All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, 4 October 1906, Page 38

All Sorts

The Leicester boot manufacturers complain that the bicycle and motor "car -have injured their trade. The lighthouse at Corunna, Spain, is believed.to be the oldest one now in use. It was erected during the feign of Trajan and rebuilt in 1634. As St. Helena requires some £2000 in civil salaries ' to pay for ruling its 3500 souls, and as only, forty vessels called at the rock last year, the discovery of large deposits of manganese is regarded as good news. When things are in 'disorder they are often said to be turned topsyturvy ; this expression is derived from the way in which turf used for fuel is placed to dry, the turf being turned downward ; and the expression then means top-side turfwav. Rural France orders the feeding of her school children without much machinery. The village fathers make arrangements with some public eating place, set a money-box labelled ' cantine seholaire ' on the mantelpiece, and the children go for their midday soup and pay a sou if they can. If they cannot, the money lacking is furnished by private subscription. Although many French peasant farmers are compelled to live extremely thrifty lives, barely making both ends meet, my experience in France (says Professor James Long in the 'Daily Mail'), extending over many years, and assisted by unusual facilities, teaches me that they are practically a prosperous people, and that, if they live simply and work hard their lives are examples of contentment and happiness,- .while they form the backbone of the nation. It was in a railway carriage, and the company consisted of several commercial travellers and a staid and pompous old gentleman. Various efforts were unsuccessfully made by the knights of the road to draw their companion into conversation. At length one of them said : ' Come, sir, I know you are one of us. Tell us what you are travelling in.' ' Sir,' answered the old gentleman, facing his interlocutor calmly, ' I am travelling- in very objection aible and inquisitive company, and the carriage is full of my samples.' Before the so-called Reformation, the clergy used to walk annually in procession to St. Paul's Cathedral, London, on Corpus Christi Day. They mustered at the upper end of Cheapside, and there began to chant the ' Pater Noster,' which they continued through the whole length of the street, thence called Paternoster Row, pronouncing the Amen at the spot now called Amen Corner ; then, beginning the ' Aye Maria,' they turned down Aye Maria Lane. After crossing Ludgate they chanted the ' Credo ' in Creed Lane. An old writer .mentions Creed Lane, and remarks that Amen Lane 'is lately added thereto ' ; from which it may be inferred that the processional chanting ended at that spot. Amen Lane no longer exists. Both the novelist and the inventor owe a good deal to dreams, which have given them many an idea> It has been affirmed that the inventor of the 'sewingmachine almost ruined himself 'before he discovered where to place the eye of the needle. His original idea was to follow the model of the ordinary needle, which has the eye at the heel. The plan would not do, and he puzzled and worked without success. Then one night he dreamed that he was taken prisoner in a savage country. He noticed, as he was being led to his death, that the warriors carried spears which were pierced through the head. He awoke, his mind filled with a great idea. Running to his workshop, he constructed a needle with an eye at the point, and found that a dream had solved his difficulties. The woman who would avoid . becoming a bore must remember that her personal affairs and petty domestic troubles are of no particular interest to any one except perhaps -to spiteful neighbors, to whom they form food for gossip. If you — meet or visit a friend there, is no necessity to enter into the most minute details of your troubles or to bemoan your fate, which, after all, is but cowardly. Friends have quite » enough trouble and worry with their, own affairs without having to listen to a long recital of what does - not concern them. Every woman, of course, is not a good conversationalist. 'In that case it is_ a good plan to talk as little as possible. A good listener is^ always appreciated. • You cannot bore any one by listening, and are bound to win the good opinion of the talker.