General News.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 230, 5 February 1876, Page 19

General News.

The Russian Ministry of Justice has given instructions that henceforth corporal punishment shall be discontinued in its application to females sentenced to deportation. Hitherto women have been punished the same as men with knouts and rods. Henceforth ten days of isolated confinement are to count as the equivalent of a lash with the knout, and twodays a lash with a rod. A London correspondent of the MelbourneArgus tells the following story : —" Folks talk of ' Penny Dreadfuls,' but of all the dreadful Penny Readings that I ever heard of, one at Torquay last week must bear the palm. During the delivery of 'the death of Paul Dombey,' with which the performance commenced, a fine old gentleman in the front row of the audience seemed to have his attention greatly rivetted ; every subsequent reader received the same compliment from him ; and at last, when the ' Queen of the May' was being spoken, and when the reference was made to death, a ghastly conviction seized the speaker that this rapt spectator was overdoing his attention. He stopped the recitation, and pointed to the gentleman in question, whose folded arms had never stirred, and it was found, on medical examination, that this model listener had been dead for twohours." It must be understood, remarks the Sanitary Record, that repose does not include the excess of repose, sleep. Whether from the diminished amount of oxygen absorbed, or from the torpidity of even reflex and unconscious nerve action during sleep, digestion is certainly very much retarded by it. And, moreover, sleep taken while the stomach is full is unrefreshlng, excites abnormal fevsrishness and perspiration, and in some cases seems almost a sort of coma. We can judge how little it contributes to health by the confusion, languor, and sometimes headache, which are experienced on waking. It is especially the young who seem to suffer from sleeping after dinner. Old persons can often do it with impunity ; whether it is that the digestive fever is less strong in them, and the circulation less irritable ; or perhaps from the mere force of habit they have got inured. But some ancients tell us that their night's sleep is sounder for not resisting a nap in their chair at this time. It is difficult, however, to credit this idiosyncrasy, and it may generally be set down as one of the fallacies of laziness. A writer in "Fraser's Magazine" notices that among other noteworthy papers read at the Science Congress, at Nantes, was that of M. Trelat on the lighting of schools. M. Trelat briefly described the conclusions arrived at by Herr Liebreich concerning bilateral windows in schools. Facts have proved that in schools lighted by windows on both sides children suffer more or less from injured vision ; and so important has the subject appeared to the authorities in Germany, that a law has been passed prohibiting bilateral windows in schools. In Wurtemburg a similar prohibition was issued in August, 1870, whilst in Silesia and Bavaria schools are all lighted on one side only. Passing over the undoubted ill effects of the old system on the eyesight and general physique of the children, M. Trelat insisted upon the fatal influences on the artistic faculty. When a child is placed in a medium, where the light is so arranged as to destroy all form, it naturally follows that its perception of plastic beauty is destroyed. The child's eye being accustomed to dwell upon uncertain forms, owing to the lad

arrangement of light and shade, does not learn to know what form really is. M. Irelat finally called attention to the necessity of following the example of Germany, and building schools that should be lighted on one side only. Two men, David Jeroslaw and Joseph Goldman, partners in business in Delancey-street, New' York, quarrelled about a business matter, and locked themselves up in a small room, abouc 10ft. by 15ft., to settle their altercation with pistols. Each had a seven-chambered revolver, and they fired at each other several times. The police hearing the shots, demanded admittance, and upon receiving no reply, broke open the door. They found Goldman lying on the floor dead, with the-revolver in his hand, three chambers being emptied. Joroslaw was also lyino- on the floor, with his revolver clenched° in his hand. He was evidently dying. Five chambers of his revolver had been & discharged. Joroslaw was removed to hospital in an ambulance, but died while on the way. This is the way they do things in America. "Religious intolerance," writes the Brussels correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette, "is progressing in Belgium. The late M. Hepmann, of Ghent, has left one-fourth of his fortune to the Protestant poor of Ghent. As the Protestant consistory there has no corporate rights, the Communal and Provincial Councils have refused their authorisation for the acceptance of the legacy. The question will have to be decided now by the Ministry. Similar instances have, however, occurred frequently with respect to the Roman Catholic parishes, which have also no corporate rights, and the Communal poor-offices were always authorised to accept the legacies for the benefit of the class of poor designated by the testator. The Roman Catholic Press, while supporting strongly the refusal of the benefit of the legacy to the Protestant poor of Ghent, does not mention these cases at all." The other evening (says an American paper) the boys were sitting around Sitzer's saloon trying to think of some method by which they could get the drinks out of the "old man" without costing them anything, and finally Jack Bradish spoke up, and says he, " Sitzer, I'll bet you the drinks for all hands that I've got more money in my pocket than you have." Sitzer leaned his head upon his fist and considered the proposition for a long time. Finally he said, "All richt, I bad yau. "'Well now," said Jake, " recollect what I said —I bet I've got more money in my pocket than you have. Now, have you got any money in my pocket ?" " How much is dere in your pocket ?" inquired the German. "Seventy-five cents," said Jake. " Vel, den, I haf got the most money in your pocket—fifty cents of dat ish mine—you owe him to me, and I vants it !" Silently Bradish threw the six bits on the counter ; the boys came up, drank, and were just departing through the door, when Sitzer paused from wiping up the counter, and said, "You tink you vas schmard, eh ? I had dat game played on me more as fifty times, and I look me myself out now all de vile !" It has so long become the popular impression (says the London correspondent of the Melbourne Argus) that authors and poets instead of, as of old, residing in Grub-street, and living on what their publishers chose to throw to them, are all well-to-do, if not wealthy persons, that it is quite refreshing to find a poetess sued by her milliner (though, on the other hand, it is reassuring to find that she had a milliner), and so far to find the old times revived. No less a person than the Hon. Mrs Norton has thus been sued, and it must be allowed, for most respectable items : A court dress with black lace and train, with plume .and veil (price 35 guineas) to wear in her Majesty's drawing-room;" and a dress, "the materials alone of which cost £54." The noble poetess, it seems, wrote a letter to the Morning Post, signed "Justitia," which had this very dressmaker for its topic, and that while the trial was going on, was very shockino- you know ; however, the gallant Judge Huddlestone declared that the opposing counsel had no more business to read it than " the contents of any of those beautiful poems she had given to the world." Mrs. Norton conducted her own case in person, and I need scarcely add, she lost it. A London correspondent of the Melbourne Argus has the following excellent passage in his last letter :—" In addition to the genuine telegrams from India have been published some other ones, which, although undoubtedly a little impudent, are very funny. Generally speaking, such squibs against Royalty are vulgar and exaggerated, but the accompanying despatch from Carri (Lord Carrington, I suppose) to Nellie from ' on board the Serapis,' has really a certain local coloring and vraisemblancc :" —" Carri to Nellie.—All serene. Safe at Athens. Awful bungle with Serapis. Lost two cables, and might have come to grief. Illustrious personage very pale. Called for soda and brandy, complained of spasms. Ordered another. Did him good. Ship safe. Illustrious personage all right. Lubberly seamanship. Saw Yankee skipper grin, and Russian chuckle. Serapis captain great swell. Brother of lord, and honorable himself. Mustn't haul him over coals—only do that with poor devils like Dawkins. Grand dinner at Court. Sat next to Greek general; great warrior. Field Marshal in full rig. Great warrior asked in what battles Field Marshal gained rank and honors ? Rather posed ; equal to occasion; Replied, ' Chillingham." Great warrior looked puzzled. Asked number of enemy ? Didn't like to say, ' Old cow,' so shut up. Awful pretty girl—maid of honor —at bottom of table, opposite illustrious personage. Field Marshal's eyes never off bottom of table. Very silent. Asked him what thinking about. Replied, ' Kids at Sandringham.' Wheugh ! Learned man heard Field Marshal, great don of Oxford, doctor and all that. Learned man addressed Field Marshal in strange lingo. Feld Marshal bowed. Learned man continued. Field Marshal bowed again. Learned man looked dumbfounded, and sloped. Field Marshal asked Canon what gibberish

learned man talked. Canon said Latin. Field Marshal lit cigar. Just got English papers. See Stanley preached sermon, and hoped we hoist standard of morality in India. Asked illustrious personage what that was. Illustrious person said he knew nothing about it. Got same answer from Paget, Aylesford, &c. Couldn't be Royal standard. That would be too good a joke even for a dean." The New York Herald of a late date reviews at length, and gives extracts from, the Marquis of Lome's poem, " Guido and Lita. The Herald says the poem " does not show Treat depth of feeling or profound thought, but °ives evidence of a delicate taste and classic reading. The love of Guido and Lita was true and honest, and their story shows how a noble knight may love a low-born fishermaiden and be °a much better man for it. Guido was a o-ood-for-nothing cumberer of the ground until he met Lita. Through her influence he was spurred on to be a man, and to be of some account in the world. With a little stretch of the imagination we can believe that the author's own experience was, perhaps, in his thoughts as he wrote. . . . There will be those, perhaps, who will find a political significance in this story. To us it is merely the pastime of a gentleman of leisure and of P^ s - As a literary effort it has no great rank. ±he author shows that he is an amateur in every line, but he deserves credit for showing to the world that he could do more than marry a princess. As a whole, it is the work of a marquis, not of a poet."