WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 73, 19 September 1874, Page 12

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

Hixts off Sibep. — To literary men, preachers, teachers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, and brain workers in general, the following hiuts are exceedingly worthy of attention : The fact ia, that as life becomes concentrated, and its pursuits more eager, short sleep and early rising become impossible. We take more sleep than our ancestors, and we take more because we need more. Six hours' sleep will do very -well for a ploughman or bricklayer, or any other man who has no exhaustion but that produced by manual labor, and the sooner he takes it after the labour the better. But for the man whose labor is mental, the stress is on the brain and the nervous system, and for him who is tired in the evening with a day of mental application, neither early to bed nor early to rise is wholesome. He needs letting down to the level of repose. The longer interval between the active use of tho brain and the retirement to bed, the better his chance of sleep and retirement. To him an hour after midnight is probably as good as two hours before it, and even then his sleep will not so completely reetore him as it will his neighbour who is physically tired. His best sleep is in the early morning hours, when all the nervous excitement has passed away, and he is in absolute rest. A Determined Familt.— Under the head of " Praiseworthy " the ♦ Yazoo (Mies ) Banner, 1 of the 19th, tells this story :— " A man with n wife and several children, who some time ago left Indiana for Texas, finding, alter reaching 18 ew Orleans oi some other point in Xiouisiana, that he could not proceed on account of the overflow, turned back and is retracing his steps to Indiana. He and his family are all walling, carrying a wheelbarrjw which contains all his earthly goods. He has stopped a few days in the suburbs of the city, where ho is making axe-handics to get means to pursue his journey. He is a man in full vigor of health, intelligent, and buoyant in spirit. He is determined still to go to Texas. He seems to be satisfied with his lot, and hopeful that ho will yet make at least an independence. We predict that he will succeed, for his industry and energy are indomitable." The "Right ok Lt.pt Abm. — The question whether a gentleman walking with a lady should give his right or left arm is frequently discussed. Customs and written etiquette are rtther in favor of the right, although there are excellent reusons ia behalf of the left arm. Either ono or the other, permanently retained is vabtly better than the awkward and absurd habit of changing anna,' so as to chaDge the lady on the iusiile of the promenade. One advantage of giving the left arm is that ihe person on the right naturally takes Ihe lead, so that, in the country or city, in the street or park, he thus readily directs the way, instead oC waiting to consult his companion, or causing a jostling by each of them trying to move to opposite points. Another advantage is, that in a crowded thoroughfare, where the sidewalk is invariably encumbered with merchandise and thronged • with people, a gentleman needs his right aim to remove obstructions and keep rude or careless folks out of the way. llarkiage AttsOTTNCiiarKKTS. — Mr Grant tells a very good story of the origin of the custom of charging for the insertion ol marriage announcements. .At first these were published freely, as they still are hy many provincial papers. But in the early d;tys of the ' Times 'it was the custom in announcing a marrige to state the amount of the bride's dowty— £2o,ooo or £30,000, whatever it might happen to be ; and m looking through the ladies' column one morning Mr "Waller threw out the suggestion that if a man married all tnat money he might ceitaiuly piiy a trifling percentage upon it to the printer for acquainting the woild with the fact. "These marriage fees would form a nice little pocket money for me, my dear," added Mrs Walter, and as a joke her husband agieed to try the experiment. The charge at firs-t whs. but a trifle, and the annual amount probably not touch ; but Mis Walter at her death, passed thia prescriptive right of hers to her daughter, and when a few years ago the right whs purchased by tho present proprietor, it was ussessed at £4,000 or £5,00u a year. ErAtnY.— Without expression, the most perfect features are- not beautiful. It may be s;iid that the eyes sway the destiny of the face ; for if their expression be not beautiful, the most exquisitely modelled features, the most classical mould of the head, and the purest Cfrrecian oval (if general facial outline ore but as doves clustering in the fascination of hideous siial.es. On the other huml, a beautiful eye raises the plainest face to a higher r.-mk of beauty tlnm mere symmetry can ever attain. The greatest and most loved woipi-n of history were often indebted solely to ihe beautilul expression oi their ejesfor their power ■of fascinating all who btheid them. And to male the eyes thus beautilul, it is only necessary to throw into them that light of the soul •which emanates from the ytntltr emotions and purest thoughts. All ■violout passions abu-o the eye, all unworthy thoughts mar ita clearness. Improved Bkicks. — Hie ' London Architect' thinks that before long, thuie will be a wondeiful alteration in the method of using bricks, und claims that modern science has long ago pointed out much cheaper aid nioie cfluctual methods of using hnie and clay than those ji present emplojed. Lumps of burnt c*ay, called bricks, are still mile, chiettv because it has beeu the c^tora to fashion such lumps in o a ceiiain, reyulur ioriu evur since in v began to build. A brick Wall, ssas the 'Architect,' as it is put together now-a-unys, with its multiplier ot sun 11 joints, iir,d us .'iatn^iiy to consist of porous, Tind. iv u lit biick>,' or f table, Joau.ing mortal, cuu hardly escape becomii g saturnieu witu moisture evoiy witday, and retaining, tor the loiif.i;*t possible period, ihe water usid ; its construction, instead <f making bricks at ull, t!ie ' Architect ' ays that the way can be biinW 1:1 hcaj.s wi li small coal, and b s urned thoroughly, to incipient veriih'uauon, icr oleo le third the coit that it en be burued into the form of bricks, ai d the chalk mixed with clay oan be made into a water-re, isting element tor a little more.tlian the caost of converting into lime. Moles.— A French naturalist has experimented with moles to aseeriaiu their true habits. It has been found that- they will starve to death in presence of abundant vegetable food, letusing to touch it, but they will greed-ly devour eartl.wornir, mice,' and even small birds, ■when leaily staruiig iv an enclosed jur. Of the bfrJs ibey devour only tLe inoide ; they devour indiscriminately their own weight each

day of snails, insects, larvira, chrysalides, caterpillars, adders, worm* and lizards. An instance is known where a French landed proprietor destroyed every mole on his property. Tho next season his fields wereravished with cutworms, and his crops destroyed. He then purchased moles from hi* neighbors, and stocked his fields, and afterwards carefully preserved them as his best friend. MrrstiNs.—Au Indian native women, with her fingers and spindlealone, and a native man, with his toes and bamboo loom alone, can* spin a thread and finish a piece of muslin which cannot by the application of the moat delicate machinery, be produced outside of India. There is one quality of Dacca muslin, for example, which is termed-. •• woven air," it ia made only for king's daughter*. So short is th»staple of the raw material,. and so brittle are its fibres that it must bespun by a woman under twenty-five years, and before all the dew ha» left the grass in the morning. Aa a substitute for natural moisture the evaporation of water from a shallow pun is sometimes used, but thequality of tho work in that case v inferior. A piece of muslin fouryards in length and one yard in width often weighs less than oneounce avoirdupois. Tho muslin is very durable, and will wash. The Len&th of Days. — At Hamburg, in Germany, tho longestday lms seventeen hours, and the shortest seven ; at Stockholm, "the* ' longest eighteen and a half, and the shortest five and a half; at St. Petersburgh, the longest nineteen, and the shortest five. At Wonderbus, iv .Norway, the day lasts from the 21sc May to the 2ud of July,.the sun not getting below the horizon the whole time, but skirting, along very close to it iv the north j while in Spitzbergeu the longest day lasts three months and a half. The Passion Flower. — When the Spaniards discovered South America they saw, among9t other plants new to them, a climbing shrub,, having from two to three fruit-bearing flowers, unlike any they had erer seen. One day a priest was preaching to the Peruvians, or aboriginal inhabitants, amidst the wild scenery of their native forestsHis suoject was the Passion of Our Lord. His eye suddenly glanced at this curious flower, which hung in festoons from the trees overhead j. and like St. Patrick with the Shamrock, he saw with the eye of a Saint a vivid picture of the sad story of Calvary. The rings of threads which surround the cup of the flower, and which are mottled with blue, crimson, and white, suggested the crown of thorns, stained with, blood, to his mind, tutored by meditation ; the five anthers, on the stamens, represented the five wounds ; the three styles, the nailswhich fixed Our Blessed Lord to the Cross ; and the. singular column which rises in the centre of the flower, were made to bring before the minds of these wild savages the harrowing scene of the Second Sorrowful Mystery of the Most Holy Kosary. So, without Bibles or books, did this holy man instruct his converts on the Passion ; and to thisduy our beautiful creeping garden flower is called " The Passion Flower." In all languages it bears the same name. Education — The education of the girl, as a housekeeppr, should be begun by the mother early, continued until the marriage of the daughter, and no. other duty of tho mother, ani no other study of thedaughter should interfere with it. This and the school education should go on simultaneously. If anything is to be postponed, let it be music and drawing and philosophy, which, as experience shows, areusually unattended to after " the happy event." The more and higher the education the better. But let us have a real and practical education instead of a sham education. Leeches v. Old Pbops. — That there is a sensitiveness to atmospheric changes in the leech is generally admitted ; and the idea of utilising this little creature as a sort of weather-glass arose long ago, we have evidence in one of the early volumes of the ' Gentleman's Magazine.' A correspondent of that venerable journal stated that if a* leecu be kept in a phial or bottle partly filled with w v ater, it will indicate approaching changes in the weather. He placed on the windowledge an eiglit-ounce phial, containing a leech and about six ounces of* water, and watched it daily. According to his description, when the weather became serene and beautiful, the leech became motionless at the bottom of the phial, rolled in a spiral lorm. When it begau torain at noon, or a little before or after, the leech was found at the topof its lodging, where it remained until the weather become settled. When wind was approaching, the leech gallopped about its fimpid habitation with great liveliness, seldom resting until the wind became violent- When a thunderstorm was about to appear, the animal sought a lodgment above the the level of tlie water, displayed great < uneasiness, and moved about in coovulsive-like threads. In clear irost, ot iv five summer weather, ie lay constantly at the bottom ; whereas, in snowy weather, like as in rain, it dwelt at the very mouth of the phial. The observer covered the mouth of the phial with & piece of liven cloth, mid changed the water every week or two. W Oii'iJix of ATTENTION. — An Englishman with rheumatic gout found this singular remedy a cure for his ailment : "He insulated hisbed from the floor by placing under each post a brokeu off bottom of a glass bottle." He says the effect was magical ; that he had not been, free from rheumatic go\tt for fifteen years, and that he began to improve immediately alter the application of the insulators. '' We are informed by this statement," says the ' Scientific American,' " of a patent obutmed through this office for a physician, some twelve or more years'ago, which created- considerable interest at the time. Thepatent consisted in placing glass cups under ilie bed-posts in a similar mauner to the above, ana the patentee claimed to have effected some remarkable cures by the use of his remarkable insulators." A gentleman in tliia city who has been afflicted with rheumatic gout, gouty rheumati&m, or Due or the other both combined, accidentally stumbled upon the above statement of facts, and tried the experiment. The. result is, that although nearly fifty years old, he is ready to run a footrace with any man of his ago in the State lor one hundred yard?, — San Francisco paper.