MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 301, 29 October 1864, Page 6

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

[From the. American Papers.] Tnr. class which just graduated at West Point with twenty-seven members entered with ninety-six. J-nudl silver coin is at four per cent, "discount in Canada. A rebel paper tells of a soldier whose brains were shot away asking the surgeon what ho thought of his ease. Agents are in all sections of New Hampshire buying up the new cl p of wool at from soventy-iivt; to eighty cents a pound. A cotempoiniy thinks General Grant will allow thi; Administration to put no curb on him—not a bit. It is .'aid that in the trail of Grant's army are the eavcassis of s'liiie six.thousand horses. Whoever heard of a widower committing suicide on account of loveA little experience is wholesome. IVly notions about life are about the s\me as they are about travelling; there is :i good ileal of amusement. on the road, but utter all, one wants to he at It is a remarkable peculiarity with debts, that their expanding pouvr continue:; to increase as you contract them. A Connecticut farmer has discovered that his cows huv<! been regularly milked bv black snakes, who took occasion to attach themselves whiles the cows were reposing in the fields. Many snakes have been thus caught and killed. A letter, written by General "Washington in reply to ihe notification that the freedom of the city of Now York had been granted to him, lately sold at auction in Kew York for 22f>0 dollars. Standwatie, Criicf of the Cherokee nation, has recently been commissioned as J>rigadier-Gencral in the Confederate army, lie is the iirst Indian who 1 ever attained that rank. JL he persona) income-tax is now 5 per cent, for over 500 dollars and under 50U0 dollars ; p<?r , cent, for over SUOO dollars and tinder 10,000 dollars; and 10 per cent, for all over lU,OOO dollars. The iuchmond Jir(!inhicr*iv;s that 1)7,000 different prisoners have been confined in Libby prison since l lie commencement of the year. " What are you doing in Congress f" was recently asked of a thoughtful and moderate M.O. "We ilie Ito confiscate the property of the Houth," he saui. " and as we could not do that, we are now coniiscating the property of the Sorih." Charles A. Comstoek, First Connecticut- Heavy .Artillery, has returned home, affected with a total loss of speech, caused, as is supDOsed, by discharging heavy siege guns. Tue explosion of torpedoes at. Newborn, which killed -if) or 50 white and black soldiers, was Caused by the men recklessly rolling the whiskey barrels which contained them at the fastest possible rate, in a race to see which Would get to the place of deposit lirst. 'I hey all succeeded.

C. Kdwards 1 .ester, who was horn in Great Ba - lingt' n, Massachusetts, in answer to u telegram that an uncle ill' hi-s Ihe j>ov. Timothy Woodbridge, was mi his death-led, many roars ago, and regarding his death as certain, brought a heavy metallic collin along with him. Jiut -Mr. AVoodbiidge recovered and lived nearly eleven years, and the coilin, with the aii-pump aU;.eh-d, still remains in the l'reightrouni at the Great Jiurlingtoii depot.

A member of the La-v Society, in Lowell, feeling a lly flight on his jolly red nose, instead of brushing it. • iiV, is circulating a petition to Congre 11 :i i ve the insect removed.

A very singular occurrence was noted in the Tenth .Ma-'sachu.-Ltts recently. A sergeant had been engaged in the second division hospital the day previous in'placing upon ;i number of headboards the names of members bf his regiment who had been killed in the late tight or had died in buttle, which were to mark their last resting place. There was one hoard in excess, and, in sportive vein, he placed with a lead pencil his own mime upon it, anil the date of his demise, 20th of June, as his lenn of service had then expired and he was about to leave for home. Yesterday morning, while near the front bidding his companions ip other regiments a farewell, he was struck in the breast by a t\\enty-pounder i'airott and instantly killed. ilis remains were interred to-day, and the very headboard he had unthinkingly inscribed with his own name was placed «i};-e!.'i h grave, and, with date, eorlvctly marks for&Hifhe his n sting-place. War blasts hopes at the nV«mo k ftJ of fruition—thilts life's plans and expectations in' si mystciious manner. It i-; mark d by a thouf <ud incidents ((into as strange and uiouuiful as the above —Xar Yo>k Herd I.

Tie; i ditor of a Maine paper says: —' "We mat a soldier the other d.;v minus a leg, who s; id lie til >uld not have lost his leg if he had not disol eyed ord rs. Ill's company being ordered to rotreit, he told his comvudo he \vu>u't hired for that purpose, and kept Muzhik a "way at th-* enemy, when he received it ball in his le£ p which \y;i& afterward;? amputated."