FIRESIDE SCRAPS.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 266, 23 May 1888, Page 6

FIRESIDE SCR A PS.

UtTMonorsDKFixiTioxs.— A smart., pithy, or humorous definition often furnishes a happy illustration of the proverbial brevity which is the soul ot wit-. A boy once s-iid t!i«at " dust was mud with the juice squeezed out. " A fan, we leirn fioni another juvenile source, is " a thing to brush warm oll'with," and a monkey, "a small boy wi(h a tail,'' £>a ! t, "■ what make your potatoes taste bad whon you don't put any on," and ice, " water that stayed out too late in the cold and went to sleep. ' To hitolTa jury m " a body of men organised to find out which side lias the smartest lawyer," is t ) satirise many of our intelligent follow countrymen. The word " suspicion " is,, in the opini >n of a jealous husband, "a feeling which compels you to try and find out s >mothii>g which you don't wish to know." A good definition of a "Pharisee" is "a tradesman who uses lonu pra% ci s and "short ■weights :"' oi a humbug, " one who agrees with cveiybotly ; ' »n.( oi a tyi.inl, "the other vet. -ion ot someho'U's here." Thin soup, according to an lush mendicant, 1- " a quart ot watei boilou down u> nvike it strong." Of d Jimtions of a baeholoi. ''an unalleied man," " a singular being," an 1 " a target foi a mi-s, ' aie a;n enough. A walking sMok may bo de-eiibed as "{he old man* strength and the \oung man's weakness ;" ant a-iumbiella as ''a fair and foul weather friend w ho has had many ups a-ul (Sow us in the world.' 1 Tur Two Kri.h.ioN^ or Jvrvw— The Japanese lme two leligions -JShintooifiu and KuddhiVii. Shintooi<m is leilly a worship of ancctoi^, and caines with it no moiai leaching*, whate\ei. Huddhisni conies in with a inoi.il cole, a system of rewards and puin-hments. Its great chr.iactet (stie i- t he !ran-mi^tation of -ouls, which nnj be on a down gi.uie ot ,\n u|> one. Ueginning w ith man, the descending scale p.ifc^tr tlnough m iminnK, iep>ile-, and so on down to the polyp— the idei being for the soul to work out its euieot tin. When it ha- > cached iN lowest condition (t!it.n puutied) it begins ascending. Reaching man again it passes on to the higher class — puueo. empe>or, demigod, god- -until it reaches a supicmo condition, when the soul is \oid of love on the one extieme and hate on the othei. all of the othei in er media to pa-sion*. In this conditions it is proposed to 10-e itself in the pieat ocean of deity, which is an extinction of existence but not of individuality. Buddhism is belter than Shintooi-m because it hold'" some moral teaching*. It is a stupendous lehtrious fcVtttevn, but it is a stupendous he. Theie are some 10o,uOO Shmt'-o temples in Japan, to about 70,000 Buddha temples : and singularly, iho Go\ eminent is moie fa\our nble to the foimer, 1 iw a- it is. UNf.VWKTL Sl'l'.fFnS OF W VI. 1 Rs. _- The Romaiis were foi bidden by the/ c Tn'ia and theA-.v Coiifh" to b s t upon the success ot any unlawful or indeed of any game whatever, u.ile-- they were ti 'als of coinage, bodily stienLT r h, or skill. In the latei uiys/of R-ime. he' citv^ns were prohibited f oni making wa<_rei- up in the death or e\al titio i of the pope-> and on the piomotion o* c i linils. Ar Venice, no wager might b>' lii i upon th^ eler-rion of pei-on- to till tis? ]>n >iic oilices ; at denoa, on the re. olu-timof-'ue-; or kingdom^, the success of miliran evneditions. the aruval and dopn'.u <• of \ oi ]i!opo-ed maai\ge~ S.im:w!nr j-i'ni'ai to thi- la*t w is an Act oi !\uinment passed in Pans in 1505 which le'idf-iel ir il!es, r il t~> make a woman the subi/'et of a v.aecr. Q\c \t v Timk.— A counsel thought that !,•-> wo ild o-ercome Lord Xorbuiyon the b?'ich. Oi>o day hts lordship was charging a ih.j. and t'le a I itesa was inteirupted by t'\<? biiMu? o* an a«s. "What noi-e is that? cuzri Ljrd Xorbury. "Th only the ec'.o of the court, my loid,' anawer-d the coiincel. Nothing disconcerted, the ]•) i'_re lcsumod his addies^, but soon the bi.ii-^e; was compelled tointeip^e wiMi it'chni'^il objection- to tho chaiu . Wliiio statin; them the as- aiain biajed. "One n! f ti no, if you 'please," leinaik.d hi-I").1-'m;>. with a =a\ca^ti<; simle. T-'i (4i;o\\rFi oi Chiliikln. — For three '/•ai- VrM. llansen, the duector oi t ho Y)r. H i and Dumb Institution at ( openbn^eu, ha* weiirhed and measuied doih .ill his puji'l-. and h* a leports haMiig made the tollo.^;,iu r ob oi \at'on- . — The giov.th of chil'hen i> n r 't ;ec r ular <n piogi"— i\c, but j pioceeds at iutor Ms afte • ic-t. Theii weight mcca r os o\,\\ after peiiod- of equihbiimn. Whm tho weight mciease- the lieiglit rem tin- nei'ly stationary, and j>y i''i\ri. The nn\iina:u mcic 1-'1 -', 1 in height cone-pond- with a peiiod of minimum mctease of wi ght. The-e \ari -tionsnre al-o aifectcd by 'ho - a-on- : th.ib, dining the autumn and iho bogiiri'nu' ot winter, the child incie.i o. in weight, but it- height is ])^rdly changed. On the othei hand, during the ?pii ncr the hfi^ht i- apjneciablv increi^'!, bit thcio is no ad lition to the weight Sir \Vat m i r S('(iTi.--Aftr>r Shakespeare, themosl b^'o\cf! namein En^li-h litciature, accoi din'^r to a \vitn in Hl3 AUi^oinnn, ipeihap 5 thit of Scott Ko wiiter of w hom ■\vo have any lecord i-, or '-oems to bp, so superior to all tho jeaiou-ies and all tho •weakne'-s of the liteiarj chnracter as he, while his cic'Uivc geniu- i^ at oive -o v.idc and ?<> fine tint, after making all deductions on aconrit nf the cheap litciary material with which he was «-oniftime« content to v.ork, the ci i tic who -hould 'ieclaio him to bo the greatest"/ geniu- that hi- appcired in the imagHTVi^e liteiatuie of tho ninotoentli j century would haidly be challenged by the piT'-ent writer. T>n Vn.uTXiiLi. C\ti RPiUAK. — Amongst-; tlic ino'-t curious p'O'luctions of Ko v % a laud, St. X'lhnl-is te 1 !*- boys and girl^, is the Mn^nlar plant called buhu^h caterpillar. (Jaterpilhis live n^ 11 f)lmH, aour reidnrs know, but here come- a little f-ecd that sef-m- to «ny, " turn about is fair play,"' and lodges on the v. rinklsd neck of the cateinillai It -r»nd- for h i<s tiny rtYQn-n -lem, diaw- its life from the hclpl^s ratcvpillnr, and not only '-ends up its litt ! e plioot with fho buhu t h f-tem capped with a tiny cat tail, but fil's nith iC- loot- the entiie body of its \iciim, changing il into a while, pith-like substance. This, howe\er, preser - e» the fxact -hapo of the caterpillar. Ri:d If\iH Wins. — Americans have come to the conclusion that red-healed girls can be i/noted no longer, and coloni'od hair is accordingly to become the iashion. The maid whose fiery locks have hitherto prevented her from being wooed and won has only to go to Philadelphia to have the pick of the w hole male population. " Carrots " ore no longer a calamity, but a good gift of nature wit}] which a gill can go forth conquering and to conquer. Oirls with dark hair will be left to languish in despair, for there is no known dyo that will turn dark "brown or black hair to the brilliant shade now yearned tor. Blondo= and tow heads will not be at such a di-advantAge quite, but it will be no easy task for them to get bright clear red.

Bam^hino Wild Beasts p.y Tlllcrai'H. Nothing will induce a wolf to enter an area which is enclosed by poles connected by cords, and even the telegraph wire has been found to be a preservative against the wolf In Norway, when the first telegraph line was established by the Storfchng, ono of the members showed himself to be a far-seeing man. lie said that his constituents had no interest in the telegraph,

but he strongly supported the grant on tho ground fcliat fcho wires and poles would ! frighten fcho wolves out- of fcho district. He was perfect^' right, and for more than twenty years not a wolf dared to venfcuro within tho lino of posts and wires. I'RorouTioxs op a Perfect Fioitrk. — According to the Popular Science Monthly, to meet tho requirements of a classic figure a lady should bo livo toot four and threequarter inches (all, 32 inches bust mcasuio, 2'] inchos waist, nino inches from arm pit lo waist, long arms and neck. A queenly woman, however, should be live f cot five inchc* tall, 31 inches about tho bust, 26\ inches about tho waist, 35 over fcho hips, 11\ inches round the ball of tho arm and six and a half inches round the wrist. He hands and feet should not be too small. Ltuhtimj v Put with Tel:. —In Le Jfoni{tiir tie hi PholOijrnphu was published a ! statement from that journal's London correspondent, that dm ing the last .severe wintor in Euiopc, a London student made a lons of ice. with which he lit the pipe-> ot .some of the skaters on tho Serpentine by means of the rays, an experiment, he sa^s-, -which wo 0 ! first performed in tho polar regions by iV. Scoioby, to tho great •is-toni-hmpnt ot tho sailor*, tor they could not understand why the ice did not freeze the beams of the sun. Professor Tyndall, it iss-;ud, has a t ditVeient times sot tiro, at the lloyal Institution, to a littlo heaj) of gunpowder >vith rays from the electric aic concent lated upon the powder by moans of a Ion? of ice. His explanation was that, although ice absorbs lavs of ceito-in \\a\c lengths, and is gradually melted theroby, other waves it does not ab^cnb, and these latter luoduce the heating etl'oct at the focu" of the lens. It is wholly a question of the lelativo motions of the molecules of frozen water and tho motions of the waves of light ; when theie. is discoid between the two, the discoidanfc wa\ cs pass through the ice without absorption