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^ Selected Poetry.—-NEMESIS.When ho and she were ten and eight Ilia little wife wa6 she;And both wore quite content to wait Till he a man should be.They played together os they giew ;A tyrant lord was hn.—•They’d quarrel when the clock was two And make it up at throe !At fifteen he on girlish toysLooks down with scornful mien ;And she disdains to play with boys At feminine thirteen.His ifia'rimonial views nrs cool.At love he goyly mocks iShe boasts a dearest friend at school, And daily lengthening frocks I■When twenty sees him quite a man,Its bliss has ono alloy :She laughs at him behind her fan And calls him such a boy j Bor she has lovers now galore,Who smiles and favour crave,And he who tyrannized of yore Is now her humbleBt slave!They now are middle-aged; 'tia said His chin a beard now covers;And Btrange to say, she’s not yet wed,In spite of all her lovers !But vain for her to sigh for him,For so the story tells—Grown weary of caprice and whim He’s married some one else 1Chambers's Journal.MY| HELEN.My Helen, daisies o’er thee crowd,And myriad birds are singing loud j But what are flowers and songs to me, Appalled by Death’s dark mystery—For thou art sleeping in thy shroud!With youth and beauty graced, endowed With all the love my heart was proud To lavish richly upon thee—My Helen!My Helen! May—Death, heavy browed And fierce and strong, hath disallowed My ownership, and hastily Hath cut thee down. Ne’er cau’at thou be In spite of all the vows we vowed—My Helen!MANDALAY.Mandalay lies about three miles from the Irrawaddy, on a rising ground below the Hill Mandale. It was founded on the accession in 1853, by the late king, and one of his motives for quitting Ava and selecting the new site ,waB to remove his palace from the sight and sound of British steamers. The city is built on the same plan as the old capital, and consists of two concentric, fortified squares. The outer is defended by lofty, massive brick walla, with earthworks thrown up on the inBide. There are four gates, over each of which rises a tower with seven gilded roofs. The first square is inhabited by the officials, civil and military, and the soldiers of .criie royal army. All the houses are in ■Separate inclosures, bordering broad, well-kept streets. Along the fronts is carried the king’s fence, a latticed palisade, behind which the subjects bide themselves when His Majesty passes. During the day, stalks are set Up in the streets, and the various Burmese necessaries, even to cloth, are sold, but at night all are cleared away and the gate closed. The central or royal square is surrounded by an outer stockade of teak timber, twelve feet in height and an inner wall. Entrance is given by two gates opposite each other, opening into a wide place, containing the Government offices and the royal mint on one side j on the other a wall runs across, and a large gate-way opened only for the King, and a squall postern give access to the palace inclosure. To the left is the abode of the white elephant, which is said to be scarcely distinguishable from any other elephant save by the paler hue of the skin of the head. To the -right is the royal arsenal. Outside the walls of the city the suburbs, or unwalled town, stretch away southward in broad streets, which converge toward the Arracan Pagoda, and in the distance the spires of pagodas mark the site of Amaru pura. The population is roughly estimated at 65,000. The principal industry is silk-weaviDg.—N YHerald.NOKSKE EABMS.The first impression of an ordinary Norwegian farm-steading is not very favourable. A cluster of houses, small and aged, crowd around a larger dwelling-house, which generally looks somewhat dilapidated. But this ap-earance is deceptive ; for the walls eing uf wood, they lock old in a few yearB, and become blotched andsesred by the weather. The roof is of the same material, or, in the case of the principle building, either of red tile or slab. Sometimes the dwelling-house is painted white, when the tffi ct is to relieve the sombre aspect of the group,. The walls are usually stout and thoroughly weather-proof, planks about four inches thick being used in their construction. These planksare placed edgewise on one another, crossed and counter-sunk at the angles, and caulked in the seams with dry moss. A skin of thin wood is placed over the out-side, while the interior is lined smoothly with hoards.. Inside there is an air of comfort and cleanliness. A table stands in the centre of the chiet room ; and along the wall a bench runs, which Berves for chairs, of which there is usually a deficiency. From pots on the floor ivy is sometimes trained up-‘.i wards to the roof, giving the room a festive and refreshing look. Not un-frequently the worthy farmer is proud | We the dresses of his daughtershung in conspicuous positions, in order that Bwains who call may see that the damsels are well provided with garments iu case of a matrimonial alliance The cowhouses are generally an improvement on those usually seen in Eugland and Scotland, The building is larger, and more space allotted to to each animal ; while a clean wooden floor is ordinarily beneath the cattle. Little or no bedding is given. The level of the cowhouse is in most eases raised high enough to allow of a space beneath, iuto wbieh the refuse is regularly swept through an opening in the floor. Outside the buildings, one is apt to ask, But where is the farm ? Look about you. Mountains hem us iu on all sides ; there is no room for fields as we know them at home ; but grass ... i ■» luxuriantly among tbe rocks, V. a i. ...casioually a patch as large as an ordinary villa garden. There the farmer cuts a portion of his hay crop, on which his horses and cattle are mainly dependent during the eight winter months. But liis hayfield is yet winter spread. Glance upward some fifteen hundred feet there, where an opening occurs in the dwarf birch, and you will observe the diminished form of a man busy at work. That is the farmer, a thorough mountaineer, cutting the grass which grows on yonder Darrow lodge of rock.He has been up since early morn, and will probably not descend till evening. Not a tuft ot grass will be left ungatbered; not a foot of level ground on that steep and rugged mountain side but will be visited, and its small crop carefully removed by the industrious bergsman. If he has a wide stretch of field (hill pasture or moorland) in his boundary, the farmer erects wooden sheds, iu which he stores his hay till winter, when, by a a ingenious contrivance, he has the wbole rapidly and easily conveyed to the valley. A familiar object in a Norwegian glen is the strong steel wiie which stretches from the foot to the summit of the mountain. Down this wire the bundles of hay are expeditiously sent without labour, and then carried in sledges to the steadings. Without such a method, many weary journeys would be necessary ere the hay required for a long winter could be brought down. Jt appears the Norwegian farmer borrowed the idea of this hay telegraph from bis brother hills-men of the Tyrol about eight years ago. The hay crop is the product of natural grass, no seed being sown, nor any admixture of clover being used.— Chambers’s Journal.THE MICEOBE IN CEIME AND DISEASE.We are sorry to see that Professor Meandraof Outopos, has left the direct walks of medical science and become sceptical as to the efficiency of the microbe in all cases. In his great work on the “ Destiny of Man,” he says; “ We see tottering to its fall the old-fogy notion that man is a responsible being, the mighty endeavours of 10,000 doctors, urmed with microscopes and bottles of vesuvin, have demonstrated the energy of the ubiquitous bacillus, and have proved—beyond the shadow of a doubt—that all sickness, disease, and crime owes its origin to minute germs which float ceaselessly in the atmosphere seeking for a nidus.” Looking a few feet further down in the voluminous MS. of this great thinker, we find the foil swing; “ We see the gradual metamorphosis of our prisons into hospitals, and find heredity and the bacillus making away with the last vestige of freedom of the will ; the criminal like the drunkard is no longer amenable to law, he has simply an unfortunate diathesis. But a change may come, the mutations of humanity are constant, and the court-room of the future may shr w us a scene like the following :Judge—“ What is the matter with the prisoner P”Officer—“Found him sitting on a stoop holding on to his head.■ “ Where were you last night, prisoner P”“ I was at home, sir. I don’t drink. I had been walking in the sue and felt dizzy.’“ Where was your umbrell a p”“ I haven’t got one, Bir.”“ Don’t you know that it’s agninat the law to walk in the sun without an umbrella ? You may go this time, but I caution you to buy an umbrella or keep on the shady Bide in future. “Next!”“ Found this man clinging to a lamp post, rubbing bis abdomen and groan-ing.”“ What’s the matter, prisoner ?”H I had just been to Eobinson’s restaurant and felt siejj.’’“ What did you have for dinner ?’’“ Beefsteak and mince pie.”“ Officer did yon make a microBco-pial examination of the mince pie at Robinson’s ?”“I did, sir; there were no.fungoid growths visible nnder a power of 210 diameters; the fat used Margarine’s test, and the record showed that the pies had not been made for more than four days. The prisoner ate a whole pie of legal dimensions.”“A whole pie!' don't you know, prisoner, that it’s against the law to eat over two cuts of mince pie at one sitting P I fine yon §10 and will give you sixty days if I see you here again ;i there is getting to be too much sickness in this district. Clerk, if that. J cholera case is a.ble to stand up sendi him in here for trial,”Scientific and UsefulA solution of cyanido oE potasrinm poured into wasps' nests will effectually kill them; it is (he best poison to use for insect-killing.Children suffering from diarrhoea should bo lightly clothed, frequently sponged with cold water, and iced milk should be given them to drink.THE HJE.1T ONE MILE BELOW TOE SURFACE.Mr A, B. Sawyer, an inspector of mines, recently read a paper before the Norrh Staffordshire Mining Institute, its which ho estimated that ihe temperature at the depth of a mile from the surface will be about 122 degrees Fahrenheit, and that long before fhat temperature is reached it will be necessary to use compressed air for cooling and ventilating the workings. The compressed air will tlier, we presume, he first utilised in driving machines lor breaking down the coal.A TURKISH CAVG,A discovery of a cave has been made by two , workmen in a colliery near Tyre in Phoenicia. On entering the cave, there were found four . sarcophagi, with relief figures of men, trees, | flowers, of a very fine workmanship. By ; breaking a hole in the wall of the cave, a • square yard was reached, with two Bimil .r 1 sarcophagi, and with a nnmbor of earthen and glass vessels. It is supposed that the , cave was a burial vault. The sareopbagi will 3 be opened in the presence of the Governor of Damascus. 1AN EXTINGUISHED TISH.A curious fish, named from itB shape the . tile fish, has apparently been rendered extinct in a VBry summary fashion. It was ■ drolged up about fiva years ago a hundred , miles east of Cape Hatteras, and was after- j wnrds-frequentty found ; laBt summer many j ships arriving in New England ports anuouuc- , ed that they had sailed over a large area of ] Cape Hatteras which was covered with dead tile fish, and since then no dredging has brought to the Burface a single specimen. It is thought that a cold current must have swept over the very limited range inhabited by thiB fish, and so have practically annihilated the race. A variation of four or five degrees of tempera'ure is, according to Professor Baird, a senteuce of death on deep sea fish.THE APTARBKT ENLARGBBIBNT OF CELESTIAL OBJECTS NEAR THE HORIZON.M. Paul Stroobant has recently devoted a considerable amount of care to examining the cause of this well-known phenomenon. His experiences load him to reject the theories most- commonly received, that the appearance | is due either to comparison with terrestrial , objects, or to the B“ flattened arch” shape j ascribed to the celestial vault. Experiments made with pairs of electric sparks in a lofty -hall showed that if tbe two sparks overhead ( were 100 mm. apart, the pair on a level with the eye, and equally distant from the observer, | needed only to be 81'5 mm. apart to seem j separated to a eimilur extent. Comparisons of various pairs of stars gave a similar result, j and tbe following formula was found to re- j present tbe apparent sizo, G, of a celestial object at any given altitude, H, when the size on the horizon was taken as 100 : — jG = 100 - 19 sin H. iBeside this relation, depending evidently upon some physiological effect connected with the position of the head, M. Stroobant found that an increase in the brightness of an object caused an apparent diminution in its size, and vice versa. Tbe great apparent size of the moon at rising was therefore, he considered, largely due to its comparative faiutnees when near the horizon,TREE TlANTING IN N0EWA7.The Norwegian Forest Association, started in 1881, is making very good progress. At present there are about two hundred and fifty members. The Association’s journal for tbe ourrent year, embracing soma 300 pages, contains a number of importent papers by the most eminent Norwegian writers on tbe subject of forests and forest culture. A meeting for the discussion of important subjects takes place annually. The question of pre-serving the old and cultivating the new forests appears to be coming more and more to tbe front in Scandinavia, where the Government has now established several schools with plantations for the cultivation of young plants. In 8weden the children of the rural Board schools are often employed - on fine days in planting out young trees. Thus daring tbe last summer some thousand acres have been p’anted in a single parish alone- Of late years private individuals, too, h.ive done a groat deal to retrieve the deforestation which has been going on by planting new trees. In one single parish m Norway for instauce, a proprietor has planted ou waBte land no less than a quarter of a million of spruce, fir, aud larch trees, all from the Government nursuries. The price of the young plants is one farthing, and only ten per cent, of the plants die. After thirty years each is valued at 7d in the ground. These are, of course, valuations in a country where both labour and timber are cheap.SAIL SKATING.When the ports of the Baltic are closed by ice during winter, the pilots and sailors of Arnager Isle at Copenhagen, delight to occupy their leisure hours with the exercise of skating by soil. This sport requires much skill and quite a long apprenticeship, but after a person lias become dexterous at it, it offerB a very peculiar charm, and when a Bwiftwind causes him to glide along the surface of the ice, He feels himself lifted, os it were, and experiences a eensation analogous (o that of (light. The sail, which is formed of a light, but strong fabric, is stretched over a bamboo frame. The centre crosspiece, which must be placed at the level of the shoulders, is listened to tho skater’s body by bands that cross the breast and ufterwi rds pass around the waist, so thut they may tie in front. Large crn?npieces of wood, attached to the low er corners of the system, are held in the skater’s bands, so that he may trim the sail in one direction or another. When the skater wishes to be carried along by the wind, he must stand very erect, without stiffening bis body too much, and bend buck in proportion as the wind blows fresher. Confidence is acquired by practice, tty inclining tbe sail in one direction or another, the skater may tack to the larboard or starboard- Finally, when it is desired to move againBt the wind, by skating in the usual way, the body is bent forward in such a way that the sail lies horizontally, and no longer offers a purchase to the aerial current. The Bkater can thus re-urn to his starting point, and from thence be driven forward again by the wind. This exercise is a very agreeable one, and not very dangerous ; and the falls that a person gets in beginning are not much to bo dreaded, because they almost always occur backwards. The degree of speed that can be attained by a practised skater is considerable, and yet is less than that of certain iceboats when these are sailing in high winds When tire skater gets through using his apparatus, he detaches it from his shoulders, winds tbe sails around the bamboo sticks, which may be separated from them, and thus has an object that is no more trouble to carry than all umbrella would be,—Scientific American.
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Milton Bruce Herald
Milton, Otago, NZ
Fri, Feb 26, 1886
Page 6
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USA 15 Apr 2024
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