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There is a strong movement in France to haee women form a part of juries when women prisoners are being tried. The British Postmaster-General proposes to make a small issue ot stamps with mounting borders. This issue is intended as an experiment. Letter-boxes, which are shot up electrically to the apartments of the tenants, have been installed, in large buildings in Buda Pesth. The wings of birds are not only to aid locomotion in the air, but also on the ground and water. One bird even has claws in the ' elbows ' of its wings to aid in climbing. . The School of Medicine at Nantes, France, is using electricity successfully for producing sleep. The effect is secured by a certain method of turning the current on »md off intermittently. An eggshell is used as an incandescent mantle with iho acetylene flame by Emil Lewis Andre, who has patented his idea in France. It does not shatter or break, he says, and it gives a pleasant soft light. The teak, which has passed into "proverb as the best material for ship-building, is superior to all other wcoda from the fact that it contains an essential oil which j»ievents spikes and nails driven into it from rusting. An optical mirror for the Mount Wilson Observatory, said to be the largest and most expensive ever cast, has recently been taken to America. It is IOOm in diameter, concave in form, cost £12,000, and weighs about six tons and a half. A curious inquirer wants to know ' what are the sister States,' and the Fairfax Forum answers: 'We should judge that they are Miss Ouri, the Misses Sippi, Ida Ho, Mary Land, Callie Fornia, Ala Bama, Louisa Anna, Delia Ware, and Minnie Sota.' ' Tommy,' said the visiting uncle, ' seems to me that baby sister of yours is pretty slow. She hasn't any teeth yet, has she ? ' ' She's got plenty of teeth,' leplied the indignant Tommy. ' She's got a whole mouthful of teeth, only they ain't hatched yet.' Many English verbs are metaphors derived from the names or habits of animals. Thus, we ' crow over ' a victory like a cock; we 'quail,' as that bird does in presence of danger; we 'duck' our heads; we •■'ferret' a thing out; we ' dog ' a person's footsteps ; we ' strut ' like an ostrich (strouthos) ; and so on. , ' Is it the first offence ? ' asked the chairman at Cavan petty sessions recently, in a case in which Francis Fitzpatrick was summoned for allowing his jennet to wander on the public road. Defendant : elt is, indeed, your worship. She is 38 years of age, and was never up before, so I hope you will let her off under the First Offenders . Act.' Chairman : ' Considering her age we will let her off with a fine of sixpence.' Apropos of the large sums which authors have sometimes received for a single work, it is interesting to recall the remarkable terms on which Chateaubriand arranged for the posthumous publication of his memoirs. He received £10,000 in cash and an annuity for himself and his wife of £480. He lived twelve years to draw the annuity, so that he received £15,760 in all. That, however, was only his price for his book rights. The serial rights were separately for- £3200, making a grand -total of £18,690: It may be doubted whether any other author has ever derived so much advantage during his lifetime from a posthumous work. The old tradition of the heir of the great house of the Geraldines having been saved- from death in a burning home by- a monkey who carried him in his arms from the flames, an incident which made the Leinster family adopt a monkey for its crest, has its analogy in the family history of the. Earl of Granard. Sir Walter Scott relates that Viscount Forbes, the eldest .son of the sixth Earl of Gr;mard, and the grandfather of the present peer, who died in the lifetime of his father, was, like the first Earl of Kildare, saved from being burnt to death by the devotion and sagacity of a dog. He was asleep in his house at Castle Forbes, when he was awakened by. a sense of suffocation which deprived him of the power of stirring a liml*, yet left him the' consciousness that the house was on firo. At this moment, and when his apartment was actually in flames, his large dog jumped on the bed, seized his shirt, and dragged him to the staircase, where the fresh air restored his powers of existence and escape.

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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZT19090520.2.61

Bibliographic details

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 20, 20 May 1909, Page 38

Word Count
760

All Sorts New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 20, 20 May 1909, Page 38

All Sorts New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 20, 20 May 1909, Page 38