GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8162, 25 January 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

SHAKESPERE IE CONSIDERING the universal chara* Hi bhakespere's knowledge, it *££*** of IH curious that he should have Hi very intimate acquaintance with ft yed °o I art of painting This is the mor ,l*?** I when we recollect how much he kn k nt ' I details and positive technique "7 Uh « H every other profession, calling 1 ? eatl f H craft under the sun. His fanfiii- *t *• "Bl them, as shown by the use of D „ 7 ■ fessional phrases and trade woH pro " H given birth to a host of profound t '} wherein the writers have striven to A Hi strata that the poet must, in al r 7?°"' B served an apprenticeship to a do, v ™* ferent trades. His entire accuracy^i' l ' I respects is undoubted, and is testified T fl masters and experts. On this •IB it has been attempted to prove that P OUn! * I he practised as a lawyer, a r " I physician, a horse-dealer, a butch ' & I soldier, a sailor, a farmer, a harden * fl schoolmaster, and heaven knows Ti* HI besides; whilst travellers have dec! ' I that unless he had himself visited j" M the countries he describes, an )o! c 9 familiar with their languages, h ? I never have alluded as he "does to?!,- I numerous minute characteristics I A CITY VICAR OX THE CONVERSION' OF Jr ill The Jewish Chronicle notes with **" I tion that the lie K. H. Madden IV- I of St. Botolph, Aldgate), who J V? r ■ appointed chaplain to the new Lord M a . IH has taken a stand against allowing- 1 16 church to bo used as a place for attemnti HI to convert the -jews. Mr. Hadden h a , •* H this respect, followed the example set'h" Hi his predecessor and by the Rector 'i HQ Bishopsgate—" Hang Theology" Roc, HI under whom he served as curate." Th" SB parish magazine of this month contains th* "™ annual address or report of the Vicar of St* Bfl Botolph to his parishioners and con»rewa HI tion, in which these notable words occur" ' HG "Three times have 1 been seriouslya«kM ES to make Aldgate Church a centre"for th« I conversion of Jews, and three times bare f Hi at once refused. It will satisfy m if a ii Wm the Christians in the parish become ■'ood Christians, and all the Jews good Jews"" Wm SERIOUS ACCIDENT TO AN" ACROBAT. Ijfj A serious accident occurred on November BH 28 to a female acrobat at the Canterbury HI Theatre of Varieties. For some nights a mi young lady, who is described in the biih" u iff Mdlle. Alphonsine, the spiral ascension's: ell has been giving performances at the above H hall, with varying success. A portion of H her entertainment consisted in propelling Mi a large ball, on which she stood, to the Bj summit of a narrow, winding platform H which rose to a considerable height' HI On Friday evening the woman slipped "and Bl fell on the iron supports. These she IB attempted to cling to, but lost her hold and I fell heavily on to the stalls beneath on her H back. There was immediately a rush to I the unfortunate woman, and she was at HI once taken behind the scenes. She was I placed in a cab and taken to St. Thomas' B Hospital, where it was found that, in I addition to other injuries, she had broken I her arm. She was attended to by the I resident surgeon, and after the arm had I been set was able to be conveyed to her I own residence. The hull was crowded at fl the time, and the accident caused great fl consternation and alarm. " BE AN INTERESTING CEREMONY. H By an interesting and unostentatious fl little ceremony, the bicentenary of the I birth of Samuel Richardson, who in his I time was successively printer to the House I of Commons, master of the Stationery' I Company, and King's printer, has been I commemorated. Richardson was an in- I habitant of St. Bride's, Fleet-street, and is I buried under the centre aisle of Sir Chris- I topher Wren's beautiful church. His fame I rests, as every student of literature knows, I upon " Pamela," published when he was | about fifty, with such success that live I editions were exhausted in a single year; I "Clarissa Harlowe," and "Sir Charles I Grandison." The better to perpetuate the I memory of the originator of the novel of I high life, Mr. Joshua Butterworth, a I member of the Court of the Stationers' I Company, and holder of the honorary office fl of law publisher to the Queen, has caused a I brass memorial to be erected on the north I wall of St. Bride's Church, immediately B opposite Richardson's grave, over which I there is a well-preserved inscription. The B tablet was formally unveiled by the vicv, fl the Rev. E. C. Hawkins. B A BUFFALO ADVENTURE. fl On the last clay of the year, while hunt- I ing for my New Year's dinner, an adventure I befell mo in Masailand (says Mr. Joseph I Thomson in Scribner) which nearly closed I my days with the dying year. I had j brought down a buffalo, and, thinking it I disabled and helpless, I proceeded to make I sure of my spoil. I had almost reached it I before it seemed aware of my presence, I when, with a grunt of vengeful significance, it was on its feet. Instinctively I turned and Med, happily presenting my rear to its inevitable onslaught A few seconds, and its horn caught me in the hip, penetrated several inches, jist grazing the femorel artery, and sendiig me twirling overhead like a bolt from a catapult. In my fall I got a couple of ribs broken, and thus lay stunned and helpless. I was aware, however, of its approach to finish me off, and 1 closed my eyes, thinking my days were numbered. Some second? passed, and I was still alive. Opening my eyes, I found the brute lying dead beside me, and then I fainted away from loss of blood. SEMITIC RACES AND RELIGIONS. Mr. St. Chad Boscawen, Lecturer on Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum, recently gave the first of a projected series or six weekly afternoon lectures at the Bloomsbury Hall, the subject being "Semitic Races and Religions." The lecturer rapidly sketched the early characteristics ot the Semitic race, their tribal life, and their first connection with Babylonia and Assyria. Arabia, he concluded, was the common centre and cradleland of the race. Next he treated of their marital and family life, the high position ocupied by women in the early development of the race, and the traces shown of them in the Assyrian and other remains now located in the British Museum. The lecture was mainly introductory, and was listened to with profound attention by the audience. Mr. Boscawen seems to have thoroughly mastered bit* subject, and his treatment of it is marked by great lucidity. The lectures, which have been arranged by a number of clergymen and gentlemen interested in Orient* studies, will be supplemented by a series of gallery rounds through the Bntisn Museum. NOVEL FRAUD. A new way of earning money has been hit on by one of the ingenious fraternity who live on their wits. This worthy l B sending round a circular offering to give » ■ recipe for getting fat. Most people deara to get thin, bub he has succeeded in finding< a number of persons who are foolish enoug to send him two shillings' worth of stamp to obtain the desired information. The rply they receive is a postcard, on the bac of which is written, "Get it at V» butcher's." KILLED BY AN ELEPHANT. "Nick" and "Mandarin," two of Barnaul's elephants, were playing with e » other on December 3, while keeper beO J,£ fl Stevens was cleaning " Nick's " stall. . ground was slippery from the ir "Nick" slipped in trying to avoid one » " Mandarin V' playful blows, and in s»P ing he fell against Stephens, who **• crushed to death. ' . IN PRAISE OF SUICIDE. . , It is perhaps on no single point that * Anglo-Saxon and the Mongolian «°% „ distinctly at antipodes, writes a &°* ~ correspondent of the North China Hera, as on their views of suicide. The one WT at it with horror, the other with c placoncy. Chinese books extol the taw » of one's life-from patriotism, as when i Governor of Kiangsu perished by nw hand at the capture of the city oy Taipings ; and from sentiment, as wo . the death of an unseen lover a aw follows behind on the long _ P"P""£. The most freq .ent motive is "V"*, Taoism teaches practically that »P«? e fight with spirit. As every square M» opium shop the remedy is near at w hen a wife is chastised, by her -lie** instance./ Monte Carlo is not-a_ a* stance to'Soochow. There are no sW'St but from general observation it■ n.aj • -. bo put down that, compared with W and America, whose papers we re»a, proportion of suicides is one « una 7 hU . one, or perhaps much greater «£« With their many good traits of tfolf this feature of Chinese society is in« their and all foreign residents might a. ■ iriflueaco to produce a healthier seno»"