CLIPPINGS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8476, 6 May 1893, Page 6

CLIPPINGS.

The grow receipts of the Paris theatfS* which, as is well known, are officially e*peJ> taiued for purposes of taxation, reached Urn year more than twenty-two and &•&**» millions of francs. That ia to say, the Parisians and their visitors spent during the twelvemonths In going to the play mart : than £900,000. This was, however, a fal»»g off by some £40,000 from the receipts of the previous year.

A heated brougham vim recently seen fe* the first time in tho streets of Berth). Th*f vehicle is provided with a patent hot-asr apparatus. One litre of petroleum is <w»' ; - cient to heat a carriage for eighteen hoursThe oil is contained in a cistern ou the roof* and feeds the heating apparatus, whfceh i& between the two back wheels, by means or a pipe. The heating apparatus cont-ill'is «| a burner in a metal box, which is placed under the seat.

Mr Heebor M'Lcan writes to tha Cross. well Aryue from tho Hawea Lake district »* follows :—-"As! am sending ia a list of *h* names to the society of gcutlemen who have shot stag* on this station this season, 1 thought it might interest you to bo the fitt* to publish the particulars. Tha weather has been all that sportsmen could desire, aad stags plentiful aud rolling fat. To**"* was a large percentage of calves this se#*©®« Appended is a Use of stag Turubull, Wanaka, four stags j J. **» Handvside, Akito, North Island, threej Jfa Kay, .hristchurch, three; Frank Bgi*

ribxistchureh, two ; E. Jennings, Dunedin, tw o : J. Roberts, Dunedio, one ; Melville Gray, Timaru, oue ; total, sixteen.'*

The following table gives the distance of feet above the level of the sea of various houses and places which are higher than any others iv England:—The highest inhabited house is Romneys House, south of Alstrin, Oomberiand, on the Durham border, 1980 ft. The highest inn in England is the Cab and Fiddle, on Buxton Moors, 1765 ft. The highest village io Kngland is Coal dough, West Anuandale, Northumberland, 1650 ft. The highest market town in England is Buxton, Derbyshire, 1044 ft. The highest Kseuger railway in England is the South rham and Lancastrian Union Railway, between Baxras and Bowes, on Stainmoor, 1378 ft.

M. Alphonse Daudet, according to Mr Sherard. in the Author, receives his literary friends on Sunday mornings. The last timo Mr Sherard was at his house there was present a very clever young man, whom Daudet asked *.o relate what he had felt on the evening on which his play, which failed, was produced. The young man said that he had watched the performance from a stage box, anil that all tbe time he bad been thinking how singularly ugly was the director of the theatre. He afterwards added that what had most troubled him when hia play was condemned was that he had made bis wife come up fiom thec £ iait P to assist at the "premiere," and that ne knew how disappointed she would be. Daudet (the writer continues) said that ne never was present at any " premiere, and that it was only from the *«m«*£ r °f*£ concierge next morning that he Lne* wbetfaer Ids play had. -ucceeded or not. Ii it had succeeded the concierge was abject, but if not her manners were those of pity blended with contempt.

Dr. Chappie, a Wellington physician, has given a lecture upon micro-organisms, in which he said that tuberculosis iv cattle is found all tho way up the west coast of the North Island. He had seen, not very far from the city of Wellington a cow in the last stages of consumption, driven iuto his milkiug yard by the dairyman, who sold the milk to his customers. In the Rev. Mr Van Staveren's evidence, given before a Parliamentary Committee ladds the correspondent of the Otago Daily Times), the witness said he saw diseased meat constantly off-red for sale by the butchers. lie believed that at least 7 per cent, of the sheep and cattle slaughtered for human food were suffering either from tuberculosis or cancer. Dr. Chappie in his lecture gave some comfort to his hearers by saying that it was probable a cure would be found for cancer by the destruction of the parasites found in cancer ceils. He described this dreadful disease as the scourge of the human race, ofteu caused by negligence in the common markets.

No instance of death from smallpox was registered in the overcrowded Whitechapel district bbroughout last year. In referrmg to tins fact, Dr. Loane, the Medical Officer of Health, states that he has been careful to revaccinate all persons who have been exposed to contagion, and thab so far as he has been able to learn only one instance has occurred of any other member of the family beiog attacked after the removal of the patient. This was the case of a woman, two of whose children had been removed for discrete smallpox, and who had escaped the protection of revaccination. Sbe was sent to hospital two or three days after her confinement, and her infant was vaccinated when it was five days old at the request of its mother. The baby escaped. " Over and over again (adds this gentleman) I have seen instances proving the remarkable power of vaccination and revaccination as a modifier and as a prophylactic in smallpox, where the only element present in the case of those escaping the disease which was not present in the case of those who contracted it was that of vaccination."

Dickens' strongest love among animals was for dogs. A delightful anecdote is told by him of a dog belonging to a lady whom he kn»?w well—an immense, blacli, goodhtrmoured Newfoundland dog. He came from Oxford, and had lived all his life in a brewery. Instructions were given with him that if he were let out every morning'alone he would immediately find out the river, regularly take a swim, and come gravely home again. This he did with the greatest punctuality, hut after a little while was observed to smell of beer. His owner, was so sure that he smelled of beer that she resolved to watch him. He was seen to come back from his swim round the usual corner, and to go up a flight of steps into a beer shop. Being instantly followed the beer shopkeeper is seen to take down a pot feewter pot), and is heard to say— "Well, old chap, come for your beer, as usual, have, you ? " Upon which he draws a pint and puts it down, and the dog drinks it. Being required to explain how this comes to pass, the man says—" Yes, ma'am. I know he's your dog, ma'am, bub I didn't wtaHKrfost came. He looked in, ma'am, aa a hricknaker might, and then he came in aaa oVklrmaker might, and he wagged his tail at the pots, and he giv' a sniff round, aad conveyed to mc as he was used to beer. So I diaw'd him a drop, and he drunk it up. . Next morning he comes agen by the clock, aadl draw'd him a pint, and ever since he hat took his pint reg'lar."—Mamie Dickens, in Ladies' Home Journal.

He Wlnthrop's simple but striking narrative al the death of John Quincey Adams in the Capitol, which appears in the new number of Scribner, will remind English readers of Copley's historical picture, known as "The Death oi Chatham." The English Minister, hovxrrer, was carried to his country seat, and there lingered for some weeks* after this daunatio incident- whereas the great and venerated ex-President of the United States expired within the precincts of the House. Mr Winthrop, who was at the time the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and an eye-witness of all that occurred, t*Ua us that after some formal business, Mr Adams rose from his seat with a paper in his outstretched hand, exclaiming, with more than his usual earnestness and emphasis, "Mr Speaker! Mr Speaker! 11 * r The reiteration*" says the narrator," rings again in my ears as I write these words." B*fbre he could add another syllable, the ex-President's hand fell to his side, and he sank upon the arm of his chair, only saved from dropping to the floor by being caught by the member nearest to him. An exclamation ,was aljiost instantly heard— ** Mr Ajnalhs is dying." Business was at once "suspended. More than two handled representatives were seen pressing forward toward their beloved and revered associate. "This is the end of earth," was heard from hia lips, as he fell, or when he was placed on a little couch In the Rotunda, with the addition, "I**am composed," or "I am conten t,'J But. all signs of consciousness soon ceased, and lete he lingered, entirely insensible, until two days later, when he passed peacefully away.

The new novelette by John Oliver Hobbes (Mrs Craigie) in the pseudonym series, entitled ** Study in Temptations," brims with clever" bits, which are quite quotable even without the context. Here, for instance, is a portion of a discussion about a learned Oxford professor who has married a comparatively yoong and charming woman:—"No woman with a he\rt could have married Sir Hyde-Bassett," 1 says one of the talkers. "Do you know him f asks another. *' No; but everybody says he was the most disagreeable man in the world ; so forbidding, and curt, and unapproachable." "I thought so nnee," remarks the heroine, ''till one day when I was a child I heard him talking to Lady Hyde-Bassett. I suppose they thought mc too little to understand them. They were walking in the garden, and be asted he whether she would rather be a pussy cat or a catty pose, and she phvihed hi- arm and said he was a good little thing, and that it was a pity some of the old fossils be knew could not hear him. And he' said, very solemnly, ' God forbid !' And "she kitted his hand and said he was an angel; but she wished he would boy a new hat, although he could only look lovely .if he wore pyjamas and a biHy-cock ! And he said, ' For God's sake don't talk so loud!' And she said, 'Let us both say damn with alt our might, and then I will be quiet.' And they said damn and she was quiet, and then they began to talk about Aristotle. 'That,' sbe wound up, 'is a real celebrity at Home. So you ste ail scholars don't talk like Causabon iv ' Middiemarch' ; they have their flippant moments, and are horribly tired of being l great.-"