MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IX, Issue 2490, 18 January 1872, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Wo find the following in the Saturday lh'.Kicw, on a book of field sports in America : —It is fair to own that Dasiiwood docs tell ono amusing story in the course of his book. We have hesitated to quote it, however, lest we should thereby deprive him of ull chances of getting a reader, There are people who would angle in a pond so long as they knew that there was one iish in it. But we must consider our o.vn readers before Sir. Daslnvood's, and must make up in some decree for the dulncss of the extracts that we have already iullicted upon them. And now for Mr. Dashwood's story. He is describing Ihe island of Newfoundland, and says : —" Many .if the inhabitants of tile more remote bays have never left the neighbourhood in which they were born ; the ignorance of some of these people is hardly to be credited. A short tini'; since, on the discovery of a mine on the east coast of the island, some horses and cows were transported thither; a horse happening to stray away w-is shot by a settler as an unknown wild animal. In the course of skinning the beast the man discovered Us iron shoes; this appeared to him such an extraordinary occurrence that ho attributed it to a supernatural agency—as ignorant people are liable to do things they do not un lerstanil —aud departed quickly from the spot, leaving the horse where lie Uid killul it. The people at this remot! place, on first seeing a cow, exclaimed, 'llere comes an animal with powder horns growing on its head !" They ii:id used cow h.;rns for that purpose all their lives without knowing (licit- origin." The following story, which is evidently of American origin, has been going the rounds of the English press Out in Ohio, recently, twenty clergymen, who were attending a convention went down to a secluded spot, on the river bank in t'.ie afternoon for the purpo-c of taking a swim. This corps of brethren removed their clothing, and placed it upon the railroad track close at hand because the grass was wet. Tli.'y then entered the water aud enjoyed themselves. Presently au express train came round the curve at the rate ol -AO miles an hour, and before any of the swimmers could reach dry land, all of their undershirts and socks and things were fluttering from the cowcatcher and speeding onward towards Kansas. IL was painful for the brethren, because all the clothing that could he round, after a careful search, was a sun umbrella and a pair of eye glasses. And they do s::y that when those twenty marched home by the refulgent light of the moon that evening, in single file, and keeping close together, the mcst familiar acquaintance with the Zouave drill, on the part of t he man at the head with the umbrella, still hardly sufficed to cove: them completely. They said they felt conspicuous somehow ; and the situation was made all the more emba-rassing because that night all the Dorcas societies, and fie women's rights conventions, and the pupils at the female boarding school, seemed to be prancing around tho streets and running across the route of the parade. There is something to be learnt from the "Lost aud Fouud" advertisements. I always suspect the liberality of the man who promises that oil re-toratiou of his lost, horse, of bis dropped bunch of keys, or of his wife's diamond earring, that the finder wili be " handsomely" rewarded. I imagine thai, the handsome reward which in bis own mind he thinks ho would give whilst recovery is doubtful shrinks considerably when it is accomplished. In raising by indelinitimess ibe hope of large recompense he is trading oil tho cupidity of others with full coniidence in being üble to fall back on his own meanness. Tiie loser ought to be capable to appraise his loss, resolve what recovery is worth to bun, and should at once name what ho is prepared to pay. A ca-e of restitution—in which, however, there was 110 advertising of a re ward--occurred the other day. A wealthy Scottish gentleman, interested in squatting pursuits aud residing in one of the iiuest mansions ill East St. Kil la, dropped from his pocket or otherwise lost a £3000 draft. It was picked up by a lad in a broker's office, who carriad it to his employer. The latter took the trouble of going to the bank where the draft was made payable, and having ascertuined;t he address of the loser, this broxer considerately sent a telegram stating tuat ibo draft had been picked up aud was safe at the olliee of the sender of the message. Cailing next day, and iiuding the boy alone in the olliee, the owner ol the draft, after receiving his lost property, at some length explained to the youth that the draft, was not of use to any oue but himself, commended his honesty, aud graciously presented to him five shillings. The cost of the telegram he did not choose to remember. This is the way to encourage youthful honesty. " Tho wonder to me is," said the lad's employer, " that he parted with so much, and that he didn't prel'i r to give a tract."— in the Australian. Charles Durber, a young lawer ol' Zanesvillo, Ohio, shot himself through the head on the night of October 17, at the bedside of his sick wife, oil being told by tlie physician that she could not recover. His wile died a few minutes afterwards. n IHotow is making a now epera, " Elizabeth. Shakespeare is one of the characters ill the libretto.

If the ITou '" e of Commons U really anxious to adopt*"**.""".'?** lo . l View to the better despatch of le E J latlV ° b " sl ? e J?. to bring itself into a state °- ~ jt may be worth its while to refer to lt9 . ° icl f andln g orders, some of which mioht w " r ' ,™ t ?S e be revived. On the 17th of a< ay, . 1614, lt was ordered—That this House shu!) 91t ever * day at seven o'clock in the morning, a . enter into the great business at eight o'clock, and no new motions to be made after twelve. Ordered, That whosoever sUndeth in the entry of the House, pay Is presently to the Serjeant. lGil. Or lered. That all the memb.Ts who shall come to the House after eight o'clock shall pay l≤, und that if any member shall forbear to come for the whole day, Uβ shall pay ss, to bj disposed of as the House shall think lit, and the sei jeant is to gather in tho money. 1G42. Ordered, That whosoever shall not be at prayers every morning shall pay Is to the poor—a box to be prepared and set up at the door for this purpose, aud tho burgessos of Westminister are to take care that the money bo July paid. 1647. Ordered, That so soon as the clock strikes twelve Mr. Speaker do go out of the chair, aud the House shall rise ; and that, in going forth, no member shall stir uutil Mr. Speaker do go before, and then all tho rest shall follow. Whosoever shall go out of the Hoaeo before Mr. Speaker shall forfeit 10s, but that the reporters may go Brat. Ordered, That while any stranger 13 in the House no member to stir out oi his place or to speak unto another; and if any member shall whisper, or cross the House, or read any printed baok in tho House, ho shall pay Is into tho poor box. IGO2. That no member do accept of any entertainment at any publichouse for the carrying on any matter under the consideration of the House ; and that the offers of any money or gratuity to any member for matters transacted in the House shall be deemed a high crime and misdemeanour. Ordered, That no member ou"ht to receive or give any visit to any foreign agent or ambassador without the leave and. jonsent of the House. Ordered, That no member have leavo to go into the country without limiting a time when he is to return 1093. Ordered, That no member of tho House do presume to smoke tobacco in the gailtry, or at the table of tho House, sitting at committees. 11. W., writing from Naples, in the Athe~ Mieum, gives some inform ition respecting the present state of Vesuvius, and the recovery of human forms I hat were lost during the great eruption which destroyed Pompeii, and. the elder Pliny in the latter half of the first century. We speak advisedly when we say '■ fjnus," for the forms only have been restored. The process of restoration consists in p Hiring fluid plaster of Paris into the mould left by the body of the original victim in the soft muJ in which it. was suffocated. This i 3 the process to which EL W. alludes. He says : —" Another skeleton has besii added to the painfully interesting collection in the museum of Pompeii, and there are now the remains of six of the unhappy victims of the eruption which overwhelmed that oily. The ingenious method adopted by Fiorelli is too well known to render any description of it necessary. The bed of ashes, in which this sisth skeloton was found, or rather which preserved th<* impress of it, though mixed with lapilli, gives the form of tho decease J with an osticlitude which far surpasses that observed, in any other instance. The head has succeeded to perfection, and the legs and feet are so well finished as to leave nothing to disire. Apparently, the form is that of a man of the lower class, in the llower of youth. In his flight hu fell backwards, and his agony is strongly expressed in the contractions of his face, and in the convulsive clasp of the left hand." From this correspondent's letter it appears that from the Ist to the 10: hof April, Vesuvius was in a state of eruption ; the grand cone was throwing out stones and sand, with occasional detonations, oud a huge stream of lava had flowed down into the Atrio del Cavallo, and covered a portion o( the pathway leading to the grand cone. From the bottom of this grand cone rises another cone, which sends out jets of lava with a whistling sound, like the whistle of u steam-engine. At a meeting of the Anthropological Society, held in London, D.\ W. H. 1. Bleek read a paper on the position r-f the Australian lauof which paper tho Athenaum gives the following abstract: ■—" After pointing out the discovery made by Sir Uvorge Grrey, that the languages spoken throughout the southern portion of the Australia i continent were derived from one cjmmon stock, the author proceeded to inquire what relationship they bore toother language.'. It was shown that in construction they were diametrically opposed to :he Polynesian languages; that they had a remarkable re<e>nblance to the Dravidan, or South Indian languages, and should be placed with the latter in the same class, under the great division of ' Turanian.' Taking a linguTstic view, the author concluded that the Australian native was, probably, mrinly a degenerate offspring of the South Indian race, and it was possible that the latter might have some admixture of Negro blood, uifhough their phy-ical features would not all.igei.iier bear out thaf c.inc'usion. It was not improbable that some portion of the "■fegro race occupied the t.opieal districts of India. There could be no doubt, however, that consanguinity of race and of language did not always coincide. It would appear from a comparison of the mythology aud religious customs and obs.'i-vun ■Cβ oi tho past with tho customs an.l rites of the present Lime of tho Australian aborigines, that these peop e had fallen from a hiyli ivilUation, and that ejiuiusion seems Iα be borne out by a consideration of the artificial nature of their weapons, their knowle Ige of spinning, the peculiar system of castes existing among them, av.d from other circumstances tending to confirm that view. It, was not too much to say that there having been spread in small numbers over a vist continent produced almost necessarily with them, as with many European settlers in new countries, the lojs of many of those acquirements of civilisation which they had originally possessed. The Rev. Gγ. Tapliii eoiiuibuio 1 a comparative table of the Australian latmuiges, and Mr. C. S. Wake read a paper on the mental characteristics of primitive man, as exhibited in the aborigines of Australia. There certainly never was a time wiHin pepiilar preachers w.-re more run after by fashionable people, 11. I.i almost impossible to find sittings at either Mr. Brook 8, Mr. Hawse's, Uunoii Linden's, Mr. Newmw Hill's and many others whose sermons meet with popular approbati in. Among the novelties in t!ii> way of Sunday lecturers now in the metropolis is Mrs. Emma Hardinge, a spiritualist, and the propoundor of divers strange opinions. She is an American, between thirty and forty years of age, aud on Sunday evening last, "when she discoursed on the "physiology of sin," wore a black silk drees, with a little white tulle round her neck. The scene of her labors was the Cleveland Assembly rooms, Cleveland-street, I'itzroy Square, which on week days is used for dancing and a variety of purposes. Artificial flowers still hung on the glass chandeliers, and the preacher addressed us from a raised platform, at the ba-k of which wits a painted scene, partly hidden by a »reeu s-.-reen. .She began her proceedings by a short prayer, delivered standin-r, and then launched into her subject. Her voice was particularly clear and strong, rlvery word wnsplainly enun.iated auapowerfully give:!. She hud no notes, and there was not ,i moment's hesitation or a word misapplied ; she lost herself completely in her theme, and had no mannerism whatever. She gaye e.»plmu< to her words now ««* Jf a natural and graceful action of bo h hands, but generally stood with her arms iolded.and from'time to time took a step or two bockwards and forwards on the platform. I have heard all kinds of orators, both legal and political, but I never saw one who seemed to fur-et their own identity more completely, or whS seemed more thoroughly iuearnest.^ ld. nor. wish to say »»£'££ Uer opinion.; majority ot iinglisli p< <J| <-• o Congress "Tweilern settler-The sun at evening.