WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 116, 16 July 1875, Page 14

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

The Ukweittbn Sidb op Gbeat Men.— We always think of great men in the act of performing deedß which give them renown, or else m stately repose, grand, Bilent and majestic. And yet this is hardly fair, because the most gracious and magnificent of human beings have to bother themielves with the little things of life which engage the attention of us smaller people. No doubt Moses snarled and got angry when he had a severe cold in the head, and if a fly SiT hw leg while he was in the desert, why should we suppose he did not jump and us* violent language, and rub the sore place ? And Ctesar — -isn tit tolerably certain he used to become furious when he strives to get his slippers in the dark, and found that Calphurnia had stowed them under the bed, so that he had to sweep around them wildly with a broom-handle. And when Solomon cracked his crazy-bone is it unreasonable to suppose that he ran around the room, and felt as if he wanted to cry ? Imagine George Washington sitting on the edge of the bed and putting on a clean shirt, and growling at Martha because the buttons were off ; Joan of Arc holding her front hair in her mouth, as women do, while she fixed up her back hair; Napoleon jumping out of bed in a frenzy to chase a mosquito around the room with a pillow ; or Martin Luther, in a nightshirt, trying to put the baby asleep at 2 o'clock in the morning ; Alexander the Great, with the hiccoughs ! or Thomas Jefferson, getting suddenly over a fence to 57 O1 ?, a dog; or the Duke of Wellington ,with the mumps; or Daniel Webster, abusing his wife because she hadn't tucked the covers at the foot of the bed ; or Benjamin Franklin paring his corns with a razor ; or Jonathan Edwards, at the dinner table, wanting to sneeze just as he got his mot th full of hot beef; or Noah standing at the window at night throwing bricks at a cat. — Max Adler. How to Bkbathe .-^-Civilized man is the only being that breather through the mouth, which at once shows that it is an unnatural and acquired habit. The wild Indian would as soon think of •atmg with the no»e as of breathing thus. The habit is usually acquired in childhood, and is generally the result of breathing impure air. It it then the fond mother who should guard her offspring with watchful care against this insidious and deadly enemy of her child. Let her follow the example of the wild Indian mother, and give her child the pure air of heaven to breathe, and if perchance it opens its little mouth during sleop, let her gently press its lips together, until the habit of keeping them closed becomes fixed for life. Thb Jailbieds' Jubilee.— The bill which has passed both houses of the New York Legislature granting conditional liberty to convicts sentenced to imprisonment for life at the expiration of fifteen years of penal servitude, has occasioned an umisual flutter of excitement among the older jailbirds in Sing Sing Prison. Nor is it surprising to learn that this unpocied boon, now almost within the grasp of many immured malefactors, who had long since abandoned themselves to despair, should cause the dreary cell of the condemned to be suddenly illuminated by the light of hope that the day of liberation draws nigh. To the weary and heart-worn prisoners who have been confined within granite walls for a quarter of a century and upward this prospect of a release, ere the King of Terrors claimi his own, can alone be appreciated, and accordingly, in the language of one of the keepers, " The life-men are perfectly wild." In ths female prison the same intense feeling was manifested, the women undergoing life sentences being described as ' almost crazy " with mingled emotions of surprise and joy. A Bra Devil Fish— A letter has been received in St. John's, Newfoundlandl from a gentleman in Grand Bank, stating that on the 10th of January a gigantic cuttle fish was cast ashore, the body of which was 13 feet in length and 10 feet in girth. The arms (the long tentacles) were 26£ feet in length and 16 inches in their greatest circumference. The beak was larger than that of an owl. The account is thoroughly trustworthy. Unfortunately the people who found it, not knowing it was of any value, cut it up for their dogs : and the coast being blockaded by ice, no account reached here until a few days since. The Dbepest Shaft in thb World. — The deepest mining •haft in the world is said to be that of the colliery of St. Gilley <p.hatillneau, three miles from Charleroi, Belgium, which is 860 metre* in"*' depth (940^ yards). The deepest coal pit in England is that of the Eosebridge colliery, in the Wigan district, being 875 yards deep and 16 feet in diameter. There are four seams of coal being worked. The Wigan 5 feet, at 450 yards ; Wigan 4 feet, at 470 yards ; the yard coal at 680 yards, and the Arley at 860 yardi. The ventilation of the pit is by a furnace, and is very good. The deepest mine in Cornwall is Dolcoath, which is 360 fathoms (720 yards). In tha Hartz mountains there are eeveral shafts more than 800 yards in ' depth. Kid Gloves.-— ln certain parts of Europe the rearing of kids for the sale of their skins is an important business, those which command the highest prices, and are regarded as being superior to all others, being the French, called in the market geavee nationales. By some the fine qualities of these skins is attributed to a peculiar virtue in the wild vines upon which the young ones feed in the pasturage which they frequent ; this, however, being a peculiar error, as their value is simply the result of the care with which the little animals are reared during their life of four or five weeks. They are not allowed to roam at large, as such a license would imperil the evenness of their skins, which would become scratched by rubbing against stones, or passing through hedges. They are, besides, deprived of all food except milk, as eating grass would tend to render their skins coarse. Consequently they are kept under a wicket-coop, from which, at regular hours, they i aro led to «uckle the mother, and this continues until they are killedtffl at the end of four or five weeks. The younger they are killed the thinner the skin, but, of course, the smaller they are less valuable, too, especially when they are only largo enough to allow of single-buttoned gloves, while the demand is all, for two, three and four-buttoned gloves.

Ibish Wit. — The proverbial'quickness of Irish wit is illustrated "by an anedote related by Captain. A . While on the Peninsula during the war, he came across a private belonging to one of the most predatory companies of Irish brigades, with the lifeless bodies of a goose and hen, tied together by the feet, dangling from his musket. " Where did you steal those, you rascal ? " he demanded. "Faith I was marchin' wid Color, Sergeant Maguire, and the goose, bad .cess to it, came out and hissed at the American flag." " But the hen, sir ; how about the hen ? " " It's the hin, is it ? The hin, bless ye ! was in bad company, and laying eggs for the rebels." Wonderful Spiders' Webb. — Across the " sunny paths " of Ceylon, which constitute the bridle-roads of the Island in the place where the forest meets the open country, enormous spiders stretch their webs at the height of from four to eight feet from the ground. The cordage of these webs is fastened on either side to projecting shoots of trees or shrubs, and it is so strong as to hurt the traveller's face, and even lift ofMiis hat if he is so unlucky as not to see the line. The nests in the centre are sometimes as large as a, man's head, and are continually growing larger, being formed of successive layers of the old webs rolled over each other, sheet after sheet, into a ball. These successive envelopes contain the limbs and wings of insects of all descriptions, which have been the prey of the spider and his family that occupy the den formed in their centre. There seems no doubt that the spider casts the web loose, and roll it round the nucleus in the centre when it becomes overcharged with carcases, and then proceeds to construct a fresh one which in its turn is destined to be folded up with the rest. Emigration to New Zealand. — One hundred agricultural labourers and their families left Boston recently by G-reat Northern train en route for New Zealand. There was a lively scene at the station. Most of the men had bands on their hats with the words " New Zealand" printed in red letters. The emigrants were in capital spirits, and. loudly cheered. There are rumours of another lock-out on account of the wholesale emigration carried on by the league. A Novel Spelling Match. — Boston, Mass., March 23. — Music Ha.ll was crowded to its utmost capacity to-night to witness a match between fifty boys, selected from the higher schools of the city, and fifty editors, reporters, proof readers, and printers selected from various newspapers, in an old fashioned spelling match. The contest was spirited throughout, and finally narrowed down to one on each side, when a printer misspelled " conf errable " and the match was awarded to the boys. Longevity of Birds. — Among the feathered creation the eagle and raven, the swan and parrot, are centenarians. An eagle kept in Vienna died after a confinement of one hundred and fourteen years, and on an ancient oak in Shelborne, still known as the " raven tree," the same pair of ravens are believed to have fixed their residence for more" than ninety years. Swans upon the river Thames, about whose age there can be no mistake, since they are annually nicked by the Vintners' Company, under whose keeping they have been for five centuries, have been known to survive one hundred and fifty years and more. The melody of the dying swan is entirely mythological. "Upon the approach of death, the bird quits the water, sits down upon the bank, lays its head upon the ground, expands its wings a trifle, and expires, uttering no sound. Facts wobth Remembering. — One thousand shingles laid four inches to the weather, will cover 400 square feel of surface, and slb. of shingle-nails will fasten them on. — One-fifth more siding and flooring is needed than the number of square feet of surface to bo covered, because of the lap in the siding and matching of the floor. — One thousand laths will cover seventy yards of surface, and 111 b. of lathnails will nail them on. — Eight bushels of good lime, 16 bushels of sand, and one bushel of hair will make enough good mortal' to plaster 100 hundred square yards. — A cord of stone, three bushels of lime, and a cubic yard of sand, will lay 100 cubic feet of wall. — Eive courses of brick will lay one foot in height on a chimney, six bricks in a course will make a flue four inches wide and twelve inches long, and eight bricks in a course will make a flue eight inches wide and sixteen inches long. Polab Regions. — Intensely cold, stormy and ice-bound, as all nature is at the Artie circle, there are evidences in multiplied forms to prove that the climate in those inhospitable abodes of the white bear and walrus was once as mild, warm and delightful as the Island of Cuba. Vegetable productions of the soil, so ancient we have no data to reckon from, are abundant. These grew luxuriantly where it is almost impossible to sustain either plants or animals with all the appliances of art, and from their structure are particularly fitted for a tropical climate. This statement requires no proof, since the archives of geology verify them by preserved specimens in the rocks, the land and caverns of the frozen North. What forces produced the change from a mild to a terrific region of storms in their most fitful exhibitions of resistless fury ? The polarity of the earth must have been suddenly changed. The " Empbror Bell." — The " Emperor Bell" which has been cast at the Frankenthal foundry near Worms, is to be transported to Cologne, as soon as the river navigation is fully established after the breaking up of the ice. The metal of which this bell is cast weighed 500,000 pounds, and was obtained from the cannon taken in the French war, and among the twenty-two pieces of ordinance which have been incorporated into it there were seven whose dates prove them to have been constructed in the time of Louis XIV. The bell, which is twelve feet in height and ample enough to shelter fifteen men under its dome, is adorned with a bust of St. Peter, the patron of church bells, and bears under the imperial eagle a Latin distich and a German verse, setting forth its purpose of calling together the people to attend the services of the church. What Eveby One Ought to Know. — Every action and emotion depletes the physical system. Milk, the first food absorbed by men and animals, is the only natural mixture, containing all the elements of blood, save the coloring. vVater constitutes three-

fourths of the body. To work well, either physically or mentally, we must be fed judiciously and thoroughly. Food properly administered stimulates the system as wine does, only more naturally. The long night hours empty the stomach, deplete the system, and chill the body. On arising, the physical system is low, and should be recruited.. If we lose time in early morning in bringing the body up to its natural heat and strength, we cannot regain it dur- - ing the day. A healthy man requires about one pound of nutriment per day to keep him in good condition. "While a working man \ would need daily five pounds of solid mixed food; two and a half '„• would be enough for persons who lounge and sleep much. Life, " : said the lecturer, can be sustained two or three weeks on two ozs. ' x a day. A change of diet should follow: a change of seasons — in > winter, fat and sweets ; in summer, fruits, fish, and lighter meats. Milk and eggs, a blood food ; potatoes, wheat, which, being heating material, are fuel ,• and coffee, a stimulant. — From a lecture by Monsignor Pallis. In his history of advertisements' Mr. Sampson calculates that an average number of the 'Times' contains about 2,500 advertisements, and the receipts for last quarter are about £1,000 a day. A number of the ' Daily Telegraph ' contains 1,444 advertisements, andthese may be fairly calculated to produce £500 a day, or thereabouts. The ' Standard ' advertisement!), it is remarked, do not fall far short in number of those in the ' Daily Telegraph.' x It is not generally known that the eldest son of Mr. Ralph Disraeli, the brother of the Prime Minister, who was recently appointed second clerk of the House of Lords, is named Coningßby, after the hero of the cleverest and beßt of Disraeli's novels. Mr. Coningsby Disraeli will be the heir of his uncle's property, and it is hoped also the inheritor of the intellectual gifts of the Dißraeli family.