All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 12, 21 March 1907, Page 38

All Sorts

She (looking away off)-rtHow clear the horizon is.' He— Yes ; I've just swept it with my eye. . The Egyptians used pencils- of colored chalk, an several of these ancient^ crayons have been found in their tombs. Reptiles- seek the light, but independently \of heat. In winter -they often leave comfortable and warm- retreats to seek the sunlight. - - Things made wholly or in part of clay and backed, • which are" opaque, are called pottery. Those which are semi-transparent are porcelain. _ Usually the silk is colorless on leaving the body of the . silkworm, but sometimes it is a straw yellow or greenish. - The learning of the Japanese will be greatly facilitated by the., abandonment of their peculiar way of writing and printing their language. ,Ten years ago the -universities inaugurated the" reform ; this year the use of Latin characters will be begun in the public schools, and" will soon lead , to their general use. The hostess had been coaxing a young lady- to sing, but to no purpose. ' What do you ( think of a girl who can sing, but won't sing ? ' she ' asked of a bachelor guest. ; ' I think,' replied the bachelor guest, .' that she's worth a dozen girls who, can't sing, but will sing.' The discovery in Dunedin of a , painting supposed to be by Watteau reminds us that a Murillo worth, according to experts, £10,000" at least, was recently bought at Geneva for 7s during, a public sale of a bankrupt's furniture. The painting, which' represents St. Vincent de Paul, bears the date 1669/ and the signature of,J;he famous Spanish painter. It was so -black that both "signature and subject were almost invisible. M. Berlincourt, a dealer in antiquities, bought it, and sold it again, to a local doctor, who is an art connoisseur, for £2 7s 6d. The doctor had the picture cleaned and mounted in Paris, and has already received and refused an offer of £8000 for it. Breaking all records, the total passengers landed at New- York during last, year by the ocean steamship lines from' foreign ports, reached the huge 'number of 1,198,434, which is 208,369 more than for the previous year, and a greater gain than ever before recorded. In the figures given out the International Mercantile- Marine Company, with four lines, carried a total of' 226,663 passengersin 261 trips. With 128 trips the ships of the North German • Lloyd Company took 193,553 passengers from north of Europe and Mediterranean ports, and with a similar service the Hamburg-American ships, making 132 landings, took 188,811 voyagers. The Cunard" line, running ships to Liverpool, and the Mediterranean with 96 - trips, conveyed 140,005 passengers, and the French line carried 7.7,250 passengers from the port of Havre. 'Of the enormous -number carried, only 142,603 were'oitizens of the United States, and 1,055,831 aliens were landed. -That the~ year has been a prosperous one for the steamship companies is well known, and the list of 998 steamship arrivals for 1905 Js swelled to 1083 for the last year, which includes the establishment of' several new lines from foreign ports. . We have often heard of War Office 'delays (says aHome exchange) , but- a delay of fifty years •is rather beyond the "ordinary limits of even Pall • Mall, jiilatoriness. Yet ,such an instance has- just been "reported from Aldershot. It appears that an officer in the command of a battalion quartered there was amazed one morning to find on his parade ground a • traqtion engine and several trucks of -stones and gravel. _The material was deposited on the ground, - and .in due course the engine and trucks returned with, further loads. - Groing to headquarters for an explanation of the delivery, the Commanding Officer was informed that the instructions -had come from the War Office. Not satisfied with this "explanation,- he caused further inquiries to be made, with the result . that the original requisition for the material was produced, - and it was found to be dated 1856. The explanation given is that in> moving out of the old offices •in Pall Mall -to the new buildings in Whitehall a clerk had come, across this requisition in a long-forgotten pigeonhole, and seeing it was . for one hundred tons , of - road material for the laying ciufc of roads, had the order executed. •—