Crowling Over a Bishop.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8020, 5 January 1906, Page 4

Crowling Over a Bishop.

Ja many churches arc to be found weatherCffife and spires of curious shapes and sizes. The wenthsreoek shown in the picture belongs to the spire of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Caloutta. It is of large dimensions, as can be seen from a comparison with the figures grouped around it. The picture is from a photo which was made during a time when the weathercock was taken down for regUding. It has also rather

ft peculiar history* The first Anglicl/m Bishop of Calcutta, Di\ Middleton, maintained that the Church of England possessed a monopoly of spires. When St, Andrew's was being built, the bishop tried to influence ilia Government ((gainst its proposed spire. The minister of St. Andrew's, however, built his spire higher even than that of St John's Cathedra], and, in a humorous spirit put up (■he cook to crow over the bishop. However, the bishop obtained a little consolation. The Government declined to repair the weathercock of St. Andrew's, which is now the private property of the congregation, who arc obliged to take it down from time to timo for redecorating.

tip. Edison's Patents, The clerks in the Patent Office ftfc Washing' ton began several rears ago to keep n systematic account of the patents issued to Mr. Thomas A. Edison. They have his various inventions tabulated and indexed, so that they can put their hands on each different idea he has protected by patent from ginning of his marvellous career When ft pending claimi^i oW ed, as it no doubt will Mr. Edison will have recuse} 791 patents in all. He is not j,] ie as many ideas nowa- & a Js as he did some years ago. Up to 1993 ~ue had taken out 711 patents. Since then he has added to the list from three to twentythree patents each year. Last year he took out 19. This year, so fnr, he has received bix. In ordinary fees for patents Mr. Edibou lias spent over £IO,OOO.

The Mustard Plant. Tha mustard plant— M Sinapia nigra"— grown all over the East, and used both in the Talmud and Koran as proverbial for anything minute, has the smallest seed in proportion to its size. Though somewhat larger than the seed of poppy and rue, its after* growth far surpasses these. So minute is it that it takes fifty seeds to" make one grain. Easily shed, it often springs up to the detriment of other crops. The charlock of our own fields, a similar plant, affords no comparison to what tho hot countries show of different varieties of mustard seed. Travellers toil us three things by which its size enn be judged. Men have been known to climb • into its branches, in Chili to ride on horseback under it, ami in Spain large ovens are heated with its dry wood, Probably it wag for these reasons that it was ohosen to ilhstmtc by parable the growth of the Church. '• In Palestine it commonly attains a height of ten feet. The tropical mustard tree—" Salvadora Persicii "—is not a native of the Holy Land, though it has been found in the Dead

Sea basin. Origin of Bottled Beer. Alexander Newell, Dean of St. Paul's and ATaster ol Westminster School in the reign >t Queen Mary, was a keen angler; but, as Fuller tells as, "while Newell was catching ?f fishes, Bishop Bonner was catching of Newell," and would certainly have sent him lo the shambles, had not a good London Merchant conveyed him away on the sea. Jfcell was fishing from the bankß of the Thames when ho received the first intimation sf his danger, which proved to be so pressing (hat he dared not go back to his own house to make any preparation for his flight. Like an honest angler, he had takon with him provision for the day; and when, in the first year of England's deliverance, he returned to his country, and to his old haunts, he remembered that in the hurry of his flight he had left a bottle of beer hidden in a hole on the banks. Thcro he looked for it, and "found it no battle, but a gun—sueh was the lound of the opening thereof." This, «ayi Fuller, is believed to havo been the origin ol bottled beer, which has gradually been brought to such perfection of flavour, character, and briskness. A A very effective remedy for a cough caused by a tickling in the tliroat is madf/by adding to the beaten white of an egg the juice ol • lemon, and then thicken iug«.