WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 82, 21 November 1874, Page 12

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

A Novel Mode of Adveetising. — The 'Edinburgh Courant' reports the following ingenious method of making advertisements pay : — " Twenty -four eheetß of note-paper, each bearing an impressed penny postage-stamp on the back page, being sold for sixpence, with advertisements printed on tie inside pages. It is said that the charge for advertisements leaves a handsome profit on every 5,000 sheets, although the postage alone costs four times the retail price at which the oaper is sold. The idea is not new, having originated, we believe, in Birmingham, some few years ago, when it met with little support from tlie public, although tie paper then supplied was cut in the old shape of " envelope note-paper," thuß possessing and advantage over what is now referred to. People are not generally inclined to save oven three-farthings at the cost of having to write a letter on an advertising sheet." A Sensitive Editoe. — The pursuit for information is sometimes attended with difficulties, even in San Francisco. One inquirer, who applied to the ' Chronicle ' for information as to where Cain obtained his wife, is cruelly rebuffed, the only reply vouchsafed Mm being thit : — " Upon any subject of a public nature we never refuse to throw the desired light. But this is altogether a different thing. — It is a family matter with which we do not care to meddle. Cain died some time before any of us were born, and such idle curiosity regarding the family affairs of a deceased person we regard as reprehensible, and calculated to violate the sanctities of domestic life. For these reasons, and because we do not wish to injure the feelings of the relatives of the deceased, we decline to answer the question."

THE Hbn and its Eggs. — A G-crman naturalist answers the question how many eggs can a hen lay, as follows : The overyof a hen contains about six hundred embryo eggs, of wiici in the first year not more than twenty are matured ; the second year produces one hundred and twenty ; the third, one hundred and thirty-five ; the fourth, one hundred and fourteen ; and in the following four years tie number decreases by twenty yearly. In the ninth year only ten eggs can be expected; and thus it appears that after the first four years hens ceage to be profitable as layers. The Condob.— We can tell you an anecdote about the condor's power of life. A miner in Chili, a very strong man, once saw a condor enjoying his feast on the mountains. He had eaten so much that he could not fly, and the man attacked and tried to kill him. The battle lasted a long time, and the man was nearly exhausted. But in tie end he thought he was tie victor, and left tie condor dead, as he imagined, on the field. Some of the feathers he carried off in triumph to show to his companions, and told them he iad never fought so fierce ft battle. The others miners went to look at the condor, when to their surprise, he was standing erect flapping his wings in order to fly away. A bird with such powers of life continues to exist years and years. Indeed the condor is said to live for a century. The Indian tries to catch the condor by stratagem. He employes him to fight in a ring at those cruel bull-fights which are the favorite amusements in that part of the world. He does not attempt to attack the condor openly, for he knows how strong he is, and he wishes, besides, to tale him alive. He procures the skin of a cow and hides himself beneath it. Some pieces are left hanging to the skin, and are sure to attract the condor. He comes pouncing on the prey, and while he is feeding with his usual greediness the indian contrives to fasten his legs to the skin. When this is done he comes out of his concealment and the bird eees him for tie first time. He flaps iis wings and would fly but that his feet are entangled ; and more tian this, a number of other Indians come running and throw their mantles over him.

A Floating Menageeie. — It is stated that a party of army officers, who have been engaged in mounting guns and otherwise putting the Grulf Forts in serviceable condition, while sailing through Mississippi Sound, since the recent flood, encountered a remarkable scene. For miles were seen logs, drift-wood, and patches of turf and coil floating out into the gulf, filled with live animals, who clung to their frail barques with the tenacity of ship-wrecked mariners. Among the animals were seen rats, raccoons, possums, rabbits, alligators, and moccasin snakes in uncounted numbers, all brought down, from the •wamps and marshes, perhaps from fifty to one hundred miles inland. Tie novel exhibition had a scientific interest, as it suggested the manner in which, during jmst geological periods, animals were transported from regions far inland to the mouth of estuaries, and their bones being entombed in the silt and soft mud, furnished the organic remains which are preserved for ages in the strata. It was doubtless, by similar means that the fossils now found in the solid limestones were engulfed and preserved ; and also that animal life has been distributed over portions of tie globe. Tun Man of Tact. — How easily some men move in the line of performance ! Every act seems to fall as gracefully and graciously as if it were consummate art. K]o matter what is in hand, or how new the attitude, tie feat is so smoothly done you would say the excellence grew out of vocation, or came from incessant study. This ease accompanies all they do. They are versatile, and are never surprised. In Bociety, tiey are the easy spokesmen ; in business, their presence and address carry the day. While another, intellectually greater, and of rare special gifts, stumbles and blunders in every step he takes, the n*in of tact — and with little else besides — will skim along over the surface of things to success and fortune. Tie difference between them is the difference between oil and friction. If we were to speak of this faculty in the language of Gall and Spurzieim, we should say it is not derived from any particular organ, but is the happy equilibrium of them all. It has an eye to time and surroundings, and as a close observer of the unities and the sequences of thought, it puts the right remark and the right deed in tie right place. 'Xhe man who extols the gallows before the man whose grandfather was hung, and he who berates the parvenu before a shoddy lord, is a stranger to its impulse. On the otier hand, is our oxamplo a lawyer, lie impresses the jury by his adroit manner, and by his, strange

sympathy with their own views. If an orator, he captivates by hfs leady phrase and sobriety of statement, or by his natural style and method. Possessed by the teacher, this gift makes the well-ordered scnool. It has the knack of command and assertion, and produces the serene and happy home. Interfering as it does in the tumult of conflicting wills and undisciplined minds, it acts as achymical mordant to evolve harmony. In all rdles tie man of tact, put him where you will, is everywhere triumphant. He is, to use a familiar phrase, which means much, always « perfectly at home." He has ease, and absolute aplomb.

• «.!.?? Hobse-Shoe Calculation Otttdone.— A well-known farmer in the Brechin district offered to pay the expense of a picnic to 30 termers, provided one of them would bring to him in the market on luesday one grain of oats, doubling the number of grains every Tuesday for 12 months. The offer was taken by one farmer, and an Arbroath manufacturer offered to carry the whole on his back at the end or the year. A calculation was thereafter made, and resulted as touows :— llie grains of oats would, it was found, amount at the end of the 12 months to 1,034,834,408 quarters 2 bushels, and the value at 80s per quarter was found to be £1,552,251,702 7s 6d. Of course the picnic was not paid, but the Arbroath manufacturer stood a xougfaf champagne. • The i Conscript Dbawiko.— A French correspondent of the .Boston Globe describes the draft under the conscript law in a, country village as follows : « The mayor calls in turn the young men ot twenty years, they coming forward as their names are called Snd drawing one of the numbers which are together in a sack. When o, young man called is absent his father draws for him ; if the absent man is not represented, the mayor draws in his place. The number of men, required to be furnished by the Commune is known, so those drawing a higher number are assured of their escape from the service ; tiey leave tie hall rejoicing, and are met by their friends and relatives, wno rejoice with them and cluster about as they repair to the booths to buy gay ribbons for their hats, which some friend arranges, while the booth-tender stencils the lucky number on the pictured card chosen to be worn in its front. Others less favored by the draft seek to hide their disappointment, and likewise place their numbers in their caps. Joining arm in arm, the fortunate parade through the town, singing to the music of a drum ; the wine shops are afterwards filled with conscripts, some paying and rejoicing over their wine, others drinking and boisterously covering their chagrin, and the day is passed by them in coarse demonstrations and generally finishes by intoxication. Parents do not and cannot take pride in their sons joining the army, for it is forced service, and the grief of parting is not softened by the thrill such as the mother feels who gave her farewell tears and blessing to her boy volunteer during the last Franco-Prussian war."

Taming the HtnoiiNG-BntD. — The ruby throat has sometimes been tamed. Mr Webber, in his " Wild Scenes and Song Birds," say?, after several unsuccessful attempts, at last " I succeeded in securing an uninjured captive, which to my inexpressible delight, proved to be one of the ruby-throated species, the most splendid' and diminutive that comes north of Florida. It immediately suggested itself to me that a mixture of two parts of loofsugar, with one of fine honey, in ten of water, would make about the nearest approach to the nectar of flowers. My sister ran to prepare it. I gradually opened my hand to look at my prisoner, and saw to my no little amusement as well as suspicion, that it was actually ' playing 'possiun.' — feigning to be dead most skillfully. . It lay on my open palm motionless for some minutes, during which I watched it in breathless curiosity. I saw it gradually open its bright little eyes to peep whether the way was clear, and then close them slowly as it caught my eye upon it. But when the manufactured nectar came, and a drop was touched on the point of its bill, it came to life very suddenly, and in. a moment was on its legs, drinking with eager gusto of the refreshing draught from a silver teaspoon. "When sated it refused to take any more, and sat perched with the coolest self-composure on my finger, and plumed itself quite artistically as if on its favorite spray. I was enchanted with the Ysmj innocent confidence with which, it turned up its keen black eyes to survey us, as much as to say, 'Well, good folks! -who are you?' By the next day it would come from any part of either room, alight upon the side of a white China cup containing the mixture, and drink eagerly, with its long bill thrust in the very base. It would alight on my fingers, and seem to talk with us endearingly in its soft chirps." Mr "Webber afterwards succeeded in taming several of the same species. He gave them their liberty occasionally, and they returned regularly. At the time for migration they left for the winter ; but the next spring they sought their old quarters, and accepted the delicious nectar kindly- provided for them and by degrees brought their mates. — ' Popular Science Monthly.' Tbb Cap op Libehtt. — The device of the liberty cap originated in the practice, formerly prevalent, of allowing none but freemen to wear anything on tie head. For a slave to appear covered was to bring upon himself swift punishment. Hat worship, as the French call it, was one of the greatest idolatries, and often the occasion of brutal tyranny. The mandate of G-esler ordained that the hardy sons of Switzerland should salute his hat placed upon a pole, as a mark of slavery and submission. Tie spirit of tie nation was roi s>d, and the tyrant paid forfeit with his life. The arms of the "United Cantons of Switzerland have a round hat for a crest, as emblematic of liberty. Britannia is sometimes represented with the cap of liberty on the point of a spear. In France it was hoisted as the symbol of freedom on the beginnihg of the Revolution of 1789. For many years the Kings of France had sent those condemned for crimes to the galleys at Marseilles, and there, ciained to the oar, they dragged out a wretched existence in a polluted atmosphere of vice and crime. When the Revolution opened tie prison doors, the red cap worn by the convicts was elevated on a standard of freedom, and borne before those wio so soon ciauged liborty to license, and placed all France under a Reign of Terror. The cap of liberty was originally used in the manumission of a slave ; as soon as the bondsmau was made free, he covered his cad as a symbol of bis liberty.