All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 19, 13 May 1909, Page 758

All Sorts

The Speaker and 40 members constitute a House of Commons. The sound of a bell carries better under water than through air. Forty-eight thousand tons of iron were used in building the Forth Bridge. In Iceland men and women are in every respect political equals. The nation, which numbers about 70,000 people, is governed by representatives elected by men and women. Japanese children are not allowed to attend school until after six years of age, as the Japanese believe that school education before six is physically and mentally detrimental. Recruit : * Please, sergeant, I've got a splinter in my 'and.' Sergeant-Instructor : ' Wat yer been doin' ? Strokin' your 'cad?' ' Margaret, it was very naughty of you to make such a fuss. You said if I'd buy you that new dollie you'd go to the dentist's without a murmur.' ' I didn't murmur, muvver. I screamed.' Probably no nation in the world is so much given to ' Hibernicisms ' as the French. A sign which is not infrequently seen over the doors of shops and restaurants in Paris which are undergoing repairs and refurnishing is the following: 'Closed on accoimt of re-opening.' If you have a pet bird, look at it closely when it is asleep, and will see that it does not, as is generally bolieved, tuck its head under its wing. You have heard all your life that a bird sleeps in that way, but it does not ; it turns its head and lays it on the soft yielding feathers of its back, which sometimes entirely hide it. The peanut grows in the ground, never above it. The flowers above ground are sterile, but after the flower withers a stalk from an inch to two inches long shoots down into the earth and forms the nut. As to the native country of the peanut, the opinions of botanists are divided between Africa and America. It is extensively cultivated in all tropical countries, but -seems to thrive best in the southern States of the American Union. Mr. Washington Booker, at a meeting in New York, attended by Mr. Taft, told a story which is likely to cling to the President. An old negress cook in the South who had cooked a delicious dinner for Mr. Taft during his recent visit was asked if she did not feel greatly honored at cooking for such a great man. Aunty replied : ' Neber done heerd ob him befor'. Know nothin' about him except he do look as if he been reglar at his meals.' v A well-known New York judge invited a friend of his, a lawyer from Boston, to go for a short trip on his yacht. A storm came up, and the boat began to roll and toss in a manner which the Boston lawyer did not relish. The judge laid a hand on his friend's shoulder and said, •'My dear fellow, is there anything I can do to make you comfortable ?' ' Yes,' was the grim reply, ' overrule this motion !' . Italic letters were first used about the year 1500 by Aldus Manutius, a Venetian printer. He observed the many inconveniences resulting from the vast number i f abbreviations which were then so frequent among the printers that a book was difficult to understand. A treatise was actually written on the art of reading a printed book, and thus addressed to the learned. By introducing the italic letter he contrived an expedient by Afhich these abbreviations might be entirely got rid of, and yet books suffer little increase in bulk. He dedicated his invention to the Italian States : hence the name. "It has also been distinguished by the name of the inventor and called the The first book printed in italics was an edition of ' Virgil,' printed at Venice by Aldus in 1501.