Here and There

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5, 4 August 1906, Page 36

Here and There

"iiti t 'Fhe Servant Question: To get one. The Divorce Question: How much alimony? The Social Question: To live beyond your means and keep out of debt. The Marriage Question: What time did you get home last night? The Money Question: How to raise it. The Race Question:What are the odds? The Sunday Question: Getting up in time for church. The Question: Asking her father-. A ‘ Neat” Suggestion. The “Lancet” is beginning a temperance crusade. Not one of the ridiculous superficial kind. The very reverse. Our contemporary goes to the root of the matter. Whisky may go to pot for all it cares. Nothing is to be gained by attacking alcohol. The insidious soda-water is what must be assailed. ‘‘There are' scores and scores of persons who would never have cultivated the taste for whisky unless they had had the opportunity of mixing it with sodawater and converting it into an effervescing beverage.” That discovery is quite beautiful in its truth. Why has nobody thought of it before? Real temperance reformers will implore the “Lancet” to place itself at the head of the new temperance movement. Crushing blows must be dealt at such wicked drinks as lemon kali, sherbet (so-called) and the whole tribe of aerated waters. We shall be made a sober nation by the simple process of driving men to drink whisky neat. “Save Your Voices," says Patti. ■ Madeline Adelina Patti, on the occasion of her last visit to America, gave this as the secret of her long retention of her great vocal gifts: “1 should never have kept my voice until now.” she said, “if I had gone into opera. Opera ruins a voice. No voice can stand that strain upon it for many years and keep its first youth and power. The woman who wishes to keep her voice unimpaired in quality must learn to save it, just as she saves her physical strength. If I had become an opera singer I should have retired ten years ago. “Even yet.” she added, “I save my voice constantly. People say, ‘Madame Patti does not give her entire programme with the dash that she used to. She cannot sing as she did,’ 1 answer: -Mi, yes, Madame Patti can. Only now she is obliged to save her voice in every effort. If she spent it recklessly, as she might easily do. she could not. in a little lime, sing at all.’ No voice is inexhaustible. but not every one learns this in time.” Strange Things in Figures. A very curious number is 142.857, which multiplied by 1,2. 3, 4. 5 or 6 gives the same figures in the same order? beginning at a different point, but if multi-pli.-d by seven gives all nines: Multiplied by one it equals 142.857. multiplied bv two equals 285,714. multiplied by three equals 428.571. multiplied by four equals 571.428. multiplied by five equals 714.285, multiplied by six equals 857,142. multiplied by seven equals 999.999. Multiplv 142,857 by eight and you have 1,142,856. Then add the first figure to the last, and you have 142.857, the original number, the figures exactly the same as at the start. Another mathematical wonder is the following: It is discovered that the multiplication of 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 by 45 gives 4, 44. 44. 44, -14, 45. Reversing the order of the digits and multiplying 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 by 45, we get a result equally curious, 5, 555, 555, 505. If we take 1234 5 6789 as the multiplicand, and interchanging the figures of 45. take 54 as the multiplier. 6, 666. 666. 606. Returning to the multiplicand. 9 8 7 0 5 4 3 2 1, and taking 54 as the multiplier again,

we get 53. 333. 333, 35—a1l 3’s except the first and last figures, which together read 54—the multiplier. Taking the same multiplicand, and 27, the half of 54, as the multiplier, we get a product of 26.1i66.666.667 —all 6’s except the first and last figures, which together read 27, the multiplier. Now, interchanging the order of the figures 27 and using 72 as the multiplier, and 98765 4 3 21 as the multiplicand, we get a product of 71.111.111.112—a1l I’s except the first and last figures, which read together 72—the multiplier. In a Grocer's Shop. An amusing incident recently occurred at a grocer’s shop in Plaistow. The packets of tea exhibited in the windows of the shop in question are “dummies,” made of wood. A lady who wanted some tea refused a packet from those kept in racks behind the counter, as she: said they were different from those in the window. The manager, recognising the fact that she would only accept those from the window, was forced to gratify her wishes. The packet was duly wrapped, and the money' was taken, but the purchaser was evidently- ashamed of herself, as she never returned the block of wood, for •which she had paid tenpence. the price of half a pound of tea. Tit for Tat. He rejoiced in the not very humorous name of Wood, and he prided himself on his jokes and smart repartees. Few of his friends had escaped the lash of his tongue, and he had victimised many by his practical jokes. In fact, he never lost an opportunity of being funny. One day be met a friend whose name was Stone, and naturally a name like that was too good a chance to miss. “Good-morning. Mr Stone,” he said, gaily, “and how is Mrs Stone and all the little pebbles?” “Oh. quite well, Mr Wood,” was the withering reply. “How’s Mrs Wood and all the little splinters?” Why We Catch Cold. Dr. Arthur W. Thomas claims that as he personally has a perfect talent, amounting almost to a genius, for “catching cold,” he has naturally devoted some time and thought to the matter, and has come to these conclusions. Chill in pure air has nothing whatever to do with it. You may get wet to the skin, sit in through draughts, spend nights in an open boat, you will never get a common cold: bronchitis, rheumatism, you may' have, but a common catarrhal cold never, without direct bacterial infection. Chill may lower your vitality, and make you more susceptible—that is all. Again, you must possess a suitable soil for the growth of catarrhal micro-organism. This is curiously exemplified in his own family of his wife, himself, and daughter. His wife never catches a cold; his daughter takes after him, and can hardly enter a church or tramcar without developing catarrh. Churches arc the great sources of infection. They are never ventilated, and in a health resort visitors and strangers arc constantly bringing down fresh supplies of the septic organisms that produce common catarrh and influenza, Antiseptic treatment is needed for the cure of such a condition. Sound Business Hints. Mr. William Whiteley-, the famous Universal Provider of London, who built up his gigantic business from absolutely nothing, has been telling in a Home paper about his career. In the course of his article he says:—There are certain trite little maxims which I have been careful to observe throughout my business career, and although you may say they are somewhat obvious, I would point out that it is those things that ar*

most obvious that so frequently get overlooked altogether. Here they are: Add your conscience to your capital I It is not- the largeness of your capital, but the smallness of your want* tliat will make you rich. Watch the waste. Be discreet in your transactions; run no risk that you cannot meet withont inconvenience. Trust in self help. Always pay as you go; if you caret pay, don't go. . Civility costs nothing. It is better to be the victim than the culprit. Never disappoint a client. Don’t despise trifles; the ocean is made out of drops of water. Keep cool;’don’t lose your temper, - Fair trading means successful trading. These are the maxims which have guided me throughout my business career. They have enabled me to carry on my business for over forty years successfully. Interesting Facts About Germany, Area. 208.830 square miles: population, 56,367,178. The German Empire consists of twenty-five States and the reiehsland of Alsace-Lorraine. The largest of these is Prussia. Berlin, the capital, is also the largest city, its population being 1.888.848. Berlin leads the cities of the world in the cleanliness of its streets, the beauty of its window gardens, and the utter absence of .ragged, slovenly persons. Her chief staples for manufacturing are coal and iron. Every German capable of bearing arms has to serve in the standing army or navy six years —as a rule, from the end of the twentieth year until the beginning of the twenty-seventh year of age. although liability to military service begins on the completion of the seventeenth year. Germany’s peace footing is estimated at 24,374 officers and 582,408 men, and although no statements regarding her war strength are published, it is estimated that under her present organisation she would have more than 3.000,000 trained men to place on the battlefield. Her modern navy consists of 13 firstclass battleships, 12 second and third class battleships, 8 coast defence-ships,9 armoured cruisers, 20 first-class cruisers, 19 other cruisers, 27 seagoing gunboats, 10 river gunboats, 58 torpedo-boat destroyers, 103 torpedo boats, 160 other vessels. Officers, 2646; men, 37.610. Only Great Britain. France, and the United States are greater in naval strength. Germans eat six meals a day: breakfast, “ second” and “ third” breakfast, dinner (after which the men take their noonday nap), “vesper” and an early supper, often followed on their return home by a later and more substantial meal. Woman has conquered quite a large field of her own in German journalism, and of the professional writers of fiction about 50 per cent, are women. Census statistics show that there are at least three female blacksmiths and one coppersmith in the empire.