All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 9, 5 March 1908, Page 38

All Sorts

All the cork used in the world in a year weighs a little' over one thousand tons. ■ A' cassock waa originally another name for the garment now called a vest. It was afterwards applied to a long loose coat. ■'It's awful cfueer to me,' said Dot, as she thought it over. ' I can't \see why chickens what haven t any hair have combs, while dogs and horses that have hair don't hiave combs. Mother had been trying to teach little three-year-old Dorothy to spell her name, but with poor success. At last she said that no one would think her very smart if she couldn't spell her own name. ' Well,' exclaimed Dorothy, ' why didn't you just call me Cat, and then - it would be easy to spell ? Big names make little girls tired. ' . ■ The reward of virtue,: A lad found a parcel (that had been lost and advertised for) at a considerable distance from the city a few days ago, and- at much personal inconvenience (says the Christchurch ' Press ) restored it to its owner, who signified his .gratitude^ by overwhelming the youngster with ftifts, which consisted of one apple and one pear \ Afaout five hundred old Irish soldiers of the United States Republic are at presmt living in Ireland. The original pension they received from the United States Government was eight dollars a month, without any increase for age ; but, owing it is saidi to the influence oi president Roosevelt, the scale, at the age of 62, has been increased, to twelve dollars ; at*7(T it is now fifteen dollars ; and at 75 it is twenty dollars. A numlber of literateurs and musicians have been interviewed by a Paris periodical on the effect of alcohol as a stimulant to brace activity. Victoricm Sardou says he holds alcohol to be a poison. He never had recourse to alcohol as a stimulant to do his work. Ccffee h& uses c^mite freely. Saint-Saens, the composer, drinks little alcohol, because of the bad effect on his liver. M. Massenet agrees with the others th a t liquor is a bad master. The Panama C a nal will be forty-nine miles long, 40ft. deep and 200 ft. wide. It will be capable of passing the Urges t ships from ocean to ocean in half a day., The distance between Liverpool and San Francisco will be decreased by 6000 miles. The whole western coast of the Americas will be much more accessible from Europe and Africa, and their eastern coasts much nearer to Asia. It is not tco much to say that the opening oi' this great canal ten years hence may shift the earlh's commercial centre of gra\ity. Nearly every European Sovereign has money deposited in the Banik of England^ Even the Sultan of Turkey, though he adheres to the peculiarly Eastern custo n of hoarding away uncut gems and bars of virgin g,old in secret hiding-places in Constantinople,, has "" a sum running into six figures at his call at the Old Lady of Threadneedle street. Notwithstanding that Turkey is the poorest country in Europe, the Civil List of the Sultan is the second largest. It is £800,000 a year, and he has probably as much again in the shape of private income. The latest Federal Statistician's returns show that the population of the Commonwealth on January '30 last was 4,146,200. New South; Wales heads the . list with 1,545,002; then follows Victoria, 1,235,288 ; Queensland, 538,735 ; South Australia, 386,162 ; West .. Australia, 263,439 ; and; Tasmania, 177,539. Dunne; the June quarter 516 twine were born, New South Wales having 178, Victoria 158, .Queensland 48, Tasmania 14. . Three States, New.- South Wales,- Queensland, and South Australia, each , had' three sets oK triplets. It must be said, remarks the "! Aye Maria,' in extenuation of the amusing blundors made by the non-Cath.)lic reporters of Catholic functions, that they.- sin in very respectable company. Only a year or two ago Mr^Gold- ■. win Smith, of unquestioned eminence as a scholar, confounded .the Immaculate Conception- of X>ur Lady with 'the virgin Uirth of Christ ;, a-nd now we have the old-time 'Thunderer,' the London ' Times,' discussing the Roman Congregation of ' RigWts.' .Of course, as lamented Brother Gardiner, used to say, ' the world do move,' but its progress along some lines appears- to be imperceptible.-'

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