among freaks of Nature in trees there stands conspicuous one known as the Asiatio star tree. It is enormously tell, growing to a height of from 60ft to 80ft, while from, the ground up to a. distance of about 40ffe the trunk ib perfectly bare. From that' point there spring a number of tangled!, limbs, which shoot oub clusters of longpointed leaves, and it is these, grouped together, that emit at night a clear, phosphorescent light. This gives the tree a spectral a.peaTaru», -and is very deceiving to travellers, who frequently mistake the jdow for an illuminated window of a house. The light is not brilliant, but is of sufficienfe strength to allow of c newspaper being read by it ' It does not flicker, but glows steadily from sunset to daybreak. —A" quaint ceremony is witnessed xm parts of Normandy twice a year. Tc in the "blessing of the beasts." The cows, as&es and a few thoroughbred .horses v«iiicb; are raised in that part of France e/o brought together in front of the ohurcb. whence issues a procession of gaily-dressed peasants to the 3ound of & chant sung by the priests and people. Then the pastor sprinkles a, few drops of water on the head of each animal. Sometimes as many as a couple of hundred peasants take part in the ceremony, but not a trace of levity, is to be «-ee.n on their faces. "When theceremony is completed, thf procession passes throngn the village singing, anxi then disperses. — Some of the institutions on Japanese railways are peculiar to that country. Ono o? these is a emcar of paint across the, windows of third-class carriages. This is made necessary because thousands of native travel-* lers in Japan, accustomed to only paper walls for letting in light, have no knowledge of glass. Its utter transparency leadq . them to believe that the window is aim-ply, a hole in the aide of the car. With painful results many native passengers have attempted to stick their heads through tha glass. For a long time ambulances from receiving hospitals had to meet nearly every train arriving in Japanese cities, and? hence the streak of paint is a warning to the Oriental farmer from the back country that there is something more than atnios- j phere in the window.