MISCELLANEA.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 204, 7 October 1873, Page 7

MISCELLANEA.

Mr Biddle, the managing genius of the company who have arranged to bring the English cricketers to the Colonies, writes to Mr Allen, lion, secretary of the D.C.C., that a visit of the team to Dunedin to play a three days’ match there can be arranged for £1,600 or £2,000. It may interest volunteers to know that at Wimbledon this year the Queen’s prize was won by Sergt. Menzies, First Edinburgh, and the Elcho Challenge Shield by the Irish team, with a score of 1,195, defeating the English by 20, and the Scottish by 67. The Canadians were not so successful as in former competitions. At an elegant dinner party given at Washington, the enfant terrible of the family was permitted to occupy a seat near one of the most distinguished guests. The child in question is much given to conundrums, which are not always appropriate. Moreover, he has a sister who is a shining light in society. Eliza is her name, but he calls her Lize. Well, on a recent occasion, the company were startled by the youngster asking, “ Why is papa like the devil 1” An awkward pause ensued, and then he shouted out, Because he is the father of Lize” (lies). A Novia Scotia paper has the following ; “ Our readers will remember the interesting report published about a year ago of the family affairs of Mrs Absalom Countaway, of Terrence Bay—near to which the Atlantic disaster occurred—who about that time had astonished the natives by giving birth to four children. The operation has now been repeated, Mrs Countaway having given birth to another four on Thursday last. The mother and children are doing well. ■ Since her marriage in 1863, Mrs Countaway has given birth to 17 children, in the following order : —lst, one ; 2nd, twins ; 3rd, twins ; 4th, twins ; sth, twins ; 6th, four ; 7th, four. An Amalgam and Quartz-Stealing Protection Association has been formed on the Auckland Gold-fields. Its name sufficiently explains its objects, and the Herald says that there will be such a well-arranged system of espionage ramifying throughout the whole of the Thames and Coromandel gold-fields that escape would be next to impossible. The Association intend sparing no expense in attaining their object. As showing the need that exists for such an organisation, the Herald says that it has been ascertained beyond all doubt, by those thoroughly competent to inform themselves, that, one month with another, quite 2000 ounces of gold are surreptitiously abstracted from the Thames mines and crushing-machines in excess of the returns sent in from the various batteries. An editor in Reading advertised the other day that he “ would take a good dog in payment of one year’s subscription for his paper.” The next day forty-three dogs were sent to the office. The day afterwards, when the news had spread out into the country, four hundred farmers had sent two dogs a-piece by express, with eight baskets full of puppies all marked C. O. D. In the meantime the offer made its way into the neighbouring States, and before the end of the week there were eight thousand dogs tied up with ropes in the editor’s front and back yards, the assortment including all the kinds from bloodhounds down to poodles. A few hundred broke loose and swarmed on the stairways and in the entries, and stood outside the sanctum and howled, and had fights, and sniffed under the crack of the door as if they were hungry for some editor. The editor | climbed out of the window, up the -waterspout and out on the comb of the roof and wept. There was no issue of the paper for six days, and the only way the friends of the eminent journalist could feed him was by ! sending lunch up to him in balloons. At last somebody bought a barrel of arsenic and three tons of beef, and poisoned the dogs ; and the editor came down only to find on his desk a bill from the mayor for eight thousand dollars, being the municipal tax on dogs at one dollar per head. He is not offering the same inducement to his subscribers now, and he doesn’t want a dog.