ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXII, Issue XII, 25 March 1899, Page 355

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Notice to Contributors. —Any letters or MSS, received by the Editor of the “New Zealand Graphic ’’ will be immediately acknowledged in this column.

•J. L. Granger.'—l have seen the advertisement of the apparatus you mention for drying the hair artificially, but though I've been through all the big ladies' papers, cannot now come across it. However, if you write to Whiteley, of Westbourne Grove, London, he will get it for you, if it is to be got. 1 should send about a pound, asking him to return balance. You may rely on getting the article and the money back first mail. The article is not to be got in New Zealand. You might try A. Hordern's, Market Place, Sydney, if you liked, bul 1 don't fancy you would succeed. (2) Nettle seed is not procurable here. (3) Your third .-query.* 1 will try and answer in our next issue. This time space forbids. ‘New (’hum.'—You are vastly complimentary. I can only bow and murmur thanks. You can get a Bell battery in Auckland for from 3/6 to 7/6: medical batteries run from -19/ to 55/. Apply at the optician's in Shortlandstreet. Chapmaiij.Queen-street, is the Auckland agent T for Trench's plays, and Mackay in Wetlington. From either one or otherof these you would get what you want.

‘A Junior,’ Parnell.—Your query arrived too late to enable me to look the matter up this week. Will answer in next issue.

‘Mary N.' (Sydney).—lt is somewhat ha id io advise, but 1 imagine you could live more reasonably in almost any New Zealand city than in Sydney, according to your statement. You do not say if you wish to be very quiet, or if you like a little of what, for want of a better term. I will call ‘life.’ You merely say you wish nice society. Unless you desire theat res and outside amusements, I should say go to Nelson. Living is cheap, the people are charming, and the climate perfection. If you wish to be in a larger place, of the four capitals either Dunedin or Auckland would be the cheaper, and of the two. Dunedin would probably prove most economical. Auckland was at one time the cheapest place in the colony, but everything went up with the boom, and has failed to come down with the slump. You would get the sort of house you want in either place for from 17/6 to 25/, according to locality.

‘Medico.*- -The best thing you can do is to see some well qualified medical man at once. I can't tell from your letter if you are really dangerously ill, or have merely upset yourself with all those quack medicines. But one thing is certain, that if you go on ‘trying each new remedy' you will quickly destroy the small digestive power now left you. ‘Get thee to a physician, that quickly, so farewell.' /

‘Query* sends me the following pertinent questions, which I am utterly unable to answer. (’an any reader assist? Why do we talk of putting on a coat and vest? Who puts on a coat before a vest? We also say. putting on shoes and stockings. Who puts on the shoes before the stockings? We also put up signs telling people to wipe their feet when we mean their boots and shoes. And a father tells a boy he will warm his jacket when he means to warm his pantaloons. ‘A.B.C.,' Ashburton.---The lines, ‘Though the mills of God grind slowly. Yet they grind exceeding small: Though with patience He'stands waiting. Yet with exactness grinds lie all,' may be found in Longfellow's translations from the ‘Sinngedichte' of Fredrich von Logan, under the head of ‘Poetic AplU»rjsms.’ ‘Bhift’er.' It-all depends on how the hands are going, but ‘two good pairs' is. in my opinion, a very expensive hand to hold as a rule. Nine times out of ten you will go down on it. ‘Origin of O.K.'—What ’ on earth prompted you lo ask such a question? However, I've found the answer, after considerable trouble, and it's so interesting that 1 thank you. More than a century ago the best tobacco and the best rum came from Aux ('ayes (pronounced O K). and the l»est of anything was designated as Aux ( ayes, or O.K. This meaning of the phrase* is

still retained. In the Jackson campaign every lie that could be invented was invented to blacken the General's character, and an endorsement that he had made, ‘this is O.K.' (meaning the best), was taken by Seba Smith, and declared by him to be but an abbreviation of the General's customary endorsement of papers as ‘oil kerrect.' The Democrats took up this statement and fastened the mysticletters upon their banners. The meaning 'all correct' stuck to the letters, and since then they have been used in the two meanings of ‘ the best' and ‘all right.' American Paper. ‘Solo Whist.' The phenomenon of thirteen trumps in a hand at whist occurred in the United Service Chib at Calcutta on January 9, 1888. A judge ami three physicians were the players, and they and the witnesses made due record of it. The pack was perfectly shuttled and cut. and the dealer held the hand, turning up the knave of clubs. Pole has calculated that t Inchance of this event occurring is one in 155,750,000,000.

‘Pretty Cookie.’—Parrots may best be taught to talk by covering the cage at night, or rather in the evening, and then repeating to them slowly and distinctly the words they are desired to learn. They should not be kept in places where they are liable to hear disagreeable noises, such as street cries, and the whistling and shouts of boys at play, for they will imitate them, and become too noisy to Intolerated. ‘Preserved M ilk.'—-Provide bottles, which must be perfectly clean, sweet, and dry; draw the milk from the vow into the bottles, and as they are tilled, immediately cork them well up. and fasten the corks with packthread or wire. Then spread a little straw at tin- bottom of a boiler, on which place the bottles, with straw between them, until Ihe boiler contains a sufficient quantity. Fill it up with cold water: heat the water, and as soon as it begins to boil, draw the tire, and let the whole gradually cool. When quite cold, take out the bottles and pack them in sawdust in hampers, and stow them in the coolest part of the house. Milk preserved in this manner, and allowed to remain even eighteen months in bottles, will be as sweet as when first milked from the cow.