MISCELLANEOUS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 77, 24 January 1872, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS.

DjQAtH of the MAN-CANyoN". — The, Glole, speaking of the late accident , ■which resulted in> the death of the 'str'on^est man' in the world, says:— Louis Vigneron, ! the man-cannon/ whose name and exploits-, muat be familiar to most,visitors ,to the north of France, has fallen a victimto his adv&nturo.us pursuits. Ik will be, Remembered that' Vigneron, to other feats of undoubted strength 'and cleverness as an athlete, added that of supporting a huge cannon on^his shoulder' while, it was fired. .He was performing this astonishing, feat at tho, Casino of Boulogne. Art" attendant applied the , lighted^ matoh H tp ..the touchhole, but from some cause the explosion did not immediately take place. Vigneron was probably endeavouring, to shift the position of the cannon on bis Bhoulder slightly when tho charge exploded, and he fell ,to the .ground crushed beneath the concussion and the weight. His death' was instantaneous. The fate of this well-known- performer is in strict acdor'd with that of the majority of individuals who have habitually accomplished feats which strain the ordinary course of events to the utmost limits of possibility. A man may, by dint of extraordi-, nary skill, overcome obstacles which baffle his fellow men many times in succession but it sel-dom-happens that the power by which he does this. is nqt finally, exhausted, or on some occasion plays .him false, or tho cause of danger -comes into play in a new form, and he falls a Victim to hia hardihood.' The renowned knife-eater who swallowed open penknives with impunity "to' ttie number of eight,, died. of the ninth. The great lion tamer, ■ put his^ head. into, the lion's mouth once too often. , What happened in the .case of Vigneron was probably this.. .The power .bj whit'h he' performed the feat was that of maintaining what physiologists describe as a tonic contraction of' the muscles of the shoulders aud' back — thatja to say a continuous tension. While this lasted, Vfgneron was for all purposes an inanimate gun-carriage. The'moment he tried to use his muscles in the normal manner, the condition was changed, and the explosion taking place killed him. .It is by the maintenance of this "muscular spasm" that the bull-dog retains firm hold of his victim. " The man of the iron jaw " who suspends from his mouth a trapeze whereupon an' assistant is J performing the most trying evolutions, achieves the result by the same power.' The man who swallowed ptaknifes had probably acquired an analogous power of. converting his oesophagus into, a rigid pipo., Thesej things are very curious, but rightly .understood tu e j dispel the mystery from the'acnievements of the class of performances by which Louis Vigneron earned his renown, and- leave the wondering public to inquiro whether, after all, the game is quite worth the candle." The House op RoTHScniiD.—The last number of the Gentleman's Magazine gives some curious tales of the great house of Rothschild, among which is the following story. Nathan Rothschild was the head of the English brunch of the family, and was present at the battle of Waterloo. When the battlo was over, " without losing a moment, Nathan spurred his horse and galloped off to' Brussels. Here a carriage was ready to convey him to Ostend. At break of day, on the 19th of June, Nathan Rothschild found himself at the coast opposite England, but separated from the Thames and the Stock Exchange by a furious sea, and waves dashing mountains high. In vain tho Jew offered 800 francs to be carried across the Straits from Ostend to Deal or Dover. At last he rose to 2,000 franca, and the bargain was struck, a poor fisherman risking his life to gain £80 for his wife and children. The frail bark which carried Coosar and his fortunes sped swiftly over the waves, a sudden change of wind to the east accelerating the progress to uu unexpected degree. The sun was still on the horizon when Nathan Rothschild landed at Dover, and, without waiting a moment, he engaged tho swiftest horses to carry him onward to the metropolis. There was gloom in ThreadneepUe-atreefc, and gloom throughout England, but gloomier than any looked Nathan Rothschild when he appeared, on the morning of the 20th of June, leaning against his usual pillar at the Stock Exchange. He whispered to a few of his most intimate friends that Blucher, with his 120,000 Prussians, had been defeated by Napoleon in tbe.'great battle of Li<jny, fought during the 16th and 17th of June. Heaven only knew what had become of the' handful of men under Wellington ! The dismal news spread like wildfire, and there was a tremendous fall in the funds. Nathan's well-known public agents sold with, the rest, more anxious than anyto get rid of their stock; but Nathan's unknoion agents bought every scrap of paper that was to be had, and did not cease buying until the evening o! tho following day. It waa only on tho afternoon of June 21 (nearly two day's after the arrival of Nathan in England) that tho news of the groat battle and victory of Waterloo, and the complete overthrow of Napoleon, got known., Nathan, radiant 'with joy, was the first to inform his friends at the Stock Exchange of the happy event, spreuding the news a quarter of an hour before it was given to the general public. Needless to, say that the funds rose faster than they had fallen, as .soon as the official reports were published of the great battle of Waterloo, which enriched the house of ; Rothschild by about £1,000,000 sterling, aud laid the foundation of a European power in the financhial world for tho descendants of Meyer Ben Moses Ainachel, the poor banker's clerk of ITrankfort-on-the- Maine." The Land System in Prussia. —A writer says: — "The necessity of cultivating 6mall proprietors has been fully recognized by the Prussian Government by forced sales. I am not an admirer of this, yet it is far better than the concentrution of lands in the hands of a few, as in Engltmd. It leads to a great distribution of weulth, and enables the Government to call, with a greater show of justice, upon a large number to defend the country when in dunger. I very much doubt, had it not been for the existence of this fljatein, whether the men of Germany would

ibave fougbt.sp well as they, did inithe recent war. Tho battalions of our own Cromwell were mostly composed of men of a class of yeomen now almost unknown. They fought as hien ; o'nly 'fight who have Bometjnng^o fight.for. In Prussia, by! the law of 1850, tb.e smallest occupier, of. peasants' land acquires the proprietorship of t.wenty years', purchase, Yhe amount being paid to the landlord, ' not ia money, 'but in- rent 'debentures ' issued -by the authority of the State, and bearing fouc per cent, interest, and gradually redeemable,by means! of the one per cent, difference, which, at compound, interest extinguishes the prinoipalin a little over forty-one years. The Prussiariipeasant has, 'however, two other options ; he may pay less by onetenth to the State Bank than the .rent he formerly paid to his landlord, in which case the purchase debentures take fifty-six years to redeem ; ,or he may, if he can raise the cash, compel ' his landlord to accept eighteen years' purchase money of the annual rent. By this means) nearly 100,000 peasant proprietors have been created in Prussia. Rent debentures to tho extent of many millions have been issued to the land-owners,and in less than eighteen years more than one-eighth of the debentures issued have been entirely redeemej and extinguished." • ' ; " A Queer Stoet feom Switzerland.— The following paragraph appeared in, the editorial columns of the London Daily, News ;— " People who go to Switzerland should be careful about bathing in tho Lakeiof Wallenstadt. We are informed that ' a number of persons,'. excursionists probably, who ventured to swim in. this water. in the course of the season, never came out of it, either dead or alive, and the niatter has "at last been made the subject of a serious investigation. As tending towards, a. solution of tho mystery, w;e are told that several lishea of an enormous, size have recently been observed gambolingin. the loch, ' but no one can at' present give any accurate description of these monsters of the deep.' It is to he hoped that the' relatives of the unfortut ate individuals .who ; have disappeared in the Lake. of Wallenstadt - vvill insist on a careful and deliberate, iuquiry into the habit of the new kind of Bhark that has evidently developed the most uncomfortable propensities in Switzerland. Our' coasts and rivers are 1 at' any 'rate free from fiah addicted to drowning bathers ; but from' a Scientific point of view it would be interesting to learn more of the terrib.le creatures, for an account of which we are indebted to that excellent holiday newspaper, tho Swiss Times."' , ' ". Franco-German ' Indemnity.— On the subject of the Franco-German indemnity, 'the Economist say 8: — "As there is a good 'deal of- interest- at the present moment attaching to the payments by France to Germany, it may! be useful- to note what payments have actually been made. The indemnity itself, it will be remembered, amounts altogether to £200,000,000, of which £60,000,000 havo actually been paid, partly in cash and partly in bills, or otherwise accounted for. Of the remainder, there is a sum of £20,000,000 actually due next sp-ing, but which forms the subject of a negotiation for immediate payment by nonnegotiable bills, in consideration of certain concessions by France in respect of the admission of Alsace and Lorraine manufactures into French territory. This leaves £120,000,000 unprovided for, which France is not bound to pay until the end of three years. Wo have thus some means of estimating the actual money which has been, and is now, in transit from France to Germany. The whole of ,the three instalments past due must have gone in cash, or in bills which are now being cashed, with the exception of £13,000,000 to be deducted on account of the Alsaco and Lorraine railways— the net payments thus being £17,000,000.., In addition, France paid to..Ger* many, last January, £8,000,000 :on account of the Paris indemnity, and has had to pay, since March, about £2,000,000 per month for the cost of maintaining the -German troops in France — say £12,000,000. These two sums together make up £20,000,000; bo[ that Germany altogether may have received £67,000,000, in cash and bills from Franco, between January and the present date. Of course, a good deal of the money must have been spent iv France itself, but making overy deduction, the Prussian Government will have an enormous buui in hand, in spite of the assertion made some time ago in a Berlin correspondence that it was muddling away the money. The sum it will havo to get next spring, moreover, is not merely the fourth half-milliarl of tho indemnity, or £20,000,000, but £26j500,000, being the amount of that instalment, plus interest at five, per cent, on the remaining £120,000^000, which France by the treaty is bound to pay until the principal is redeemed. By next spring, therefore, Germany will have drawn from France, in about a twelvemonth, over £90,000,000 sterling. As they are taking payment in coin, and locking up what they get, there is no wonder at tho present disturbance iv the European money markets." TnE German Abmc.— Tho German army estimates ■ give the numbers of regiments in the regular army as 148 of infantry (of three battalions each), and 93 of cavalry. These -figures only apply to the army of Germany proper ; the Alsato-Lotbaringian corps swell them to 154 of the former, and 97 of the latter arm. Immense as this force seems, the German army only ranks third in the list of European standing armies. The lead is token by Russia with 188 regiments of infantrr, 56 of regular cavalry, and 156 of Cossacks. Next, and still superior to Germany, comes France, with 156 regiments of infantry (including Zouaves and Turcos) and 61 of cavalry. Austria's 80 regiments of infantry, Italy's. 80. and 23, and our own 169 battalions and 26 mounted regimentß, stem paltry forces beside such formidable figures. If Germany is surpassed by Russia and Franco in the number of regiments of the line, it must be recollected, however, that she has a force of 286 landwehr regiments in reserve. How amazingly the Continental armies have grown since the Crimean war, is best shown by comparing the figures of 1871 with those of 1852. At that time Prussia owned no more than 45 regiments of infantry and 38 of cavalry, Russia 292 und 84, Franco 102 '

and 56, and Austria 64 and 38. ' The various armies of Italy mustered 41 regiments of ia- ' fantry and. 17 of cavalry. ;• our own loo reEimente* £122 :battalit>nß) .foot • and -22 horse. In Borne of - the . Gorman States the numbers hare more than doubled; thus, in'ithe statistical tables of twenty years ago, we find the Saxon army stated at nominally .l2,ooo men^ which meant consider* ably fewer, .'aud with. no landwehr to support;' while toiday it-numbers 24;208 men, with a correspondingJandwehr force." -' ■ ' England's Trade dtoing : 1870.— The Builionist meets the accusation 'that "England is '4 • nation of shopkeepers,", by ,tbe remark that 'it would be nearer the triith-tp ; say we are a people; of hard workers and bold' merchant' adventurers;'' Ours is no petty' industry 1 , nb' haggling ■o'vjer' small details. Our transactions are on a scale'; commensurate with 1 th'e'positioh ire Hold among the nations; arid, notwithstanding some recent drawbacks, it may with all modesty be said that ' that position ia still in the foremost xatik. ' If we* } are Unable to utter the proud boast that it isourl debellare superbos, parcere subjectis, it can with ! perfect truth be affirmed that we do a" mofe useful work -in supplying" half theworld with articles of necessity 1 ; convenience, and luxury, and iv receiving in return commodities requisite to a high State of material civilization. This is the mission jof England, happily remote from struggles of military ambition and conflicts for the acquisi- ' tion of territory. Such' are some 'of the reflec- ' tions suggested by the contents of the latest annual report — for' lß7o— just .issued by the Commissioners of Customs. This blue-book ' presents in a compact form 'a complete con-,' speetus of our foreign bade during the year 'men-,' tioned, and it certainly offers a picture of energy in industry, activity in commerce,- and of an ex.-' tensidn df wealth and' well-being ne^er 'before ' realized. The amount of our commercial traits* ' actions with foreign countries -and tfur'.oWWornies reached during'last year to a height "exceeding that ever attained before. '„A' survey of the* whole subject shows that, : witli an 'increase I '<dP material prosperity and the- means of enjoy meat, the energies and the activity of the people 'have-/ kept pace part passu.-~l26o'nomist. '' >''''", •:•':.;> •• ■ The Nay* of Great .BsmiN BQUAii^qpY Russia, Germany, and Ajpr'ica • Ignited.-—;' "We have succeeded, 'we submit, in showing," 'says the Gentleman's ifagqzine,," that Jhe iN a, vy '6f Great Britain is hot that shadowy iphantom. which the alarmists,] who are always crying out •■Wolf Wolf!" would have us. suppose it lq r be. t We are constantly being' threatened" by^pam<ft!; stricken and -tremulous 'writers Iwiih all . ibtys horrors of a successful invasion ;, our fleet, as the first line of defence, is either ignoredj-or spoken • of as if it only upon paper, and would, assuredly be found wanting in .the first emergency,..; .r but wo think wo have to 'prove, and, we trust, to convince oui; readers, that we ,hu,ve not only,. j^~ real, active, pdwerful fleet, -but, the, largest, aud> - t the most powerful fleet iii tl>e. world— a fleets ia- f numbers, equal to tlie' combined navies, of. .Russia,' the United States, and. Germany ; aud. in: armament, as regards number of guns^as, ;well.,as., penetrating power, if- not-. weight <jf..jnjetal;>con- J siderably superior. There is a., defect, bowejeft in our defences, which .prevents ua.frpni enjoying ,* the e'ntjre immunity'fr.oin danger .which supb,,* fleet as this should, atfbrd'Ws, ,and it'.is.thi»:~? j ' We hare but one arsenal, 'and that one .is. in? sufficiently protected/ The' on lyj- factory' wh'joit,,: Goverunreht ' possesses Iqc (be' 'manufacture* "o£/ guns, guv -carnages,' arid all ''ap^u^e'nance^'.^pfr' '.- the proper equipment of either' our 1 naval oriield.' artillery is at Woolwich, and- Woplw'ioh is.eithejr ' practically defenceless ' 'except' b'&' far/ as 'thel! intricacies of the navigation, of the TKauVes 'secure "' it fvoin attack." '' , '' \\ ' ''V '„'''',, ; Terrible' Affair .' IN . Chicago! -p-A .terrible, 1 affair occurred iv Chicago.pn the night of the ,21st >•< October. While Co}6neLT'..,Yy\' QTOBvenor., v .a.fi well-known pitizon, and for several years' past., > Proseculiug Attorney , in,, the j Police' Court, ,was proceeding home" at' midnight ,- in the, south partiaf the city,- one of the Home Guards on patrol .qn,,; that division halted him "aud required the, counter* sign. The colonel' made ,aome contemptuous , reply, when ' the guard fired, inflicting a wound, from which he expired at five .o'clock, this, mornr ing. Colonel Grosvernor served with distinction : in the late war, and received a wound' which permanently disabled his right arm.. A Wonderful Cits. — Near the foot of the Rocky Mountain, midway betwaen Cheyenoo and Denver, id ttie city of Grcely. Mr. St.'Oiair, the lecturer, about two years ago, traversed this : country, then a wilderness, in his own carriage^ making his journey by night to avoid the Indians, and near where Greely now stands, was attacked by savages. Ho says a few weeks ago he landed ■ from 'the cars at this new city, which boasts of 2,000 people, over 400 fine houses, two hotels, two public hulls, some twenty stores and two churches. An irrigating canal of thirty miles, besides the lateral ditches, furnishes water for the town, and miles of fence eiicloßß the city ; a large grist mill iv process of erection indicates a moat wonderful < energy and success, where, fourteen - ■ montha ago, never a spade had been struck or*single hut erected. A very remarkable mechanical discovery has been made by Mr. Tilghman, of Philadelphia.' He has discovered that a strong jet of air, steatel,-" ! or water, mixed with Isome such material 1 as eand, can drill a hole or eat away the face of any sub- ' stance, no matter how hard, in an amazingly short space of time. With sand and a steam jet ' of 3001bs. pressure to tho square iuch, he made a hole in a block of corruncluin — a material as hard as diamond— an inch ancla-half deep in less than twenty-five minutes. In like manner, by covering glass with perforated paper' on some semi-elastic substance, he has been able to work out the,most delicate and intricate patterns, sand, and eouipreßsed air being employed. The discovery bids fair to create' a revolution in the mechanical world. Writing of the New York frauds, the Tribunt i says : — " Perhaps, after all, there is a certain secret satisfaction in knowing that our Anioricaa

institutions — if we may bo accuse them — which have produced the greatest -virtues, *he most exalted patriotism, and the noblest patterns of rugged life, have likewise brought forth the most audacioiiß scamps. It is something to say, then, besides owning the most prodigious cataracts, the tallest trees, the longest rivers, the broadest lakes, the widest and most diversified domain, we have furnished the world with the most notable examples of mighty and successful rascality. The crime of stealing ia old as sin ; but to steal on a gigantic scale is in some sense ft fine art. Tweed is as much a greater man than the Tammany henchman who robbed a bank of six or seven paltry hundreds of dollars, as Brinvilliers is greater than Polly Bodine, or an artistic Thug is more than a brawling butcher of Cow Bay ; and here lies the danger of these larger rascals. The audacity of their crimes blunts, in Borne sort, the moral sense, and men admire and envy while they shudder. * * * We shall examine history in vain for any examples of such vulgar display and undeserved acquisition as distinguish our representative pretenders. We must not be in haste to draw the lesson of their unfinished lives. Bad men, like good men, are born to Berve a purpose that outlasts their time. Tweed, iritk his historic diamond, his yachts, villas, and prodigality of expenditure; Murphy, blooming in the Bunshine of political favour, consorting ■with the President, and scattering official patronage with vulgar ostentation ; Fisk, with his gold lace, liveried flunkeys, great railroad and steamboat plunder, actresses and regiment — these all may have, when their career is run, some wholesome lesson for those who shall come after. And even now, while we laugh at Tweed's clumsy ignorance in adopting the armorial bearings of a marquis, at Murphy's pretending to ■write letters which he can scarcely read, at Fisk's burlesque of gentlemanliness, we may see that the painful exhibition of these creatures of a day j ahows us how poor and mean are wealth and political preferment, when not adorned by virtue, refinement, and culture." I At a recent meeting of the Suez Canal Company, it was suggested that English capitalists might probably be found to take over the Canal j and all its liabilities. According to the Italic Financiere, M. Lesseps declared emphatically that it should never fall into the hands of the English. Locally manufactured knives are driving those of Sheffield out of tlie American market. There are 6,000,000 of real estate owners in the United States, the farmers constituting twothirds of the number. . The manufacture of chignons, and other kinds of "back hair" from jute, is now a flourishing industry in New York. The heads of Government departments at Washington are all getting ladies for their private ftecre' aries. 60,000 acres of land have been purchased in Xower Canada by a French Association, for the purpose of forming a settlement of emigrants from Alsace. The bulk of the contributors to American periodicals are women. In the Elgin (United States) watch factories, 300 of the 500 employees are girls. These girls earn from 10 dollars to 20 dollars a week, and perform the delicate operations incident to the business more skilfully than men. The young English domestics, whom Miss Eye brought to Canada, must have, some of them, Tery high notions. One has felt obliged to leave because her employers had turkeys for dinner too often, and another place has been secured for her, where, it is to be hoped they will not impose on her in that way. The following quaint inscription is placed high vp on the Berlin Town Hall, in anticipation of the coming illuminations": — "Peace brings wealth; wealth brings pride ; pride brings war ; war brings poverty ; poverty brings humility ; humility brings peace." Seven hundred girls are employed in the cartridge factory at Woolwich Arsenal, and their number will shortly be largely increased. The Californian harvest this year has been good only in spots, while over a large area it has failed wholly or partially. Sir Lawrence Palk has constructed a new harbour at Torquay, Englund, at a personal cost of £70.000. The armies and navies of Europe are said to contain at present 5,164,300 men. There are about 400 building societies in Great Britain, with an estimated membership of 1,000,000 It is said there are now about fifty Japnneße students at University College, London. Their industry, and good conduct are highly spoken of by the professors. A London merchant offered £5,000 to the Post Office authori ies for tlie exclusive privilege of advertising on every letter despatched from and received in the metropolis for one year — the advertisement to occupy a space of not less than one half-inch outside the circumference of the date stamp, and to be impressed at the same time. The Postmaster - G-eneral declined the offer. Maravilla Cocoa.— No breakfast-table is complete without this delicious beverage. — The&lobe says :—" Various importers and manufacturers have attempted to attain a reputation for their prepared Cocoas, but wo doubt whether any thorough suet-ess had been achieved until Messrs. Taylor Brothers discovered the extraordinary qualities of 'Maravilla' Cocoa. Adapting their perfect system of preparation to this finest of all species of the Theobrorna, they have produced an article which supersedes every other Cocoa '' in the market. Entire solubility, a delicate aroma, and a rare concentration of the purest elements of nutrition, distinguish tho Maravilla Cocoa above all others. For homoeopaths and invalids we could not recommend a more agreeablo or valuable beverage." Sold in packets only by all Grocers, of whom also may be had Taylor Brothers' Original Homoeopathic Cocoa and Soluble Chocolate. Stenm Mills— Brick Lane, London. export Chicory Mills, Bruges, Belgium. 1002.