PITHY PARS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 110, 19 November 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

PITHY PARS.

Honey ie a good substitute for codiiver oil.

Wooden sleepers on railways last about fifteen years. * * *

Ametrica lias over five thousand is. hinds around ite coaste.

lied hats were first worn by cardinals in the year 1245.

* * * The tall silk hat first came into com mon sue in Pari sin 1797.

* * * in?? ffif co ? taius m staircases and 1,100 diiierent rooms. * * *

There are 635,00<J,6(XJ diiierent wliis* hands in a pack ot cards.

Lung diseases are rare among the employees in tobacco lactones.

Handshaking came into vogue during tno reign ot Henry a. j a England.

Spotted or figured veils are bad for the sight, and should never be worn.

Mexico has had 260 revolutions since she snook off the Spanish yoke. * * "A"

People who use tobacco to a great degree are rarely buifcrers Irom cholera.

. Only a pair ot eyes in every fifteen is peneet, says a well-known oculist. * * *

The egg of the -Mexican hummingbird to scarcely larger than a pin a head.

Londoners use, on an average, thirty-four gallon* of water per heau per day.

The "life-tree" of Jamaica continues to grow for months after it has been uprooted.

The hair and beard of a man rarely grow grey together, the one being almost invariably darker than the other for several years. There is no rule as to which changes first.

The dew annually deposited upon the surface of England is equal to five inches ot rain.

Fish must be sold alive in Japan. The peddlers convey them through the streets in tanks.

At banquets during Queen Elizabeths' time every guest had to take his own spoon in his pocket. A shop-assistant or waitress cannot bo legally compelled to pay for any article accidentally broken.

The Egyptians used pencils of coloured chalk, and several of these ancient crayons have been found in their tombs.

Atvarious times during the existence of the Roman Empire loyal subjects wore in their rings portraits 01 the reigning emperor.

Egypt's groat Queen, Cleopatra, is a mass of crumbling dust in the .British Museum—a mummy, held together by pitch and bandages.

In the year 1596 there were only four kinds of hyacinth, the single and the double blue, the purple and the v;o!et. At the present time there are many thousands of varieties.

To make a smooth hole in a sheet of gla.-*, pack wet clay upon the surtnee, and outline the hole in the wet clay. Then pour melted led in the hole, and a cime of glass will drop out.

Japanese children begin to go to school when six years oia. During the first four years they learn Japanese and Chinese; in the next four year* every child has to learn English.

There is a white-bearded race of savages among the forests of the Maranou in South America, supposed to be descended from deserters and stragglers from the Spanish Conquerors, and believed to be cannibals.

Many horses are fond of beer, and to a tired horse a bottle ot beer an his. Ktuel is a great restorative. It acts a> a •pick-me-up,'' and often makes a horse with no appetite eat freely. Hrewers understand this, and that is on reason why their horses always seem to be in good-condition.

A novelty n inodernscentihe research is the means by which wind may be measured by the sound. The wfcist-. ling of the wind as it crosses a wire varies with the velocity, and this can be computed from the pitch of tho note observed in case of a given diameter of wire, and tor a given air temperature.

Marriages by proxy are contracted to this day in Holland, and are mostly practised by Dutchmen who, having gono abroad, prefer to marry the girls they left behind them in this convenient manner rather than go to the ex*pense and probably inconvenience ot returning to Holland for the purpose of the ordinary marriage solemnisation.

A considerable portion of Lambeth Palace was built early in the thirteenthe centurv by Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury. The tower of the church was erected about 13<5, and other parts of the edifice in the fifteenth century. Simon of. Sudbury, Archbishop of' Canterbury, was killled there bv the followers of Wat Tyler, who attacked the palace, burnt the furniture and books, and destroyed the registers and public papers on June 11, 1381.