All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, 1 September 1910, Page 1422

All Sorts

Wanted a man to mend a record which has been broken. . i: - *P-e half of*the world does not know how the other r lives * Vi ‘Well, it is gratifying to think that one half of the world attends to its own business.’ The number of foreigners residing in Switzerland has increased to _ such an extent that in some towns, such as Geneva, Zurich, and Basle, they constitute half the population, and in others 20 to 40 per cent. Extract from Mr. Roosevelt’s letter to the Bureau of Fisheries: The water is fairly temperate. It is slightly alkaline, but it is habitually drunk.’. Returning Husband ‘Oh, and I say, Laura, before I left town, Mrs. Hugh Wilson gave me three enormous pears for you. I ate one in the train, sat on another, and gave the third away. Don’t forget to write and thank her Mrs. Subbubs (who has hired a man to plant shade trees): Digging out the holes, I see, Mr. Lannigan?’ Lannigan: ‘No, mum. . I’m diggin’ out the earth an’ lavin’ the holes.’ ‘Do you know him?’ asked a gentleman of a friend given to emphasis, the other day, in speaking of a third person. ; ‘Know him!’ said the other; ‘I knew him when his father was a little boy I’ ‘ I tell you,’ said one man to another as they emerged from the dimly lighted corridor of a concert hall, ‘ I envy that fellow who was singing.’ ‘ Envy him,’ echoed. the other. ‘ Well, if I were going to envy a singer I’d select somebody with a better voice. His was about the poorest I ever, heard.’ ‘lt’s not his voice I envy, man,’ was the reply; ‘it’s his .tremendous courage.’ A suburban chemist has been advertising his patent insect powder far and wide. One day a man rushed into his shop and said excitedly: ‘ Give me another half-pound of your powder, quick, please.’ ‘Oh!’ remarked the chemist as lie proceeded to fill the order, ‘ I’m glad you like the powder. Good, isn’t it?’ ‘Yes,’ replied the customer. ‘ I have one cockroach very ill ; if I give him another halfpound lie’ll die.’ A ravager from which European lands are free is almost as formidable a problem as the rat in certain of the Western States of the United States of America. It is calculated that the prairie dog in the State of Texas alone eats as much grass every year as would feed a million and a half of cattle. There are supposed to be 400,000,000 prairie dogs in Texas, an average of 25 to the acre, and 260 dogs will eat as much grass as an ox. Besides this the value of the land is injured by the dogs, because they dig up the roots of the grass and destroy it, leaving the ground perfectly bare around their holes. A man who had purchased a fine-looking mare discovered, after driving the animal for a week, that she was blind. Shortly afterwards he succeeded in disposing of her, as the defect did not lessen her speed or detract from her general appearance. The next day the owner of the mare appeared. ‘ I say, you know that mare you sold me?’ he began; ‘she’s stone blind.’ ‘I know it,’ replied - her last owner, with an easy air. ‘You didn’t say anything to me about it,’ said the purchaser, his face flushed with anger. ‘ Well, you see,’ replied the other, ‘ the man who sold her to me didn’t tell me about it, and I thought, perhaps, he didn’t want it known.’ At the last election two laboring men were discussing politics (and four-ale) in the public bar of the Red Lion. Jones was a true-blue Tory, while Smith was a Radical of the deepest dye. The argument was fierce. ‘Ah, well,’ remarked Jones, at length, ‘ yer can’t get away from the fact that Mr. Robinson’s a puffick genelman. A reel torf, ’e is. Only the other day ’e sent me a rabbit for my dinner.’ ‘Oh, ’e did, did ’e?’ snapped Smith. ‘Well, that’s wot we calls bribery.’ Jones began to get alarmed. ‘Well, the rabbit was a trifle ’igh,’ he replied deprecatingly. ‘ Wuss still,’ thundered Smith; ‘ wuss still. That’s bribery and corruption The postage stamp made its first appearance in 1839. Credit for its invention was due to James Chalmers, a printer of Dundee, who died in 1853. England adopted the adhesive stamp under royal decree on December 21, 1839, and issued the first one for public use on May 6, 1840. About a year later the stamp was introduced into the United States and soon afterward came into use in Bavaria, Belgium, and France. The machine for perforating sheets of stamps was invented and patented by Henry Archer in 1847. The English postal authorities would take no stock in it for sometime, but G. P. Muntz, Member of Parliament for Birmingham, made such a firm stand for its adoption that on August 5, 1853, the House of Commons appropriated £SOOO for the purchase of the patent, and soon afterwards perforated stamps came into general use. ■