NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5394, 1 March 1879, Page 7

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Queen of Italy almost always dresses in white. Shere Ali has 300 wives, one son and eighteen daughters. It is stated that twelve new cardinals will soon be appointed, three of whom will bo foreigners. A Marseilles almanac predicts for 1879 the death of Bismarck, Gortachakoff and ifeaconsfield. It is rumored that Shere Ali took with him thirty lacs of rupees, and is going to St. Petersburg to appeal to Europe. A Berlin correspondent says he is informed oa trustworthy authority that Kuesia haa been making inquiries concerning a loan ia Berlin. Sif" Arthur Gordon, Governor of the Fiji Islands, who is now at home on leave, ia said to have in preparation a work on Western Polynesia. The Princess Emma, of Waldeck, who ia abont to marry the old King of Holland, is a graceful warm-hearten little person, with bright eyes and face. The directer of the French opera receives, besides a magnificent theatre fcr which he has no rent to pay, a yearly s-rani of from £32,000 to £40.000. Miss Hanna Rothschild's marriage with the Earl of Kosebery is about to bo followed by the marriage of Miss Maggie Rothschild, with the Duke de Guiche. A Virginia woman chopped off her hnsband's head, and then, as a tribute to womanly refinement and a superior aysthetio sense, promptly fainted. A speices of Colorado beetle has made its appearance in South Kussia, and during the ast few weeks has destroyed more than five mlhon roubles' worth of corn. The late Major Whyte-Melville had (the dlhencEitm pays) a few days before his death* placed in the hauds of his publishers the n.inuscriptof a new three-volume novel. Prince Lucien Bonaparte ia now living m London, and is devoting himself to the work >f collecting the creeds of all religions and [ects, with a view to their classification. Washington's great-grandniece, Mrs. Fanny ashiugton Smith, is keeping a boardiriglouse in Washington, and recently had her urnitnre attached by a landlord for rent. A Liverpool firm is reported to have purchased a steamer for the purpose of importing ive pigs from America. The vessel is being itted up to hold over 2,000 pigs, as well as attle. A recent scientist states that in order to btain 1 kilo of sugar, bees must suck ,500,000 distinct flower tubes, and thus to ecure a pound of honey 2,500,000 visits lust be made. The Athenaum states that Miss Harriet [osmer, the sculptor, professor to hare disovered an entirely novel mode of employing* ho permanent magnet so as to cause it to roduce motive power. A correspondent of the London Times oiuts out that had the shareholders of tho rlasgow Bank always infused new blood into tie directory, the fraud would probably hav© een discovered Ions; ago. Mr. Hine, the leader of the Anglosraelites, proposes visiting America and ie Australasian colonies, with the intention E lecturing upon his favourite theme. He saves England about the end of the present ear. The German Government Committee of aquiry rejected Prince Bismarck's tobacco lonopoly scheme, and favours a duty accordig to weight, as advocated by the National iberals. It is believed Bismark will not :cepfc this decision. At the recent wedding of Mayor Atwood e£ ie United Statesarmy. do w stationed at San to the daughter of Richard .iiig of St. Louis, * ( ihe cattle king of tho est," the bride's father presented th© •idegroom with the characteristic but? .ther awkward gift of SO,OOO head of cattle. The largest farm in the world is proibly that which has just been, purchased by New York joint-stock company in North* ■n New Mexico. It coverß 250,000 acres; id will be used for cattle and sheep raising, good start ha 3 already been made with 5000 lproved American cattle and 15,000 merino leep. For four years a Cochecton, N. Y._, school strict had been fighting over a globe bought jj a trustee, stout objection being made to 3 use in school, because it was a "newngled" arrangement, but the trouble was lally settled at the last school meeting by .king the globe out of door.* and stoning it i pieces. Deathbed forgiveness seem 3 as unreliable 1 deathbed penitence. One Miller was shot 7 Hugh Wells at 2"lorth Manchester, Ind., id when Miller thought he was dying he eely forgave the man who shot him. The ying man recovered, however, and now haa ?gun a vigorous prosecution against Wells, id intends also to bring suit for damages istained. Alfred Tennyson's two sisters, Mrs. Kerr id Mrs. Jesse, are extremely cultivated and itellectual women, now pa-st middle age» [rs. Kerr is tall and ; Mrs. Jesse, short iry, and dark-haired* Mrs. Jesse is the Emily" who was engaged to marry poor Jung Arthur Hallam, the hero of the ureate's 4 'ln Memoriam." William Scott, an ancient Baltimore irky, claims to have seen 149 years, and ,ys that he is so old that the papers which ould prove his antiquity have long since umbled to dust. According to his story 2 was a prisoner among the Indians before le Declaration of Independence, and ho aew George Washington when his country's ther was in the cherry-tree business. A new sort of social scandal has turned up . England. A lady of rank in Londoa idertook to pay a tradesman's bill by prenting his wife at Court, an honour of which ie was most ambitious. At the last moent the Lord Chamberlain found out who ie was and refused to receive her. The dy says she performed her part of the con« tion. The tradesman has sued for his bilL The daughter of .Robert Burns's eldest son, xs. Eliza Burns Everitt, died at Bath, Engnd, a short time ago. Her only child, iartha Burns Everitt, is unmarried. The lly male descendant of the paet now living Robert Burns Hutchinson, a tea planter ia ssam, India. Mrs. Everitt's husband died sarly forty years ago, and bad been an isistant-aurgeon in the service of the £ast idian Company. Elopements are managed on a large scale i California. N. C. West was lately ar}3ted in San Francisco for running away ith the wife of a farmer named John Rnpe -and not only with his wife, but with [most his whole family. Out of seven bildren the guilty pair carried off five, icluding a pair of twin babies ; but they Dnsiderately left the old man two boys to elp work the farm. Arrangements have been consummated for ie establishment of a line of steamships etween Philadelphia and Amsterdam. The ret steamship of the line, the Stadt Amsteram, is now on her way to Philadelphia, he is to be followed by the Stadt Haarlem* oth vessels belong to to the Royal Nedermd Steamship Company of Amsterdam. E the project be well supported, a number f other vessels will be added to the line. The oil-producers of the Bradford county, 'a., district propose to meet the enormous lonoply which controls the railroads and tmaads a rebate of ono dollar a barrel on 11 oil shipped, by laying a pipe line to sloop avigation on the Susquehanna river. The ne will be of wrought iron, six inches in iiameter, and will have a capacity of 8,000 arrels per day. The line is to be contracted at once, and, if successful, will rove an effective blow at the Standard aonopoly. The Army and Navy Club some time since xpeiled Major Fisher because of insulting inguage used by him to a geotleman in fihe lub. Major Fisher had apologised, and he tras not heard in his defence by the club ommittee. In the Chancery Division on December 2, the Master of the Rolls decided hat the club committee had acted beyond heir power, and he therefore granted an inunction to restrain them from excluding ilajor Fisher. A. Hickfe-Lord case on a minor scale 2s igitating the city of Monroe, Mich. A iharminff widow of thirty-five porsaaded ?eter Conlisk, a wealthy widower over reventy years of age, to marry her against lis children's wishes, and deed her one-half >f his real and personal estate. The ancient aridegroom, however, does not prove as tractable as did Mr. Lord, and has sued for livorce and for 3,000J015. from his wife and the two lawyers that he claims she hired to get him drunk and married. The force of jealousy could no further go than in the recent case of a physician's wiie Lu Pittsburgh. He had been in professional attendance upon a youug lady during her last illness, and upon the occasion of her funeral was one of the guests. His wife was also present, and as the friends were abont to take their last look at the dead girl's face, she created a decided sensation by roshing up to the coffin, excitedly declaring thai her husband had loved the dead woman, and threatening to scratch his eyes out if he dared go near the body. She was forcibly ejected from the house.