MULTUM IN PARRVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2758, 23 January 1907, Page 70

MULTUM IN PARRVO.

■r- Twenty years ago Egypt had hardly & single good road. During tile latsfe si3t years over 1000 miles of good roads hate been made. — Rain falls more frequently between 3 o'clock and 8 o'clock in the morning than jit any other time during the day.. *— The Cubans have a strange notion that A living person is not a fit subject for a portrait, but they always require a likemeas of the dead.

— Lake Arumia, in Persia, is nearly three fames salter than the Dead Sea. The lake as 84 miles long, and lies 4000 ft arjo\e sealevel.

— The teak tree grows principally in Surmah. The trunks run to Bft in diameter, and the timber is equal in meet fespecte to best oak. — Leeds has 5000 girls in its public elementary schools under systematic instruction in the art of swimming, and 550 of them hold certificates as expert swimmers. — A telegraph clerk at Turin has indented a new" system of telegraphing on trains in motion, whereby messages are exchangeable not only with other trains. tout also with all the stations along ,the 4ine and the central telegraph offices. —An editor of a Western exchange recently began worrying how he would get fcis shirt on over his wings after reaching •Paradise. An envious contemporary saricastically observed that his difficulty would likely be in finding how he could get his fiat on pver his horns. — Curious to see "the white woman with {the long hair," the natives in the Ituri Bistrict, of Central Africa, have flocked to Major Powell Cotton's camp, anxious to Hook at hk wife, the first European woman So penetrate the district, who accompanies Slim on his expedition from the Xile to .the Zambesi. —Mr J. Mears, of Torquay, has just contluded a chess match by correspondence with Mr J- H. Ibbot. of British Guiana. The match of six games has occupied three years. — The town trustees of Sheldon, Vermont, America, have solved the problem of legally disposing- of £24 found on tho ; body of a burglar who wa6 ehot dead, by i erecting a monument with the following t'ineoription.— "To the unknown man who was shot in Messrs Gennison and Gallop s *ta-e while attempting to burgle the safe en the night of October 13, 1905." —It ie now possible to hear and see plants grow In the apparatus of two Gerrnsxm the growing plant is connected with * disc having in ita centre an indicator jsv-hieh moves visibly and regularly, and this increment, magnified 50 times over a scale, Shows th« progress in growth. —In come theatres there are no fewer than 7000 lights in front of the house and on the stage during each performance. iThese lamps have to be renewed frequently, for their average life is four months each. The theatrical bill for the uykeep of ■lamps costs £1000 a year, and the current ionsumed eosis £120 a week. -*-Jt is asioniehingf how seldom, an invalid's bed is placed so that the patient pan easily see to read; in fact, toe bed ■reaerally face* the window. In this caso a small mirror will be a source of great qoanort. It can be fastened to the head cf the bed in euch a way that the light fis reflected direct on to the book.

— Professional shoppers, -usually la die*. ar« sometimes employed by large firms of iflrapers to test tne ability of their euittloyeea' These ladies call at the shops to ifind out whether every customer is politely served. They give us much trouble as possible, 6Ometime3 even leaving without makjng a purchase after looking at nearly everything in the shop. «— Contractor* for the lighting of streets, IJarge public building*, and pleasure grounds Very often engage "smellers" to find escapes of gas, Is being generally paid for teach escape reported. Some of /hese men frequently make over £3 in a single week, jthe- -result being that in many cases the fee ha« been reduced to 9d per escape reported. — The British soldier wears the heaviest ihcJmet in the world, for his headgear weighs no less than 18oz, while that of the Prussian infantryman is only a trifle over 14oz ano that of the Italian just under 12oz. The forage-capa of both France and Russia weigh kee than Boz, while that of 'Japan is the lightest of all as it turns the scale at a little over 4oz.

— Salt is the greatest luxury known in Central Africa. In some section* amon? ihe Doorer inhabitants ealt is never used. Even among the better classes a man who eato aalt witb his food is considered a rich individual. In some tribes where salt is Hot so scarce children are 6o fond of it that they inav be seen eaung it ju«t as our English children would eat pieces of lump sugar. *— What is described ac the largest pips an the world is valued at £8000, and ie counted as one of the moet remarkable pieces of carving in existence. The pipe aa Voade of one solid piece of meerschaum, and represent* the landing o' Columbus. There are 24 figures in the 6cene, each one 4in high. The carver who executed this xnasterpicce ie dead, and, as the demand for this scrt of work has nearly died out, is practically impossible to find a man to duplicate it.

— The municipality of Stuttgart, dissatisfied with the high price? which c^en iho very pooreet of the population are obliged to pay for funeral*, hac- re^ohed to bund B. city crematorium, and to offer ciemaiuu io the poor ai tcrm~ fur below tho-e which feven moderate u'icl< riakote charge. The lowest charges lrthcrto f&r burial and a. in «Siuttgart have been eighty-five marks. It is proposed to cienmt-e the poor of Stuttgart for 20 marks tin* a.mouL.t to include all expenses. — Many fehing i easels ha^e been. .tvreeked in recent, times because of n.ex plic&ble errors of the conipaes. This fact induced (writes a correspondent) the underwriters of fishing -\e££els sailing from Grimsby to make an investigation, which led' to the discovery that the specially forged knives used by fishermen poesefs inagnetio properties 6O powerful that in th»> pocket of the man at the wheel it will deflect, the needle two or three points. Orders are now being issued forbidding anyone to enter the bridge house with a knife in his possession. ♦*- Card-playing has become so general ».mong German women of the upper classes that regular ks*ons in playing are now given in all fashionable boarding eehook for girls. The education of a fcrerman girl ie not considered complete unlesa she ha« acquired the knowledge how to take a hand at bridge, ecarte. or on 6 )f the oth^r games i.ow in

— A Paris physician has started a clinic for fashionable patients, in which the treatment is entirely carried on witn perfumes. He has discovered that certain perfumes, if constantly iised, have a marked •effe-ct upon -the constitirtion, and more than that, they have a strong power over the mental and nervous system. For instance, the continual use of geranium gives audacity and self-confidence, mint gives the user a clear business head, opoponax brings en madness Russia leather encourages indolence, verbena stimulates a sense for the fine arts, and violet predisposes to devotion

— The latest thing in trusts, or combn es, is that which three Americans at present m London have got in hand. Their intention is to buy up all bulldogs of the one strain— that of the "Stone" blood, or family, which ga\e to the world the best dog of its tyt>e. Rodney Stone. That dog was sold' "by Mr Walter Jeffries, c f Denmark Hill, London, for £1000 to Mr "Boss" Croker. and when the dog died in America there was quite a craze to buy up thafc special strain of bulldog blood.

— There exists a stone which is said to unfailingly foretell changes in the weather This stone was found in Finland many years ago by an explorer, and has since been watched by scientists with great interest. It presents a white, mottled appearance in sunshine, gradually turning from grey to black as a rainstorm approaches. The etone is composed of cla-y, nitre, and rock salt. In d'y weather the salt in the stone is prominent, but when the air is filled with moisture the salt absorbs the moisture and turns black, thus forming the barometer. —An automobile bridge, the first of its kind so far as is known, has been erected by the Roswell-Torrance Mail and Passenger Stage Line in New Mexico, to epan the Macho, a. creek on the route. The bridge is so constructed as to prevent the passage of cattle, and is built without supports in the bed of the stream because of the heavy freshets. There js no floor, so that cattle can get no footing, and the automobiles cross on low-railed tracks on either eide. The bridge has a total length of 64ft. After becoming accustomed to the peculiar bridge drivers of the cars found it an easy matter to cross at full speed, to the consternation of nervous passergers. — The village- inn at Addington, ia '-.he County of Surrey, has been tenanted by the members of one family since the reign of Henry VIL On the death of the mother of the present hostess she le*t no 6on but only three daughters to survive her. The three sisters in turn took possession, and the present hostess is the last of them. The Jolly Millers' Inn, at Newham, Cambridgeshire, has been kept by a family of the name of Musk for the last 400 years. It is recorded in Cambridge annals that Queen Elizabeth once stepped here and drank a quart of "Ye Olde English Ayle" without getting down from her norse. —An astonishing by-product of the development of irrigation in the West of America has been the creation of a new lake known as the Salton Sea, and covering: an area of 400 square miles. The Colorado River, having been accidentally turned from Its course by the application of irrigation systems in Northern Mexico and Sourhen California, has flooded a bas'n so large that the resultant lake is already the largest body of water within the United States, with the exception of Salt Lake and Lake Michigan. It is estimated that in 40 years, at the present rate of increase, the flooded area will be compaiable to the entire sene6 o f great lakes separating the States from Canada.