All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 17, 30 April 1908, Page 38

All Sorts

The rest cure becomes a habit with some people. Regret is something we feel for the mistakes'of our friends. v_ ---*. t Money talks,, and -some people make every nefinv count. Nothing delights some people so miucSb as to toe asfced favors ;, it gives them so much 'pleasure to refuse. - One of the most annoying things in the world is. to be prepared for an emergency thiat doesn't keep its appointment. - A railway through the mountains north of the Adriatic Sea, constructed by the Austrian Government to build up the trade of Trieste, though only 130 miles long, has 679 bridges and viaducts. It also runs through forty-nine tunnels. ' I want to complain of the flour you sent me the other day,' said- Mrs. Newliwed, severely. The grocer Inquired what >was the matter with it. 'It was tough,' replied' the housekeeper. cMy Misband simply oould not eat the biscuits I made with it. "**" Lady' Visitor— That new servant of yours seems very nice and qjulet. Mistress of the House— Yes, she's very quiet. She doesn't even disturb the dust when, she's cleaning the room>. - • ** First Painter— l've just been ' showing my aunt round. Most amusing. Invariably picks out the wrong pictures to admire, and denounces the good ones. Second Painter— Did she say anything] about mine ? First Painter— Qh, she liked yours. ' ' An orange tree will bear fruit till 150. years 'old, and there are recorded instances of orange trees 1 bearing when 500 |years old. In Malta and Naples 15,000 oran'ges\have been picked from a single tree, and one in the Sandwich Islands was estimated to bear 20,000. 1 Met a friend of yours the other day. He's been talking, about yooi, and I- feel it my duty to tell . you what he said. 1 J 1 Abi, well, I don't "care to hear wh|at .he said. I know it was something disagreeable.' 1 How do you know that ? ' ' Because you are so anxious to tell- it. Good morning.' A quaint little fish haunts the weed tracts of the Gulf Stream, and there builds its nest and lays its eggs like a bird rather than a fish. This animal— the ant ennarius— imitates in color 'the weed it lives in and, like the chameleon, constantly changes its color. ' The many natural curiosl-tlies of Japan inclufde - a sipiecies 1 of sUnging insects. The most pirized of .these tiny musicians is a black beetle named ' susumushi ' which means ' insect bell.' The sound that ii? emits resembles that of a l'ifctle silver bell of tloe sweetest and most /delicate tone. j The Newfoundland" fishermen, according to a consular report, have been attempting to make whale leather a commercial product, and are said to be meetIng," with some success. The average whale hide covers a surface of about fifteen hundred' square feet. A square foot of the hide weighs from two -to five ounces-. The leather is. unusually tough, and is said to have great wearing qualities, and may therefore be adapted to 'the coiviering of furniture, carriage tops ,and seats, andi also automobile uses. It is also said that it can be used far boots and shoes. Leather made from- the intestines:, of the whale resembles kid*, and "is thin and tough. It will take color readily, and is to be offered to glotye manufacturers 1 for ma-king, . the long-sleeved gloves now worn by women. ~ > , While some workmen were sawing a log of mahogany in the factory of the Ulster" Burnishing Co., Belfas^, on February 28, it was found to contain right through a very clearly defined ' photograph! ' of a small deer and a larger animal, running. Doubtless the "•photograph- was transmitted by lightning during a storm, and the picture must have been ' taken ' a long time ago,, as the tree, being 4ft in diameter, is an exceedingly old ooie. Every plank of the log right .through shows the images clearly. Tine idea of photography by lightning has suggested itself Jp a we n_ knio.wn novelist, who ut/ilised! the seemingly bizarre sug-^* gestion in the plot of a popular sensational" story. The f' aJbovie would appear to present another example of the time-worn adage that no fiction can exceed 'the strangeness presented by some of the facts of life. . " N