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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 126, 29 May 1891, Page 2

The moon is an egg shaped body, not a sphere, according to an American astronomer, who has beeti studying our satellite/ He I thinks that tho ovoid form " is the result of the ojntripetal force of gravitation in the mass of the moon, and tfte attraction of the earth." The small end of the moon ' is directed towards our globe, Boiling eggs to muaio ia recommended by a oleyer Berlin cook in order to ensure that the boiling shall last lor a certain time. The chef has composed a epeoial polka, wbioh should be begun dir«otly the eggs are placed in the! aauoepan. By the Jime the last note is played the eggs are " done to a turn." ■ How lucrative this trade ot gambling must be, and how prevalent I. A man was yeaterday Hood £50, whioh was at onoe p»id, And uearly every week we have the email totali-s»tor-rauners fined £10 and upwards. Not a man of them goeß to gaol. It is like the bad old smuggling days. < Two or three successful runs oovered.a seizure.-Sydney Paper. Wonderful are the novelties o! the present age. The very latest is that at fashionable dinner parties in the old country the ciuats are seated at small tables, and after eaoh course they move on to the next, and bo rotate round their hoßt during the meal I I» is contemplated to put the Losi under tht table shortly and throw bona* r.t him. A drunkoa fell jw was ptokod up in Sydney streets last week aad fluu 2a 6d for his inebriety. Ia his pooketa were negotiable documents of tho value of £160. As master of the Middle Temple the Prince of Wales lately presided in the Aaoieut Hall over a distinguished oompdny of- that legal body. 'A burst ofpheering took plaoe whsn the Prince, by lighting a oigar, relaxed a rule whioh has been in force for some time against indiscriminate smoking in hall, on aooounfc of tho oooasional forgetfulness of student* at,oi!iUtime. Lord Coleridge's reply in response to his health as •' Treasurer, the Lord Ohief Justice of England," proposed by the Prince, was neat. Lord Coleridge responded as follows : " A great King in former days said, 'Put not your txusfc in Princes. ' (Laughter.) We invited hiß Royai Higbaess here with tho solemn understanding that there should be no speeohes; his Royal Highness has now'foraed on me 'the duty. r oi inakiug^dne. AlVl oan say ib,, I that on one oocaaion I'waa foroei to make a speeoh, much against my wish, A lady anting beside me Batd, 'Never mind, you speak very late : everybody will be tired ; | nobody in the least will want to hear you ; and when" you have said you don't want to make a epoeoh you oan ait down, ' That was nor advice. I took it on that oooasion, and I propose to follow it now." (Qreat laughter, during whioh the 'Lord Chief Justice aat down,) . » ■-•,

' It is remarkable,' said an old miner to bis oronies out in a Nevada oamp one day, ' It'a simply aatoniahin' what a ooward a man. is at home— a reg'lar/orawlin' sneak; by" Jove, I've travelled a good bit and held up my end in most of the. camps senoa '49, I've gqt- three bulletin; inside of me right now. I've shot and been stiot at, and nover heard nobody say chat I hadn't good grit as moat of 'em, but at home I'm regular kyot. Afore I'd let the old woman know that her hot biaouits were not 0 K when they are like stiff amalgam, I'd fill myself as full as a retort. I've done it lots of times. Most; of my teeth, is gone from tuggin'.on beefsteaks that the old woman had fried, and I've said notbin 1 , Do you think I would roar out and ouss when I fell over a ohair in the dark? No, sir. When I'm rubbin' my shins and keepin' back the tears, I'm likewise aweatin 1 for fear the old woman has been woke by the upset. It didn't use to be so. When wo was first; hitohed I thought I was superintendent, but after a year or two I gave in and let her run the ranohe. I can liok any man of my age and Bize,' oried the old man, banging the table with his wrinkled fiat, ' but when I hang my hat on the peg in the hall, and hear the ■ old woman ask if that's me, I tell you' the "ataroh comes right out of me/ , ; : A oaso in whioh a quarter of a million of money is involved is shortly (says the Daily Chronicle) to. be brought direotly under the notioa of Parliament. The story begins as far back as 1819, when Miss Helen Sheridan, of Sallow,', in the county of, Longford, eloped with Robert Dudley Blake, a young officer, whose regiment was then quartered at Mullingar, The ruuaways made their way to Scotland, and were married at Gor« bals, Lanarkshire ; bat the union gave great offence to the young man's family, who, indeed, are said to have virtually disowned him. The couple went to Atnerioa, but afterwards returned to England, and in 1850 Lieutenant-General Blake, aB he had by tbiß tinio beoome, died, leaving a widow, but no issue, and bequeathing the whole ot his property to bis reliot. Mrs Helen Blake appears to havo survived her husband (or some 25 years, and the value of the property sha left behind her at. her death amounted to mom £25G,000. A olaiinant lor this considerable sum now appears in the person of Mr Patrick Brenuan, a slipper maker of Blaokburo. fleolaima to be firat cousin once removed, ueir at law, and sole next-of-kiu of Mrs Blake, but unfortunately for h\&aelf, he haa vainly endeavoured to ohtain the neaesaary certificates to enable him to prove bin relationship to the deceased, Suoh certificates if in existence, would be found at Mullingar, io Ir^nd ; ; biit 6p years ago the whole qf tb> registers at that town were deairoyed by fire. Ho, it aeema, did not become aware of Mrs Blake's death until April 1888, Mr Brennan now asks for an enquiry into hia oase, and aomethiog will probably be heard of it ia the course of (ho next fuw days.

While crossing "Rat^uroake Trestle," near Lokelaad, FJorjda, recently, two large bears were^ overtaken by a train, The bridge was top, high to jump' frpin, and,, findmg escape impossible, the bears turned, Bjpod upright, and f aoed the train with, forepa ws up in prize-fighting style, engine dashed one of them, off th,e trestle, but the other was thrown" up into, the air by ' the cow-catcher, 'and in his fall clutched the' brass rods in front of the looomotivo. Desperate with pain, he growled savagely, and sorambled along towards ; the "cab," where the stoker's face was Visible. The stoker had just been raking the fire, and made a lunge at his f«rooious assailant with, the great redhot poker. With a, terjifio hpw.l the poor beast tric^ ijo, spring upon the 'stoker, but lost l\i^ footing,' and foil almost under the wheels. Hp lost part of a hind, leg, but in 1 spite of a.ll his wound/} h« oiciked himself up, after roJUing d.QWA the embaukment (by this time the train was off the trestle) and hounded off into the woods. The bloodstained engine was visited by appreoiativo orowds as soon as it reached the next town.

The growth of Melbourne ia one of the wonders of the age, and the oenauß iußb taken shows that the process stiU oda.' •tinuea. Out of 14 people m the colony of Viotona, 6 are m the. metropolitan area, while. 8 are outmdo of it, oyer all the roat of the colony.' The totals aro : Within Melbourne, 489,18^ i , without Melbourne, 644,661. \a 1881, Mel. bourne held 3,2 per cent of the people of ViQtoria j in 1891, it holds 42 pec oent of the whole. In the ten years Melbourne has inoreased 73 per gent,, the oountry distriots have increased 11 per oent. It is calculated that Viotoria has increased by 27,000 persons per, annum, and of these 2o,ooo are absorbed by Melbourne, while 7000 go to the oountry. There have been oitiea whfoh have growa more rapidly than fijelbourne 1 , but no city ever grew as last compared with the oountry whjoh supported it. Chicago mado mo^e 'rapidf p'rog^eiia than Melbourne but tjbfik Qhioag'o stands on a wonderful position for attracting to itself the.commeroe of a considerable portion of > the continent, . White Chicago was . growing, the fertile prairies were being settled,^ thousands of miles nrouud, wh^[e, in regard to Melbourne, we hay^e 6he' goldfi^ids districts actually sh^iifking in population, at the gume time that the oity is increasing by leaps and bounds, At the same time {t is perhaps soaroely fair to put as against Melbourne, the population only, of Viqtbna. '■ It is really the business oen^TO of a odnswer^'blte portion of New Vfales.— Jfc'g, '^«^. • The V tftlk of the town' 1 at Brussels lately has been. 'on' the one aub^eafc of tU« re<j«nb " misadventure" of Qeaera.i Pomtue, the Minister of War, during th.e funeral ceremonies o| Bal^vriu tht I^ing 1 gave the oider for a cavalry esoort to receive Prince Henry of Prussia at the station^ on his arrival for the fuaeral, The escort never gut in an.appeartuioe, and 'it was found on inquiry that General Pontua had ' quietly kept . the ' royal ■ oilier -, in > Ilia pookec-tUHiw tr&i^-witH^h* was ull but in eight,;, The luujouc 4\aa;goue abroad that besides a ropri^imrf, the King of the Belgians haiolupiM his AUnisttir Of War into prison for a term of ft fortnight bufQißoially" ho is kept in Btrioti r«t4rb»: ment by » an attack of gout and ?aigraine,'|