MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3291, 11 April 1917, Page 47

MULTUM IN PARVO.

more- than 2,000,000 women and girls have como into tho labour market since- the beginning of the war. Anciently tho wedding ring was first placed on tho .thumb, then on tho first anger, then on tho second, and lastly on tho third, where it remained. Tho <'" bride-ale " custom, which still survives, was tho right of a bride to sell rdo on her wedding day at handsome prices to help furnish the home. Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, after the inarriago ceremony, us.ed to crown the bridal couplo with garlands of flowers kept for tho purpose in the church. —On a pike of 14£lb being caught at Norfolk, some feathers were noticed in its throat, and subsequently the voracious fish was found to havo swallowed a coot.

Our pennies are to bo thinner. We ar-3 told (says the Westminster Gazette) that those issued last year were; (in tho exact sense of tho words) a "bit thick' for use in the automatic arrangements by which you purchase chocolate, gas, or matches.. The 1917 penny is to bo a slim littlo fellow, always ready to drop in without any difficulty. About £20,000 a week to soldiers and £15,000 a week to soldiers' widows is being paid by the War Office for pensions and permanent disablement benefit as the result of tho war. About £420 a week is being paid to officers and £4OOO a week to their widows.

—lt is claimed for tho Amalgamated Society of Engineers that ifc is tho wealthiest' and most powerful trade union in the ■world. It has a membership of 250,030, and accumulated funds of £1,750,000. A Barrow soldier who was rendered dumb through shell-shock was ascending a flight of stairs when ho fell and rolled to the bottom. As a result the man was rendered unconscious for several hours, but on regaining his senses he was delighted to discover that tho power of speech had returned to him.

Lord Montagu of Beaulicu on the subject of "Aviation —Present and Future" expresses tho firm conviction that mails and passengers' between India and England will in 10 years' time be conveyed by air. He calculates that the distance to be covered will be from 3600 to 5220 miles, according to the route, and that the time taken will be from three to five days. Between Deal and Sandwich Bay. a large number of boxes measuring Ift square were recently washed ashore by tho tide. Numbers, of them, which were broken open by the force of the waves, contained tripe, and thousands of seagulls enjoyed a rich banquet. Over 50 gulls were counted around one of the boxes.- Many > birds lay dead on tho foreshore, having died apparently from overfeeding. . —At a range of 1000 yards a bullet arrives at least a second, and sometimes more, iq advance of tho report. The sound of the flying bullet is caused by a vacuum at its rear. The air thrown fiercely back from the nose of the projectile travels round and rushes to tho rear, as water to the stern of a fast-moving boat. Thus a crash is produced —or, in certain cases, a kind of whining snarl, like no other sound on earth.

During some structural changes in the Palace of Versailles, the palace architect has discovered a secret suito of rooms, formerly occupied by Madame de Pompadour in the imposing days of Louis XV. The rooms aro beautifully decorated by Lo Brim, and aro in the right -wing of the palace, on the ground floor. In tho time of Louis Phillippe a staircaso connecting tho 3uite with the King's,apartments was walled up, and since then_ Madame de Pompadour's rooms had remained closed. They are to be restored. Pine trees are considered a valuable asset in summer health resorts. This is owing to the scent of the resin exuding from the' trunk of tho tree and from its foliage, which, being blown by the wind, is considered to make, the air much purer to breathe; hence we see pine trees playing a prominent part in tho manufacture of medicine for colds.

—" From Greenland's Icy Mountains," tho missionary hymn which the Governor of Greenland confessed that he had never heard, was not written by Wesley, but by Bishop Heber, and it contains the most frequently quoted line in hymnology- • " Where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile." Tho nasty generalisation of tha last phrase—in reference "to Ceylon—. is said to have been inspired by the good bishop's discovery that ho had been cleverly cheated by a Cingalese tradesman. —lt h interesting to discover that the names "Big Willy ' and "Little Willy" wero first used by tho War Lord himself 37 years ago—before, in fact, the " I/ittle Willy" of to-day had seen tho light, in his book "King Edward, the Kaiser, and the War" Mr Edward Legge explains that thvj names were employed in letters from the Prince of Prussia, as he then was, to the late Lord Napier and his wife, m which Lord Napier—then, during the lifetime of his father, only tho Master of Napier—is mentioned as "Big Willy" and his son as "Little Willy." The Treasury Department announces that tho manufacture and sale of cigarettes in the United States in 1916 increased by 43 per cent, over tho previous year. The Government levied a tax on over 25 billion cigarettes last year, as compared with about 18 billions in 1915. This means that there wero nearly 25 boxes of cigarettes for every man, woman, and child in a population of 100,000,000. Omitting women and young children as inconsiderable consumers, these figures would show a consumption by the men and boys of the country of an average of 62g boxes each of cigarettes for the year. Monday. January 29. was tho birthday of tho V.C., for tho Royal warrant by which this decoration was instituted bears date January 29, 1856. _ The warrant was tho outcome of a public movement which took place about tho middle of tho Crimean war, and which voiced tho popular feeling that honours wero not bestowed freely enough on the rank and file of our navy and army for individual acts of courage. Any soldier below the rank of sergeant, who dies a natural death while in barracks, has an escort of 13 men and a sergeant at his funeral; whilo a lieutenant is entitled to 40 men. in the chargo of a brother officer of similar rank. The same applies to second lieutenants. Three rounds of " blank" ammunition are fired for every rank from private to colonel. A brigadier fenexal is given 11 ru'is, and a full general 7 guns. The hodv of a field-marshal is saluted by 19 gttrs. On th* way to the Slace where the body is to be Interred to "Dead March" and very solemn tunes aro played; but on the way back lively itmea of any description may be played.

Considered the tallest in captivity, a giraffe has just died at tho London "Zoo." It was brought from Kordofan, Sudan, by General Mahon, who captured tho Khalifa in 1899.