WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 127, 8 October 1875, Page 15

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

English Factory Children. — The degeneration of the Manchester (England) factory children is attributed by Dr. Ferguson to the fact that, instead of being brought up on milk, as formerly, they are now reared on tea and coffee from the time they are weaned, which they imbibe, not only in "the morning, but often three times a day. Dr. Ferguson has found that, when fed on milk twice a day, feeble children between 13 and 15. years grow nearly four times as fast as children fed on tea or coffee, whose growth between the years mentioned does not exceed four pounds a year, whereas the children fed on milk night and morning grow 15 pounds a year. At least one-half of the boys in the mills, from 12 to 20 years of age," either smoke or chew tobacco, or both ; and this operates prejudicially to their growth. The Newspaper Business. — The newspaper business is very exacting on all connected with it, and the pay is comparatively small ; the proprietors risk more money for smaller profits, and the editors and reporters and printers work harder and cheaper than. the same number of* men in any other profession requiring the given amount of intelligence, training aud drudgery. The life has its charms and pleasant associations, scarcely known to the outside ! world ; but it has its earnest work and anxieties and hours of ex- { haustion, which also are not known to those who think the business I all fun. The idea that newspaperdom is a charmed circle, wherei the favored members live a life of ease and free from. care, and go to the circus at night on a free ticket and to the springs on a free pass in the summer, is an idea which we desire to explode praci tically and theoretically. Business is business, and the journal ! that succeeds is the one that is run on a square business footing, i the same as banking or building bridges, keeping an hotel or running a livery stable. Earliest Explorations of the Sea Bottom. — So far as I have been able to discover, the first successful attempt to bring up from great depths more of the sea bottom than would adhere to a sounding-lead, was made by Sir John Ross, in the voyage to the arctic regions which- he undertook in 181 S. In the appendix to the narrative of that voyage, there will be found an account of a very ingenious apparatus called " chalrns" — a sort of double scoop — of his own contrivance, which Sir John Eoss had made by the ship's armorer ; and by which, being in Baffin's Bay, in 72° 30' north, and 77° 15' west, he succeeded in bringing up from 1,050 fathoms (or 6,300 feet) "several pounds" of a "fine green mud," which formed the bottom of the sea in this region. Captain (now Sir Edward) Sabine, who accompanied Sir John Eoss on this cruise, says of this mud that it was " soft and greenish, and that the lead sunk several feet into it." A similar " fine green mud" was found to compose the sea bottom in Davis Straits by G-oodsir in 1845. Nothing is certainly known of the exact nature of the mud thus obtained, but we shall see that the mud at the bottom of the antarctic seas is described in curiously similar terms by Dr. Hooker, and there is no doubt as to the composition of this deposit. — Professor Huxley, in ' Popular Science Monthly' for May. The Government of the Isle of Man. — Acts of the British Parliament do not affect the Isle of Man. The government consists of the House of Keys, the Council, and the governor. These taree make the laws which govern the island, and their concurrence is essential to every leijislative enactment. The House of Keys (the congress of the island) consists of twenty-four representatives, who are not elected by suffrage ; they are selected by their own body. "When a vacancy occurrs, two names are presented to the i governor, one of whom he nominates, who then takes his seat for : life. The Council consists of the Bishop of Man, the attorney- • general, the judges or deemsters, etc. It may be regarded as the > House of Lords

Esquimaux Daring. — The roving and courageous habits of the Esquimaux are strikingly illustrated in the following passage from McLean's narrative of ' Service in Hudson's Bay Territories :' — •' A greater number of Esquimaux*. were assembled about the post on the south side of Hudson's Straits, than I had yet seen ; and among them I was surprised to find a family from the north side of the Strait, and still more astonished when I learned the way they had crossed. A raft formed of pieces of drift wood picked up along the shore, afforded the means of effecting the hazardous enterprise. On questioning them what was their object in risking their livea in so extraordinary a manner, they replied that they wanted wood to make canoes, and visit the Esquimaux on the south side of the Strait. ' And what if you had been overtaken by a storm ?' said I. ' "We should have gone to the bottom/ was the cool reply. In fac they had had a very narrow escape, a storm having come on just as they landed. The fact of these people having crossed Hudson's Bay on so rude and frail a, conveyance, strongly corroborates, I think, the idea that America was originally peopled from Asia. The Asiatic side of Behring Straits, affording timber sufficiently large for the purpose of building boats or canoes, there seems nothing improbable in snpposing that, when once in possession of that wonderful and tisefal invention, a boat, they might be induced, even by curiosity, to visit the nearest island, and thence proceed to the Continent of America."

Why some People are Poor. — Silver spoons are used to scrape kettles. Coffee, tea., pepper and spicea are left to scand open and lose their strength. Potatoes in the cellar grow, and the sprout 3 are not removed -until the potatoes become worthless. Brooms aye never hung up and are soon spoiled. Nice handled knives are thrown into hot water. The flour is sifted in. a wasteful manner, and the bread-pan is left with the dough- sticking to it. Clothes arc left on the line to whip to pieces in the wind. Tub 3 and barrels are left in the sun to dry and fall apart. Dried fruits are nulr taken care of in season and become wormy. Rags, string and paper are thrown into the fire. Pork spoils for want of salt, and beef for want of scalding. Bits of meat, vegetables, bread and cold puddings are thrown away, when they might be warmed, steamed, and served as good *.» new.