HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17192, 8 November 1923, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. WHEN ITALICS ARB USED. 1 We are. familiar with words wnttert in italics. In 1852 a printer of Venice invented the type when printing an edition of Virgil. It was supposed that he attempted to copy the handwriting in which the translation was written. The style came to England in the following year and was known as Venetian. It- was, however, confined chiefly to proper names and prefaces of books. Italics are used in the Bible for words inserted to make the sense of the translation clearer. Nowadays italics are used almost solely for emphasizing a word or sentence, and if it is desired for a printer to put any portion of a manuscript into this type the words are underlined. Names of periodicals and ships should be in Italics, but the rules regarding a’• hoc-. •? g.. i.e., et eeq., and so on are varied, and italics mayor may not be used. PROFIT OUT OF LIGHT. The “ Match Tax ” was a proposal by? Mr Robert Lowe, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Mr Gladstone s Ministry of 1868. The strong opposition to it on the part of match-sellers of the metropolis led to its withdrawal. Mr Lowe, who was known as an “ elegant ’* scholar, suggested as a motto for th«* stamp, which was to have ornamented each box of matches. “Ex luce lueellum ” —“a little profit out of light.” It is said that the die for the stamp was actually engraved and a few profs struck from it. A specimen would be valuable, no doubt, if genuine. QUEER RIBS. j A pdpular clergyman was very fonrl ; of riding on horseback, and. being vastj ly conceited about his fine figure, woru ! stays to show it off. One day *he was | thrown from his horse, and lay prone |on the road. A farm labourer ran to render him assistance. The first-aid man began to feel the fallen one all over to see if any bones were broken, \ and suddenly yelled out to another labourer. “Rin. Jock, for heaven's sake, for a doctor : here’s a man’s ribs rinin’ north and south instead of east and west.” , FISH BAIT FARMS. As angling becomes more and mort popular, the demand for bait increases. There are big businesses around Nottingham for the supply of angle worms, but the moat important supplies of bait for coarse fish are the maggot farms of Yorkshire. The maggots, com - monly culled “ gentles,” are the grubs of the blue-bottle fly. and since bluebottles are not looked upon with fav. our by the authorities of big towns, these farms are to be found in isolated spots far from -any other human habitation. Another reason why the work must be done in a remote place is because the maggots are fed upon decomposing meat. The odour of a maggot farbi is pungent with ammonia* The maggots give off hydrogen, which mixes with the nitrogen of the air, and anv visitor finds his eyes streaming and his lungs choked with the stinging smell. The maggot man keeps hit gentles in cold storage. So successful is this treatment that at any time of the year he can procure as much bait as his customers require. COFFEE GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE! Tn these days of the fashionable and easy divorce, it will interest freedomseeking husbands to read that in Turkey. during the seventeenth century# co'refuse-or neglect to give coffee to one’s wife was a legitimate cause for divorce. The men made promises wbeni i marrying never to let their wives be without coffee. Prohibition is responsible for the coinage of the word 4 ‘ cel-lar-smellers. " By some it is regarded a new form of slang; but from 44 All About Coffee.” by William H. Ukers, wo find that the word, in slightly different form, was used as early as I<BU At that time in Germany the drinking of qoffee was permitted to only a few. > rich'holders of Government licensesDeputies were employed to spy upoa - people to see that they did not have the drink. These deputies used to follow the smell of roasting coffee to seek . out those who did not have permits. ■ Jn consequence, they were unpopular and were called “ coffee-smellers. WHERE MEN BUY NY IVES. The well-known traveller in Far > Eastern regions. Miss Ella Sykes, has t been lecturing to the Royal Geographi- ■ cal Society on her experiences and observations on “The Roof of the s ’World,” this being Mis Syke's name for a plateau of the Ponnr Mountains , beyond the great river which borders 1 I Chinese Turkestan. The Kelgis 'mi habitants of the region! have st.d the i lecturer some peculiar customs. Ihe . men spend, most of their tinie playing i the goat game, a sort of horseback 1 football, with the inflated skin of a i headless goat for a ball. Attending marriage and funeral feasts is another - favourite occupation. Most of the lab- ■ ourions work is left to the women, and I they do it obediently, though women ; are so scarce that a father can demand Li a verv lieavv price for a daughter » - I hand. The stronger and more capable : I that hand is. the higher its value m , the marriage market. When a. Kelge ' dies he bequeaths no money to lus relatives. hut gives instructions for a. fun- - eral feast that will cost all the wealth : of which lie is possessed. ; playing tricks with nature. > Those who study Nature find that the - age-long traits and habits are being m . sonl p ~a , eP modified and in others eui tirely changed. Hie writer knows of a i case where, a bird had its habits ebangi ed by altered conditions. A trout- fishi ery "was established on an estate in i Scotland. Timing certain seasons a , large number of the fry or young f ront , ar „ crowded together in small ponds. : as then- inclination is to keep together iust where t.he water enters. One dav a blackbird, drinking at one of these ponds, got hold of a young trout, pro--1 hnhly accidentally, hilt- found it was «- cellent feeding. ! A blackbird does not f by habit get its food from the watem . but this particular one. having tapped . ■, new source of food supply, returned to it again and again. The following ; season this bird had by some mean* iieen able to impart, its newly-found , knowledge to all the other blackbird* on t.ho estate, ami instead of one bird stealing the voting fish, all the bird* f got into the way of doing sol The owner bad either to shoot, the hlaok- ,- birds or give up trying to Tear trout. That ail entire change of food is not ~ detrimental may l*? proved by the fact , that many of the cows kept, in Norway are fed on fish, yet- who will say that, a cow’s teeth were made for dealL in 2; with a diet- of this sort?