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Marlborough Daily Times, Volume VI, Issue 1413, 27 November 1884, Page 2

Only the other day a sentry post at the Government office# in St. James’s Park, was discontinued after some 20years of needless vigilance. Seme time about 1864 a military commission sat in a back building abutting on the park. In order to mark the solemnity of the occasion a member of the rank and file was appointed to do duty on the spot, which was thus held at the point of the bayonet from ten till four o’clock every day. The commission accomplished its work, whiv.li was, no doubt, to draw up a report which was relegated, as such documents are, to the pig.epn holes of the department moving in the matter, and there left to mildew and dust. Anyway, the commission disappeared, but the sentry remained. Two decades passed away, and still Thomas Alkies, with his red coat, his fixed bayonet, and hie twenty yards of sentry go, passed up ami down the brief parade fixed by his superiors. There was nothing to gpftvd, and he guarded it. He had been forgotten, in fact. The magnates had overlooked the fact that the purpose for which he had been instituted had censod to exist, and it was only last week that a chance disclosed to them the waste of fightiug stuff they had been committing. The septry was discontinued, the pest which knew him so long WjJl know him no mope.—Home Paper.

It is impossible to rerpain long sick or out of health where Hop Pittpyg are used. See another.

The Blenheim School Committee will meet this evening for the transaction of general business. A special Bank holiday is announced by the several Banks in Blenheim, and Picton for Monday, Ist December. It is calculated that 2,5C0,000 cattle, 11,000,000 sheep, and about 5,000,000 pigs are annually killed for food in England. A meeting of the members of the Bicycle Club will be held at the Criterion Hotel this evening, to consider the Caledonian Society’s proposition concerning the bicycle race on New Year’s day. Margaret M'Namara, who followed a mounted constable for nearly 2000 miles in South Australia, disguised as a bushman, with the intention of shooting him for the injury he had done her, was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months. Some acknowledgement *of the source whenever a paragraph is draw his preferable to none, butjit is scarcely the correet thing to do as our contemporary the Colonist has done—re-publish a paragraph from our columns and credit it to the Express. The following are the form of the Rowing Club crews selected to compete for the cups on December 13th(1) Messrs Green, Clouston, H. H. Dodson, ar.d W. H. Lambert. (2) Messrs Robinson, Moeller, Young, and Hegman. (3) Messrs Bax, A. Farmsr, W. F. Terry, and F. Farmar. (4) Messrs Hanna, L. Allen, Millington, and T. Smith. Our Tua Marina friends will do well to avail themselves of the free entertainment offered them in the Tua Marina School house this evening, when Mr J. LI. Macalister, the local agent of the Government Insurance Department, will give a series of popular readings, followed by a brief but interesting address on the advantages to bo derived from Life Assurance.

At the time of the disaster to the Wasp alio was under orders to convey the subsheriff, six bailiffs, and 36 policemen to Innistrahull, there to execute the vengeance of the landlords upon the unhappy inhabitant's. It is to be desired that the British public should seriously ask themselves whether they really wish their Navy to be employed, on a peculiarly dangerous coast, in doing the dirty work of Irish landlords ? Our Havelock correspondent writes : —A meeting of those interested in providing a social entertainment in honor of the Blenheim cricketers, who visit Havelock on December 6th, was held last evening, when it was arranged to have a concert and dance afterwards, In the Town Hall j MessrsLawlor, Jones, Clark, Guinness, and Reynolds Were appointed a snb-committoe to make all the necessary arrangements for carrying out tlie programme. -Any surplus funds from sale of tickets are for the benefit of the United Pelorus Cricket Club. Women are indeed coming woll to the fore, for no less than five females entertained ideas of standing for the Presidency of the United States ; of these one was selected, and she fully intends not only to go to the poll, hut to succeed in her candidature. She pledges herself to try and promote equal privileges for all citizens, and to seek to ensure a fair distribution of public offices among women as well as men, The name of this lady Is Belva A. Lockwood. She is already a lawyer, and a staunch advocate of temperance, and it remains to bo seen if she will he successful. The island of Mauritius is the home of witchcraft. The London Times asserts positively that young children are frequently tortured and killed for alleged magical purposes. One Picot was tried by the British authorities and condemned to death. He coolly told his judges that they could not hang him; nor did they. The house of the Chief Judge was instantly haunted by spirits who threw stones ; night after night the missiles rattled about the slates. No watchers could discover the human hands of the flesh and blood allies. Finally, “ the Judge’s lady was Dearly frightened to death,” says the Times, and the Judge himself pleaded for Picot’s life with the Executive Council.

A good bin', > aypercritics may be found here :—Dr Willett, lecturing in Boston recently, told a droll story of himself. He said that at one time, when he was a connoisseur in bird stuffing he used to criticise other people’s bird stuffing severely. Walking with a gentleman one day, he stopped at a window where a gigantic owl was exhibited, “You see,” said the doctor to his friend, “ that there is a magnificent bird utterly ruined through unskilful stuffing. Notice the mounting. Execrable, isn’t it£ No living owl ever roosted in that position. And the eyes are fully a third larger than any owl ever possessed.” At this moment the stuffed bird raised one foot and solemnly blinked at his critic, who said very little more about stuffed birds that afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon, about 4 o'clock, a horse and dray, the property of Mr Dan. Murphy, flaxmiller, was left unattended to in the street outside Taylor Bros. During the Jdrayman’s absence on business in the smith’s shop the horse bolted down the street towards Pickering's wharf ; turning suddenly round the store corner the wheel struok the causeway, bringing the whole lot to grief, and resulting in the almost fatal demolition of the dray, the horse escaping unarmed. Very fortunately there were no vehicles or persons jn the course of the runaway. Perhaps not before soipe fatality occurs in a similar way will men in charge of horses understand to what extent the lives of the public are endangered by their leaving their charges unattended. Our pontemporary was as much out in his calculations a* to the result of the Mayoral election yesterday as the rest of M r Dodson’s supporters, as the following extract from a local in its last issue will show -.—" The supporters of both candidates appear to be doing their utmost for victory, but Mr Dodson is decidedly the favorite. The polling will ciose at p o’clock, and on the declaration of the result, which will be made half an hour afterwards the figures will be con? spicuously displayed at this office and an “ extra ” will bo issued as usual. Up to half pa»t 2 o'clock this afternoon 140 had voted, > two thirds are believed to have cx-imu j v the privilege in favor of Mr Dodson.” We were more cautious, we calculated on the common sense of the community, and our prognos f ication consequently proved correct. Since the new pitch has been completed (says our Havelock correspondent) much greater interest seems to be evinced both in cricket and lawn-tennis for the ladies, but the great objection to cricketing progress is, that when country players come sptne distance from home to practice, those residing in town cannot always get away from business. To obviate this, as we have all the summer before us, I would suggest that all those interested hold a meeting and see if some arrangement could be made among all the business men to have a half holiday once a week on any day that would be most suitable: With {.fijs understanding once effected, many settlers around the district would visit oftoner, and practically, it would no more injure business than fixing a reasonable hour for closing every night. The old saying of schoolboy days still holds good “all \yqrk and no play npkes Jack a dull boy.”

Fully twenty persons took advantage of j the excursion to Wellington last night by the steamer Waihi, which arrived at the Wellington wharf at S o’clock this morning. \Ve have to acknowledge the receipt from the Rev Father Foley of two pampiets of great merit, written by the Rev Theophilus Le Menant Des Chesnais, S.M., the one entitled ‘‘A lecture on Spiritic and Magic Manifestations,” and the other *' Animal Magnetism and Spirit Mediums.” Copies of the two maybe obtained of Messrs Penney and Hegman, and W. Tucker. Facetious individuals living up the Thames and at no extraordinarily great distance from London Bridge have placed in the bed of the river notice-boards with the ineription, “This space to be let for building,” and seeing that a cricket match has actually been played and a luncheon held on the spot where the water ought to flow, the idea did not seem so utterly preposterous as it might at first sight. The condition of the river has been attributable not only to the unusual dryness of the season, but to the immense and growing quantity of water which is now pumped from it to supply the wants of a large portion of the metropolis. A good hint to hypercritics may be found here :—Dr Willett, lecturing in Boston recently, told a droll story of himself. He Baid that at one time, when he was a connoisseur in bird stuffing, he used to criticise other people’s bird stuffing severely. Walking with a gentleman one day, he stopped at a window where a gigantic owl was exhibited. 11 You see,” said the doctor to hi 3 friend, that there is a magnificent bird utterly ruined through unskilful stuffing. Notice the mounting. Execrable, isn’t it ? No living owl ever roosted in that position. And the eyes are fully a third larger than any owl ever possessed.” At this moment the stuffed bird raised one foot and solemnly blinked at his critic, who said very little more about stuffed birds that afternoon.

The Lord Mayor of London lias been appealed to, to give his opinion as to the sanitary results of baby shows. The Parisian authorities could not make up their minds about granting permission for the assemblage of a thousand babes at a show in Paris. His lordship favored the proceeding, “ never having known any harm result in England.” He is not perhaps aware that in America babes have, by design or otherwise, got most inextricably mixedwrong sexes have been returned to owners. A case of this kind is, we see, about to occupy the attention of the Paris law courts. A certain Count and Countess having put out their female child to nurse in the suburbs, according to a time-honored Paris custom, have discovered that the baby returned to them is a male baby. A somewhat verdant looking individual called upon a Wanganui jeweller and stated tli it he had managed to accumulate, by hard labor for the past few years, some fifteen pounds, that lie wished to invest it in something whereby he might make money a little faster, and that he had concluded to take some of his stock and peddle with it. The jeweller selected what hethought would sell readily, and the new pedlar started on his first trip. He was gone but a few days when he returned, bought as much again as before, and started on his second trip. Again he returned and greatly Increased his stock He succeeded so well, and accumulated so fast, that the jeweller one day asked him how much profit he obtained on what he sold. “ Well, I put on about five per cent.” The jeweller thought that a vary small profit, and said as much. “Well,” said the pedlar, “ I don’t know as I exactly understands about your per cent; but an article for which I pay you a pound, I generally sell for five.” A few days ago (says the New Zealand Times), two ladies called at the Customhouse to see about getting some imported articles out of the hands of the Government officers. They were directed to the proper department, where a courteous deputy collector inforrped them that it would be necessary for the owner of the articles in questo make oath as to their character, i his statement caused the elder lady evident distress. She remarked uneasily that she did not want to swear. “ The law requires that you shall swear to the facts” said the deputy collector, as he proceeded to fill out the necessary affidavit. “But I cannot, I really don’t want to,” expostulated the lady. “It is necessary that you should, replied the officer, and he read, very rapidly, the usual form, “and you do solemnly, sincerely, and truthfully, swear,” &c. The lady cast an appealing glance at the imperturbable officer, then looked resignedly at him smiling, and said, “ Well I suppose, if I must I must, but the Lord have mercy on my soul—d it,” The astonished deputy collector explained to the lady the nature of the oath required, Mr Millis and Mr Barry O’Neil will appear in Ewart’s Hall for the first time this evening. The entertainment, as we have already shown from quotations, is one of a class which we believe does not often visit sie district. After the dearth of amuselhents which we have experienced for some time past we have no doubt that the attendance will be a good one. The entertainment will open with a series of character impersonations entitled “ The Wedding Breakfast.” The second part will be occupied by Mi Fred Millis’ exhibitions qf hig ventriloquial art. The criticisms we have seen in the Melbourne Age and Argus, as well &3 in every other paper in the colony, are sufficient to warrant us in saying that the perfection attained by Mr Millis as a Ventriloquist places him in the first rank of his profession, and we feel assured that those who are in Ewart’s Hall thia evening will be thoroughly satisfied with the bill of fare provided for them. Mr Barry O’Neil, better known as Carey’s Major-General in the Pirates, has a reputation as a comic actor and singer, which has reached this place long before this, and his share in the performance will be found by no means the least pleasing in it. Perhap3 there is no more touching feature of our lime than the zeal and enthusiasm displayed in the East-end of London by the band of young Oxford men who are coming to dwell in the large house standing within easy reach of Mr Barnett’s vicarage in the dreary labyrinth of V hiteehapel. Binding themselves to restrict their expenses to 30s. per week, they live the laborious and self-sacrificing lives of yonng monks. “To learn to know the poor ”is the lesson they have set themselves to acquire, and to this end they live in the midst of the slums and back streets that are the haunts of the degraded aud neglected. Many of these young men have no intention of joining the Church ; they are simply actuated by a feeling of dedioa tion to the needs of their fellow-beings

They are in a vow to do something towards lifting the burden of misery that weighs on the national conscience like a sin. Each labourer is allowed to do that which he feels himself best fitted to do towards ministering to the human needs that he raeet3—teaching, lecturfng, organising recreation, starting clubs ; in one word, making friends with the ignorant, the depressed, the thirftless, guiding them to reach sunnier spots in life’s circle by the hand of enlightened sympathy,

Captain Edwin telegraphed at 2 p.m. to-day:—Bad weather approaching between North and West and South-west, after 12 hours from now, with glass falling again and wind backing. The election of a Mayor for Ficton has resulted in the return of Mr A. T. Thompson by a majority of IS over his antagonist, the poll showing the votes recorded for Mr Thompson to be 51, and for Mr Seymour 33. The inhabitants of Marlborough, by comparing goods sold at T. Smale’s with those advertised elsewhere, will find the value is far superior at the price, and that he still continues to mark them at the same low pricce as before. Inspection invited — Advt.