MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 29 January 1908, Page 67

MULTUM IN PARVO.

. "tt most curious almshouse in England .&.,% Mary's Hospital, at jDhichester. There eight.old ladies live actually in the church, a- fine old building dating from 15S0. - t lt was ■ originally a but , Queen t Elizabeth turned it into, an .almshouse to . ; endure as - long as almshouses exist. The old ladies have two. neat little rooms eaclv _ - flown thv> sides of the main church, with ."Windows looking out on the garden. They each have a coal supply, a kitchen range, - yrater, and gas. At a chapel daily services are held. The choir stalls are beautifullycarved old oak, the original seats that the monks used. " , •*?■<•.,.• ~ — Twenty, years ago the- wages of J>ottingham lacemakers were as high as £6 and - £7 a week, and the profits of the employers tanged up to 100 per cent. To-day, if a roan js working full time, he may earn - .from -82 10s to £4 a week. , .>„._ Among birds-the swan hyes to be the \- oldest, in extreme cases reaching 300 years. '- The falcon has been known to lne oier -, :?L ST Value of all kinds, of fish landed built -for- Keyltam- Dockyard. B wiir hft v , from 160. to 200. tons- at.' a r adius of flffc ' 80~t5ns-afc.losftrahd:^OtQnff at 128 ft. ,lts bc^yrleyel .io-the top, of ; '; - 'theTg]raer 6 >nKbe:-153ftx''r^ -.-: " . l • -;George ;-Whiteley;SM.E,,-Jthr.ehief ,Libe- , ■/,-ferea"m;a; collfeton^with- Mr- Whiteley s •; - ' 'JBSjoia in"^ivihty^a.nd ;^epo|tmenV - are given to the Swiss so, « they; may on all -occasions conduct themselves "with dignity and grace." , - — The result of tests earned out «n the German army prove that 681b is the outside weight the average soldier can cany on a day's inarch without injuring his heart. . — Most plants grow, more rapidly by dajr '-drawings will kst 400 < , years if they are protected from direct sunX hß i?toisd .Wimborne, who' has given up 90 " acres of his^land. at Poole. for small holdings purposes, has; received applications for ■ 60^^ ce c s - co |slig5 lig are i ar g' e iy used in Vienna, -but the more- expensive ones are made; of copper, and ' cost >as much as- £SOO, ,wmle a / copper coffin- recently made for a. -Russian archduke cost over £1000. • —Barbed' wire fences a r e being utilised for telephonic communication among- tne farmers in California: The .greater - part -of the lines consist of wire, fences running -- c along the- sides of the', roads or dividing' the -farms, . -poles -*ud - eUvaied s , l f»e Gupplied wherever, necessary. Branches ot % loops "are extended to the residences of the y - laxmsrs, living^oWg the route - ; —Jfe takes aliouf three seconds for -a message to go from- one end pt the" Atlantic v cable to the" other- - - ._v ' '„ 7 —tn a very fine, state' of preservation, and VitK large margins, >-' 13d black Canadian JtanVp. pf 1851- fetched the remarkable '" 'j)tu*-'Vr£& a^'Messrs^Puttick and Simp.-, son's rooms. "'"'.,■' " " n , • —An elephant takes, up the collection. In some- of the Hindoo temples. It goes round with jo. basket extended from its — There is one' lighthouse in the world that is not placed on any mariner s chart. It is in' the "Arizona, desert, .and marks the spot where a well supplies pure; fresh water to travellers. ''".., . fj — A. horse can live 25 days without,,sohd '• food, merely drinking water,' 17 days without eatinjr or drinking, butronly five _ days - - when eating nothing but' solid- food without. - drinking. > , , , ■ • '—'About 16,000,000 tons of sand have been removed from the foreshore opposite the river 'entrances of ,the Brunswick dock at* ' Liverpool. /The Mersey Harbour .Board -■ " find it" difficult to keep the channel clear at this .'point, and ;£24,000 is to he spent in further dredging operations- there. — Each .of 927 tramps who vjsited the Okehampton Workhouse during the past six _ month's "cost "the ratepayers 4£d for food, ■ but'Jn return each man did work of tne ' value of 7d. ' — A correspondent of a - contemporary gives some interesting figures about the - cost..of the- Courts, of Portugal and_Spain. King' Carlos's Civil List is about £70;000, and ithe-ibtal -grants to the. Royal Family arc -slightly over.. £100,000. ;On. the -other . hand, King Alfonso's <3ivil-List is j£2B<J,ooo - ~ c. year, his Consort has an allowancerpf- . £18 000, his mother £10,-000/ his .elder sister ' (now -dead)' had' v :B2O;O0<V and- his younger, -' sister ~ £lo,ooo, while- his aunts' receive ' £32,000 between,- them. So the. tptaJ- , grants to -the Spanish Royal House are iprac- - tically three times the " amount" of, tfaosff> received by the .Boyal Tamily ,"of Portugal; , , An inquiry -Instituted by school masters and -mistresses of Berlin iipto 1 the domestic conditions of their scholars' hasxevealedthe , 'fact (says the Tglegraph) tha**there are in -.the city W,OOO children wh,o get no other • food at home .than bread- and coffee. _ - . The Chinese are adepts at fieh-f arming, "and one of their methods of hatching young •fish is- most ingenious. . Taking * fresh egg, they' extract the contents, and refill tne shell" with' 'the- "tiny eggs of- the fish they ~ want t O \hatch.- The.hole .is then sealed up,^ "-- and the egg placed under a sitting hen. , In a very few day« the fish ova are so far advanced that one has only to break; the j shell into" moclerajeljr warm water, and the little* fish? spring to life" at once. -r The most remarjcable burglar-proof safe in -the world has just been' placed in a . bant at Newburg, Island. 'At njght the safe -is loweed s by cables mto an' imprei,'- - nable metallic-lined sub-vault of masonry and, concrete. After "reaching ..the bottom it" is-'f astened down" b£ massive . steel lugs,* ' operated T>y a triple time. lock. Until these lugs are released automatically at" a desired time^ nojiumanragenby'.can raise the.safe, and to break^iri^- through "> mass' of stone and- concrete which measures 10ft by -10ft by 16ft 'with; dynamite.-, would wreck "the -j building, "without 1 " making: the safe avail- j able. 1 -" . " • • " t— Birds, are- endowed with wonderful prur. 3ehce. They build 'their nests. 50-. cording to- the 'character, of the approachIng season.' If it'^-fq' be-rainy, they build in a sheltered position; if- windy,-, they, jilace 1 sti'iw.-and Jeaves.on the inside of the nest, between the twigs and the lining; if ' very windy,^ they take extra fare to bind the Tiest firmly, to the bough with pliant tarifi:

— A collie, trained lo pick up golf-balls on. the links, was alleged to be the "partner in crime of an" Altrincham youth who has been fined 5s on charges of theft and "receiving" stolen property. — Stoke Poges manor house, with 523 acres and a private chapel in Stoke Poges .Church, wHich goes with the property, _was offered at auction the-> other day, hut in spite of the connection of the place with Gray's "Elegy," and its- many remarkable "historicaf associations, only 1660,000 was bid," and the property was withdrawn. a- Birthmarks, which have' always been considered as indelible, are now said, on the authority of two Paris physicians, to yield to the action of radium. The new method has- proved equally successful in the cases of adults and children. * The marks are effaced by the simple application of- a , plane surface covered with varnish containing- radium. The " action is regulated by the 'ength .and frequency of the applications.' The applications are said tq be painless. * The treatment may be applied to an infant during sleep. The r doctors add that, the birthmarks most easily cured are those which are most highly" coloured—An out-of-the-way for a woman is, that of dinner-taster. She" is a product -of ~ Parisian refinement," and spends a portion of ' each _o!ay -visiting: houses and tasting • dishes Intende.d for dinner- She suggests improvements) and shows' the cook new ways of ..preparing fooHs