All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 48, 28 November 1907, Page 38

All Sorts

The great anaesthetic, chloroform, was discovered toy , Guthrie in 1831, and was" first employed surgical operations in 1847. The Emperor o£ China has a household consisting of 500 persons, including thirty bearers of State umbrellas, an eqtual number of fan-Wearers, thirty physicians and surgeons,- seventy-five astrologers, "seventy-six cooks, and sixty bonzes. The angler sallies' forth agafti, And by the brooklet's shore Doth idly lie and fish and then ~ . Goes home and lies some more. •According to a * well-known authority the English language is- spoken by- 650,000,000 people, Russian- by 1235,000,000, German by 215,000,000, and French by only 90,000,000. . Then follow Italian, spoken by 70,000,000," and Spanish by 65,000,000." The statistics .were collected for the purpose of advancing the cause of the English language as "the diplomatic tongue, instead of the French. ' The British Museum owes its existence to a lottery, " the Archbishop of Canterbury being one of its" promoters and directors. One hundred thousand - tickets were ■sold at £3 . each ; £200,000 was devoted to prizes, ranging from £10 to £10,000; and the. balance •of £100,000 was placed to the British Museum -Purchase Fund. With this sum) Sir Hans Sloane's famous library and collection and the Harleian and Cotton manuscripts were acquired, and Montagu House was bought to place the treasures in. According to. the latest Chinese official investigation, the total number of Chinese in other countries is as follows, not including, the students : Japan, 17,673 ; Russian Asia, 37,000 ; Hongkong, 314,391 ; Siarn, - 2,755,609'; Burma, 134,560 ; Java, 1,825,700 ; Australia, - 34,465 ; Europe, 176U ; Corea, 11,200 ; Formosa, 74,506; Malaysia, 1,023,500 ; Annam, 197,300 ; the Philippines, 83,785; Africa, 200; 'America, 272,829. Total, 6,793,-531. India, the "land of mystery, is rapidly coming to the front in various fields of industry. The Indian Empire possesses no fewer than fifteen coalfields, while iron^is worked on an extensive scale, in three districts, two of which" are situated in the immediate vicinity of Calcutta. Nor are oil fields wanting ; seventeen more or less important centres are engaged in this industry in the provinces of -Bengal and Assam, while tobacco cultivation r is another valuable asset to Assam as well as to Madras. The lawyer shook his finger warnihgly at -the witness and said : ' Now we waat to hear just what you know, not what some one -else knows, or what you think, or anything of that kind, but what you know. Do you understand ? ' . ' Well, I know,' said the witness, with emphasis, as he leant forward easily- in the box, ' I know* that Jim Clay siaid stoat t Bill Thorosloai told him that he heard John Thomas! wife tell Sid Smith's daughter that her husband was there when the fight took place," and that he said that -they flung each other about in the meadow pretty considerable.' It is unofficially said that the v cost of . the . maiden voyage of the ' Liusitania ' to New York, including everything," was £20,000. A report .from ;the commis--sary department showed that on the passa&e f'rorn Liverpool to Sandy Hook there had been consumed aboard the ' Lusitania ' 40,000 eggs, 4000 pounds of fresh fish, two tons of bacon and ham, 2000 pounds of- best coffee, 2000 pounds of coflee for crew, 500 pounds of best tea, 650 pounds of tea for crew, 500 pounds of grapes, 100 pineapples, 1000 lemons, 25,000 pounds of fresh meat, 11,870 quarts of milk, 2675 quarts of cream, and 30,000 loaves' of bread. , The English use of the capital 'I ' is one of the oddest features of the language — to a foreigner. If a Frenchman writes with reference to himself he makes ' >je ' (the French equivalent of ' I ')with a small ' j..' -So with the German, who may use capitals to begin every noun ; he always uses the small 'i ' in writing 1 ich.' The Spaniard avoids, as far as. possible, the use of the personal pronoun when writing in the first ■ person, but he always writes it ' yo,' taking pains, however, to begin the Spanish equivalent for onv c you' with a capital. In English it is surely big *I ' and little ' you ' as the old saying has it.