TOWN EDITION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5970, 24 October 1890, Page 3

TOWN EDITION.

Tho accounts in connection with tho late show of the A. and P. Society wore pa.sed this morning at a meeting of the committee. The profit on tho show amounted to £119, which is smaller than lust year, a result duo to tho prize money being larger ou this occasion than proviously.

The wool exports from the colonies from the Ist, July to the :30th September only amounted to 90,000 bales as against 163,000 for tin- corresponding period last year. New Zealand was tho only colony showing au increase, the figures being 12,748 and 9,055 bales respectively.

Whistling, it seems, is encouraged in the American churches, for tho Now York Tribune s'iys :—Ocean Grove, N J., July 29th (special). Tho Rev. Charles H. Yatman is greeted hero every morning by a large audience. In handling the crowds who congregate at tho Young People's meeting be displays great wisdom. This morning tho whistler, Hurry F. Winsman, of New York, rendered -'Nearer my God to Thee," with variations.

A strange ease has been heard in v Vienna Police Court. A monomaniac, who was formerly a well-to-do master baker, had ruined himself by a r aniti for collecting handkerchiefs which had been used by ladies. At the commencement of the pursuit of this singular hobby he used to buy the coveted handkerchiefs, sometimes paying as much us four or fivo pounds for what was intrinsically not worth as many shillings. His devotion to this fad brought hitn to poverty, and then ho fell to stealing, in order to enrich his already unprecedented collection. At length ho was apprehended at the recent Choral Festival, when as many as 15 ladies' handkerchiefs were found upon him. On a search being made b, the police iv his apartment, there was found in one room a collection of 1-134 of these articles, all classified according to the special perfumes with whioh they had been scented. Tho magistrate ordered the man to bo taken to a lunatic asylum.

A trial which has taken place in Bruenu shows that morals aro not improved by emigration. A Bohemian peasant twelve years ago sold his little farm and emigrated to Nebraska with his wifo and nine child-

ren. After nine yoars hud elapsed ho owned a farm, which ho again sold and returned to tho Bohemian Fatherland with four of bis children arid about £300. Ho thought himself a rich man, and in throe years had spent his littlo capital. As poverty set in, quarrels arose, and his wife repeatedly threatened him, in the hearing of neighbors, that she would have him sont to prison for tho crimes tie had oommitted in Nebraska. With a view of getting rid of her, ho cut hor throat in a wood near the village where they staved. The trial has shown that in Nebraska his farm had been a den of thieves and murderers, that threo of hia daughters had served in families as .pies for burglars, and that one son had beon hanged for murder. Notwithstanding these revelations, the jury did not think him guilty of murder, but of manslaughter, and he was sentenced to six years' im-

prisonment.

The Rev. Charles Clark, tho gifted lecturer, (ells a story which goes to prove bow small a placo "the world is after till. He wan lecturing in Toronto, and at the close of the lecture one of the audience waited Upon him. "1 understand," said his visitor, " that you have recently come from New Zealand. Did you meet there anyone of the name of Scott ? I have a friend of that name somewhere in New Zetland." Mr. Clark good-humorcdly explained that New Zealand was a large country, «ud that there must be many Soottaui it. " Ah, but i.his friend of initio was McDonald Scott," remarked his interrogator. " Well, as it happens," said Mr. CI irk, " although I did not chance to meet ' your friend, I saw his name on a brass plate at a mining township called the Thames. He is. I think, in tho minim.' business there." Notwithstanding Miss Juliet Gitpulot's flippuit ijue.tion. tiiero is, as will thus be seen, a great deal in a name. Tbo McDonald Scott referred to is now the well-known legal manager of a number of prominent mines.

A writer in the N.Y.. H-ruld says- —" A few days ago -Sir William Fox wrote a | letter in the Herald to show that the pro- j prietary preparations sold iv this colony, some of them vaunted as grand new discoveries, are. compo.-cd for the most part of our old familiar friend alcohol. Perry Davis' Painkiller, sold at a high price, and in great use amongst miners, bushmen, uutiviigg.rs, and all men subject to exposure, for all complaints, external and internal, contains 71 ] per cent, of absoluto alcohol,-stronger than tho btrou_x>Nt brandy : the rest in water, rei-in, and cayenne. It is equal in strength to pure spirit of wino. 'top biters is less potent as an intoxicant, but is us strong as port or . herrv. The point sought to be made by Sir "William fox is that the-o meilieiuos are exceedingly dangerous, and should be hauisbed. But might it not better be argued that this .hows that, alcohol has a place in the economy of humanity, from which Sir William Fox

-could not seek to banish itV Its influent-.) is even more far-rraehing than Sir William .seems to imagine. I remember on one occasion when a frj_rid got n trifling hurt in the .ountry, and I lamented that [ had no atiiicit to apply. "Oh," said a profound ihemist who was present, " the only gon-i-tituimt in iho arnica that is of any benefit, is the spirit ; if you have some whisky it v ill do iustiiH well." By tho merest accident I ha.l a .rood supply of that articlo on hand. Tbe injured man took a little internally, and I applied it liberally externally, and tbe effects were wonderful.

The fallowing from a London paper of the .oi'il August, concerning a Dunediu youth, brother to Mrs R. Puflett, of Napier, and fourth sou of Mr Andrew Mercer, one of Otago's oldest identities, will bo read with interest:—" Iho usual weekly meeting of tho Bailors and Union. Green's Home brunch, was held at tho Wades on Thursday, August H, Mr Whitehead presiding. Sa'.ii-faetioii was expre.-; ed regarding the prosperity of tho branch, the h.irinouy established between ofliocrs and member's, tbo concessions whieL had been grunted 'without any coat to the brunch, ihe great reduction in the cost of management, and the fact that the brunch funds had increased by £1000 during the ri.teen weeks' «» ael ' tho management of the present secretary. Afl-r the secretary, Mr Mercer, had retired from tbe meeting-, it was unanimously decided—'That in recognition of the ...ityices the secretary had rendered to j the- branch, and tbe high appreciation in I wliich ho is held by tho mombers for the

zealous manner in which he had worked the branch to its present prosperous position, he be presented with a gold medal and a distinguishing white sash." Young Mercer took a fanoy for a seafaring life several years ago, and, after a little colouial experience, secured a po-iition in the celebrated Castle line to the Cape, owned by .Sir Donald Currie and Co., and from thence obtained tbe position which he now so creditably occupies. Young Mercer was at one time clerk at Messrs Murray, Common, and Co.'s at the Spit.