All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 11, 14 March 1907, Page 38

All Sorts

' What are you cryin' for ? ' ' I've been fishinV '_ An' you're cryin' because you di'dn't catoh nothin' ? ' ' No, I'mcryin' 'cause I'm gain' ~ter catch somethin' ! ' .The first electric tramway in Ireland —was from Portrush to the G-iant's Causeway. It was opened; in 1883 ' There's a man who has done a lot toward raising up the human race.' ' A great statesman,?' '■No; he is a lift ' attendant.,' Tramways were introduced into Great Britain by George Francis Train, who in 1860 obtained permission 'to lay a line in Birkenhead with a stop-rail, but it was found to be a great inconvenience to wheeled traffic, and the groove-rail was submitted. Glass 1 bath-tubs are being made in Germany, and are said to have " advantages over the metal aJ»denamel, the principal one being that they are much cheaper. They are made in a solid piece, and one can be turned out complete in about five minutes. Tbe English Court of Appeal has .decided that - a watch! case, being plate, cannot foe exposed for sale until it has been assayed and stamped. - The argument is tiha)t/ putting works inside a piece of plate '-'does' not make it anything else, and as the law says that plate shall be' assayed, before being exposed for sale foreign watches- wilr not be admitted to the English market. At a recent, exhibition of pictures in Tokio, Japan the following notice was posted : ' No person who is mad or intoxicated is allowed to enter in, if any person found in shall be claimed to retire.. No person is allowed to) carry in with himself any parcel, umbrella, stick, and the like kind, except -Ms purse, and is strictly forbidden to take "within himself dog or the same kind of beasts. Visitor is requested to take car.cc a r.e of himself from thievly.' Farther Himalaya, of Lisbon, Portugal, who exhibited at the St. Louis Exposition a machine to collect heat from the sum's, rays and which as ' was claimed at the time condenses a temperature of 3,500 degrees, has discovered a new explosive more powerful than dynamite, pamclastite, cordite or any other known explosive. Experiments in the presence of the King of Portugal proved so satisfactory .that the government has adopted the new explosive for the use of the army. - .. Vienna will shortly possess a museum exclusively devoted to music. In the modem world, at least; no city . could be more appropriately chosen for its musical associations. Instruments, MSS., portraits, sculptures, and, in fact, everything associated with goreat musicians will be represented. The collection will -be especially rich in its historical side*. It will include original scores by Bachi, Handel, Mendelssohn, Spohir, Weber, Mozart Beethoven, and Brahms. There will also.; be a complete collection of pianos illustrating »the .development of tbe instrument from its earliest beginnings.' Shortly after Mr. Gladstone's 1 death; a local politician delivered an address upon the life, of the statesman before a school. ' When he had finished, he said: '.Now, can any of you tell me what a statesman is?'- A little hand .went -.up, and " a little girl replied : ' A statesman is -a* man who makes speeches.' 'Hardly that,' answered the. politician, who loved to tell- this story. J For instance, ' I sometimes • make speeches, and yet I am "not -a statesman.' ' The little< hand again went up : 'I know,' and the answer came triumphantly : ' a statesman is a man who rriakes good speeches ! ' -" In an article on ' The Decay of Repartee .the New York • Evening Post ' gives .the palm to the ' Irish for the readiness with which the witty retort springs from their tongues. Says the •' Post ' : • They seem born' to it, ~ and every traveller brings back his,&t6ries of cabman's retort or policeman's sly dig. Of the more dignified type of repartee, perhaps the best known in Irish history is the reply of Lady Tyrconnell to James 11. upon his arrival,. in Dublin, hot-food; -and almost unattended, after" the defeat of the Boyne. " Mjaidami, your countrymen have run away," was the King's gracious accost. " I am rejoiced, ! at least, to perceive that your Majesty has won the race !" the Viceroy's 1 wife with a courtesy.