All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, 13 September 1906, Page 38

All Sorts

There are four millionaires in England to every one in Prance. -„ . \Sjxty thousand elephants are annually slaughtered in Africa^ for the sake of their ivory. ' Golf can positively to 'traced in Scottish history back_to 1457, and negatively to a remoter date. When, fully accoutred, a British foot-soldier- carries in weight 621 b;. a~ Russian, 681 b;' a French, 621 b : a German, 61ft ; a Swiss, 591 b ; an. Italian, 531 b ; and au Austrian, 47ilb. For a short distance a lion or a tiger can outrun a man, and can equal the speed of a fast horse, but they lose their wind at the end of about half a mile. They have little endurance,- and are remarkably weak in lung - power. : ' . - ■ . They had just moved into a new house, and they' stood surveying the situation. - ' ■ ' I wish,' she, said, ' that this carpet was velvet.' I don't,' responded the husband unfeelingly. ' I wish " it pas down.' _ - A recruiting .sergeant one day, seeing^ a fine-built young man selling milk, approached him and said : --, -L-HYould*- you- like to serve the King ? ' (meaning to 'joinrthe Army)." * . .- - -v- ' Rather,' said the~ milkman. 'How much, does he .want ? A pint or. a quart ? ' There are. now over 250,000 words in the English language, acknowledged_by the best authorities, or about 70,000 more than in the German, French, Spanish, and Italian languages combined* One can easily understand, . foreigners borrowing from English, but it seems inexcusable for English writers to burden their works with words - taken frojn languages with a" much smaller number of words than- are to be found in our dictionaries. A story of military red tape is being told -at Dover. A requisition from Newhaven was received at the district head-quarters at Dover_ for sonae safety matches. A letter went back inquiring whether they could "not be obtained locally. The reply .was received that they could not. This was an expenditure of 3d for stamps. - A package of a dozen boxes, of matches, value about l|d, was -then sent by passenger train, marked ' Explosives ' for which 2s Gd carriage was 'paid. Bakers in Fiance are subjected to several , unusual rules and regulations: In large fortified towns, for instance,- they musfc\al\vays have a certain stock on hand" in case, of_. war. No_t only this, but everywhere -they have to deposit a sum of money in the hands of the municipal authorities as a surety of good conduct ; and the law, not- content with merely looking after their weights and measures, actually decides the price at which bread is sold: The Glasgow Corporation -tramways have made a net profit of no less than "£56,000 on last year's working. The total inoome. amounted to' £820,938, and'the working expenses to £456,268, leaving a gross balance of 0864,57-0. The population served by the system is about 1,050,000, and this enormous community was carried no Jess than 208 times over by the tramways during the . year. The Corporation has decided to , apply £10,000 to meeting special depreciation of buildings to - put £10,000 to the common good, and- to place the Valance of £36,000 to the general reserve fund. The New York doctors have been wondering at the youthful appearance of the body of Mrs. Mary Fay a Tipperary woman, who has just died there at the age of 105. For forty years she lived on. bread and milk and the appearance of her . body was that of a woman of ,35. She never ate meat or vegetables, nor did she dr-ink anything save milk and -water. She never had an* . ache, or pain. She went to .'.America forty years aeo Some physicians believe that the case corroborates the theory of Professor of Paris, that a. diet .of sour or curdled milk will successfully combat old age. 'The popular idea^that the t age of a horse can always -be told- by faofcing-at his teeth,' says a veterinary surgeon, ' is, not entirely correct. After the eichth year the horse has no more new. teeth, so that- the tooth -method is useless, for telling the age of a horse' which is more than eight years oldr \s soon as- the set of teeth is complete, however, a wrinkle begins to appear on the upper edge of the lower eyelid, and a new wrinlrte is added each year, so- that- to get at the ace of a ahorse over eight, years old you must figure the--teeth plus the wrinkles^' — _ *!