All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, 3 September 1908, Page 38

All Sorts

The amount of money spent annually on milk in the United Kingdom is about _ The temperature ' of countries \vith\; sandy" soils is higher than those with clay or other compact soils. Special clocks, which need winding up ' only once . in four hundred days, are now manufactured in Munich. For penknives the steel is tempered at 470 degrees, for tableknives at 530 degrees, for. saws at 560 degrees. •Frequent '"use of the' microscope is said to prevent nearsightedness. Watchmakers are seldom afflicted with it. " Teacher: 'Tommy, what is a fruitless search?' Tommy : ' When you're looking fer apples in the pantry an' only find potatoes.' ' It's a long way for a shilling^' remarked- the cab-driver, looking sulkily at his proper fare. ' I know it -is,' said the youth, quietly. 'If it had not been I should have "walked." ' One half the world doesn't know how the other half lives,' declared a notorious lady scandalmonger. ' That* isn't your fault,' quietly observed one of her auditors. Lady: 'If .people fall down this precipice and ar'e~ kijled, why don't .you silly people, put a railing round?' Guide (horrified) : ' Ach, no ! dis place is famous for der tourist .who is - killed!' 'Yes,' said the old man, 'my daughter is still studying French. ' But she can't speak the language at all, can she?' remarked a friend. ' She couldn't at first, but now she can speak it just enough to make herself unintelligible.' ' I suppose to educate your daughter*in music costs a~ great deal of money?' ' Yes, but she's brought it all back for me.' ' Indeed!' 'Yes; I'd been trying' to buy out my next neighbor' at half price for years, and could never bring him to terms until she came home!' ~ In Japan no man carries a hod. The native builders hava s a way of transporting mortar which looks more like play than work. One man makes the mortar into balls which weigh about 61b each, tosses rhem to a man who stands on a ladder midway between the roof and earth, and he in turn throws them to the man above him. - In -Iceland horses 'are shod with sheep's horn, while in tha Sudan they are shod with camel's skin. A German not long ago invented a horseshoe of paper, prepared by saturating with oil, turpentine, and other ingredients. Thin layers of such paper are glued to the hoof till the requisite' thickness is attained. The shoes thus made are said to be durable and impenetrable, by moisture. The oldest tree in the world is to be found in the Isle nf '. Cos, on the coast of Asia Minor, says the London -.Globe. ItTisa platane, under the shade of which Hippocrates, the father of medicine, lectured to his pupils. Now, as the tree at that time "must have seen many years, the tree, it would seem, is considerably over twenty-five hundred years , old. The trunk has a. circumference of 32^ft ; and it still bears leaf, but decay is apparent, and two of the principal limbs have, to- be supported by brick -pillars.

The brave pioneers in ihe New World had very few consolations, so it makes one feel glad to- read in their records - that they often enjoyed the companionship of faithful dogs (says the Aye Maria). When Balboa- was guided to the Pacific Ocean by the Indians, he had with hini his dog ' Leoncico,' ' the terror of the savages.' Ponce de Leon's dog ' Berezillo ' was as good" as a warrior to his master; if is~ said "that he could distinguish those of the Indians who were allies from .those jvvho were enemies of the Spaniards. De Soto's favorite dog, a" splendid hound, once sprang at a treacherous Indian who had killed a Spaniard and tore the savage to-pieces. 'Pilot,' another dog that figures in history, was one of \he -Band which warned De Maisonneuve, founder of Montreal,, .of 'tlie approach of hostile Indians, thus giving tlva soldiers time to prepare for the attack which followed.