All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1, 7 January 1909, Page 38

All Sorts

There isn't much meat on .the bone of contention. A successful man isn't necessarily a contented man. It costs more to get out of trouble than it does to keep out. The dread of ridicule is apt to strangle originality at its birth. , There are times when fiction is almost' as strange as the truth. The Jesuit Fathers in Brazil have perfected an invention of their, own for the destruction of ants, which are - especially destructive to crops in that country. Teacher : • Bessie, name one bird that is now extinct.* Little Bessie : ' Dick 1' Teacher: 'Dick? What sort of a bird is that?' Little Bessie: '"Our canary — the cat extincted him!' The flags to be hoisted, at one .time in signalling at sea never exceeded iowv. It is an interesting arithmetical fact that with eighteen various colored flags and never more than four at a time, no fewer than 28,742 signals can be given. Mrs. Young (proudly) : ' The landlord was here today; I gave him the quarter's rent and showed him the . baby.' Young (who was kept awake last night) : 'It would have been better, my dear, if you had given him the baby and shown him the quarter's rent.' Practical Yankee : ' Well, yes, sir. I give up to you. Shakespeare was a genius; but he didn't kinder seem to put it to a practical use. Never benefited civilisation with a washing-machine, nor a patent turnip-peeler, nor anything of that sort. Still, he was a smart man,' Chinamen have a- way of tricking hens so that they assist in the hatching of fish. Fish eggs are carefully placed in an eggshell, which is then sealed and placed • under an ' unsuspecting hen. In a few days the spawn is warmed into life, and the contents of the shell are then cast into a. shallow pool, where the sunshine completes the work. In a recent Swiss action the court, in estimating the sum* payable to the family of a person killed- by the negligence of the driver of a motor car, included the claims of the deceased's fiancee. The driver had exceeded 60 kilometres, equal to about 37£ miles an hour. He was sentenced to a month's imprisonment, 2000 francs fine, 373 francs costs, and 16,850 francs damages. „. In the year 1675 King Charles 11. of England founded the royal observatory at Greenwich in order that astronomical observations might be made for the assistance of sailors. The history of the observatory has been the history of chronology and of this practical side of astronomy. Its work and its standards have become distinctly international. The meridian of Greenwich now determines the longitude of tHe world. For the seventeenth time the stout visitor had groped patiently under the couch, on which he was sitting, for ■ a rubber ball belonging to his hostess's little son. Each time it was returned to him the delighted youngster squealed with delight. 'How little,' said the mother, 'it takes to amuse a. child!' ' Well, I don't know about that,' returned the visitor,, who was crimson from exertion. 'It seems to me that it takes a great deal.' It is supposed by travellers that the tipping system is; universal.' A North Island man who visited England last summer appears to think that country is the champion tiptaker, and he relates some of his experiences. ' Well, I had tipped every man, from the swell gent who seemed to own the House of Commons down to the hireling who gummed. the wrong labels on my luggage. I .went into the . waitingrroom *on the landing-stage at Liverpool to wash » my hands of everything English, and what do you think stared me ' in the face when I had finished ? A placard ,saying, "Please tip the basin 1" ' - , Tennis was first played in the. early -part of the six.teenth century in England and France. Matches for "considerable wagers were frequently held, and rather than give up the game ntany men played for parts, of. their wearing apparel after their money was gone. In England towards the last of that "century, covered tennis-courts were erected, and nearly all the nobility played, including the •women. Henry VII. was a devoted follower of tennis, and Henry VIII. was also fascinated by the sport. The. first royal tennis match was , played between this monarch ' with the Emperor Maximilian for a partner, against the Prince of Orange and the' Marquis de Brandenb6fow_ - Charles -11. was the first" person to adopt a tennis costume.