All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, 31 December 1908, Page 38

All Sorts

More than 60,000 stamps are found every year loose" . in, ?the letter boxes of the United Kingdom. * "''.•' ■\^ T 1 eacli er : Y:?- on .nnie, this is the worst ■ composition in • the class, and-: I'm going to Avrite to your father and tell him.' Johnnie: 'Don't keer if ye do; lie wrote it "fer .me!' 'Say, pa, does philosophy help us to endure trials?' It helps us to endure the trials of other people my son, but it usually fails when /applied to our own.' ' The oldest newspaper m the world, the ' King Pao ' or News of the Capital, 3 of Pekin, celebrated its 50Oth anniversary last year. „ A pigeon ,it is said, can, upon occasion, outstrip the fastest express train, but its average flight >s only at • lie rate of. about thirty-four miles an hour. A gate porter at St. George's Workhouse ssifd ot an inquest at Southwark, London, that he had never scon a y Jew or a Jewess admitted to the workhouse. Hindoo children are remarkable for their precocity Many of them are skilful workmen at an age when European children are learning the alphabet. A boy of seven may be a skilful woodcarver, while some of the handsomest rugs are woven by childrei not yet in their teens. ' Doesn't your brother Tommy ever give von anything Johnny?' '■•/«=» ' I should say he did. He's the one what gave me the mumps and the measles.' The Angora cat is peculiar. When its fur is entirely white the animal is invariably blind, but when there is even the slightest tinge of color the vision is as perfect as in any other normal cat. This phenomenon is not accounted for. The only case of a similar kind known is that of the fishes in Mammoth Cave, which have no eyes ' Did you ever take the wishbone of a chicken and make a wish? ' ' Yes.' ' And what did you wish ? ' ' That the meat on it was more tender.' Little four-year-old Harry was not feeling well, and his father suggested that he might be taking the chickenpox, then prevalent. Harry went to bed laughing at the idea, but early next morning he came downstairs, looking very serious, and said, ' You're right, papa, it is the chicken-pox; I found a feather in the bed.' Irish Viceroys are stripped of their sovereign attributes as soon as they reach English waters, which gives point to the following story told of Lord Houghton and a lady with whom h.e was acquainted. They both found themselves on board the Holyhead packet. During the voyage from Ireland the lady treated the Viceroy with ceremonious respect. So soon, however, as the packet entered Holyhead harbor she said to him : ' Now, Bobby, you're 310 longer a Viceroy, so take my hag and make yourself useful. ' In present usage, the word alumnus is specifically used to denote the graduate of a college or university (says an exchange). More commonly its plural form, alumni, is employed to designate the collective body of such an institution's graduates. Formerly, however, the term was used of a pupil, still an undergraduate. In ecclesiastical usage, the word meant, and means, a student preparing for the sacred ministry in a seminary. The original meaning of the word was a nursling, or foster-child. This is clear from the Latin alere, to nurse or feed. The feminine form of the term, alumna., plural alumnce, is used to characterise a graduate of academy, ladies' college^Sr" university. A point worth noting about the plural forms is that alumni is pronounced with the accent on the "second syllable, and with the long sound of the i; while dlumnoe has the same syllable accented, with the cc sounded like a long c. Citizens of the old Devonshire ,town of Honiton are immune from arrest until sunset one evening. While the horsehair ism. progress the arm of the law is, powerless. This is in continuation of .a quaint and picturesque ceremonial which has been handed down from the time of Henry 111. When the horse fair begins, the town crier, in the gorgeous dress of. a beadle of the eighteenth century, appears, carrying a pole, at the end of which is a large gilt glove, decked with flowers. Having rung his handbell 'three times, the crier, in his three-cornered hat, announces, ' Oyez, oyez, oyez! The fair is begun;, the glove is up; no maa can be arrested till the glove is down. God save the King.' Each sentence is chorused by the children standing round, and at the conclusion they scramble for nuts. The glove is taken down at sunset.