FACTS AND SCRAPS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 360, 8 March 1881, Page 3

FACTS AND SCRAPS.

.—*. A common cork, quite clean, rubbed well on the place, the right way of the •wood, will remove marks from furniture. The value of time varies with individuals, and in the same hour glass which marks the light of time to every eye, 'it is less than lost sand to the idler, bat more than gold to the studious man. A suite of apartments was advertised at ft fashionable watering place as having amongst its attractions " a splendid river, over a fine garden adorned with numerous «culptures." It was found in applying at the address, that the garden adorned with sculptures was a cemetery. A country apothecary, not a little dirtinguisbed for his impudence, in the hope of disconcerting a young 'clergyman, whom he knew to be a man ot singular modesty, asked him, in the presence of a large compaay, at a public assembly, 41 "Why did the Patriarchs of old live to such an extreme age ?" to which the clergyman replied, " I suppose the ancient patriarchs look physic." Merchants, with strong iron chests, ought never to die of consumption. A gentleman who took occasion to doctor some cider on the Sabbath, was taken to task by his good wife for labouring on.that day. His reply was that no good Christian ought find fault with his work, as he had been doing bis best to prevent his cider from working. An eloqupnt or*tor proposes to "grasp a, ray of light from the great orb of day, spin it into threads of gold, and with them weave a shroud in which to wrap the whirlwind,which dies upon the bosom \. .of our Western prairies." We fear- the machinery will break before the fabric is "JEk ro _9gb4fceJo^fej"*^ r thousand "sailors, who s eak the TfJEoalish tongue, enter the Port of "*- every year. It is estimated that there are 160,000 gold and silver fish annually sold in London. They are principally brought from the-milldam of Yorkshire ani %} Lancashire. Two Irishmen, having travelled on foot from Chester to Barnpt, were very much tired with theiii; journey ; and the more so, when they w&b told they had still about ten miles to\get to-London. « By mysowl," cries one <?f them N it is ( but five miles a-picce, let'siwalk on.

'ihc greatest man is he who troubles bimse.f least about the- verdict that may be passed upon him by his contemporaries or posterity, but who finds in doing gcod honest woik, to the best of his ability under existing conditions, " its own exceeding great reward." There are few people who have not been ocasionally puzzled whether to writ ei or ie in the words that so represent the sound of long e. A very simple 1 ruie, says a schoolmaster, removes all difficulty : When the dipthong follows c, it is always ei—ceiling, eeuceive, <tc ; when it follows any other letter it is always ie—grief, friend, niece, &c. The lowest ears of com are the fullest; so the wisest are the most modest. London alone, it has been calculated, requires an annual supply of sre hundred millions of oysters. He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need of forgiveness. A discovery of valuable treasure has just been made at Kherson, on the cost of the Black Sea. Tradition has preserved the recollection ot the fact that a large hoard bad- teen I uried on an estate, the property of M. Zuchowski, by the Polish Cossacks during the war with Russia in 1770. Tli« j owners had at various times caused excavations to be made, but without success, and tire present possessor had an old well searched equally without result. Not long ago he sank shafts round the spot, but fruitlessly. Lately a steward secretly employed two peasant* to enlarge these openings, and they at length came upon a large jar filled with gold and weighing 820 lb., representing a value of L 400.000. The faithless servant wished not to let the fact be known, and promised his assistants a share of the spoil if they remained silent, but the fears of being betrayed, and the dread of the men that they might be sent to Siberia if the fact were discovered, decided them to remit the deposit to its legitimate owner.