CURIOUS FACTS Greasing Soldiers' Feet. The experiment, begun some time ago in the German infantry, of doing away with socks and keeping the foot soldier's feet well greased, has proved thoroughly successful. To say nothing of the economy of the plan, the men march easier, and, generally speaking, show few blisters. So, too, lifting the foot high-the regulation step now-is said to make the most awkward Pomeranian or Hanoverian peasant fairly sure footed, while before its adoption twenty-five per cent. of such men would stumble in a charge over rough ground, and about ten per cent. fall. When to Pare the Finger Nails. The old formula, from early Saxon times, reads as follows: Cut them on Monday, cut them for health. Another version changes the last two lines to the beginning: A man had better ne'er been born, 7 Miniature. The origin of the word "miniature" is as follows: In the golden days of Roman literature, to be a successful author was to be as great as a king, for kings looked to their poets for immortality, as Augustus Cæsar did to Horace. Hence it was to be expected that authors would feel their importance and display more or less vanity. One of their weaknesses was to see their portraits painted in artistic fashion in their parchment books. This work was intrusted to artists called miniatores," that is, artists whose work was largely done in vermilion, a color extracted from cinnabar, and called by the Romans "minimum." Those miniatores chose the oval form for their beautifully brilliant portraits on the parchment books, and hence the origin of the term "miniature," a small hand-painted oval or round portrait. 66 Punctuation. It is strange that the use of points for purposes of punctuation should be such a comparatively modern invention. Of the four generally-used points only the period (.) dates earlier than the fifteenth century. The colon () is said to have been first introduced about 1485, the comma (,) some thirty-five years later, and the semicolon (;) about 1570. It is difficult to understand how the literary world dispensed for so many centuries with the useful points, and their lack must have added to the toil of the decipherer of written documents. When we remember what curious inversions of meaning may be caused by the misplacing of a comma, we marvel how early authors contrived to escape strange misreadings of their works, in which no points guided the students. "Rats." No, not the slang phrase, but the bothersome little rodent. Rats are natives of Asia, and their raids westward belong to comparatively modern times. The little animal was unknown in ancient Europe. The black rat first came to Europe from Asia in the sixteenth century, and about the beginning of the seventeenth or the ending of the sixteenth century he arrived in America. This black rat was the common house rat until the brown or grey rat made his appearance in 1775. The grey rat came to Europe from India by way of Russia, and is now known as the Norway rat from a mistaken tradition that it came from Norway to England, and from the latter country to America. About Finger Nails. A white mark on the nail bespeaks misfortune. some. Broad nails indicate a gentle, timid, and bashful nature. Lovers of knowledge and liberal sentiment have round nails. Small nails indicate littleness of mind, obstinacy, and conceit. Choleric, martial men, delighting in war, have red and spotted nails. Nails growing into the flesh at the points or sides indicate luxurious tastes. People with very pale nails are subject to much infirmity of the flesh, and persecution by neighbors and friends. Where Colors Come From. The cochineal insects furnish a great many of the very fine colors. Among them are the gorgeous carmine, the crimson, scarlet, carmine, and purple lakes. The cuttlefish gives the sepia. It is the inky fluid which the fish discharges in order to render the water opaque when attacked. Indian yellow comes from the camel. Ivory chips produce the ivory black and bone black. The exquisite Prussian blue is made by fusing horses' hoofs and other refuse animal matter with impure potassium carbonate. This color was discovered accidentally. Various lakes are derived from roots, barks and gums. |