All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, 10 September 1908, Page 38

All Sorts

~ A Russian does not become of age until he is 26. For every ton of gold in- circulation there are i& tons of - silver .- ' '- .

The average amount of sickness in human life is nine dayq out of one year. The coal consumption per head is greater in England than in any other country. A snail student has ascertained that it takes the little creature 14 days to travel a mile. . . r ■ ' It requires 501 bof candle to produce as much light as one . thousand cubic feet of gas. - -„.-,' He-: ' Do y6u think it would be foolish of me to marry a girl who was my inferior intellectually??'- 1 ": - - ■'.-. She : ' More than foolish — impossible. ' Niece : ' Weren't you shocked, uncle, when you heard thaf Harry had died and left me a widow?' Uncle: 'Well, no. That's about all I ever expected he would leave you-.' Sleepy Guest: ' Halloa 4isit 7 o'clock? I declare I am so sleepy that- I can't open my eyes. '" - J ■ " \ Head Waiter (who has knocked at the door) : 'I'll bring you your bill," sir, if you" like? 1 What would our wives say if they- knew where we were? * - said the captain of a schooner which was beating about in a thick fog. 'Humph, I should not mind- that,' replied the mate, • ' if we only knew where we were out selves! '

. ' Oh, Willie, Willie,.' exclaimed. .his. -mother, -shocked ; and grieved, ' you have disobeyed^ mV?again;. - How often have I told you not to play with that wicked' Stapleford boy ? * .?■ ' Mamma,' said Willie, washing the blood from his nose, Ido I look as if I had been playing -with, anybody? * ' ■A French report from China describes a curious way th« " inhabitants have of obtaining gold. Large flocks of geese ar; kept to work the gold fields. Periodically "they are tested, and ' those. found to be of a certain weight are, killed and their crops emptied of their contents. In this way an. average of "• worth of gold is obtained annually,- all- of- which is shipped to Pekin... The geese killed are afterward dressed for market, and , fetch fourteen to twenty cents apiece. In the mountains of Tyrol it is the custom of the women andchildren to come out when it is the close "of day and ,sing~ Their husbands, fathers, and brothers answ.er them from the hills" on their way homeward. On the shores of the Adriatic sucV' a custom prevails. There, the wives of the fishermen come . down about sunset and sing a melody. After singing the first, stanza they listen awhile for an answering melody from off the, water, and continue to sing and listen till the well-known voices -' come borne on the waters, telling that the : one- jsfalmost:i How sweet to the.: weary -"fisherman, as the shadows gather around him, must be the songs of the' loved ones at home that sing to cheer him, and how they must strengthen and . tighten the links that bind together these dwellers by the sea. * . .Every ..February. 11 is celebrated in- Japan the great annual festival of Kigensetsu, the anniversary of- the foundation .of tha 1"' •; .empire by the . first emperor, Jimmu-tenno, . B.C. 660. The - « " 'Japanese reckon their present era as ,from.,thistdate, and it was "-: "'on "" 'February li,, 1889, that- Mutsuhi'tor*-- the _ 121 st of the dynasty, promulgated ' the ' present constitution of fh« "' empire of Japan, the fundamental principle of, which is clearly / stated in its first-article. ' The empire of Japan shall be reigned over, and' governed by a line of -emperors unbroken 1 from ages eternal.' . The organisation of a parliament; took "place in 1890, .which in the Japanese reckoning would, be." 2550 fromvjimmd's - setting up his capital at -Kashiwara, in- the province of Yamato, - * which* Js regarded by 'Japanese historians as- the . beginning fof • the empire. - " '-. ~- ~~"~ -'- , -•'.•'•*