Pot Pourri.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 423, 20 March 1880, Page 4

Pot Pourri.

The Sydney correspondent of a Hobart Town paper tells the following in all earnestness :—" v. gentleman who had a fancy fish pond in his grounds wondered how it happened that though he continually replenished it with gold and silver fish, his finny treasures were for ever disappearing. He came to the conclusion that midnight robbers deprived him of his treasures, and he resolved to watch from a secret place of observation. He did so, and when all was hushed and still, the house cab was gliding down to his pond. After j-cratch - ing up some some worms she dangled them over the water, and when the nibblers fastened on them, she clawed them up and devoured a cmfortable supper. This anecdote is no traveller's invention, but a real fact." More quarrels occur between brothers, between sisters, between hired girls, between clerks in stores, between apprentices in mechanics' shops, between hired men, between husbands and wives, owing to electrical changes, through which their nervous systems go by lodging together night after night under the same bed-clothes, than by almost any other disturbing cause. There is nothing that will derange the nervous system of a person who is eliininative in nervous force, as to lie all night in bed with another person who is absorbent in nervous force. The absorber will go to sleep and rest all night, while the eliminator will be tumbling and tossing, restless and nervous, and wake up in the morning fretful and peevish, fault-finding and discouraged. No two persons, no matter who they are, should habitually sleep together. One will thrive, the other will lose. This is the law, and in married life it is defied almost universally. A correspondent of the Western Morning Neivs gives an interesting description of the voyage of the Crocodile. In the course of his observations he says :—" On September 20 the ship crossed the Equator early in the morning. On the following night a most curious circumstance occurred, which would hardly be credited. The ship was stopped by jellyfish, which shortly after one o'clock appeared in myriads as far as the eye could reach, and thousands of luminous bodies floating upon the water gave the appearance of a scene from fairyland. Some of the fish got into the strainers of the condensers and blocked the holes so that the water could not enter, and the result was that the vacuum went down and then disappeared entirely. The condensers afterwards became so heated that we had to stop steaming altogether, take off the strainers, and clean them. Three attempts were made to steam, and each failed from the same cause. In this way we were delayed no less than five hours, but at daybreak the fish sank, and the vessel was able to proceed. The same thing occurred again on the following night, the ship being delayed four hours.

At a dinner in London the conversation lapsed, as it will sometimes lapse with the best of hosts, into questions hardly distinguishable from conundrums. A celebrated historian was present, and I put a question to him which I know has puzzled a great many people at different times —" What is the surname of the Royal Family ?" " Guelph, of course." That is the usual answer, and it was the historian's. I ventured to suggest that, although the Royal Family are Guelphs by descent, her Majesty's marriage with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg must have the effect which a marriage of a lady has in all other cases, and that the surname of the present house must be the Prince Consort's. " But what is the surname of the Prince Consort's family ?" Simple, but staggering. No one knew. All guessed, and all were wrong. I happened to have looked up the subject afew months ago, solknew that the name was " Wettin." Of course, no one had heard it before. Every one had smiled at the horrible idea of the Guelphs being reduced to Wettin ! The point was referred to Theodore Martin. " You are quite right," said the graceful biographer of the Prince Consort. " Wettin is the family name of the House of Saxony to whom the dominion of Saxony came in the year 1420. The King of Saxony and the minor Princes of the house are, therefore, all Wettins ; or, in German, Wettiner."

There are many newspaper ventures nowadays (writes " Atticus " in the Leader). Not a sect but has its particular journal, not an industry but owns a newspaper affiliated to its interests. Perhaps, however, the Railway Times may be held to mark a new era in literature. A copy of this paper is now lying before me. It contains the latest news of Home and foreign politics, the money market, Parliamentary debates, and theatrical and musical events. It is printed in the train running between New York and San Francisco. News is telegraphed from different parts of the States to certain stations on the line, and these are collected by the editorial staff attached to the train. A printing press works in a carriage set apart for it, and the traveller has his newspaper every morning at breakfast during each day of his week's journey. I should like to hear Dr. Richardson discourse upon the " expectation of life" which the editors and printers of this journal would have Newspaper work is exhausting enough at any time, but I should say that, performed in a vibrating railway car itfwould speedily make itself seriously felt. But the greedy public wants its news, and so gets it. The more you give that insatiate monster the more he wants. The name of Philip Arnold, says the Times, will be remembered by many. He was the person who many years ago bought in England and on the Continent diamonds of inferior quality, and some other precious stones, and buried them on a mountain slope on the borders of New Mexico and Arizona. It will be recollected that Arnold "got up" a company for the purpose of exploring those pretended diamond-fields, that experts weie despatched to examine the locality, that their reports were contradictory, and that at last the

swindle was exposed. Arnold was generally believed to have netted a considerable fortune by the transaction ; hut all efforts to make him surrender any part of the plunder were fruitless. He died quite lately in Kentucky, and one Barlow has commenced a suit against his widow, demanding restitution of 143,000d01. The statement made by Barlow is to the effect that, about eight years ago, moved by Arnold's representations, he despatched an expert to the scene of the alleged diamond fie:ds, who, on his return, assured him of the trustworthiness of Arnold's reports, and declared that there were immense treasures of diamonds and other stones all along the range, almost waiting to be picked up. Barlow at once advanced 100,000dol. to Arnold for working the field. Soon afterwards a thorough examination of the locality was made by some honest experts, who exposed the swindle. Barlow now seeks t© recover his 100,000dol. and 43,000d01. besides, which he sets down as interest of the advances.

An English civil engineer has a mechanical contrivance for timing the racing competitors in athletic meetings. By means of a drum, revolving at the rate of one turn in Bfteen seconds, and in electrical communication with each end of the course, the time may be determined down to the thousandths of a second. Pound this drum would be wound a sheet of paper, marked horizontally for the number of men running, and couttet would be broken by the rupture of a fine thread stretched across the course immediately in front of the starting place, and of the corresponding thread at the finish, the time of starting and finishing being thus instantaneously recorded. This will, if successful, at least do away with much of the disputing now so characteristic of atheletic contests. We shall also probably see the time of certain feats reduced.

An eccentric Englishman has recently built a house in the Quartier Tivoli for the residence of himself, his wife and eight children, which is the talk of all Paris. It is circular, and has neither door or window externally. The approach to it is from the ground floor on to the roof by means of a ladder, which is moved up and down by machinery similar to that of a drawbridge. There is only one floor, and that contains eighteen apartments, more or less small in dimensions, which are lighted from above by a glazed cupola. One stove for all these rooms is in the middle, and in the summer is to be occupied by an exquisite parterre of flowers. A circular balcony, open to all the apartments, surrounds this space. The motive of this oddity is, of course, only known to the author of it, but everybody can see that two points are gained by it—immunity from the taxes on doors and windows and a perfect preventive of any attempt at burglary. The first draught belongs to thirst; the second to pleasure ; the third to joy; the fourth to drunkenness ; the fifth to anger and wars ; the sixth to disease. To drink beyond satisfaction is, among care-laden men, as old as the drinking of the noble, care-dispelliDg juice of the grape. The Patriarch Noah, to whom the invention of wine-drinking is ascribed, was also the first to " make a beast of himself" thereat, and to such an extent that his sons could only approach him backward to throw a covering over him. The wise Greeks who brought such charming offerings to the Graces, did not ascribe the admirable invention of wine to a patriarch, but to divinity blooming in eternal youth and beauty, who went in triumph round the earth to make all mortals happy, to teach men laboriously ploughing the ground to cultivate the vine, and to give them, through inspiring drink, the raptures of the gods. They dia not count the number of the cups ; they consecrated them. Each draught swallowed was in praise of a blessed divinity, or glorification of the Beautiful and the Good, or in celebration of the charms of a beloved woman. The multitude of the cups so religiously emptied, often brought the gifted, the delicately organised Greek under the table. The Germans likewise, from the remotest period, have regarded drinking after the satisfaction of thirst as a very important and delightful thing, and have shown themselves not only very inventive in the preparation of the very best intoxicating drinks, but also in the discovery of good reasons for taking enough, and more than enough, of the precious gifts of God. To the Germans belongs the invention of the huge "Dice Glass," the foot of which contained two movable dice. Each carouser had to shake the glass, so that the dice were likewise shaken. He had to empty as many wellfilled glasses as the dice showed points. Another principal drinking glass was that called " Welcome." It had no foot, and had to remain in the hand of the guest till he had completely emptied it. If the Germans regarded drinking as an honorable thing, it may easily be supposed that they did not consider drunkenness dishonorable. When there is no drinking at a meal, the Dane says that it is a " horse's meal." The Frenchman calls it " a dog's dinner." The Italian tells us to be on our guard against a man who eats without drinking. The German never dreams of doing, anything of the kind, for with him drinking is the principal thing. He drinks everything, drinks evermore, drinks above all on an exceptionally important occa-ion. At a baptismal banquet he drinks, and drinks, and drinks, in order that the child may be healthy _ and happy ; at a funeral feast he drink-, and drinks, and drinks, that the soul of the dead may journey blessedly to the abodes of the blest. No wonder then that, according to the proverb, a German needs three tapsters forevery cook. Another proverb says that it is not needful that he who is destined to be drowned should sink ; for a German can always be drowned in his glass. —From the German of Koerte: translated in " Copes Tobacco Plant." It is computed that over a million sterling is annually made out of the mungo and shoddy trade ; and that as much cloth is made every year from old rags, with a proper admixture of low wools, as would supply the whole of the adult population of Great Britain with a new suit, and all the women with a good-sized clothjacket, and all the children with one suit or dress.