Scissors.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5879, 10 July 1890, Page 4

Scissors.

"Is that young man iroue. Matilda'r' cried her father from the top of the stairs'. " Oh, awiully !" returned Matilda.— Puck.

At a civio banquet in Dul lin. Waiter : "Sauterrun, sorf" Guest, astonished: "Bult-herriu', is it? Heaven be praised I've a natural drought of me own."

Tho heaviest gun in the world has just been manufactured at the Krupp works for the Russian Government. It weighs 135 tons, is 40 feet long, and has a range of 11 miles.

A German translation of Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan's "Yeoman of the Guard ("Der Konigs—Gardist") haa been produced with considerable success at the old Stadt Theater in Leipzig.

The Queen's signature to state documents is described by ono who has seen it recently to be just as firm and legible aa ever; so that her boldly written " Victoria R." exhibits no trace whatever of advancing years.

A performance of Shakespeare's "Tempest" at Berlin recently was rendered specially interesting from the fact that it was accompanied by »ome characteristic and eS'ective incidental music, which has been written by Wilheim Taubert.

" Tannhauser" -was performed for the first time in Spain at iladrid in March last. Tho work met with an enthusiastic reception, many portions, inclnsive of the overture, boiag redeniaaded. The only other opera by Wagner which has been heard on Spanish soil is "Lohengrin."

A marble statue of the Princess of Wales, by Chapuis, one of the most famous of the French sculptors, is approaching completion in Paris, and ia intendod for presentation to the National Art Gallery iv Copenhagen. Her Royal Highness is represented in a sitting position, and in a high-necked drees.

A letter chute is now as much an adjunct of lofty buildings in the great Aiuericsin cities as an elevator. It is a square tube running from the top floor of the structure to the bottom, where there is a mail-box, oleared at regular postal hours. An aperturo in the chute on each landing enables the occupants of the officers on that story to poet their letteri, newspapers, or other documents with all convenient despatch.

Both in Vienna and in Paris the graceful minuet is superseding the dauco which, according; to Lord Byron, " wakes to wantonness the willing limbs." Curiously enough, tho change has been brought about in the former city by Stniuss, the composer of some of the best waltzes ever written. In the French capital, the combined elegance and dignity of thu minuet ure making it popular in the bestjsocioty.

Sorao highly successful experiments have been made with tho " finh-boat " Goubet at Cherbourg- In one of tlaeno trials it wnw submerged for two hours, and cut the cables of five buoys, clogged the ncrew of tho s<.f>. Kerigan with a bar of iron, and placed » false torpedo, weighing 2owt., under a raft. It pawed under five t'irpi'.dos ranged ni'ie by side, and deposited iaW torpedos under the kerf of nu English ship willed the St.. Margaret. The iiu-.v.-p:ip«--r cirrc-poiidciiis iniMdi the Goubet wituffSed tho ex perime tits.

Whenever Mine. Patti is going to sing lit night, >lw is practically mute iM day. It i«*imt enough for her that her voice shon'id by unwearied : she will have it absolutely frt\«h. She takes a great deal of wal!;i;:sf exercise, but never to the poinf of futigue. She eat* whatever i>he fancies, but is very careful about what she drinks. Her dictum is that " a littlo good whisky in water is the only thiug a woman can drink without injury to her face and voice."

The Duchess of Marlborough has boon re-visiting Now York, and giviug her opinion of Englishwomen. She saj's :— " They are very beautiful; they can no more help being so than tho roses can help being pink mid fragrant. Tho moisture of the climate makes thorn so. Then, again, they ate the most tireless walkers in the world. They walk like queens, with their heads in tho "air, and a tread as light us a enowfull. But tho one charm paramount to all others is the delicious sweetness of the Englishwoman's voice. It is like a strain of music. Even when eh* ecolds, she does it with a cadenza."

In connection with Joan of Aro, Englishmen will be grotified to learn, upon the authority of a work the joint product of the Abhe Feeh and M. Leo Taxil, that our countrymen are completely exonerated from all complicity in her death. It wrb by Frenchmen she was betrayed, tried, condemned, and burnt. It has been likewise ascertained hy these writers that tho whole of her murderer* came to a bad end. " Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, had his throat cut; Blavy, who betrayed Joan, was strangled by his wife* agents ; D'Estirel full into a cesspool while intoxicated ; and another confederate dropped dead in a fit of anger ftt the Council of Bale."

Home letters written by Talloyriiml while ho was in exile in the United States Lave just been published by the Revue d' Histvric Diplomatique. They show that in order to mike provision for v rainy day, he had em • barked iv land speculations. Ho tells Mine. de Stael that America in a better place to make money in than any other part of the world, and "offers to undertake investments on commission for her friends in Switzerland, Sweden, or elsewhere, reminding her that American merchants and finaucial agents are not to be trusted for the transaction ot this kind of business. " Therefore," he Buys, "I propoiu to oinbark iv it my self.

The national monument proposed to bo erected in France in honor of Joan of Arc is to be placed, it is said, on one of the hills overlooking- the valley of the Vancouleure, in which cho first heard tho spirit voices. Its pedestal will bo a castle of immense height, built in the style of the middle ages, with a cfciitr.il tower 140 ft. high, on tho summit of which will be an equestrian statue of the Maid of Orleans, Gift, in height. The enthusiasm with which the project has been taktm up may be inferred from the fact that, after a termon preached on its behalf by Pagis, Bishop of Nerdun, in the Church of tho Madeleine, he collected upwards of £3,000 fjorn tho congregation.

The art of Italian pantomime, that is to wiy of gesture-acting, has been revived in JL'aris by an actor named Galipaux, whose performances tako place at the Cerelo FiUMinbulesqup, which is a priveto institution. In a three-act piece, entitled " A Puif of Smoke," Im entew an imaginary fife; takes off an imaginary paletot, hang* it ou an imaginary nail, aits down at an imaginary Üble, drinks imaginary heer from an imaginary bock, opens and reads an imaginary journal, comments by grimaces upon its contents, is annoyed by an imaginary neighbor smoking an imaginary cigar, rovengua himself by doing likewise quarrels with him, slaps his imaginary face, exchanged imaginary cards, and Ilk l * out of the imaginary a>fi; angrily prmbiuK an imaginary hat on his brows. Iv the second act ho makes his will, practises fencing with im imaginary foil, divests himwolf of an imaginary suit of clothes, and goes to sleep in an imaginary b»d. In tho third he fights an imaginary duel, kills an imaginary opponent with an immense amount of " preliminary business," and after meditating on the tragedy expresses by his prutomime these words, " Oh, never mind, after all there is only one insolent rascal the less." Francisque Sarcey pronounces the performance to be something superb.