Miscellaneous.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 542, 13 January 1858, Page 5

Miscellaneous.

AtrsTßAtiA.—We are enabled to announce that despatches from the Home Government will be this day forwarded fcotbe different local Governments of. Australasia, containing the final determination of the authorities for the adjustment of the differences which have ex 4 istedln these colonies respecting postal com-! munication with the mother country, and we believe it will be found that the article on this head which appeared in our last journal (transcribed in our columns) contain the general details, and which will be carried out in their entirety. . Mr. Champion Wetton goes out by thia mail as superintendent in the colonies of the Royal Mail Company, now incorporated with the European and Australian Company, to perfect the postal arrangements of the Suez route .to and from Melbourne and. the other capitals.' ■—Miniug Journal, Oct. 10. ;

Amenities of Hotel Life in America. On Satui'day a difficulty^ occurred at the Ephrata Mountain Spring, which came near having an unpleasant termination, The particulars, as far as we have been able to gather them from the many flying reports of the \ matter, are about as follows :—lfc appears that, \ at the dinner table, after most of the boarders had x-etired, a gentleman named White, from Baltimore, got into an altercation with one of the coloured servants^ who, he alleged, had carried away his plate on which he had just ordered meat. The charge was denied by the servant, when high words took'place between the two, .which1 ended' by the former picking' up a tumbler and hurling it at the head of the latter. The servant evaded the flying missile by dodging, and made towards Mr. White in a menacing manner, and struck him in the face, urged on, it is said, by the other servants in the room. Considerable confusion followed the fracas, and a meeting was soon afterwards called and attended by nearly all the boarders of the house.. The proceedings, ho we ver, were' conducted altogether by gentlemen from the South, of whom there were several hundreds at the Springs. Speeches were made denoun-' cinq the conduct of the servant in very severe terms, and even counselling violence to his person. From all the statements which were made at the meeting; the sympathies of the crowd seemed very much in Tavour of Mr. White, not only by the boarders of the South but also from the north, and things were in afair way for adjournment when a gentleman from Baltimore, whose-name we did not learn, arose and made a violent speech, denouncing free niggers in general, and very indiscreetly, we think, reflected sharply upon Pennsylvania and her laws. Previous to this the Pennsylvanians present said not a wofaj Taut for gentlemen from the South tp come into the very heart of our State, and^enounce its people and its. institutions was more tßan they were willing to let pass by in silence, and a gentleman from Philadelphia, whose-name we were unallo io Jwi'n, intori-upfreii the- speaker,- and replied with, much animation, vindicating Pennsylvania from the charges made by the "chivalric son" of the sunny South, and saying in very plain terms the Baltimorean did "not tell the truth. The Philadelphian was backed up by others from the North, and then followed a scene of the greatest contusion, which threatened l "for.a while to lead to very serious consequences; but, fortunately, oil was poured on the troubled j waters, and order was somewhat restored. Since the affair which took place at the table we learn : the servant was wrongly accused.* The plate of ; M.r. White was removed; 'but by one of the other-servants^who supposed he was 'through1 with hk dinner, and the one accused, passing: Mr. White's chair at the time, was charged with carrying the plate off. We leani too, ou the other side, that the provocation on the part of the servant was almost unbearable, he calling Mr. White " a liar," who had his place between two ladies at the time. Much excitement existed, and ill feeling was felt during the day and evening, the Southerners demanding the expulsion of . the servant from the house, and threatening' that, If he appeared at the tea table, he would be severely dealt with. The servants of the house also held a meeting, and resolved, if he was expelled, to leave the establishment in a body. The matter continued in the same unsettled state until some time yesterday, when the servant left- the establishment in such a way as to satisfy the others, and at last ac- ■ counts all was quiet at the Springs.— Lancaster ji (U.S.) Express, Aug. 3. . | Every one has seen or heard speak.of the | great Robert Houdiri. Besides being the: prince Of conjurors, he is an'^bla mathematician > and mechanician, and his electric clock, made •! for the Hotel de Ville of Avhfs native town of Blois, obtained a -ined^d at the Paris Exkibi-i tion. It is not general!/ known that he was | sent to Algeria by the French Government on a | mission connected with a black art—probably the first time that a conjuror has been called ■ upon to exercise his profession in Government ! employ. Some details of his expedition have i just been published. Its object was to destroy the influence exercised among the Arab tribes by the marabouts, an influence often mischievously applied. By a few clumsy tricks and impostures these roaratouts pass themselves off as sorcerers; no one, it was justly thought, was better able to eclhse their skill and discredit their science than the man of inexhaustible bottles. One of Ihe great pretensions of the marabout was' invulnerability.'"At the moment a loaded musket was fired at him, and the trigger pulled, he pionounced a few cabalistic words and the weapen did not go off. Houdin detected the trick, and showed that the tmu'hhole was plugged. The Arab wizard was • furious and abused "his French" rival. "You may revenge yourself,'' quietly replied Houdiu;

"take a pistol; load it yourself; here are buJlets, i put one in.the barrel, but before doing so mark it with your knife." The Arab did as he was told. " You are quite certain now," said Hou•din, " that the pistol is loaded and will go off. Tell me, do you feel no remorse in killing "me thUrf.. notwithstanding I authorize you }" " You are mine enemy," coldly replied the Arab ; " I will kill you." Without replying Houdin stuck an apple on the point of a knife, and calmly gave the word to fire. The pistol was discharged, the apple flew far away, and there appeared in its place, stuck on the point of the knife, the ' bullet the marabout had marked. The spectators remained mute from stupefaction; the marabout bowed before his superior: "Allah is great!" he said, "I am vanquished." Instead of the bottle from which, in Europe, Robert rloudin pours an endless stream of every description of wine and liquors, he called for an empty bowl, which he kept continually full of boiling coffee, but few of the Arabs would taste it, for they made sure that it came direct from the devil' 3 own coffee-pot. He then told them that it was in his power to deprive them of all strength, and to restore it to them at will, and he produced a small box, so light that a child could lift with its finger; bat it suddenly became so heavy that the strongest man present could not raise it, and the Arabs, who prize physical strength above everything, looked with terror at the great magician who, they doubted not, could annihilate them by the mere exertion of his wiil. They expressed this belief; Houdin confirmed them in it, and promised that, nn a day appointed, he would convert one of them into smoke. The day came, the throng was prodigious ; a fanatical marabout had agreed to give, himself up to the sorcerer. They made him stand on the table and covered him with a transparent gaaze ; then Houdin and another person lifted tlte table by the two ends, and the Arab disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The terror of the spectators was indescribable ; they rushed out of the place, and ran a long distance before some of the boldest thought- of returning ito look after the niarabout. They found him ! near the place where he had been evaporated ; but he could tell.them nothing, and was like a drunken man, ignorant of what had happened to him: Thenceforward Houdin was venerated and the marabouts were despised ; the object of the French Government was completely attained. The' fashion of " testimonials " having, it appears,, infected even the Arabs, a number of chiefs presented the great French conjuror with a piece of Arab writing, wonderfully decorated, hyperbolical and eulogistic, and to which "they were so attentive, as to append a Freucb. translation. Besides this memorial of his Algerine trip, Houdin has a rosary which he one day boiTowed from an Arab to perform a trick with, and which the owner, pursuaded that Sheitan in person was before him, refused to receive back.