HOME GOSSIP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 4984, 8 February 1877, Page 3

HOME GOSSIP.

(Atlas in the World.) The latest good purpose to which photography has been put is to aid in identifying domestic pets. Attached to a bill advertising a lost dog in a tradesman’s window in South London is a carte de visits of a toy terrier. It is to bo hoped, for the sake of the fond owner, that the picture fancier who laid rude hands on the “Duchess" of Gainsborough has not annexed that terrier. Irish journalism is indeed bad to beat. The following is take from the Freeman's Journal of the 27th ult. “There is now established in Dublin on Orthoprodic Hospital, with a staff of two consulting physicians, two consulting surgeons, and live dentists, solely devoted to the treatment of those maladies, which will afford gratuitous relief to the suffering poor. Open daily from nine to ten a.rn." It does not seem to be generally known that a torpedo school, under the superintendence of Captain Arthur, KN, has been silently but surely at work for some time past laying down torpedoes round our coast at every suitable point and station. This torpedo service has gradually attained such development that one can imagine some happy island, with internal resources sufficient for its own maintensnee, able through its agency to dispense in toto with anything in the shape of an army or fl et The Prince Imperial of Austria is bei -g sedulously prepared for his profession. He has passed an examination on strategy and military history with good marks at Gee ml ® in pretence of his father. The questioning he was submitted to was pretty wine, extending from the campaigns of Julius Ctosar to the Franco-German war. He made very satisfactory answers j but theoretical knowledge

values little in these things, unless it goetpari passu with practice. That has not been neglected either, for the hope of Austria has spent the autumn studying the battle-fields of Bohemia under the guidance of staff-officers, and honestly sharing in the manoeuvres at Briiok and Feldsberg. His most Catholic Majesty in nuhihus, Charles YII, of Spain, has been received by his most Apostolic Majesty the Emperor of Austria. The interview between the cousins lasted ten minutes by the clock. University towns are hotbeds of vice, of course (vide the Dean of Chichester’s letter), but this does not excuse an over zealous proctor in Cambridge for dragging an unforfemale by the heels through the streets in the course of his nocturnal espionage. Ceil trap fort, methinks ; and if, as I am informed, ha paid for his indiscretion by a fine of £15,1 cannot but think that he richly deserved it. er ® * 9 a hint for jurors ! At the Lord Mayor s Court, last week, an honest juryman arose just before the commencement of a trial, and declined to be sworn on the ground that such a proceeding would not be binding on his conscience. A copy of the Act of Parliament on which to declare him waa sought for, but the Guildhall Library is not extensive, and the Act was not to be obtained. After considerable delay, counsel intimated that both parties to the suit were willing for the case to be tried by eleven. The solemn wink with which that juryman left the box was touching, and his proceeding to Pimm's to have oysters, proudly conscious of having scored heavily, was as gall and wormwood to bis deserted eleven brethren. If our Universities are not national, as their enemies are fond of asserting, at least they are cosmopolitan. In Oxford, besides Italians and Greeks, there is a real African negro, who has been astonishing recently his examiners by his notions on philosophy and literature ; and two Japanese, whose efforts to mount a dog-cart attracted a considerable, and not wholly sympathetic, crowd. Of the Siamese, who were recently undergoing their education at the same university, the story is told, that they began by presenting the proctor with £4O on trust, begging him that he would tell them whenever that amount had been expended by them in fines, Jampridem in Isint dejluxit Orontes, and brought with it a good deal, seemingly, of national and not commendable characteristics. That the Guardsman of real life is utterly unlike the scented hero of novels may bo pretty well known, but even the best informed are probably in the dark as to the versatila powers of the officers of Her Majesty's House-' hold Brigade. Among them are some uncommon good soldiers, an intrepid traveller or two, and not a few men of repute in art, science, and general literature. Now an exGuardsman has come out as an inventor, and of a machine which might, with more show of reason, have been devised by a member of another profession. Captain Turquand’s ingenious method of shearing sheep by machinery, which was among the new and interesting implements at the Cattle Show last week, makes one hope that those who fleece human beings may some day be humane enough to invent as merciful a process of divesting ns of our wool. The electors of Newcastle-under-Lyme are to be congratulated on their representative. Sir Edmund Buckley, Bart,, who' has recently been a defendant in an action for missaporopriation of trust funds. The counsel for the plaintiffs stated that Sir Edmund Buckley’s liabilities were £500,000, and that the amount of misappropriation of trust money under the will was estimated at £180,000.' The ViceChancellor, in giving judgment, said, ‘As regarded Sir Edmund Buckley, there waa really no defence. It was clear—in fact, ho admitted—that he had been guilty of the grossest possible misappropriation of trust funds, and there would be a decree against him for the amount and for his removal from the office of trustee.” This gentleman, I find, on reference to Debrett, is “ opposed to lavish and unnecessary expenditure.” How long is he to be permitted to retain his seat ? They are getting up a subscription in Calcutta for a grand historical painting commemorative of the great Durbar at Delhi. A sum of 55,000 rupees is to be raised to pay for the picture and an engraving taken from it; and not a stroke of work is to be done until due provision shall have been made for the cost of the undertaking. This gives a pleasing impression of artistic aptitude for business, which is confirmed by an Indian, paper’s r< commendation of the painter as a gentleman who has already received “ large orders for public, buildings.” People often talk of the necessity of reconciling art with the modern spirit; and I think this plan of assuring your sale by subscriptions in advance would do it. How seldom should we bear of starving poets, for instance, if a man never wrote a line of an epic til his order-book showed that it would be a safe venture, A “ rummy ” (in a double sense) temperance anecdote, used by an ex-chaplain of the Duke of Buckingham m illustrations of the evils of drink, really deserves immortalising, even though it was 100 rich to be true. The reverend gentleman stated at a recent Medical Conference that within one hundred yards of the bailors’ Home at Liverpool there were forty-seven public-houses, and the publicans actually (trowed sawdust on the pavement in front of them, and sprinkled rum over it, so that the smell of the spirit might dtcoy sailors within their doors This beats even the proverbial pinch of salt on the bird’s taiL The Eev E. J. Gardiner, however, has had to knuckle down ; the secretary to the Liverpool Licensed Victuallers’ Association having, in a letter to a gentleman at Banbury, indignantly denied that there is a particle of truth in the story. But having received the tip, who can guarantee that the experiment will not be tried ? A Yankee has invented an ingenious toy, which he calls the ‘ Hero of 1776.’ It is a model in wood of an American soldier of that period, with movable joints; by means of which the figure may be made to take almost any shape the infant may wish to give it. In a circular of directions the hero is sho«n in rude engravings, “ mounting guard,” “ pursuing the enemy.” &0., and above all—l sn-tme to say it—getting drunk. The construe! ion, as I have said, is ingenious ; but the manner in which the article is recommended to Parisian buyers—among whom it appears to be having a large sale—is more so The puppet, it appears, is not. merely a thing lo tickle the fancy of little boys and girls ; “it represents to them in an attractive form the duty of the citizen, patriotism, and all the civic virtues. It may be specially commenced tp the French people, as our hero was one of the most devoted companions of arms cf tho great French citizen, General Lafiiyitta” (great French citizen in large letters ) Mm are simple, no doubt, in these psrls of the world; still I would respectfully ask the author of the circular to consider whether, even for a European public, this “ falutiu ” is not pitched a little too high. Ere the dust, gathers on the number of tho Fortnightly just laid upon the shelf—an excellent, number, by the way—let us lake it: down to glance once more at the 11 Fu* re of Political Economy,” by Mr Stanley J >■ ms. Mr Jevons is showing that the laws of tho science are so simple us to admit of unive sal application ; and he instances a proceeding of the indigent Eskimo, who. when a neighbour has two boats, often borrows one and to renirn it. It is quite right to avoid pi-.sm-aliti. s, else there was no need to go so fir as the Pole for an illustration of this infirmity. Then he goes on: “The elements of vulue are present hero as iu the most complicated operations of our corn or s’c.-k exchanges ... One boat is very useful, if not essential, to an Eskimo; a. si conri bout is much less useful lo a n an woo has already one boat—but.it is highly us.-f-.l if passed into the hands of a boutless n. ighbom. lie rationale of borrowing 'id iifc re 1 timing -a never more neatly giv<i: ; c.ntl young Hi-ry iiardup says that if u:s-> ta political economy ho means to go in for th» science. His uncle, on the coi ti;ary, a. most r fpei-table ma.T of properti , wants t, know w> j th re is not an Act ot Parliament to cut; down Me ‘ R views() course, it t Ik- O’T gentleman "ould only r fbd t.n h«»re> <.;« tu»i. vi r i \ intends nothing agno- ' r’-e. esti.blis . n cr f ,ff.i:-- ; but ho will *'O, lios- , , oe pliers!’ and it must h»t ad'nitt- ii i - i e\ i uve sometimes an fi!■■».««in., way , hi i( g things 11 for the s.'ke of argument' 1