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Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 22, Issue 28, 11 April 1911, Page 8

THE FARMER AND HIS MARE. A farmer was crossing a horse ferry on ihe Clyde with a mare and a foal. The .sudden appearance of a steamboat on the scene frightened the mare so that she jumped from the jsoat into the river, followed by the colt. The alarmed farmer, acting on a ■ sudden impulse, sprang into the water after his animals, and was soon clinging to the , tail of the foal. As luck would have it, the ! mare headed for the bank, while the foal made direct down the river. *• Let go the colt and haud on by the mare,” shouted those on board the boat, alarmed for the safety of the man. " Ay, ay," cried the ■ farmer, sputtering the water from his mouth; " it’s a’-very weel o’ you to tell me to let go the colt, but when a man canna swoom it’s no a time for swappin’horses." A PERSISTENT WOOER. A very amusing incident took place in -, Queenstown harbour, as related by Captain Andrew Haggard in Blackwood. . Twcpretty Irish girls who had embarked on our ship were on the arrival of the Servia in that port soon after joined by a gentleman who hi ad come by mail from England, and who • came off from the shore on the steamertender. This gentleman, with the most I excited and pantomimic gestures, begged one of these fair maidens to return to shore with him and become his bride. Before his. . arrival on board he had, we learned, sent I her five telegrams to the same effect, to prevent her departure if possible. But the young lady at first .appeared to be obdurate, for the unfortunate man was seen going ofi \gaiu to the shore on the tender, hatless, and holding out his outstretched arms imploringly to the lady of his love. But that 1 man was not to be beat. He returned 1 when the tender came back again witli the last mails, and this time he brought a parson ’ with him. This pledge of the honesty o , bis intentions of marrying,her had, I understand, been exacted by this cautious Irish lady as a condition of her going ashore with him. She now went with him, and the Servia sailed without her. Let us hope they were happy ever after. ENACT TO A FARTHING. Captain Robert Lumsdaine, of Innergel lie; was perhaps the most close-fisted Fife laird of his day. Knowing his customer, honest Saunders Anderson, of Anstruther, the leading flesher of the East Neuk, in making out a pretty bill for butcher meat, put & farthing in the sum, just as certain wily contractors add a halfpenny.. to a thousand pound estimate of the present day. Thfc farthing gave s’uch an exact and business-like look to the Anstruther flesher’s bill that the sum was counted down as soon as it was presented. “ You give me back a farthing of change," said the, laird, tabling down the last halfpenny. " I dinna hae ane on me, sae never iiind,” quoth Saunders, returning the '* bawbee but the laird, with one sweep of his big hand, drew the money back to his cash-box and rose from his chair. "No,” he cried, in (he same tone as if h’e had been defending the last acre of his estate, “ I’ll wrong no man, and no man ’ll wrong me—owe you a penny, owe you a farthing, and r if the one is just, so is the other, and the account will not' be settled without it.” Saunders had no alternative left, but to go in search of the little coin, and so scares were they in the east cf Fife at that time, that it cost him nearly a day’s trouble to find one, bu f no sooner did he take it to the eccentric laird than his account was paid on the instant. " Saunders,” added he, taking up the receipt, " Justice holds her scales so even that a farthing loses or makes the balance. ” MODERN LIBRARIES. Hue largest library at present existing is the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris. It consists of over 2,000,000 volumes, -nearly all of which are beautifully bound. It has i been computed that, if the shelves on which ! these volumes rest were -placed one against 'lie other, their total length would represent .come myriads of metres. Therm are also over 92,000 manuscripts in tms great national library. Unfortunately the' catalogue is still very incomplete. The second rank is held by the British Museum Library The number of printed books at the British Museum is about 1,400,000, and it increases at the rate ol 50,000 volumes per annum. In the manuscript room is a collection of 80,000 volumes made by George -111., and presented to the n tion by George IV. As regards' anti'[nilies, the British Museum is unsurpassed by any library in the world. In the Egyptian gallery is the celebrated "Rosetta Stone,” the most valuable stone in existence, to which we owe the discovery of the hieroglyphic language of ancient Egypt. The following is a list of the number of .vorks in other great libraries of Europe:— vols. manuscripts Munich library .. ..700,000 30,000 Petersburg (Imperial) ..800,000 21,000 Vienna /Imperial).. ..500,000 20,000 Copenhagen «, ~450,000 15,000 1 Vatican 400,000 40,000

The Bodleian Library, Oxford, which numbers over 450,000 vols. and possesses many rare manuscripts ; and the University Library, Cambridge, which has now over 100,000 vols. The chief source of income of these two libraries is the Copyright Act, by virtue of which they can claim a copy of every book or pamphlet published in the United Kingdom, DIFFERENT WAYS OF WASHING. According to the World of Fashion, the hardest worked washerwomen in the world are the Koreans. They have to wash about a dozen dresses for their husbands, and inasmuch as every man wears pantaloons or drawers so baggy that they would come up to his neck, like those of a clown, they have plenty to do. The washing is usually done in cold water, and often in running streams. The clothes are pounded with paddles until they shine like a shirt bosom fresh from a Chinese laundry. The Japanese rip their clothes apart for every washing, and they iron their clothes by spreading them on a flat board and leaning this up against ihe house to dry. The sun takes the wrinkles out of the clothes, and some of them have quite a lustre. The Japanese woman does her washing out of doors. Her washtub is not more than six inches high and is about as big around as the average dish-pan. She gets the dirt out of the clothes by rubbing them between her hands. She sometimes uses Japanese soap, which full of grease, and she works away in her bare feet. The Chinese girls do their washing in much the same way. The pretty, short-haired beauties of Siam wear their gowns on them in the big river, and wash them while taking their bath. When they get through, they trot up the steps of their floating houses, and wrapping a clean sheet around tf sir bodies, they slip off the wet clothes from under it and wring them out to dry. The washing in Egypt is usually done by the men. The Egyptian washerman stands naked on the banks of the Nile, and slaps the wet clothes, with a noise like the shot of a pistol, on the smooth stones at the edge of the running water, and such fellah women as wash pound the dirt out of their clothes in the same way, French women pound the dirt out with paddles, often slapping the clothes upoi stones as the Egyptians do.