Page 6 Advertisements Column 5

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 28, Issue 23, 24 March 1916, Page 6

DO YOU KNOW ? . WHAT GIVING THE "COLD SHOULDER” INDICATES. It was customary at one time to set before a guest who had outstayed his welcome a cold shoulder of mutton in place of one h.atcd for his pleasing, as a broad hint for him to depart speedily. The phrase has lone survived the studied usage. HOW THE SYMBOL “CWT.'’ ORIGINATED. The origin of the very common symbol “cwt." for hundredweight is simple. C is the initial letter of th: Latin word “centum,” meaning a hundred, and wt are the first and last letters of the word weight, and are used as a contraction for it. WHAT THE PHRASE “EATING HUMBLE PIE” ORIGINATED FROM When English forests were stocked 1 with deer and venison pasties were i commonly seen upon the tables of the well to do, the inferior and refuse portions of ths deer-termed “tlr ambles”—were generally appropriated by the poor, who made them into a pie ; hence “arable pie” becarde suggestive of poverty, and was afterwards applied to degradations of other kinds.

HOW THH AURORA IS CAUSED. A discussion has been going on in 'The Scotsman” as to the scientific causes of ‘aurorae, in the course of which a correspondent claimed that the most probable explanation seems to be that, they are produced by electrified particles of matter which have been shot out from the solar ‘flames’ or prominences. In these prominences great sheets of glowing gas are being driven upwards with at least five hundred times the velocity of a can-, □on ball, and some of the more highly electrified particles may travel with a velocity that is vastly greater. WHY LUGGAGE BOXES ARB STYLED "TRUNKS.”

At the time of the Norman Conquest of Britain the boxes for conveying valuables from place to place were made in a primitive fashion, the lid being usually half of the trunk of a tree hollowed out; hence the name. In such a clumsy receptacle Duke William kept the money with which he paid his soldiers. WHAT THE PHRASE, "BY THE HOLY POKER,” CAME FROM. This is a popular abbreviation or corruption of a hind of oath common during the time of the Crusades. The original was "By the holy sepulchre 1 a saying very much made use of by Englishmen through the two centuries covering the period of the Crusades, the phrase in its altered form having survived long after the meaning it once possessed has been lost sight of by the million. WHAT THE SUPERSTITIOUS KNOCKING ON WOOD FOR LUCK SPRANG FROM. "Knock it on wood, sure to come i good” is an old-folk phrase which I used frequently to be repeated, half I in earnest, half in jest, as a prescripI tive preventative of misfortune. "Once upon a time’ it was widely believed that humanity the trees were allied in close sympathy, and that certain trees—a perfectly correct assumption—had healtng properties. One superstitions practice was for a person afflicted to tie his left hand loosely to a tree-branch with a string, after a while slipping the hand out and hastening homeward without giving a backward glance. The idea was that the disease would be transferred from the snfierer to the tree—presumably if he mustered up sufficing faith. From the living tre< It became customary in due course to touch any article of wood to ward off mishap.

WHAT THE WORD “GAZETTE" MEANS. The earliest news sheets were noi printed, but simply written, and displayed for reading in a place to which access was attainable, in VeniW on payment of a small coin called a “gazetta,” and worth about threefarthings of Soglish money. Tht name was, la consequence, adopted for the newapapw itself later in various countries. The earliest English newspaper was the “Weekly News,’ published first in 1622. The first paper entitled "‘The Gazette” in England was issued in 1642. WHY. DIGNITARIES ARB SALUTEI BY GUN-FIRE. ; Warships and the forts ostentatiously fired their guns formerly, or the approach of important or friend ly personages, to indicate that thosi in charge had such faith in the pacific intentions of the visitors that they did not think it requisite tc keep the cannon loaded. From thii practice—equivalent to hanging up 01 sheathing the sword-developed th( ceremonious salutations from ord nance given in honour of potentate* la aseay. leMidy

THE Pelorus Guardian The Beet Advertising Medium in MARLBOROUGH In dob Printing we lend the way