GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8192, 1 March 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

~ A PARISIAN MXVUFCOjtESS. . ' " An artful adventuress, who called berseU the Comtesse de Laraoriciere, hasjust been condemned to two years'imprisonment for swindling at Amiens.: She was the mrmt wife of an honest assistcnt-baker. employe* in Paris. Some time ago eh© left her husband and went to Amiens, where she deceived a Franciscan friar and a convent of; nuns of the same order by representing her- ' self as a wealthy heiress, who had come to endow them with her worldly goods whea her property was fully settled upon. her. On th« strength of these representations the sham countess received large loans from her. credulous conventual victims, and then disappeared. She was arrested in Puris, where i she had also begun a series of pious frauds. ■ SEVENTY APPLICATIONS FOR A TQVSDVKq; _A statement made at a meeting of the" Manchester Board of Guardians has had a remarkable result. s It was announced thafe a pretty, winsome child was found some time ago deserted on the Victoria Bridge oven : the Irwell, and had been christened *' V«V * toria Bridge," and a hope was expressed that some kind people would adopt th» child. Recently the clerk to theGuardiana was surprised by a stream ;of \hefeweed seventy and eighty applicants for the child • which is between two and,,three years of [ age, by persons who were anxious to it&opb \. it. The applications cam© by letter. aa& : by telegram, and some of them were niada in person, and were from all parts of the country, whilst the applicants included, merchants, clerks, commission, agents, artisans, labourers, &c. Two or thrs? clerks were" required to deal with the applicants and correspondence. i THE SMITH FAMILY. .•'■.•, ■; ". The London Post Office Directory foe 1890 contains no less than sixteen and a-half columns of Smiths, and each column con- ' V tains about one hundred names. There are only two Smithes, but about a score of *. Smyths. There are also a few Smythes, Smithers, Smithies, Smithsons, Schmids, Schmidts, Schmitte, Schmitzes, Smeeds, V and Smeethes. We must nob omit the i§j Farrare, Farrers, Farrieses, and Farrisses, Jfc who are all properly Smiths. Thus we have seventeen varieties of the name, and the directory does not exhaust the list, for the Smijths, of Essex, are not represented in London. ••/-'-' v'.-,''-"' ■}:;.'■■-.■■• A SUPPOSED SHAKESPEARE TABLE DISCOVERED. C A very interesting piece of furniture has vl just been added to the museum at Shakespeare's birthplacean old oaken table said to have belonged to Shakespeare's family, and to have been in use in the poet's day. r It was only discovered (says the Birmingham' : Gazette) a few days ago, and one's examina- , ■'% tion of it on Saturday was practically the first inspection to which it has been sub- ■ mitted. It is a low round table, with raised jj edge, standing on a stout centre with three ;A; toes. The top has evidently been beesy waxed for centuries. On the under surface. of the table two letters J. W.) appear. : The old Stratford families whose surnames ;; begin with W are legion. Shakespeare had cousins named Webb, but the rtcords do V< not allow any. of them a Christian name vv needing lor J. In a day or two the table* :; will find its place near the old desk. The information on which the table was purchased, and (for the time) accepted as a relic, is to be found in a statement made on oath before Mr. Lloyd, Chadwick, Warwick." ■ This gentleman, who is eighty years of age, : : states that when a boy he remembers the ' table being in the possession of his grand- , mother, and he often heard it spoken of by . her and others. She bought it from a woman who purchased it at the sale at .; Shakespeare's house in Henley-street, Strata .:'.:■; ford-on-Avon, and it was always known in ".__. the family as Shakespeare's table; " AN INTERESTING ARRIVAL AT THK ZOO." : One of the very smallest mambers of the , deer group— little creature not much more than a foot in lengthis at present to be seen in the Marsupial House at the Zoo. lb is known as Stanley's Cheeratain, and was named by Dr. Gray after Lord Derby (grandfather of the present earl), who owned a magnificent menagerie. Apart from its cloven hoofs, this animal looks less like a deer than a small rodent or even marsupial; ' it never possesses horns, and the male has a pair of very long curved canine teeth in the upper jaw, which may perhaps be used foe fighting. , ■•■ ' ;..,-,, , A RIVAL TO MADAME IUSSAUO'd. ',- There is talk of the establishment of a rival to Mdme. Tussaud's, -which shall be 'dfj|| a more sensational character than the gitettt--^ 1 original. The promoter's are understood to have fixed upon the Musee Grevin, one of 3: the attractions of Faris, for their model, ; with such modifications and variations as i; they think may suit the English taste. -,■;., GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE ON THE STOCK . , I EXCHANGE. •■. ■ ;- ; ,'/.: Geographical accuracy is occasionally,, want'ng even among frequenters of thai . : Stock Exchange. The other day the news : was brought that a new and valuable concession had been granted in Swaziland; : " Before we have anything to do with this matter," observed one young stockvendor,' "let me ask you, gentlemen, if any of you; • know where Swaziland is?" There was a dead silence, but at last a'. cheerful little gentleman called out, "As if everyone did : not know that Swaziland was where Stanley found Emin ! Gentlemen, you really oughfj , to read your newspapers!" *- , H J'" : '::' . BURIED ALIVE. ': . About a month,ago diphtheria appeared ;: at the house of a prominent family. in Mad- - . dison, Wisconsin. A young domestic was terribly frightened, and desired to go Ui'.-..^ : her home, but this the physician would noil permit. A young child having died of the % disease, the young girl took to her bed, and '; apparently died in a few hours. She was at once buried by the authorities. A few v weeks afterward her parents obtained per* mission to remove the body to tho country. Upon opening the casket they were horri* : lied to discover the body lying on its face, with the hair wrenched from the head, and the flesh literally torn from the face and ..'«. hands. The girl had been buried relive ! -\-_J EXTRAORDINARY LAWSUIT. . /'{ An extraordinary lawsuit, which has foe . a long time past been occupying attention, has been settled by the report of the official referee. No intestacy has probably given, jgjj rise to greater waste of time and money than on the part of the people who believed ( themselves heirs of the Misses Chapman, of Westwell, Kent. The majority of the t . claimants who have been successful will take such shares as 12Sfchs or 25fiths, while , the subdivision apportioned to others will be only 512ths, 9Coths, and lo24tbs. Had - the law of primogeniture been in operation : iia Kent, a lady named Folsham, living in the neighbourhood of Sittingbourne, would have come into a large fortune, but now the money will be largely absorbed in law costs. v . . There is not a town, or probably not a village, in Kent where Chapnmns or their kindred are not to be found. In and around the neighbourhoods of Westwell, Charing, and Letiham cousins to the 42nd and still more remote degrees are abundant, and these all spring from the marriage of a maiden named Anne Clinch with one Thomas Chapman, whose father was a yeoman of Kent when the struggle was going on between Charles I. and his Parliament. MAKING. OFF WITH THE RECEIPTS. A strange scene was witnessed at the Worcester Music Hall. A local troupe of . amateur minstrels were announced to give a performance, and a large audience assembled. Dissatisfaction was expressed at , the delay in beginning, but when it was. found that the performers were quite incompetent, there was a great uproar. The minstrels were so frightened at the attitude of the audience that during tho interval, they escaped, carrying off the £40 taken at the doors. The audience was so enraged that a riot was only averted by the arrival of the police. A FRENCH SWINDLE. -;.""'■-; Three thousand hard-working and simpleminded citizens of Paris have been lately swindled by an utterly " umbrageous" firm of financiers. Some weeks ago advertise* ments appeared in a few newspapers ottering people £1 a week for deposits of 200f. (or £8). The sums so deposited ware to be; guaranteed by Credit-Fonder bonds. The founders of this El Dorado were evidently elegant and opulent in appearance, as they inspired confidence in the breasts of their . victims, some of whom put as much as £400 into tho concern, for the purpose of :; ; receiving corresponding interest at the truly , generous rate advertised. All went well for a week, but when some of the depositors |p wished to draw their interest they found - tho banking establishment closed, whereupon the alarm was given. The sharpers vanished, taking with them: no less thau : ; fioo,ooof., or £24,000 sterling, which they had realised by their little trick.