RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 107, 30 January 1935, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events (By Kickshaws.) In connection with yesterday's “My Lucky Number” Art Union drawing, it appears that a great many people took the title too literally. v * * Ex-Kaiser Wilhelm is reported to have remarked that the trouble with Europe to-day is that there are so many politicians and so few statesmen. But wasn’t that the trouble in 1914? « * * What we would like these Science Congresses to do is to tell us where we are to find the men who can handle their recipes for a better world. <• r. a “A.R.” writes on the subject of the Hawaiian flag:—‘Each of the American States has a State flag, and tlie following is a description of tlie flag of Hawaii, taken from ‘Flags of the World,’ published by McCandless and Grosvenor, the standard book on flags in U.S.A.:—‘The flag of Hawaii preserves tlie crosses of St. Andrew, St. George and St. Patrick, and carries eight stripes (R.W.8.R.W.8.R.W. from bottom upwards). Some of the southern States retain tlie cross of St. Andrew, but Hawaii is the only American soil over which floats tlie three crosses, which were the cantonal feature of the first flag of the United Colonies of America.’ ” There lias recently been a tendency to pay more attention to old-time methods, not only in medicine, but in other spheres. For years Chinese doctors have been laughed at owing to their habit of sticking pins into patients. They do that and nothing more, and in a good many ailments the method effects a cure. Now, after many centuries, Western experts have come to the conclusion that there is something in the idea. Chinese experts have been asked to demonstrate their methods. Sticking a pin into a patient in the right spot, it has now been shown, does relieve violent neuralgia and sciatica. It has given temporary relief from asthma and has given instant relief in the case of certain stomach disorders. In another sphere, quite distinct from medicine, another body of experts has been examining old country sayings. They have discovered that in many cases they arc surprisingly correct. It has been shown scientifically that there is a good cfeat of truth in the belief that oats sown when the purple plum begins to flower produces a fine crop free from disease. It yet awaits official medical confirmation, however, that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. * * * Thanks to improved methods of measuring small intervals of time it has now been found possible to discover all sorts'of facts about the wayward ways of a flash of lightning. Lightning does not flash from cloud to earth in a single outpouring of electrical energy. After a few millionths of a second there is a second flash from earth to cloud. The flashes continue going backward and forward until the electrical equilibrium is restored. Another curious discovery has been mad.?. Before every main flash there is -a “leader” flash that has .practically no illuminating power, and for that reason is usually unobserved. This leader flash is comparatively slow, travelling at only eighteen feet every millionth of a second compared with 100 feet in the case of the main flash. Tbe illumination that draws attention to the flash consists largely of white hot air. The illumination persists after the actual stroke is finished, and may remain visible for as long as one twothousandth part of a second, a comparatively long time. Speculators, it is said, ore getting ready to “horn in” on the United States’ new monetary reform plan. Undoubtedly, if a loophole is left in the silver regulations in America, silver will be exported out of the country by devious methods and imported at a great profit to the people concerned. It would be unlike human nature if this did not occur. Americans are not the only people with a keen eye to busines in matters of this nature. For example the “drawback” system introduced in England at one time proved profitable to shrewd people. Under this scheme duty on goods was paid on their manufacture and refunded by the Treasury when the goods were exported. The idea was to stimulate export trade. It did so only too well. Tobacco dust and tea stalks for example were , sent abroad as tobacco or tea and reimported as dust. A rebate of the original tax was forthcoming at each cycle. Tobacconists found it was possible to retire early under this delightful system which once started proceeded to produce money for nothing for ever. Moreover, silver candelabra would be shipped .to France under the drawback scheme and the rebate duty recovered at Dover. The metal was then coated with a green compound and came back duty free to England. The compound was washed off and the candelabra sent back to France. This could go on until you made a fortune.

A correspondent sends the following advertisement, clipped from an-Amer-ican journal. Now that the pea season is here it may help readers : — THE FINDASH SAFETY PEA-KNIFE Why Not Eat In Comfort? Every pea on the blade of the Findash Safety Pea-Knife is sure to reach its destination. When eating peas with the ordinary table knife, the peas will slip and slide iu spite of the most expert handling, which is most untidy and also very annoying. A testimonial from John Applegate, Blankville, Vermont : — The Findasb Safety Pea-Knife Co., New York, N.Y., Dear sirs.—l have been troubled with palsy and find it very hard to get a good knifeful of peas up to my month. I was compelled to use a spoon, but somehow they don't taste the same. 1 saw your advertisement in the Blankville “Echo” and 1 bought a Safety PeaKnife, and I want to tell yon it is solid comfort. I can't shake them off. God bless you. A pea on the knife is worth two in the lap. No relined home should be without the Findash Safety Pea-Knife. Yon can drop your h’s. but why drop your p'.s? , * * “If you think you're beater you are. If you think you dare not vou don’t. If you’d like to win but think you can’t, It's almost a cinch you won’t. If you think you'll lose, you're lost. For out in tbe world yon fine Success begins with a fellow > will. It's all in the state of mind.” ~