All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 47, 21 November 1907, Page 38

All Sorts

Does any one' 3cnow where the dead of night is buried ? - It's 1 all rwell lenjougii to, ask advice, hut occasionally a, man makes the mistake of following it. Wisdom is knowing how ignorant we are and keeping the knowledge to ourselves. ' There's one redeeming- feature about sea-sickness : it makes the victim forget all his other troubles. 1 Don't gamble,' said Uncle Eben, ' unless you kin aford to lose. An' if you's got enough, so's you kin afford to lose, dar am' no sense in playin'-foh mo.? 'Did you say, " Thank you," when the lady gave you a piece of cake ? ' ' Yes, ma ; but it didn'«t do any good. She didn't give me another piece.' According to conservative estimates .the United States contains 12,000,000 to 13,000,000 inhabitants of German blood. The census of 1900 gives 2,666,900 as born in Germany, and over -7,500,000 whose parents were born there. The ' Lusitania ' is called after a spot of Europe now almost forgotten. The Emperor,- Augustus divided the whole Iberian Peninsula— which- the soldiers of . Wellington simply knew as the ' Peninsula '—into - three provinces, one of them being . Lusitania, corresponding almost exactly with the present kingdom of Portugal. M.P.'s and officials of the House of Commons are gratuitously supplied with snuff, £200 a year being set apart for its purchase. The snuffbox is_ kept at the entrance to the House, and all are free to replenish their private stores. Formerly snufi was described in the estimates as such, but to. ward ofi the objection aroused by iiriproving habits the charge of £200 was mixed up or covered in the Estimates as ' lamp oil.' The skeleton of a man six feet five inches in height, found in a stone coffin in -Norfolk, has revived interest in giants of the past. There is a skeleton 8 feet Cinches high in the museum of Trinity College', Dublin, and the skeleton of another giant over 8 feet high in the museum at Bonn, Germany. O'Byrne, who measured 8 feet 4 inches, died at the age of 22, and Magrath, who measured 7 feet 8 inches, a protege of the famous Bishop Berkeley, died at the age of 20. Here are some amusing statistics which are given 'by a veteran German actor at the close, of a pamphlet containing an account of his career : — ' I have played in ninety-eight cities,' he says, 'on 3868' evenings, in 371 plays and in 455 different roles. On the stage I have been married' 1721' times and I have died 1120 times. I have been stabbed to death 61 times, killed by a gun or pistol 51 times, drowned 22 times, poisoned 166 times, clubbed to death 86 times, ruptured a blood vessel 192- times, beheaded 31 times, assassinated 109 times, and hanged 33 times. Finally' I have committed suicide 314 times, and I have died a natural death 55 times.' Prof. Brander-Matthews, the spelling reform advocate, was ridiculing at Columbia College high-sounding names for commonplace things — tonsorial parlor" for bar-ber-shop, funeral'- director for undertaker, and so on. ' Two charwomen were talking the other day,' he said. 1 "What's your son Billy doin' now, 'Mrs. "Smith?" asked the first: "He's -on the stage," the other answered. - " Drivin' a stage, do you mean ? " "Drivin' a stage ? Nonsense ! Willie is an actor. He's a light comedian." " A lighi comedian ? ' What part does he play ? " "He plays a silent part behind a- black curtain witfi his mouth to a hole fofninst -a candle, and when Alkali Ike shoots at the candle Willie blows itout." '. _- A naturalist in Colorado claims to have discovered a species of fish which, lives and flourishes in a hot spring in a remote part of that country. How these creatures manage to exist in water almost hot" enough to boil them is a mystery. The fish are described as being a light red color, about three inches long. They are shaped somewhat like a pike, with large mouth and bright prominent eyes. They move very slowly, having none of the swiftness and activity of ordinary fishes which is perhaps hardly to be wondered at. The naturalist had great difficulty in securing specimens. Hook and line were useless, as the fish were indifferent to bait, however tempting. • Finally a small net was procured, and two. of the fish captured. The spring is well known to the Indians of the locality, who regard its waters as curative and hold the fish in superstitious awe, believing that from them the water derives the healing qualities.