MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2978, 12 April 1911, Page 67

MULTUM IN PARVO.

-The Transvaal produced 4,000,000 tons of ooal last year. -The average cost of a first-class railway locomotive is about £3OOO. . „ rf „ -According to a we shall soon have wireless telephony on tT -A sea acro P lane-a machine that can bo used to fly or float-has been launched at East Cowes. , iare f,,l in -Tame snakes are . found useful in Morocco, to clear houses of i «*» and ***; -The film of a soap-bubble is tne 600,000 th part of an inch » thickness. -Four miles of an ordinary spiders thread would only weigh one grain.. Flying-fish have been known to rise 20ft above the surface of the *»■ , . -Birds that fly by night generally have eyes about double the size of those of da lThc dS ßengal Canal, 9Co" miles in length, is the longest artificial watercourse m ,ae W -When in a balloon, at two miles from the earth, an aeronaut heard a muskt shot and a dog barking, and at four miles a girls in China usually wear their hair in a long single P«»V» which is entwined a bright scarlet thread. The thread indicates that the maiden is on the lookout for a connubial I^ner. The newest lighthouse on the French coast shows a beam visible at a distance of 39 nautical miles in clear weather. It is situated on the lie J**S*>. s£,**» French coast, to the north-east of Ushant, the lantern being 214 ft above sea level. _ New York will shortly possess the largest hotel in the world, built at » «*■ lay of nearly £3,000,000, the site alone costing £1,500,000. It is; planned to have 1600 rooms and 1000 baths and the structure, which will be erected in the central district, is to be 25 storeys high. -Amsterdam has just opened its nttn annual exhibition of the ugly. It *?/"jf n " isod bv a group which devotes ltselt to educating the art tastes of the people. Anything that modern art or manufacture produces which is an offence to the tye and good taste is collected, grouped, and labelled under different classifications as "faulty material," construction, "faulty and bad decoration. _ The Kurds have a very curious and somewhat dangerous marriage custom which, most people will thinks would he more honoured in the breach than in the observance. The husband, surrounded by a bodyguard of 20 to 30 young men, carries his wife home on his back in a scarlet cloth, and is desperately assaulted the whole way by a number of girls Sticks and stones are hurled at the bridegroom, who in the coming home with his bride can scarcely be' considered a very happy man for the irate amazons often inflict on him marks which he carries to the in amusing incident occurred recently outside Manure, Austria. A cow strayed from the pasturage and came within ieaoa of the fort. The officer in command suspected the presence of an automatic photographic apparatus, and had the beast seized and closely examined, but when he found nothing to justify his suspicions he turned the animal loose again, under the observation of two of his men, charged with tno duty of following the suspect home to ascer tain whether her owner was an Italian spy. Cremation is making steady progress in Europe, in eome countries faster* than in others. Germany has 20 crematoria. Over 23,000 bodies have been cremated there, as compared with 8121 in-England and Scotland. In Switzerland, where there are five creii»at:a-ia, the number of crema-. tions is proportionately several times as many as in Great Britain. Over 94,000 bodies have been cremated in Paris during the last 20 years. The Roman Catholic Church strongly eposes this disposition of dead bodies. There is also a strong latent feeling against it in some Protestant churches. . The ruler whose daily moilbag is the greatest is the Pope. His Holiness manl consists, on the average, of 23,000 letters, newspapers, etc. To go through this mass of correspondene 35 secretaries are kept. The President of the United States receives nearly 1000 letters daily, and about 4COO iour.nals and. books. . The Kaiser's mail consists of 40C0 letters, and frequently the same number of books and papers. King George is favoured with 1000 letters a day and over 2000 newspapers and books. The Tsar is not overworked in this respect for a Sovereign, his Majesty's mail being given at 650 letters, etc., a day. The Kings of Italy and Spain-have to deal with about 300' letters each. Queen Wilhelmina is -still more favoured, with only 150 letters, etc. A new glass has recently been produced by a firm of French glass-makers which is intended to be proof against the ordinary attacks of burglars. So many cases of robbery have been committed by the breakof show windows and the snatching of valuable? on exhibition that a special effort has been made to end this particular form of depredation. The glass now produced is made by a secret prooass, but the maker;-. admit that thickness and care in its manufacture are the principal essentials. It is made about three-quarters of an inch" thick, and, on test, has resisted the blow of _ a 101 b iron disc thrown against it from distances ranging from. 10ft to 20ft. A hole fcur-tonths of an inch in diameter at the outer surface was made by the impact from the greater distance. The same blow would ibave shattered ordinary plate glass comjpletely. Japan is an inexhaustible field for the student of folk-lore. There are counties* household superstitious and proverbs, some of which are amusing and apparently as Senseless as those of other countries, while others have an educational and wholesome value for young people. For instance, a child is told that if he kills- a cat it wilt revenge itself for * even generations: or if iie kills a frog and watches its twitohings in its death struggles ever afterwards his hand will tremble when he tries to write. In regard to sneezing, it isvsaid that one sneeze means praise, two mean scorn, throe ridicule, four a cold. If a needle is used for a toothpick one's hopes will not bo realised, while on the last day of the rear vermicelli must be eaten, as this brings plenty of money tor the coaming" year. Instead of making resolutions on Now Year's Day, as we do, the Japanese are careful not to pronounce the syllable "ehi," as it ■- an unlucky word, and means death. NewYear calls are therefore' made very stiff and formal in the effbrts to avoid the fatal syllable, which occurs in so many common words.