WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 136, 10 December 1875, Page 15

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

Flush Wounds. — Every person should know how to treat a flesh wound. Every one is liable to be placed in circumstances away from surgical aid, where he may save his own life, tlie life of a friend, or a beast, simply by the exertion of a little common sense. In the first place, close the lips of the wound within the hands, and hold them firmly together to check the flow of blood until several stitches can be taken and a bandage applied. Then bathe the wound for a long time in cold water. " Should it be painful," a correspondent says, "take a pailful of burning coals and sprinkle upon them common brown sugar and hold the wounded part in the smoke. In a minute or two the pain will be allayed, md the recovery proceeds rapidly. In one case a rusty nail had made a bad wound in my foot. The pain and nervous irritation were severe. This was all removed by holding it in the smoke for fifteen minutes, and I was able to resume my reading in. comfort. We have often recommended it to others, -with like result. Recently, one of my men had a finger-nail torn off by a pair of tongs. It became very painful, as was to be expected. Held in sugar smoke twenty minutes, pain ceased, and promised speedy recovery." Ikish Order. — An American, travelling in freland, writes to the ' Louisville Courier-Journal ' to express his admiration for both the scenery arid the people. What he calls " the wonderful degree of public order," which he met everywhere, seems to him specially worthy of remark. " I have yet," he says. "to witness a-n act of violence, or a row, or to hear an oath." r Good Morning. — Don't forget to say, "Good morning !" Say it to your parents, your brothers and sisters, your schoolmates, your teachers — and say it cheerfully and with a smile ; it will do your friends good. There's a kind of inspiration in every " goodmorning," heartily and smilingly spoken, and helps to make hope fresher and work lighter. It really seems to make the morning good, and to be a prophecy of a good day to come after it. And if this be true of the " good morning," is also true of all kind, heartsome greetings. They cheer the discouraged, rest the tired one, and somehow make the wheels of life run smoothly. Pidelis — Faithful.— Fidelis — Faithful : beautiful word ! It is hard to say which is more beautiful, the Latin or the English. And the virtue which it expresses is more beautiful than the word; yet it is not easy to describe it. By it we do not mean honest, or conscientious, or unchanging, or earnest ; yet it includes them all, and more. It lies at the bottom of all, and can be spared from none. There is no station of life so high, no position so obscure, that is not ennobled and adorned by fidelity. In learning to be faithful, we must begin with little things, and you will find that fidelity is very much a matter of habit, though it may surprise you to hear it ; for if you will only get into the way of practising this virtue, it will come, by-and-bye, very naturally to you — I don't say easy, for indulgence is always easier than self-denial — but natural ; that is, you will take the duty as a matter of course, without giving a second thought to the pleasure by its side— like a sugar-plum by a glass of medicine. " All Aboard '." — Wo were seated in the Herald express train, Grand Central Depot, Now York. The time was half-past two, Sunday morning. "All aboard!" said the man with the lantern. A pull was given to the bell, the engine blew steam, the wheels rolled, and we were on the way to Niagara. In two minutes we were on the banks of the Hudson. It was a moonlight night, and an excellent opportunity was afforded to enjoy the beautiful panorama just opened to view. The scenery on the Hudson is as romantic as any on the Continent. It is interesting, too, in artificial works. The stony palisades, rising up for miles along the water, like an immense rocky fortification, with the regularity of a hand-cut stone wall ; the misty hills in the background, and the thriving towns on either side of the silver stream, made a most beautiful picture. In half an hour the train was going at a tremendovis velocity. Towns flew "by in rapid succession. It might almost be said, in the language of Scripture, that " the mountains skipped like rams and the hills like the lambs of the flock." The conductor said the train was making a mile a minute. At 12 o'clock noon we were at Niagara Falls — a distance of nearly five hundred miles made in ten hours and a half. The Catholic population o£she United States is generally supposed to range between six and. eight millions. In the last Catholic Almanac, whose statistics are based on reports from the various dioceses, it is put down at 5,761,242. I find that in 1790 the entire population of the United States was about four millions, and five years before that the number of Catholics was computed at 25,000. This would give us one Catholic, in 1790, for every 160 citizens. If the number of Catholics at present were about, at the lowest estimate, five millions, there must be now in the United States one Catholic for every eight citizens. This will give us some idea of the numerical increase of the Catholic element, and of the obligations ! wo as a religious body arc under to God for the marvellous growth with which we have been blessed. OitiiiiN of Curious Phrasks. — The origin of phrases and sonic of our common words presents an interesting study. The term \nb row is said to have originated as follows: Cupid gave a rose to Hippocrates, and from this legend arose the practice of suspending 11 a rose over the table when eating, when it was intended that the ib conversation should be kept secret. The explanation of the origin c of "by hook or by crook" is that in the olden time persons entitled a to get firewood in the king's forest were limited to such dead branches as they could tear down with a " hook v or crook without c "- hurt to his Majesty's trees." "In spite of his teeth " originated s > thus : King John of England once demanded of a Jew the sum of "■ ten thousand marks, and on being refused ordered that the Israelite should have one after another of his teeth drawn until he gave " his consent. The Jew submitted to the loss of seven, and then paid the required sum ; hence the expression "in spite of his

teeth." Mr. E. Crossley suggests as the origin of the word " humbug" the Irish " -vim-beg," pronounced " urn-bug," literally " softcopper" or ' worthless money." James 11. issued from the Dublin Mint a. mixture of lead, copper, and brass, so worthless that a sovereign -was intrinsically worth only two pence, and might have been bought after the revalution for a halfpenny. Sterling and urn-bug were therefore expressions of real and fictitious ■worth — merit and humbug-. Prestek John. — During the middle ages, much was written concerning a prince, called Priest John. An active controversy was carried on respecting his origin, his native place, his religion. He was thought to bo a Christian, but tainted with heresy. The truth is that the Tartar chief of the Kerai'te tribe, dwelling near the desert of Gobi, had been converted to the faith by the Nestorians driven from China. The name of John given him was a corruption of Khan, the title borne by all Tartar princes ; hence the never-ending life of Prince John. They spoke of him during two centuries as if he had been immortal. He had not the character of a priest, but had usurped the title, as the Pagan emperors, who caused themselves to be called Supreme Pontiffs. — ' Annals of the Holy Childhood.' Wonders oe Insect Life. — So varied and Avonderf ul are these beings in their operations that an author has described them under the following heads : architects, masons, upholsterers, papermakers, joiners, paste-board makers, hydraulic engineers. Some dislike ■work, and are veritable pirates, being- always engaged in war or pillage ; others are of immense size — five and six inches long ; then they are formed so small as only to be seen by the aid of the magnifying glass. Some appear exactly like the leaves of trees, so that they deceive the very birds while moving on the ground, they look so like [animated leaves. Their brilliancy is such that they can only be compared to the most beautiful jewels. The purest gold and silver glisten on their wings and corsages ; their tints mingle and imperceptibly shade into each other. Many of them — such as the " Buprcstidso " and " C-arabi" — are used in India and China fis trinkets for women . The wonderful organisation of the sting of a gnat is well worth describing. The weapon with which the insect makes its attack is a long and slender proboscis, which projects fi'om the mouth, like a very fine bristle, appearing to the naked eye quite simple. Under the magnifying glass, however, it is seen to be a flexible sheath inclosing six distinct pieces : two of these are cutting blades or lancets, two are notched like a seiw with reverted teeth, and of the remaining two, '.one is a tubular canal, and the other — the central one — has an excessively fine point, which is tubular. The Avay the gnat brings this formidable compound weapon into operation is as follows. The tip of the weapon with the sheath is brought to press upon the skin into which it presently enters, the sheath remaining without and bending into an angle as the lancets descend. When the weaixm has penetrated to its base, a distance of one-sixth of an inch or more, the lancets move laterally, the saws moving up and down at the same time, and thus cut the flesh on either side, producing a flow of blood ; at the same time an iritant fluid is poured into the wound, which, by diluting the blood, renders it more capable of flowing up the central tube into the throat of the insect. It then sucks to repletion, if undisturbed, and leaves a painful tumour accompanied with an intolerable itching. The Same Old Church. — The Church is not only one and unchanging from age to age in her doctrine, spirit, sacraments, and morals, but she is unchanging in the opposition to her from without. Her Founder was slandered first, and delivered to death next, and time has shown that the disciple is not above his Master. There are many bodies professing to be Christian. The Catholic Church is the only one that has the opposition of all. The pagans of China and Japan mske martyrs of her priests and faithful lay people ; the crowned heads of Europe unite to oppress her; the wild beast brood of atheistic communists — Garibaldi's mob — cry "crucify;" The power of Satan which unites these jarring elements of hate, as well as the power of Jesus Christ which resists and shatters them, seems to us anopenmanifestationof the supernatural. — ' Columbian.' Daily Life of the Pope. — The daily life of the Pope is thus sketched by an Italian paper : — His Holiness is stirring at 5.30 a.m., and by 7 o'clock he enters the private chapel, where he celebrates one Mass and hears another. After chapel he has his early breakfast. By 9 o'clock the Pope is always to bo found sitting in his arm chair under his canopy, before a large writing table, on which stands a crucifix and an Immaculate Conception, besides papers, and an inkstand. Then comes Cardinal Antonelli, who communicates despatches, receives instructions, collects the pious oblations of the preceding day, and withdraws in half -an-h our, with his hands full of gold and bank notes. Then arrives the post, with letters and papers. A prelate, on service, opens and reads the fetters ; some journals the Pope glances over himself with his eye-g-lass. The audiences follow, but last until :noon only. I'he Pope takes a little exercise in the long galleries until dinner time. The pontificial dinner hour is about 2 o'clock, after which he retires ior the afternoon sioita of two hours. A correspondent of the 'New York World' has been visiting Keeloy — he of the wonderful molor — and snys that his workshop wsis ptrown with broken models and piaees of machinery twisted as though a Tit an had played with them. Being asked what force curled up iron in this way, Keoloy recited the familiar phiases, "latent power in water," " mullip l icntion of force," "generation of vapor." Keeley is forty-five years old. From boyhood he has had an afllnily for mechanics. At, twelve ho ma do a steam engine ; at fourteen he made another; then he be ami; a clerk in a drug store, then a locomotive engineer, wd then a gymnast He has been blown into the wafer from a tteamboat, has made two balloon ascensions, lived out, West in Minnesota, bc»n a rover, a troubadour, a restless seeker after something new and strange. He will toss » cigar to the ceiling and ketch the right end in his teeth ( fling acrose th« yard a weight that would