MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Inangahua Times, Volume III, Issue 68, 24 January 1877, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

i — — The following is an extraot from a private letter from Odessa .-—General Semeka is at Odessa assisting in preparations for the mobilisation of the Bossian Army. A division is ready to start for Bulgaria by way of Bessarabia and Boumania. Odessa is fortified. Fifty-seven guns have been received from St. Petersburgh $ batteries are being constructed ; the vessels of the Russian Steamship Company have been chartered by the Government ; cannons and all species of ordi« nsnce are being daily brought here, 8000 men are at work on the fortifications. The Municipal Council has expressed a wish that the gunpowder magazine should bo transferred far from the town in case of a bombardment. General Totleben is Commander»in*Cbief of the Odessa district. Krupp guns literally bristle along 20 versts of the shore. The engineer Chevtsoff has been intrusted with the care of the construction of all batteries. I hear a sad story which also has its esmie side. A specisl correspondent on the staff of one of the morning papers went down to Portsmouth last week to record the home coming of the Arctic Expedition. With the energy and en* terprise which are marked characteristics of the special correspondents of the journal in question, he succeeded in reaching tbe ships before they entered the harbour, and being welcomed on board was privileged to view the pageant of tbe entry under the most favorable circumstances. He wrote a long and, doubtless, interesting account of the scene, and despatched it late at night to the office by a messenger, who ingeniously selected the letter-box of the commercial department as a receptacle for the urgent despatch, and there it was found in the morning when the office was re-opened. In the meanwhile the paper had, of course, gone to press without the interesting account, and amid much marvel as to what could have happened to our special correspondent. " Honour among thieves ." I fear no longer exists. I hare no wish to class ready- money bookmakers under that category, further than that they prey upon the weaknesses of backers; but from an incident that happened during the late Houghton meeting at Newmar* ket, I see too clearly that they prey upon each other. A ready-money man, at the termination of a race one afternoon, diving a capacious hand into hi 3 bag to satisfy the claims about to be made upon him, brought up a handful of sovereigns. Let us hope that tbe arm that jogged his own and scattered the sovereigns in a golden shower on the ground was an in* advertent arm. I have only to relate the result. With whoops and yells his "pals," who stood around him, flung themselves on the treasure. Tbe owner battled in vain ; a few seconds, and not a piece of gold was to be seen. One '• pal," touched, perhaps, by the expres* sion on the ready-money one's faoe (for ought I know it was the man's whole capital), hastened to restore what he had picked up. It was half a sovereign ! " Tommy, Make Room for your Uncle " is now being played on the barrel organs in Paris. It is understood to be a British hymn. As France has a large export trade in these instruments, " Tommy Make { Room for Your Uncle " may now be said to be starting on the tour of the world. A correspondent experienced in these matters has been good enough to give me a sketch of its probable route : " Germany, Austria and Turkey, by the Danube t Russia; Asia, by Astrakhan and the northern coasts of the Caspian." By about the beginning of the new year he thinks they may be dancing to it in Tashkent. Let Nature but find genius, mankind will answer for the homage. Captain Bates and bis blooming wife have retired into the privacy of their home near New York. The house was built specially in the shape of rooms eighteen feet high, doorways twelve feet high, a bedstead ten feet long, and othe P articles of furniture in proportion. The captain will not be forgotten in London, where some years ago he exhibited himself as the biggest man in the world, be'ng seven and a-half feet high. This was not denied ; but he had to give place ausedamts, and in Miss Anna Pwann he was obliged to admit the existence of a lady fully one inoh talle* than himself. On the principle of the selection of the fittest, tbe Captain married Miss Swarm, and it is said that since that happy event they never fell out but once, and that was trough ihe bottom of a London four-

wheeler, which was- .driving them along I the Strand towards 8t James* Hall. /

The latest phase of servantgalism i« told as occurring in a mining township tboai one day* journey from Wertport. The proprietor of a well known hostelry bad engaged the services of a handmaiden. ? She was small and active, and possessed a temper. For a little time the domestic atmosphere, barring passing clouds, was serene, but there tame a sadden stormy outburst. The mistress of the establish. * ment chanced to make remark that I Jemima Jane had orerlooked tome little 1 duty, and Jemima Jane ehanoed to over* hear her. Whereupon she deliberately let down her back hair, rolled op her sleeves over two muscular little arms, and went for her mistress, making articles of feminine apparel, household utensils, 4 and things in general fly in all directions, J Some guests coming to the rescue took m the young Amason to the open air to | calm her ruffled spirit, and amongst them f was the landlord, who ventured mildly to ; expostulate. This, instead of having a I soothing effect, roused her to greater fury, and letting drive from the shoulder she hit him fair and square in the region < of the waistband, doubling him up* A I female friend then appeared on the scene, and cajoled Jemima Jane to retire to her virtuous couch, and meanwhile the land* lord recovering his breath and senses en* trenched himself behind his bar, and told his lHtle story to a gathering crowd of listeners: how he bad preferred words of peace, and she had requited him with blows. "Mine Gott, pelow the pelt, soh V* But walls have ears, and espe* dally walls of colonial hottdries, and Jemima Jane, disrobing in her chamber, and hearing herself traduced, instantly, regardless of entreaties from her female companion, and all m ditkabille as she was flew down stairs, stormed the entrench" ; ment, and hit him another, and yet ! another, " worse aspefore." Persuasion, less moral than physical, at last prevailed on Jemima Jane to retire for the night, | but next morning she was on the alert, | and magnanimously offered to dear out if ; paid all her wages to date. She got them and a blessing, and so departed.-' I Westport Time?. The following story is told by " Atti* cus," in the Melbourne Leader :—" A clergyman's daughter, a little miss of 10, I was reading a newspaper case in which I a woman complained that a man refused j to make her an honest woman. 'How J could he make her an honest woman, papa ?' she inquired. 'By marrying her, | my dear.,' said her father, taking away the paper. Thaterening some parishioners were taking tea at the parsonage, and the conversation —as is not unsnal at teatables—turned on matrimony. The little , j girl, to air the knowledge she had acquired j in the morning, turned to her mother, and asked aloud,' Mamma, how kjog ago is it since papa made an honef!wonan of you?' She has not since befn allowed to sit at table when there are visitors in the evening."