Miscellaneous.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1028, 6 April 1894, Page 7

Miscellaneous.

It is said that a peg inserted in the middle of the sole of a shoe prevents the shoe from squeaking. A Wellington young lady, who spent last Christinas at an English country house, writes to her friends here that the weather was very severe — frost and snow — but she rather enjoyed it. One of the servants, remarking this, said to her, ' You don't seem to feel the cold, miss, but I suppose you come from a very cold place.' The young lady explained that New Zealand was not a very cold place, and that such weather was quite unknown there. The servantgirl replied, « But is not New Zealand fche place where the frozen mutton comes from, miss V — Wellington Post. The most astonishing feature of the Ontario plebiscite is the sweep by the Prohibitionists of all the cities, and practically of all the towns. Toronto, the provincial capital and seat of the Ontario Government, leads with a vote of 11,334 for and 8,791 against Prohibition, a majority for Prohibition of 2,543. The vote in the whole of the 11 cities of Ontario is 28,279 for' Prohibition and 20,146 against, showing a majority for of 8,133, only one city answering in the negative. Of 48 counties, only two have voted against, and there the inhabitants are almost wholly French. It is interesting to observe that in some places the Liquor traffic scarcely has a defender. Such, for example, is the case with Springfield, which is 68' to 1 against the traffic ; Richmond Hill, 60 to 4 ; North Dumfries, 571 to 35 ; and Huron township, 514 to 75. The total majority for Prohibition throughout the province is 80,990, 173,527 voting for Prohibition and 92,527 against ; that is nearly tvvo to one in favour of Prohibition. Like all other qualities, the sense of duty grows or decays, not by leaps and bounds, bnt grains and degrees. Only think that it matters nothing whether the duty is crying to be done to-day is pushed off till to-morrow ! that ifc matteis nothing 'whether that letter which has to be written be prepared with forethought, or merely ' dashed off;' or the promise that was given be lightly kept or broken ; and though the consequences in these particular cases may never be seen, yefc, as surely as when you sow hemlock in the furrows hemlock springs up, will you meet the results of your carelessness again. On the other hand, discipline your spirit into the belief that whatever is worth doing is worth doing well ; and however slow the fruit may be in coming, come it shall, ancl taste sweetly too. In your experience, as in that of all, the promise will be fulfilled — He that is faithful in that which is least shall be given the rule over greater things. — From ' The. Yonng Man.' Being asked as to what hacl been the proudest experience in her life, Madame Patti said : • For a great unexpected honor most gracefully tendered,' said she, ' I have experienced nothing that has touched me deeper than a compliment paid by the Prince of Wales and a distinguished company at a dinner given in honor of the Duke of York and Princess May a little while before their wedding. The dinner was given by Mr Alfred Rothschild, one of my oldest and best friends. There were- many royalties present, and more dukes and duchesses than I can easily remember. During the ceremonies the Prince of Wales arose, and to my great astonishment, proposed the health of his 'old and valued friend Madame Patti.' He made such a pretty speech, and, iri the course of it, said that he had first seen and heard me in Philadelphia in 1860, when I sang in " Martha," and that since then his own attendance at what he was good enough to call my " victories in the realm of song " had been among his most pleasant recollections.. He recalled the fact that .... his wife had held up little Prince George, in whose honor we were this night assembled, and bade him kiss me, so that in after life he might say that he hacl "kissed the famous Madame Patti." And then, do you know, that whole company of royalty, nobility, and men of genius rose and cheered me and drank my health." Some years ago, in a very rural American district, a farmer had a cow for sale. As there was no weekly paper to advertise in, it was the custom of the minister to give such notices out to his congregation on Sundays. So the farmer thought he would go to him and get him to advertise the cow in the chapel. * Yes,' said the minister ; ' but you don't come to chapel. And they struck the bargain that the minister should advertise the cow, and the man in return should go to chapel. Unfortunately the man was very deaf, and on the Sunday following, when the minister gave out the banns of marriage between Joseph Timothy So-and So and Sarah Jemima So-and-So : — a rather unusual incident, for they seldom had a wedding — the farmer took it for granted that the minister was giving out particulars of his. cow and shouted out, 'You may as well say, while you are about it, that she is a most gentle creature, entirely free from vice, and a great eater !' There was born at Burnley, in Lancashire, in the year 1796, a child, whom the parents christened by the name bf Dorothy. The father was a maker of grinding stones, and his

name was John Lee. Dorothy was never within a school door, and could neither read nor write. At 10 she was sent out to work in the fields, and at the age of 15 she was married to a lad of 16, named John Peters. This was husband No. 1. John Peters enlisted as a soldier, and fell at Talavera, in 1812. Three weeks after Peters was in the cold ground, Dorothy was married to Corporal Davis, of the 67tb Foot. Davis fell afc Vit toria, and three days afterwards his widow married Bombardier Ross, of the Royal Artillery. Ross met his death by a cannon shot from the ramparts of St Sebastian, and in a month afterwards his widow changed her name to Young, being united in marriage to Private Young, of the 93rd Foot. Young received his quietus at the skirmish of Nive, and his disconsolate widow a few days afterwards joined hands with Private Mick Brassy of the ponnaught Rangers. Mick, poor fellow, only enjoyed his marriage bliss 26 days, a cannon ball taking off his head in one of the engagements in the Pyrenees. Our heroine mourned for her loss only 11 days, when she was mated to Sergeant Moore, of the 42nd Foot. Moore was one of the first shot at Bayonne, and our heroine then became the wife of Sergeant Campbell, of the same regiment. Campbell was killed in a sortie the evening of his marriage day, but his widow still stuck to the camp. She married for the eighth time, Corporal Black, of the 79th Highlanders. He died from natural causes, about a month before Waterloo. Our widow appears as a nurse at Europe's crowning victory, and we next hear of her at Edinburgh Castle as the wife of another Sergeant Campbell. She was married in succession .to Private Has tie, Corporal M'Vittie, and Sergeant John Scott and died as the wife of Samuel Hay, a laborer in Dairy, Edinburgh, in her 56th year, -never having had any family, but having been wedded 13 times. A N.S.W. judge, appealed to by a certain newspaper for leave to publish the evidence in a recent unsavory divorce suit, replied, ' You should be ashamed of yourself ; I was once a newspaper man, but I never helped blackguardism. Poor soul ! go, serve your time to a blacksmith, instead of hanging around here to pick up dirty details of a dirfcy case. Tell your editor from me that he is a social disease. Against yourself, young man, I have nothing ; but surely you can pick pockets for a living ; well, that's better — anything's better than what you're at.' The prohibitionists cannot expect much assistance from the dignitaries of the Anglican Church. The Upper House of Convocation sitting at Westminster in the last week in January, by 57 votes to 9, carried a resolution condemning the total closing of publichouses on Sundays: The Venerable Archdeacon of Berkshire, Principal of Cuddesdon, declared that the total closing of publichouses on Sunday was impossible, and the Venerable Archdeacon of London boldly asserted that the proposal to entirely close publichouses on Sundays was a counsel of perfection out of the range of practical politics, ancl would produce a revolution. The Dean of Chichester declared it to be impossible to totally close publichouses on Sundays, and he condemned bands of hope.