MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 3251, 5 July 1916, Page 63

MULTUM IN PARVO

Japanese soldiers used to bo led into a battle, by a man with a fan. ' —Air Cecil Cowper, a relative by descent of the poet Cowper, and for several years editor of the Academy, has died in a London nursing home after an operation. A carved date reredos and a brass tablet are to bo erected in Holy Trinity Church, Heigham, Norfolk, in memory ot Nurse Cavell, whose family were connected with that church. Holborn is to givo a trial for three months to a new motor sweeping machine, •which not only sweeps the road, but at the same time collects tho refuse in a closed receptacle, somewhat in the manner ot a carpet-sweeper. German cables and telephone wires ara now made exclusively of zinc, and 111 placo of vulcanised indiarubber artificial preparations, such as volcanic fibre, are used. Tho weaving industry is using flax instead of jute ana hemp and thread mado of paper. —lt is reported from Copenhagen that the lack of metal for German munitions iS now so serious that it has been found necessary for military administration to buy ail church bells. Many have already been removed and melted. Paper, being on© of the worst conductors of heat, is a boon to the flying man. Already tho French aviators bave adopted the innovation extensively. They find that the paper outfit prevents cold from entering and the heat from escaping Cats seem to have a habit of swallowing needles (says the Popular Science Monthly). When a cat is brought to a veterinary hospital suffering with a cough the doctor always looks for a needle. in one instance Dr Childs, of New York, operated on a cat to remove what he thought was an ordinary needle. He found a hatpin 9in long. But tho cat's life was saved. All the lifts in Berlin are now worked by women, and tho use of the words "lift" and "lift-men" has been suppressed owing to their English origin. The new; liftwomen are called "hisscfrauen" (hoisting women). Miss Grimmer, of New Brunswick daughter of tho Hon. Mr Justice Grimmer, of the Supreme Court of that province, is said to enjoy the distinction of being the first Canadian lady to be accepted by the Canadian Government overseas service as a chauffeur in the war zone —and Miss Grimmer is well qualified to fill her appointment. She is an excellent mechanic, and has long driven and repaired her own automobile. —ln future any soldier who intends to get married will be required to inform his commanding officer of tho fact two weeks in advance, and to state at the sama timo whether separation allowance is being paid to any of his dependents, and, if so, to whom. Many of tho useful articles which were formerly sold for Id in tho penny bazaars in England aro now unobtainable; the explanation given is that they were largely manufactured in Germany, which specialised in those cheap goods. —-A letter received from an Italian army doctor, a member of a well-known AngloItalian famiiy, who is now serving on t'au Italian front, contains the following paa sage : —"We aro obtaining every dny moie striking evidence of tho appallirg irelhoda of German kultur. Wo have discovered tiny steel hooks cf microscopic size in tins of preserved meat from America. We have had naturally to stop at once the nso of this stock." —lf the nation were to forego tho uso of meat on Thursday and alcohol on Monday every week, the saving on meat in a year would be about £22,000,000, less the cost of substitutes for meat. On alcohol it is calculated that wo should save the greater part of £26,000,000. Deficiencies in the food supplied to Austrian soldiers are blamed , c or night blindness," a new disease owing to whicli men who have excellent sight in ordinary davlight become partially or totally blind hi twilight. Through assistance rendered by his Royal Highness tho Duke of Cbnnaught, the Canadian St. John Ambulance Association is giving first-aid instruction to tho soldiers from the Dominion going overseas. Instructors with military rank are attached to c\ery battalion, and the men are being taught first-aid, which will be useful to themselves and their comrades in emergencies. British boot manufacturers are working night and day in order to deliver to th" Government by the end of Juno 3,000,000 pairs of toots for the Russian army. To do this they must turn out 55,000 pairs per day, and when this order is filled, 6,000,000 more pairs arc required to complete the contract. A photographer named Goetz, of Brcs lau, has received a contract from the 1 German authorities to photograph for passport, purposes ah the inhabitants of that part of Poland which is occupied bv tho Germans It is estimated that over 5,000,000 photographs will have to be taken. This constitutes tho largest photographic order over given to one firm. --Tho Vos3ische Zoitung states that applications to the Berlin courts for permis sion to begin divorce proceedings have greatly increased. Wo are told "that tho number of divorces in Berlin this year are 10 times as many as in normal years, and that this extraordinary state of' affairs is not confined to the capital, but is noticeable in almost all the largo cities. After Greater Berlin come in tho order of thcir matrimonial troubles,—Hanover. Wiesbaden Cologne, Dusscldorf, and Frankfort. One of the most astonishing lies served up for German consumption recently ap pea'r3 in tho Taglicho Uundschau, which recounts that tho Germans have ;ust captured and interned, near Munich, tho son-in-law of President Poinoarc. M. Poincaro, as is generally known, has no children, and consequently no son-in-law. —lt is announced from tho International Headquarters of the Salvation Army that Miss Eva Booth, who is commander of tho Salvationists in tho United States, has received 400,000d0l as tho result of a campaign, for tho purpose of commemorating tho life work of her father, General Booth. Tho form of tho memorial will bo a new training college for officers of tho Salvation Army in New York. —ln a book dealing with tho problems of death, publisher] by Mr Murray, Dr Robert MaoKcnna says that, as a rule, all fear of death is taken away from trio dying, and that so far as can bo known tho decisive act itself is free from pain. He also endeavours to show, along somewhat new l lines, that thcro is reasonable ground *«r a belief in the survival of personality.

Tho result of the trial of tho poison plotters at Madagascar, says an Exchange Johannesburg message, is that 40 have been imprisoned for periods ranging from two years to imprisonment for life, while 150 havo been banished for periods of from two to 20 years. Petrograd is one of the few European capitals which has never been besieged or captured by enemy forces. On May 27, 1703, Peter the Great founded tho city by building himself a small wooden hut upon the site. In 1710 Count Golovkin built tho first brick house, and in the following year the Emperor, with his own hands, laid the foundation of a house of tho samo material for his own residence, and transferred tho seat of Government from Moscow to the new capital. Mrs Hetty Green, America's richest business woman, attributes tho marvellous stamina she possesses to her fondness for onions. For over 40 years she has toiled hard in Wall street, and during that time has never suffered a day's illness. _ A delegation of pressmen who wont to interview Mrs Green on her seventy-eighth birthday found her chewing an onion when they arrived. "You may smile," she said, "but tho healthy colour in my cheeks is duo to eating onions. They are tho first things in the world for health, and I am never without one handy." Experiments havo been made for some months under the auspices of tho Board of Control, Lonrion, in tho preparation of a temperance drink suitable for sale in munition areas, and members of tho board are satisfied that the end desired has been achieved. It is understood that about a dozen firms ate prepared to produce the new liquor, which resembles light beer, but is. warranted not to intoxicate. The board is prepared to push the sale. Prizo money now is a critic compared with what foil, to lucky crews in the palmy days of tho eighteenth century. After the capture of tho single Spanish chip ' Hcrmione in 1762 by the Active and the Favourite, tho roar-admiral and tho commodore, who had not even boon present, received between them £64,063 6a 9d. Of tho Active's crew, Captain Sawyer got £65,053 13s 9d, throe commissioned officcri each £13.004 14s Id, eight warrant officers each £4336 3s 2d, 20 petty officers each £IBO6 10s lOd, and 150 seamen and marines each £485 5s 4d~ total, £251,020 12s. Tho Favourite's share was £203,181 4s 3d. Twenty waggons triumphantly brought the treasure from. Portsmouth to London. Polo probably came to us indirectly from Trebizond, where the Kabak-meidan, or Pumpkin square, was tho site of a mediaeval polo-ground. Tho game found great favour with nobles of Trebizond, and was played on horseback much in the same way as modern polo. It produced intense excitement among the spectators, rivalling that of the hippodrome, possibly because it was dangerous as well as fashionable.' Polo caused the death of one Emperor of Trebizond—John the First, —who was killed by a fall from his horse. Furniture which belonged to Mme. Bertha Trost. a notorious West End character, deported somo months ago, was sold by auction. The last item in the catalogue was a coffin made to her order, which she kept at her luxuriously-furnished residence in York placo, Regent's Park. The coffin was of solid mahogany, 7ft by 2ft, and was lined with pink silk, with a hinged top. A massive brass breastplate bore tho inscription "Bertha Trost." It was sold for £6. Tho Canadian fur industry, which has been adversely affected by the war, shows signs of revival. A new branch of the industry—namely, that of raising black Siberian hares —is reported to bo taking its place alongside the raising of black foxes, in which so- much capital is invested. The rearing of the black hares has been taken up by parties in Sackville, Now Brunswick, and it is believed there will bo a very considerable demand for tho fur. Study of tho Mesopotamian map has introduced many just lately to the canals between tho Tigris and tho Euphrates. In ancient times these were of enormous importance, and the canal system was one of the greatest wonders of Mesopotamia. It was mainly for irrigation purposes, but the canals were so great that they could well be described as rivers. Hence it was by the ''rivers of Babylon," not merely tho "river," that tho Jews in exile sat down and wept. Dean Stanley noted that tho word applied in Daniel to one of the streams is elsewhere used only of the Nile, and that oven now one of tho Tigris Euphrates canals is called "the Nile" (Bahr-el-Nil). Besides collecting waste paper, from which a considerable revenue is secured annually, the cleaning and lighting department of the Edinburgh Corporation will now also collect any empty ink jars which may bo put into tho waste-paper bags distributed among householders. It scorns there is a scarcity of ink jars, which, before the war, were made in Germany. When collected in tho city they will bo taken to a depot, where they will be packed by the traders to whom they aro to bo sold. Of course, the revenue to be got from the collection will not amount to anything like that secured from waste paper, but Edinburgh, now as always, is evidently anxious that nothing may bo lost. According to tho annual report of flic Now York Public Library, tho European war has given a great stimulus to research in the technological department of that institution. American toymakors., for instance, who aro trying to supply the market previously dependent upon imports from Germany, have come there to study the processes of the manufacture of dolls. Another industry that has boon developer! to a remarkable degree in America of late is that of making Christmas-tree ornaments. This. too, has been studied in the library in all its details.