FACTS AND FANCIES.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 24, Issue 16, 28 February 1913, Page 3

FACTS AND FANCIES.

A LITTICE-KNOWN Et-OOPKAN STATE.— Many people are unaware that Europe possesses an independent state called Maresnet, beside which the principality of Monaco is a vast empire. Maresnet is on the border line between Prussia and Belgium, and has a population of 2,000 ruled over by an autocrat who rejoices in the somewhat democratic title of Burgomaster. In Maresilet there are no taxes for military protection, as the army consists of one man. There are no political parties, no elections, and no one has or needs a vote. Happy people 1 Every Limb its Price. —Among the AngloSaxons every portion of the human body had a recognised monetary value, and anyone injuring the person of another had to pay his victim the legal price of the damage done. The parts of the face were more highly valued than those of the other portions of the body, showing how much importance was attached by our Saxon ancestors to their personal appearance. If a man in those days knocked out one of the front teeth of his neighbour, he had to pay him 6s. as a compensation, but if he destroyed his beard he had to hand over no less than 20s. He might, however, break his countryman’s thigh-bone for 12s, and his ribs for 3s. apiece. He was allowed, of course, to smash up. the members of an wiemy of his country gratis

Patents For Nightcap Wearers,— Amongst curiosities of history may be included patents for wearing nightcaps. Several noblemen and gentlemen, chiefly in their old ages, have been granted the privilege ol appearing at Court and at other places in their caps. Perhaps the most interesting document bearing on this subject is a patent granted by Queen Mary to the Earl of Sussex. He suffered much from colds in his advanced years, and on this account petitioned her Majesty to grant permission for him to wear his nightcap when he waited upon her. The Queen readily granted his request, adding that he might wear two if he wished to do so. The following is a copy of the patent: "Know ye, that we do give tc our well-beloved and trusty cousin and councillor, Henry Earl of Sussex, Viscount o) Fitzwalter, and Lord of Egremond and Pernell, license and pardon to wear his cap, coif, or nightcap, or any two of them, at his pleasure, as well as in our presence as in the presence of any other person or persons within this realm, or in 'any other place in our dominions wheresoever, during his life; and these our letters shall be his sufficient warrant in his behalf.”

The Greatness of London, —Every four minutes marks a birth. In the next two hours after you read this, thirty babies will have been born and twenty deaths will have taken place. Think of it; the evening paper that records the births and deaths of the preceding four and twenty hours must give three hundred separate items. Verily its joys and sorrows are a multitude. London has seven thousand miles of streets—and if you walked them at the rate of twenty miles a day, you would have to walk almost a year —and more than a year by nearly fifty days if you should rest on Sundays. And if you were a thirsty sort of a traveller, and couldn’t pass a public house, don’t be alarmed—the seven thousand miles have live and seventy miles of public-houses; so you need not think of thirst. In a year London folks swallow down five hundred thousand oxen, two million sheep, two hundred thousand calves, three hundred thousand swine, eight million head of fowls, five hundred million pounds of fish, five hundred million oysters, two hundred million lobsters—is that enough 10 figure on ? If not, there are some million ions of canned provisions; no end of fruit and vegetables, and fifty million bushels of wheat. But how do they wash all this food down, you might feel glad lo know. It takes ;wo hundred million quarts of beer. Bm more than this, they drink ten million quarts of rum and fifty million quarts ot wine—the wine, the rum, the beer—two hundred and ■sixty million quarts!

Strange Custom at Ancient Egyptian 13anquets. —It is singular to find, in a song of a king, so early as the j i th dynasty, ideas which are familiar to us in the much latei hook of Ecclesiastes. Herodotus describes i custom which may be connected with the recitation of some song. He says: “At the entertainments of the rich, just as the company is about to rise from the repast, s small coffin is carried round, containing 2 perfect representation of a dead body. As it is shown to the guests in rotation, the nearer exclaims: 'Cast your eyes on this figure ; after death you yourself will resemble l; drink then, and be happy,' " The song after reciting that the body passes away, goes on; “ After all', what is prosperity • Their fenced walls are dilapidated. Theii houses are as,that which has never existed No man comes from thence Who tells o' .heir sayings, who tells of their affairs, who encourages their hearts. Ye go to the planwhence they return not. Strengthen thy heart to forget how llinu hast enjoyed thv Hf, fulfil thy desire whilst thou livest. The day will come to thee, when one hears no' the voice, when the one who is at rest hear: not their voices. Lamentations deliver nol him who is in the tomb, Feast in tran quility, seeing that there is no one wh. tarries away his goods with him Yea Dehold, no one who goes thither comes bad again."— The World's Jidigions, (Ward, Lock and Co,) •- The Manufacture of Tea.— There an two main kinds of tea, viz., black and green In the manufacture of black tea there an four essential processes, viz.; (1) withering (2) rolling, (3) fermenting, (4)' drying, it the manufacture of green tea. the fermenting >s omitted, and in japan (for some kinds 0. :reen) the rolling also. For the manu'ac,ure of black tea the freshly picked leal (i.e. tins of the young shoots) must be first uttered by exposure an hour or two in the •■.treng sun, or, if there is no sun, by the aide ire-heat, The rolling is done, even in Japan, n the aid usually of a box, and in Benga ’Hen by sleampower (and very roughly) . he juices are thus expressed, and the leaf r iven a "nice" twist, i.c., a twist pleasing u the fancy of the tea purchaser. What .■Bi-lmps renders rolling so essential in tbt ua-.uiiactiire of black tea (for it is not csseit■ial in the manufacture of green), is that, it misses the leaf in a stale conducing without idog to fermentation. By rolling the juice is expressed from the cellular tissues 01 the leaves and impregnated upon their surface ; thus is produced fine aroma,, and the leaves a; e more easily infused. Fermentation, is he most important point in the manufacture of black tea, and by it the leaves lose their -aw smell, and the tea acquires its fine flavour ; it should be allowed, in a temperalure of xo.ydeg. F„ to proceed only for about an hour. The process is a true fermentation, because? if permitted to run too far the tea acquires an acid taste. All English teamakers agree with the Japanese in the importance of stopping the fermentation exactly at the proper point by drying the tea, which is usually done by placing it first in the sun and turning it over till it is fairly dry, and 1 hen thoroughly drying it by fire-heat. The result of all the Bengal experience is that the black tea is at least as good when these four pi ccesses are done simply and rapidly, as when much labour and time are expended in complicating them. In the early days of tea manufacture by Anglo-Indians, great pairs were taken to imitate with tedious minuteness the careful hand-processes (and repetitions of portions of the processes) ar practised in China; but all planters now loilew rapid short cuts to the finished tea —Nature.