All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 16, 23 April 1908, Page 38

All Sorts

" Mother '(laughing) to Tommy, "who talks rather much—' Tommy, you must learn to Jbtold your tongue.' Tommy (after «, faithful trial)— 1 1 can't mother, it's too slippery.' ' " / *„- ''- Sir Frank Xockwood was once engaged in a case in which' Sir. Charles -Kussell (the : late Ix>rd_ Chief ' Justice \of EngjUand) was the opposing counsel. Sir Charles was trying to browbeat a witness into giving' a direct answer, * Yes",' or ' No/ c You cananswer^any question yes or no,' declared Sir Charles. ' Oh, can you ?' retorted Lockwood. i May I ask you if you have left off beating your wife ?' Pardon me ; your necktie has been sticking out for some time. I refrained from telling you sooner because those young ladies seemed so much amuseii. Thankee 1 ; am'- the oil from that lamp has been aroppm' on that, light overcoat o! .yourn for the last ten- minutes,- but everyone seemed so tickled that I bated to spoil the .fun. --..-. In some parts 0 * the Tyrol a beautiful though; curious custom prevails. When a girl is going to be martied, and just before she leaves for the. church, her mother gives her a handkerchief, -tyhich is called a tearkerchdef. It is made of newly spun and unused linen,- and with it the girl drfes the unnatural tears she shed® wifaen leaving her .-home. The tearkerchtef ;is never used, after ther marriage day butis folded up and placed in" the linen closet, where it remains til its owner's death, when it is taken from its place and spread' over her dead face. A curious person of a certain town, who loved to find- out everything about the new residents, espied the son of a new neighbor, one morning in the-, doctor's. - ' Good morning,' he saifl. " Ldttle boy, what is your name ?' . ' ' Same as dad's,' was the quick reply. 'Of course, I Know, little boy, but what is your - dad's name/, dear ?' ' Same^as mine, sir.' Still he piersisted. ' I mean, wbat do they say- when they call you tp breakfast ?' " . _ J -* , See'?™* 7 dOnt neVer Call me; - allus gets there, first. The? cotton handkerchiefs ' provided- for French soldiers have pr nited upon them a number of sanitary precepts -to be -observed' on the, march and during, • a campaign', and- are further decorated with medallions contaiarag pictures of officers til' all grades, the 'different uniforms being so distinctly portrayed that ~ a French private can tell at once to what grade aaiv officer he may .see belongs. s *ny-oi - Fimger-print identification has been extended to oommercial uses by the Postal Savings Bank of the Philippines at Manila. This Tiank has" recently issued a series ' of stamp deposit cards on which, are spaces for stamps of. different " values t 0 be affixed.: When- the depositor has stamps to the value of one peso "on" the card it is exohangeel at the bank, for a deposit book! showing, 'the amount- to his credit. Opposite the lines for the owner's signature and address is a square rifled off for _ the reception of his thumb-print ; so that, even if illiterate, ' depositors may readily be identified. The Termite, or' White Aunt,' as it is popularly but' wrongly called, is the acknowledged head of the building .insects. There are other : insects that erect habitations that are truly wonderful,^ but there is -not one" that can. compete with, the Termite in the size and solidity of the structure it "builds. --"The Termite is •" not really' an ant at [ aft, but belongs to tl*e same family as the dra.e;on.-fly, the Mayfly, Vand ..beautiful Lacewingfly.. It is very common.; in c ,all;;.tl|(|,; warmer parts of the earth, and is a, social ' insect\livinjg in vast colon'les, and making most remark&ble\neste,^which consist of a large, and complicated series "of passages and rooms, sheltered bteneath a- strong outer covering of clay. These walls,- although' made only of clay/ are nearly as hard as stone and quite as barfl as many o£ the bricks of which some of our modern" houses are built. .Tbe'tform of the nest , is essentially conical; a large cone generally voccupyang the » centre, and., smaller cone,s being -grouped around. They are often fourteen or fifteen feet ■fJii-gW, and sometimes even reach! the height of twenty feet.' The natives of" Africa ; eat the Termites; and ih : fact, they consider them, .a special luxury. They also use the smaller nests when 'opened and emptied as ovens. 1

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