Miscellaneous.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Issue 35, 21 January 1899, Page 4

Miscellaneous.

"Water id more liable to escape when it is hdlf ticlei There ai-e nine kilted regiments in the British army. The Adykrtishr is read by everybody Advertisers take note. A train nearly three-quarters of a mile long was recently hauled on the Pennsylvania lailroad by a 118-ton engine. In all our wars we have won the splendid average of 82 per cent, of the battles. This is the world's record. It is said that out of 28,000 Jews in the city of Amsterdam, 10,000 are occupied in the trade of diamond dealing. Physiologists say that of all people in middle life at least one-third have one ear in some degree aftected by deafness. Beggar (to old gentleman who has just given hnn a halfpenm) . ''Thankv, sin (Yeiy pleasantly) Just back fiom Klondike?" The world is now paying more for m- 1 &tiumentß of destructions and the enginery of death than for churches, schools, ai fes or letteis. A man after smoking tobacco for sixty-* three years has just gwen up the piactice. He knocked the ashes out of his pipe into a keg of blasting powder. Like a top.— -Mike : '■ The top jiv the moruin' to v«7, Pat." Pat (muddled) : " ahuie, Oi've got it, me bhov , me head* goin' round somethin' awful !" The tube of a 38m gun which is used in some warships has 00 spiral giooves inside which cause the shot to levohe at the! rate of 75 times pcr 1 second as it rushos through the air. It ha? been asserted by an eminent physician that as long as a Cyclist cmi breathe with his mouth shut whilst riding he is safe as far as a btiam of the heart is» concerned. A foreign savant ha,s declared that a most prevalent cause ol lrysteiia m women is high shoes, and that if the objectionable boots aie abandoned, the hystena will cease. The comparative durability of iron and aluminium horseshoes was recently tested in the cavalry of Finland. The shoes were worn for six weeks, and m e\pry case the aluminium shoe was in bettor condition than the others. It is customary, on the birth of a Japanese baby, to plant a tree. This is care^ fully tended until the child is about to be manned, when it is cut down and made into an article of furniture for the home of the young couple. In Egypt we have always had a certain amount ot help from Germany, and shall continue in any cas» to get that help, because Germany, by helping us in Cairo, is able, as it were, to administer a check to Fiance. Wife (in alarm) S " John. I haVe just disco\ercd a fire in the cellar. What shall -we do to get the guests out of the house in safety ?" Husband : " I'll ring the lire alarm, while you announce to the guests that Lucy will smg a song.'* " Yes, we lost that good girl that t told you about/ "What was the trouble?" " Why, she left the water running m the bathtub, and it leaked through and she caught cold. She said she wouldn't siay m a hotiße where they didn't keep watertight floors." A good test of valve leakage in a pneumatic tyre is to bring the wheel round till the valve is at its highest point. Then allow the valve to dip into a wineglass filled with water. Any leakage will be apparent immediately, as you are testing at a. Very high pressure. The talk about the boy soldier in the British army has been very much overdone. I have seen very many thousands of them near enough to look into their ey«s, »nd the impression which they have left is that of aleit manhood, smart and intelligent, at the very age for the maximum of physical work. A little campaigning, a little hardening, and they are still the soldiers of Barosaa and Alhuera, ttill the infantry which live again in Napier's fiery eyes.— Conan Doyle.

Horseflesh, assflcsh, and nluleflesh ar^ now eaten, in such large quantities m France that the regular butchers who desJ in beef and mutton are getting unea&;, . In the dingy restaurants frequented bv tHe lower order's of Koine'; Florence and Naples, they go dne better. There a dish' composed of the harmless wood serpent ' 3 flesh is regarded as something of a dainty. During 12 recent months there p'assea through the Suez Canal no , fewer than 8098 sleamers, aggregating 7,295,819 ions. In other wofds, over 95 per cent, df the steamers trading between Europe and the Bast called at Port Said, and when it is rerdembered that in addition to the vessels which proceeded through the canal, some 500 steamers landed passfengers or cargo at Port Said, it will be Been that on a. moderate Computation fully half a million perdons now call in each twelvemonth ;it the half-way house on the highway to the East. It is at this point that the outgoing traveller bids goodbye to the ol(( world, and it is here that the homewardbound finds himself on thd threshold of all that is European and modern. People wonder sometimes why deafness Is so frequently incurable. The reason is rather a curidUs one. It is because physicians hava ndver been able to exaintnc the internal structure of the ear. It is impdssibU for them 1 to get at it during life, and at the monient of death all thd delicate machinery of tierves and nlaments collapses, and the marvellous orgatl becomes a wreck. It is popularly supposed that deafness must infallibly result from the loss of the driirn of the e:u. Yet many persons who have no eardrum^ can hear perfectly well ; in fact, they caii hear much better than ordinary folk, because the auditory nerve is exposed* But, of 1 course, thej are much more liable to ear diseases. It may not be generally known th.it much of whatever measure of success was attained by the troops engaged m the last Afghan campaign was due to the magnesium shells, rocket-elevated and pai.i-chute-susponcled", which, by lighting up the country, enabled Tommy to locate and meet tile savage Ghatd rushes. Also, after the fighting was over, the rebit villages were conveniently tired from .v safe distance by rockets specially prepared foi the express purpose. A curious annoying theft is that of .i negative film of the last solar eclipse, taken for the kineniatogi'aph by one of the photographers with the British astronomical expedition to India. Somewheie between Baiar t in India, a^d London, one of the boxes was opened and only the eclipse film taken out. Inhere ia in the hands of the Admiralty ( in connection with the National Savings Bauk, J67099 Unclaimed money. Thn represents the savings of men who have become deserters or died while serving in the navy. There is also .£258,860 unclaimed prize-money at the disposal of the naval lords, some of which was earned in the early part of the century.