Miscellaneous.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2084, 24 June 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Miscellaneous.

Before Sailing.

Lean closer, darling, let thy tender heart Boat against mine that aches with heavy woe ; Drop thy quick woman '( tears to'sootbe tby smart, Ah, me I that I could ease my sorrow so I But men must work, sweetheart, and women weep, So says the song, so runs the world’s behest ; Tet time will pass and tender comfort creep, With hope in company, unto thy breast, Now, ere we part, while yet on lip and cheek Gloee kisses linger, clinging, passionate, There is a farewell word love fain would speak, A tender thought love labors to translate In earnest words, whose memory through tby years Shall claim tby soul and dry thy dropping tears. If in thy garden where the roses blow, Or by the shelter of thy evening fire, In any Winter gloom or Summer glow, Thy soul float seaward with a fond desire (Fonder and stronger than thy tender nee) Think tbon t *uOne longs tor me across the foam And if, sweet tolling like th» evening dews, A special peace enfolds thy heart and borne, Then say tbon, dear, with bated breath, "In some lone wilderness beyond the sea, Whether in light or life, in gloom or duatb, My lover’s spirit speaks to God tor me I” Kiss me, beloved without a doubt or dread; We are not sundered tbooghftoiewell be said.

A Homely Artiole of Commerce.—in the United States, ainiona of washboards are made and sold every Tear, and at least seven million, two hundred thousand are sold yearly between Jlhe Allegheny moon* tains and Hissoori river. There are two factories in Cleveland which torn out two hundred doten washboards a day, one in Toledo which tarns oat three handled dosen daily, and two in 8t Look which tarn oat ever one million a year. There are at least twenty different varieties of washboards, and the best washboards are made in the West. The Eastern factories make their washboards of pine. A good washboard should be strong and d arable, and mast have a good Washing surface. The washing surface is asaally made of sine, bat sometimes of wood or robber. The best wood for washboards to the cotton wood or the aycoamore. Pine to too soft, and white pine is too expansive. The best washboards are made with dove-tailed heads, with wire nails driven across the grain .of the wood. They mast be nicely finished, as the looks of a washboard will often sell it. There is a great deal of difference in the character of the sine need, and washboards are of all grades and prices, bnt a washboard costing eighteen pence will outlast three boards costing onlta shilling apiece. French wny of lontiMng Prisoners. —The latest method of identifying poisoners, which has been introduced into France by M. Alphonse Bertillon, and.whtch is now sncceesfoQv practised not.onlytiu the chief French prisons, bnt in Russia and Japan as well, is the exact measurement of the prisoner on his arrival at the jail. His waist, the length and width of his head, the left middle finger, the left foot, the outstretched arms, the three other fingers of the left band, the left arm from the elbbw to the wrist, and the length and width of the ear are measured, and the color of the eyes and any peculiarities are noted down. A photograph is also immediately taken, and by these means the many mistakes which have been made by trusting to a photographer only are avoided. The fact that daring the two years since this mode has been in operation, eight hundred and twenty-six habitual criminals who presented themselves under an assnmed name have been identified in France, shows that M. Bertillon's method is superior to any other. One Man's Opinion. Believers in a meat diet assert that no one can be strong without it. Undoubtedly, a greater feeling of satiety is produced by meat than by other food. It forms a greater stay to the stomach; but this arises from the stomach's constituting the seat of its digestion, and a larger time being occupied before it passes on and leaves the organ in an empty condition. The meat fallacy is disproved by the fact that the Sikhs of the Punjaub are pulse-eaten. The Italians live almost solely on maize and macaroni. The dreaded Iroquois were caltivaton of maize as well as hunters. The Spaniard munches his onion, and dips his crust of bread in oil. The Kaffir, like the Eirghis, lives mainly on milk; as did the Cymri, when Caesar invaded Britain. The Brahmin prefen (the banana. The Hindn, the Chinese, and the Japanese find their chief sustenance in rice.

Some Useful Facts —The aroma of red cedar is fatal to moths; the aroma of black walnut leaves is fatal to Seas. It is a matter of common observation that persons engaged in the business of making shingles from odoriferous cypress timber in malarial districts are rarely, if ever, affected by malorial diseases, and that persons engaged In distilling turpentine do not suffer from eitberlmnlerial diseases or consom[t'on. It is raid that when cholera was epidemic in Mem|>hig, U. S., persons working in livery stables were entirely exempt from it. It is affirmed that since the destruction of the clove trees on the island of Temate the colony has suffered from epidemics unknown before; and in times when cholera has prevailed in Paris and London, those employed in the perfumery factories have escaped its ravages. Collecting Postage Stamps —ln France the mania for collecting stamps is gaining ground. Among the most famous collectors is a man who has over a million postage stamps preserved in one hundred and thirty richly bound volumes, and also another who keeps two clerks employed in classifying and arranging bis enormous collection. Added to this, there are in Paris about one hundred and fifty wholesale firms employed in the trade, and one of the best known of these lately offered from £2O to £4O for certain stamps of the year 183(1. Tuscan postage stamps dated before 1860 will be paid for at the rate of £7 each, while stamps from Mauritius for the year 1847 fetoh £BO, and French stamps of 1849 are quoted at £1 each.

Wigs- —ln the sevententh century it was a common thing to expend a hundred pounds for a wig of fine make. At this day the inquisitive tourist may gaze upon an Egyptian wig in the British Museum which, in the nature of things, ought to be white with age, for it dates back some four thousand years. Some of the Roman emperors were great lovers of wigs, which they powdered with golden dust when they sat In the grandeur of state. During the dark ages the custom of wig-wearing sank intodisuse, but with the renaissance of art and literature naturally the love of refined personal adornment again burst forth, and in the courts of France and England the wig assumed a size and importance that made the wearer seem, at times, almost buried beneath the [rolls, puffs and tiers of curled hair.

Toughening Wood-—lt is claimed that by a new process white wood can be made so tough as to require a cold chisel to split it. This result is obtained by steaming the timber and submitting it to end pressure, technically " upsetting it,” thus compressing the cells and fibres into one compact mass. It is the opinion of those who have experimented with the process, that wood can be compressed seventy five per cent, end that gome timber which It now considered unfit tor use in such work as carriage building, could be Bade valuable by this means.