Pot Pourri.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 421, 6 March 1880, Page 4

Pot Pourri.

Many of our readers reside in back settlements and selections some distances from any centre of population, and doubtless some of them are in the habit of occasionally making use of the Post-office for the transmission of letters and small parcels. For such, a few hints as to a simple and thoroughly efficacious way of ascertaining the weight of a letter or other small article would probably not come amiss. Place a pencil on a penholder near the edge of a table parallel to its side. Next procure a straight smooth walkiDg-stick or a dead lath or wand about two feet six inches long, lay the stick across the pencil so that the end shall project over the edge of the table, and attach a double sheet of paper to the projecting end of the stick by a pin. Next make a se t of weights. This would appear to be the most difficult part of the whole business, but in reality it is the easiest. Many people do not know that three ordinary English pennies are equivalent in weight to an ounce. Consequently three pennies may be taken as the standard weight. Put them in the sheet of paper on the stick and move until it shall just balance on the pencil. Then carefully take out the pennies and replace them by the letter you wish to weigh. If the letter causes the stick to balance evenly as the coppers did, then it must weigh just an ounce, and so on with other weights. A halfpenny is also of use as a standard of measurement, it being just an inch in diameter. Thus anybody possessing a few coppers need not be at a loss in measurements of weight and length. In the Tasmanian House of Representatives on Feb. 5, Mr. Pillinger moved—“ That this House resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House to consider an address to be presented to his Excellency the Governor, praying that his Excellency will be pleased to rec ommend the appropriation of a sum not exceed ing £SOO, for the purpose of the substitution of'a fortnightly mail service to New Zealand ” The Colonial Treasurer said although he was aware of the benefit of having steam communication to New Zealand, be did not feel justified in acceding to the request. It was true the steamers come to Hobart Town fortnightly instead of monthly, as under contract ; but he presumed that was because they found it to their advantage. He would point out also that the service was not an unmixed good, as it had put all sailing vessels belonging to the port out of the trade.—The motion was negatived, 11 voting for and 12 against. The gra< d feature of the new MadisonPquare Theatre, New York, is the stage, which has been constructed under the supervision of Nelse Waldron. It is a movable, double stage, and is in reality, a huge. elevator. It is 31 feet in width, 29 in depth, and the space between the two floors is 25 feet 2 inches, w hile the first act of a play is being presented on the lower stage, the scenery for the second act is to be set upon the upper floor. Then, when the curtain falls, the great elevator is lowered, until the upper floor reaches the level of the foot lights. The lower floor is then in the deep pit excavated in the basement, and the scenery can be removed and a new set made. The double stage is to be worked by a system of friction wheels, and it is thought that eight men can easily raise and lower it. If it proves to be a succ ss, there, will be no necessity for the curtain of the Madison-Square Theatre to remain down more than two or three minutes between any two acts of a drama. Parisian Umbrellas. One noteworthy fact in connection with the umbrellas of the Parisians —they are invariably returned when lent. That is, of course, if lent to a friend or acquaintance. If the lender has been forced, through stress of circumstances, to part with his umbrella, to the detective-looking employes of that worthy institu ion, the Monte de Piete, well, then, it depends entirely upon himself whether he ever has it returned again. With respect to the ready return of these useful articles when borrowed for a time by a particular friend, one may well say, “ they manage these things much better in France.” To return a borrowed article at the earliest possible opportunity is a point of honor with a Frenchman, whether that article be a franc, a book, a piece of music, or last, but not least, an umbrella. Englishmen are not quite so particular. There is a ta'e told in a French volume of Jeu de niots, of a certain London lawyer who used to exhibit a score or two of umbrellas, which he had borrowed at various intervals from different people. His. plea.of justification was that he had given his advice to the lenders, and had borrowed their umbrellas upon the strength of the fee due to him for the advice. When questioned a 3 to the nature of the advice given, his reply was, “ I told them never to lend anything, as it was a bad habit.” It is needless to add that the victimised clients were advised after, and not before, the loan of their umbrellas. There is rather more of the hen trovato about this than the vero ; but, at any rate, just for the sake of deriving some moral conclusion, we may safely assume that no French avocat would be .guilty of such a questionable manner of obtaining his umbrellas as that. He would, of course, repair to the “ Printemps,” or “ Magazins du Louvre, and lawfully possess himself by purchase of such an article, should he be in need of it. But, stay ! it is an open question whether Parisian lawyers ever make use of umbrellas. M. Gambetta, the chef of avocats, was never seen with one. Perhaps his impetuosity would lead him to use it as an aggressive weapon, with which to rout Paul de Cassaguac or M. Rouherin the French Assembly. However, the great democratic orator is under .an umbrella now —one which overshadows him, and protects him from the heat of his. own fiery nature —an umbrella, whose stick is his title of President of the Chamber, and its covering the authority with which he is invested. May he remain there long enough to give » beneficial impetus to trade, which ia at

present in a very declining condition, and which whilst it makes things bad for commerce in general, affects to a certain extent, even those useful articles, umbrellas.

Heathen Enterprise.—Rev. Mr. Waterman is au episcopal clergyman of strong ritualistic views. Having ample means he conceived the idea of being an independent missionary to the Hindos. He was married last January and immediately sailed for Bombay. From thence to Allahabad by rail, where he hired a sedan chair carried by four stout bearers in which he and his wife proceeded to the Ferruckjoblee District, on the Ganges River. Into this region no missionary had ever before penetrated, and the natives received them kindly. He fitted up a chapel and a schoolroom in his dwelling and waited for the heathen. They held back. Finally Mrs. Waterman, taking a hint from the Sunday schools of her native land, ... offered clothes, candy and stereopticon views of the Holy Land, when a desire for instruction was at once manir fested. One day a washerwoman ( rig-veda ) offered three boys of the apparent ages of 10 and 12, for pupils. Mrs. Waterman accordingly welcomed and clothed them and furnished books. They disappeared at the end of a week, when their venerable and griefstricken mother announced that they had been devoured by a tiger. The missionaries sympathised with her, but were pleased to learn that t-he had three other boys yet to be christianised. They were produced and fully fitted out. Strangely enough they appeared of about the same ages as their three lamented brothers. At the end of three weeks they had vanished and their frantic mother appeared to say that they had been devoured by a crocodile while bathing in the Ganges. This was a heavy blow. The following day the six remaining boys—all about the same age as the previous ones—were brought to school. Mr. Waterman wanted an explanation with the enterprising washerwoman regarding the respective ages of her remarkable family, but his wife held that it would be indelicate. Two weeks later the six boys vanished. Then came their mother in sack-cloth and ashes—her last remaining boy was drowned in the Ganges, she would die. She had, however, 11 girls (all between the ages of 10 and 12) who might enter the school. Here the missionaries’ credulity failed, and the weeping washerwoman was disrjjissei with much coldness. It was subsequently ascertained that the childless old mother had simply hired these children to attend the school, from whence they brought her wha*: was given them. The mission has been abandoned.

MRS. SCOTT-SIDDONS’ TROUBLES. A Tasmanian exchange says :—lt has been known to intimate friends of Mrs. ScottSi Idons for some time that her domestic life was one of extreme trouble, and that latterly it became so utterly unendurable, that she has at last been compelled to obtain a separation from her most unworthy husband. For a long time Mrs. Siddons bravely bore her sorrows in silence, shrinking from any reference to her husband's misdoings. It is now, however, public that she has been compelled to seek legal advice, and in Mrs. Siddons’ interest, as she will probably return to Victoria next year, it is advisable the real facts should be known. The following respecting the matter appears in the New York Herald and Davenport Democrat. She was separated from her husband in England, a division of the property having been made, and she returns to this country (America) next week —says the New York Herald. Well, it is a wonder that she didu’t separate from him years ago. Such a life as he, a great big man, led that beautiful little wife of his in the West, isn’t often endured so long by women of pluck and energy. Mrs. Siddons first visited Davenport in 1871, we believe, and while she was entertaining a great audience in the Opera-house, he was as drunk as a fool in the old Burtis-house, raging about his wife, using vile epithets concerning her, and swearing that he would be divorced.

That was the kind of husband he was. Yet he handled all her money, and her readings were in demand at £2 )0 a night those times. And the way he took care of her money was to scatter it around. One winter night, Mrs. Siddons, her maid, and her husband, were on the train from the south-west, and the conductor asked Scott for his fare. He was in a drunken sleep. He put his hand in his overcoat pocket, pulled out a great bundle of greenbacks, held his hand up to the conductor, opened it wide, let the money drop on the floor, dropped his fist, and was asleep again in a second. The conductor picked up the money, and there was 140 dollars in the pile ; he took out the fare for three, and handed the rest to Mrs. Siddons, who was warming herself at the stove. When the train reached Columbus Junction the Siddons party left it to change cars, and Scott allowed his wife and the maid to carry two big trunks to the other baggage car, while he followed with a little valise in his hand, cursing the weather. Yet Mrs. Siddons complained not a word—in fact, she was never heard to complain by outsiders. He may never have abused her to her face, but was terribly abusive of her to bar-room loungers when on his “ tares.” The party was here three or four days once, and while their hotel bill was 65d01., Scott’s liquor bill was 80dol. ! He must have spent a fortune for her, The Herald says that in the settlement “ Mr. Siddo s is to have possession of the property in New Zealand,” which is very valuable, it appears, and that Mrs. Siddons begins life over again with a largely reduced fortune, but with a brave heart and talents ripened with growth and culture.” Some of the old-time New Zealanders ought to get hold of that fellow Scott, who appended his wife’s name to his own, instead of prefixing the name to the paternal cognomon. The incident narrated by the Democrat could be supplemented by many similar and even worse narrations of his conduct in Victoria, were it either wise or needful to do so. But as Mrs. Siddons has now taken the wisest step

she could to free herself from a bitter trouble and terrible drain on her resources—it is hardly necessary to publish the misdoings of the man by whom she suffered. One of the worst features of the business is that Mr. Siddons had always the control of financial matters, and must have seriously crippled his wife’s means, of which she was the sole winner; but with her genius and her beauty she did not unite any business talent, and hence she has to, as the Herald says, “ begin life over again.”