All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 5, 31 January 1907, Page 38

All Sorts

The first wooden bridge, so far as is known, was the SuWician 'bridge at " Koine, built in the seventh century. ' ' " , ' The City of Tramways.' This is the name' given in South America to Buenos Ayres, the capital. of "the Argentine Republic. . """"', There are about 16,000 islands between, the coast of India and Madagascar. All- of, them are .; capable of supporting population, but -only 600 are inhabited. Mrs. Windfall — Just imagine, Hiram I ' One of the sailors t told .me that this boat is now .in communication with her sister ship ! " 1 wonder, what the conversation is, about?- .Mr. Windfall— Humph, (most likely « each is asking the other if her cargo is on straight. A family residing' in the suburbs of Wellington recently purchased a cow, which the children found a source of pleasure and excitement. A few days after thearrival of the , animal there happened to be a large garden-party given. Ice-cream was 'being "handed round. '" Our cow made that ! ' remarked the .four-year-old s:-ion of the house to the assembled guests. Senator Beve_ridge, of Indiana, in his address to the Knights of Columbus on Discovery Day, said : ' The American people — lei their progress never- (Tease. , And who are these American people ? They are not AngloSaxon. They .-are American. Nearly 20,000,000 of _ our 90,000,000 are of German descent. A3* many more are of Irish descent. Nearly 5,000,000' are of French descent. More than 2,000,000 are of Italian descent. Two-thirds as many people of Scandinavian descent live 'in this Republic as live in Norway and Sweden com- , bined. Every country in Christendom has supplied an , element that, mingled with the rest, makes up the American people.' ' " At the present time, when we are told that there is a very close cousinship between buttdt and -soap, the following note, which appears in the ' Lancet ' from a cor-espondemt in Holland, is worth no'timg : ' About 100 tons of butter,' he- says, ' are sold 1 in England every week * containing short weight of butter fat. Unless exposed by the press it will soon be 1000 tons per week with shjort weight of fat in every pound. •• Dry colonial and other butters, containing 85 to 98 per • cent, of fat, are impoverished in .England by -blending' them). wij<h milk, which (.as -it comes' from the cow) contains nearly 90 per cent, of water. Thus splendid . dry butters' which in their original condition had only 12 per cent, or less of water are made to hold ab-> out 24 per cent. Water displaces butter fat, and the poor buy the mixture for butter.' The bakers of Pompeii had the same kind of oven " that " may occasionally be found in old country houses. In these the fire was built in the oven itself, . and ' kept up until the brick or stone walls were aglow. Then the ashes and coals were brushed out, and the articles to be cooked, were introduced, those needing .a" high degree oF . heat first and later the others. The walls would hold heat for forty-eight hours, and nothing ever burned if . put in at the proper temperature. Epicures of yesterday say that -no modern- oven can produce such appetizing results as followed this slow baking. Prom this oven it was but a step to that of to-day heated with flues. The" "Dutch oven set before the fire was. ' really but a modification of the pan upon the coals and not a separate step toward the development of the otven. There is a little town named Markneukirchen, in Saxony, where 1 nearly every inhabitant is 'engaged in " the" manufacture of violins. The industry, gives employment to nearly 15,000 people, who;* live in, Markneukirchen and the. surrounding villages; . The fiddle is usually made of ' maplewood, and^consists of « - about sixty pieces, each one of which • is- cut-, smoothed, and measured, so that everything is exact with the model. The old- men majfe the ebony finger-boards, screws, and string holders, "and the younger ones, with strong, steady hands and -clear eyes, put the'pieoes together, ..which is the most ■ difficult performance of any. The wompn attain marvellous skill in polishing the violin after it is fitted up, and. almost every family -has its own peculiar! method of polishing, which is- handed •down from mother •lo daughter, some excelling in a ; deep wine color, others in citron or orange color. The jnore expensive violins are polished' from twenty to thirty times before- they are. considered perfect and ready for use.