All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 08, 8 October 1908, Page 38

All Sorts

~■; » * At Kouka, in Central Africa, the average annual temperature, is 83.5 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the world's record for heat. ' ,' Will you have your eggs cooked on both sides?' asked the waiter. 'Yes, please,' replied the diner ; 'on the outside and on - the inside.' ~v " - . The Japanese system of .letters is called Iroha,;from the names of the first three letters, ' i, 1 ' ro,' and 'ha,' on precisely the same principle as that which gives to our own system the titlej^alphabet. ' ■ • - The smallest coin in the world having a genuine circulation is probably the Maltese ' grain, '.a tiny fragment of bronze about ,as big and round as the. top of a slate pencil, and worth only one-twelfth of a penny. ' « The Jordan is one of the most crooked rivers known. In covering a distance of sixty miles, "for that Is the length of a straight line drawn on the map between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, it runs two hundred and twelve miles because of its many windings. ulsu ls that dog of yours smart?' 'Smart? Well, I should say-so! I was going out with hitrr yesterday;' and I stopped and said :* " Towser, we have "forgotten something!" And bofhered if he didn't sit down and scratch his head to see if he could think what it was.' The ant's mouth consists of a pair of powerful mandibles. In the case of warrior ants, which do the fighting of an ant community, the mandibles are the most prominent leature of the insect. They are so strong that when fixed in "the flesh, of an enemy the ant's dead body may be pulled off before the' mandibleswill lose their hold. . • . " . A gentleman who takes a business, view of things, " when recently asked respecting a person of quite a poetic temperament, replied : '. - ' Oh, he's one of those men who have soarings after the infinite and "divings after the unfathomable, but who never pays cash. Herbivorous animals do not eat all of nature's menu. The hoVse refuses the water hemlock that the goat eats with aivdity, and, on the other hand, the goat refuses some plants that are eaten by the sheep. The tobacco plant is avoided by all save the goat, man and the tobacco worm. Some botanists think that no plant is absolutely poisonous, but only relatively so, being harmful to only certain animals. A backblocks newspaper proprietor quickened the memories -of his subscribers in the following novel manner :—' All persons, knowing themselves indebted to this office are requested to call and settle. All those indebted to this office and not knowing it are requested to call and find out. Those knowing themselves to be indebted and not wishing to call are requested to .stay ato ne place long enough for us to catch them!' A recent search among the muniments of Ripon Cathedral discloses the interesting fact that the builder of the Cathedral organ in 1530 was an Irishman, James Dempsey. From the specification it would seem, to have been a noble instrument, and reflected credit on its Irish builder. ./This James Dempsey, according to Dr. Grattan Flood, had been organ builder to Gerald, Earl. of. Kildare. He -settled in- England in 1529, and built many organs. His last work was that of Dbncaster • parish organ in 1561, and he died at Doncaster in July, ,1567. The costliest pun that was ever perpetrated was probably that of Sir William Coflingbourne, for . which he paid with his head. in 1484. Richard 111. was then on the throne, and, with his agents, Ratcliff, Catesby and Lovel, was" working" his crooked -will upon the English nation. Using as the basis of his satire the wild boar on the King's shield, and the popular use of the word- Lovel as a name for dogs, Collingbourne wrote the following:—'The. rat, the cat, andJLovel'the dog, rule all England under the Hog.' The punster was sent to the block V f or his ill-judged witticism. - -