All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, 29 October 1908, Page 38

All Sorts

- The United States now takes Half the world's crop of rubber. There are 800 Chinese students in the colleges of Japan, and 500 more are to.be sent. . - - A banker in China is called a proprietor of a cash shop ; a butcher is called a seller of swine flesh. Constantinople at the time of its greatest splendor as a capital of the Eastern Empire had a population of about1,500,000. Lady (to caller) : ' You won't mind my going on with my work while you're here, will you? Then I sha'n't feel I'm wasting time.' - • Babylon, whose name -has come to be synonymous with dense population, never had over 1,200,000 inhabitants in its palmiest days, so the archaeologists declare. .The elm tree is full" grown at the age of 150', ash at 100, and the oak at 200 years. The growth of an elm is about a* feet per annum ; that of the oak less than 1 foot; . Counsel (to witness) : « Now, allow me to remind you of what happened to Balaam.' Witness : ' Certainly ; but allow me to remind, you that it was the ass that warned him." Mary: 'Do you think it would be conceited for me to t'eir my friends that I made this dress myself?.' Edith : f Not conceited, my dear— superfluous. ' The first known treatise on stenography is a curious little book called 'Arte of Shorte, Swifte, and- Secrete Writing by Character.' The credit of inventing this method belongs to Dr: Timothe Bright. " ' Tommy,' cried Tommy's mother from the window, ' didn't " I tell you not to sit down on the damp grass-? "' ' Yes, mamma,' returned Tomy. « I ain't doing it. I wiped this grass with a towel before I sat down.'" ■ More matches are used in the United Kingdom ~tha.n in any other country in the world. It has been estimated that English people use an average of eight matches each person per day, and annually over 1,700,000,000,000, are burned. Magistrate (sternly)-Didn't I tell you the last time you " were here I never wanted you to come before me again ? Prisoner-Yes, sir ; but I couldn't make the policeman believe it. ( Sportsman (to Scotch keeper, after missing bird after bird) : Its most extraordinary how I keep -on missing!' .• • ■ Keeper (after ten minutes' reflective silence and communion • with his < wee bit cutty ') : 'I'm thinking it's nae sac verry ex- - tra-ordinary,. for there's a great deal mair room tae miss than tae hit.' The German Empire is a confederacy consisting of four kingdoms, five grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities , and four free cities. Within- its own limits each State is - sovereign except as to its army and" its power 'of coining money and imposing duties, in which matters the imperial Government controls as well as in all international matters. Manufacturers of spurious antique furniture have developed a new idea to enable them to more easily dispose of their wares. ' instead of 'faking' the entire piece from new wood the fraud purchases a genuine antique, which is duplicated in his factory a dozen copies being made. To each piece is allotted a single section of the original. In the sale the attention of the buyer is particularly directed to this part, and as he is soon convinced of- the genuinenes of the claim the sale is more easily made than when the entire piece has been faked. The process is called budding. ~ ' • r T^ ° f " S {remarks the Aye M «"a) who so often say Good-bye sometimes through tears, sometimes more cheerfully than we feel and again brightly and gaily, because : separation is onl> for a time, remember what it means? AH of us Wn ever we use this little word, and whether if be sadly "or: gaily spoken are wishing a blessing for our friend who is' leaving Good-bye is a contraction of a longer phrase, that used to be spokon oftener than now, and means jus: ' God be wi^ you ' Or for^toT H^ ieU / ? " thC same - thin^ for *at is the French Z?r /a w C ° UrS<? 1S a * h ° rt Way ° f com^nding one to the care of our Heavenly Father. Or if we say 'Farewell • then we are hoping that our friend may fare well as he journeys. Our words of parting are beautiful.