All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, 16 December 1909, Page 1998

All Sorts

worftLXle?" feSSfgr^ W ° n diStinCti ° n in the

The greatest bore in life is the man who thrusts his own with, «& b XVo?Lft r t SJISI you change the sister for a train ?' * ' I suppose,' said a sympathetic neighbor, < that you will erect a handsome monument to your husband's memory 1' nnnr To his memory?' echoed the tearful widow. ' Why, ?Si + i handn a T n £- *, was sortin g over s ome of his had^SiS tTtolJ 00 ™ 1 P ° CketS fuU ° f letters I

oc V^w 6 - 1 11! 1c • c name Rotten Row is in dispute. Some twt I HI VSV S \ cor ™Ption of the words Route dv Ro IZ rn?A ?- n £M W j"i e thers sa y that was formerly the road on which dead bodies were carried to avoid public thoroughfares; and hence, in old Norman, Ratten Raw or Roundabout Way. Still another authority tells us £t it ww %SLTs££L (to muster) ' and was once a&-

nffoA l\ g SS °L a sn^low man is more likely to take offence than any other. He can conceive of nothine but what he sees upon the surface. He has but little S not ledge, and hardly suspects the variety of complications of his own motives. Much less, then, is he likely to divine in a discerning way the hidden causes, the hidden excuses, 'the s whlch may }ie > and al ™ ys do lie > *k»* +I,* T he birds , t Ji at attain th i e S reatest a g e are the eagle, 5, inn ' and the , ra Y en ' wllich sometimes live for more than 100 years. At the other extreme is the wren whose W^ Se H fe 1S ° n ? S ree years - BeWeen thele come tie heron the parrot, the goose, and the pelican, with a £f^ « age M.yeara; the peacock and the linnet, 25 yeais; the canary 14 years; the goldfinch and the pheasant 15 years: the lark, 13 years ; the blackbird and the robin redbreast, 12 years; the thrush, 10 years. Along the shores of Joderen, on the south-west coast ot JNorway, the seaweed grows in veritable forests: not the common grass variety,. but actual trees from sft to 6ft in height, with stems like ropes and leaves as tough as leather It begins to sprout in March and- April, and gradually covers the ocean bed with a dense, impenetrable brush. In the tall the stems become tender, the roots release their suction-hke grip on the rocky bottom, and the autumn winds wash ib ashore in such great quantities that it looks like a huge brown wall along the entire coast.

The rapidly-increasing price of rubber has caused the cultivation of groves of rubber-yielding trees in many parts ot the world during the recent years, but the bulk of the product still comes from the jungles. The Congo and Amazon valleys supply the greatest portion of the rubber crop. The most recent figures give the world's production of rubber for the season of 1905-6 as 66,900 tons, Brazil leading in production with 40,000 tons. Bolivia, Central Ainenca and Mexico gave a combined total of 1800 tons : Ah-ica, 25,000 tons, and the balance came from Asia and the hast Indies. f vT her ®x are xi SOme Ipe1 pc ? ple who ride all through the journey of life with their backs to the horses' heads. They are always looking into the past. All the worth of things is there. They are for ever talking about the good old times, and how different things were when they were voune 1 here is no romance in the world now, and no heroism The very winters and summers are nothing to what they used to be— in fact, life is altogether on a small, commonplace scale. Now, that is a miserable sort of thing: it brings a kind of paralysing chill over the life, and petrifies the natural springs of joy that should be ever leaping up to meet the fresh new mercies that the days keep bringing. Ants are interesting creatures for the beguiling oJMazv summer hours at the wood's edge or by a shady roadside Ants are the most successful of socialists, and the study of an ant commune may well fit us for better citizenship In each colony there are queens and workers during the entire year, the winged males and females appearing in the colony or }Jy "} t. he s P rm g or . summer. The flight of these queenß with their partners in seeking new kingdoms is an occurrence which should add several pages of interesting observations to the field notebook. The questions of what becomes of the males and females and how the females remove their own wings offer chance for original investigations In the ant hill each queen has a royal chamber of her own and several devoted attendants who feed her and care for her "solicitously. As fast as she lays eggs they are carried off by the ant nurses, and as soon as the young hatch the 1 intelligent 'and devoted care given to them by .their old maid sisters' may well' give us some advanced views concern, ing the care 1 of children in public institutions. Not only do the nurses give the youngsters proper food, but keep them clean by licking them with .their long tongues, ana are also as fussy as trained nurses about the temperature