MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3111, 29 October 1913, Page 59

MULTUM IN PARVO.

The smallest humming-bird weighs only EO grains. The London city police “arrested” 350 •tray dogs during the past 12 months. The figure of Britannia first appeared on the copper coins 300 years ago. Animal life ceases to exist in the ocean at a.depth of one mile and a-half. Coloured ink is regarded with abhorrence in good society. The deepest oouiery in the world is at Lambert, in Belgium—3sooft deep. —, A foot of newly-fallen snow leaves only »n inch -of water when melted. The prices of medical prescriptions in Russia are regulated by the Government. Spring is the season in which disease is meet prevalent. Canon Bullock, of Spalding, has resigned a living worth £9OO to take one worth £l5O. Lemons which weigh . nearly lib each are grown in Florida. The Red Indian can see one-tenth further than the white man. Some Manchester picture halls are admitting children at two for a penny. One man makes a fortune to eight that become bankrupt in England. Tall men are not numerous. It has been found that only one man in 208 is over 6ft in height. New York’s newest skyscraper will be 55 storeys high- and only 150 ft lower than the Eiffel Tower. -In Paris every vehicle travelling at night, even a wheelbarrow, is required to carry a light. The largest serpent ever mcasuerd was a Mexican anaconda, which' was found to be 37ft iij length; —At the railway stations in Russia books are kept in which passengers can enter any complaint they . may wish to make. A Frenchman who committed suicide left money to 80 of his friends for a banquet round his coffin. —lt is said that dried currants given to horses occasionally in lieu of oats will increase the ammais’ power of endurance. Eggs used for incubators may bo frozen and yet not lose their vitality. The freezing simply causes a suspension of lile, and wnen placed in heated incubators vitality returns. Some Parisians smoke cigarettes made of the leaves of the coffee plant. Those who have tried them prefer them to tobacco cigarettes. Holland has over 100,000 windmills, each of which drains 310 acres of land, at an average cost of Is an acre a year. There is a remarkable church in the Black Forest which is built on such a plan that the men are unable to see the women, and vice versa. The highest place in the world is the Buddhist monastery, Halne, in Tibet, which is 16,000 ft above sea-level. Albert Dcthyn won a wager of 200 cigars in a cafe at Gorinchem, Holland, by eating lib of Hour while he watched another man drink 10 glasses of beer. The nine-yoar-old daughter of Mr Harry Tudor, a showman once well known in Glasgow, has been 26 times across the Atlantic, twice round the world, and once up in an aeroplane. The women of Sweden often work as farm labourers. In some instances the husbands serenely smoko and lounge about while they contentedly view the movements of their industrious wives. Tortoise-shell, as it comes to pjarket from the West Indies, is coarse, dirty, and lustreless, and only the most skilful and patient .manipulation makes it the rich and beautiful material that it eventually becomes. Celery should be allowed to lie in water, to which a little salt has been added, for at least an hour before serving. This makes it crisp. Miss Ruth Sorenson, who was born in 1877, and who passed her examination as a lawyer in 1900, has been appointed to be a judge at Hammorfcst, Norway. She is the first woman judge in Norway'. Plans have been perfected to erect in Times square, New York, the largest hotel in the world, containing 1800 rooms and costing £2,500,000 to build. £750,000 has been paid for the site. It is hoped to open the hotel on New Year's Eve. 1914. Paupers in receipt of relief in England and Wales on July 31 numbered 16.4 per 1000 of the population, being the lowest on record, and 1.5 per 1000 loss than last year. The British Museum contains the oldest love-letter in the world, written 3500 years ago. It is a proposal of marriage to an Egyptian princess, and is a substantiil epistle, being inscribed on a brick. Seven miles an hour is the earnel’s best pace, and it cannot maintain this rate for more than two hours. Its usual speed is about five miles an hour—a slow, lounging pace, beyond which it is dangerous to urge it. Queen Margaret of Italy has the iocord among Royalties of being able to read and write English, French. German, and Italian. She also 4 thoroughly understands . Greek and Latin. The Emperor of Austria rarely shakes hands, even with his most exalted subjects or most privileged friends. He greets all alike with a bow. Statistics compiled in the office of the New York District Attorney show that in nine years 18,406 unmarried men have been convicted of various crimes, and only 7670 married men. Wheat in a field at Hi eh Wych, Herts, has been cut, thrashed, and converted into flour at the local mills in one day. —M. Paderewski, when interviewed on his impressions of the American girl, is reported to have expressed but a qualified admiration for the type, and boldly avowed his preference for English women. Although not more charming than their American cousins, they were, he considered, more home-loving and domesticated. —ln Java it is supposed that, if a live sheep is thrown into the water, it will indicate the position of a drowned person by sinking near it. A curious custom is practised in Norway, whore those in search of a drowned body row to and fro with a cock in the boat fully expecting that the bird will crow when the boat reaches the spot where the corpse lies. A French companv has applied to the Russian Ministry of Ways and Communications for permission to give kinematograph entertainments on the Trans-Siberian trams afid on other Russian trains covering journeys occupying over 24 hours. It is proposed that special carriages with adequate accommodation for such performances shall be attached to each train. The price of admission lor the entertainments is fixed at 60 fcopeks (1s)-