Towns > Forfar > 1885-1895, 1897-1911 - Forfar directory and year book > 1901

Ettvy has made no man rich.
THE GATHERER.
' Read and you will know,"
" SE^^ three great B's of German music,"
•^ Hans von Billow used to say, "are
Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms."
Mushrooms generally consist of 90 per cent,
water, but the remaining 10 per cent, is more
nutritious than bread.
Lord Rosebery defines memory as "the
feeling that steals over us when we listen to our
friend's original stories. "
The first motor-van used in the postal service
of this country started from London for Redhill
on the evening of the i6th of December, 1897.
There are three varieties of the dog that
never bark — the Australian dog, the Egyptian
shepherd dog, and
the " lion headed "
dog of Thibet.
The signet with
which Mrs. Siddons
sealed the tickets for
her farewell perform-
ance was sold at an
auction in London in
1898 for £6 los.
Bri de-cake is
thought much of in
China, four cakes
sent for the purpose
by the bridegroom's
family being tossed
in the air and caught
in a quilt held before
the bride's sedan
chair.
French people do
not celebrate their
birthdays as we do.
They hold what is
called their name-days. A woman named Mary,
for instance, would hold the day devoted to the
Virgin Mary.
Among ihe many remedies for indigestion is
the agreeable one of the rocking-chair. An ex-
cellent medical authority declares that the slow,
rocking motion after meals stimulates the diges-
tive functions and gives marked relief.
To ihe future of the agricultural labourer
Joseph Arch looks forward with confidence, if
the labourer will only be true to himself. " Get
on the land," he says, "but by your own help. I do
not believe in State aid and land nationalisation."
For " Hard Times" Dickens made out a list
of nineteen titles. Here are some of the re-
jected : — "Heads and Tales," "Two and Two
are Four," " Our Hard-Hearted Friend," " Rust
and Dust," "A Mere Question of Figures," "Mr.
Gradgrind's Facts," " Black and White."
One of the most remarkable mountain rail-
roads in the world is the Pilatus Railway, which
was constructed in 1889. The total length of
this line is 5,040 yards, and the average gradient
is 38 in 100. The ascent is made from Alpnacht,
and Pilatus Kulm, the summit, is 6,998 feet
above sea level. The railway rests in a sub-
stratum of granite slabs and rocks, with frame-
work of iron and steel, and wends its way
through precipitous gorges.
The Hand that Rules the World.
We have been often asked who was the
author of the well-known saying, " I'he
hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."
'Ihe words form part of a poem com-
posed by William Ross Wallace, of which
the opening staoza runs thus : —
They say that utan is tnighty,
He governs land and sea,
He ivields a mighty sceptre
O'er lesser powers that be ;
But a mightier power and stronger
Man from his throne hath hurled.
And the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the tvorld.
^Wx SPRING of natural ink, jet black iti
QrA- tints, flows from the base of Henneshaw
Mountain, near Marietta, Ga.
The length of the world's railways is more
thari seventeen times the circumference of the
earth at the equator.
The vogue of Mendelssohn's '' Songs without
Words," which endured for so many years in
England and Germany, has now completely
passed away.
The Egyptians bestowed great labour on their
tombs and little on their homes. They regarded
the latter as mere temporary abodes, but the
former they looked on as eternal habitations.
The Queen has
never entirely given
up wearing earrmgs,
and occasionally dons
a pair of some con-
siderable length and
magnificent lustre.
The following
somewhat original
s gn appears in Dum-
friesshire :— " Here's
where you can get a
meal like your mother
used to give you.''
The number of
suicides throughout
the world is said to
be about 180,000
annually. The great-
est number happen in
June, and the fewest
in September.
I " Six is the age at
' which w o u 1 d-b e
pianists should begin serious work," says the
great teacher Leschetizky, the Viennese master
of music from whom Paderewski learned to per-
fect his art.
"The first requisite of life," says Mr. Herbert
Spencer, " is to be a good animal, and to be a
nation of good animals is the first condition of
national prosperity."
CoBDEN once said that a single number of
The Times was worth all the writings of Thucy-
dides. This was true at least in point of bulk, for
one copy of The Times must often contain as
much matter as would equal the whole History
of the Peloponnesian War.
The eighteenth century was the golden age
of gambling in England, as is pretty evident
from all sorts of records. Many ladies kept faro
banks in their own houses, which were open to
the public. Hot suppers were provided at three
o'clock in the morning, and the play often went
on till five.
Philosophers have imagined that there must
be in Nature some element or production which,
if found, would cure all bodily ills and enable
man to attain a more than patriarchal age. The
old alchemists, in addition to their search after
the philosopher's stone, set themselves to work
to discover such a production, which they termed
elixir vitce, or the elixir of life.