HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVI, Issue 2274, 2 August 1894, Page 4

HERE AND THERE.

CLIPPINGS, CONDENSATIONS, AND COMMENTS. From the New Zealand Mail. The Czarewich (to whom Princess Alix is to be married) is, of course, a very brilliant match, but few people will be disposed to congratulate the Princess on her future prospects, as he is weak, both mentally and physically, and by no means amiable in his temper, resembling, indeed, the Emperor Paul a great deal more than the Emperor Nicholas. It is notorious, besides, that the marriage of her sister Princess Elizabeth of Hesse, and the Grand Duke Serge is a very unhappy one.

The Daily Telegraph’s Paris correspondent says that after “ Napoleon et les Femmes," the industrious and indefatigable M. Frederic Masson has now given to the public another entertaining and gossipy volume entitled “ Napoleon Chez Lui (Napoleon at Home), which is published by Dentu.

Herein the author shows us the great conqueror at home, the interest of the descriptions being heightened by M. do Myrbach’s amusing illustrations, including Napoleon in bed, an Imperial shave, and His Majesty at table before one of those meals chiefly consisting of chicken and pastry, washed down by well-watered Chambertin, which were dispatched in a slovenly manner and in about seven minutes. M. Masson neglects nothing. He follows the Emperor from morning till night, tolls how he wore his slippers until they were utterly dilapidated, and how he had himself brushed down with eau-de-Cologne every day, making the valet work as if he were scrubbing a donkey. At half past six every morning Constant, the chief, valet, entered the Emperor’s bed-room and flung the windows open. Meneval presented the letters, and a servant brought in a cup of tea or orange-flower. Corvisart, on entering, was usually saluted with the words —“Ah, there you are, you great quack! Have you been killing many people lately ?” While having a warm bath, after Constant had related the gossip of the day, the Emperor listened to Meneval’a summaries of the newspapers. Next followed the levde or reception, at nine o’clock the special audience, and at eleven dejeuner. At this meal the Emperor frequently used his fingers as forks, and oared little for the order of the service, sometimes eating soup last.

The Pall Mall Gazette tells the following curious story about “New Australia

Mrs B was a delicately nurtured young woman who was made supremely happy one day by her husband coming from the scene of his labours carrying a pair of fowls. He had obtained them as a thankoffering from a grateful Guarani for some slight service rendered. Mrs Hr- knew something about fowls, and she saw with delight in her mind’s eye future broods of chicken and fresh eggs for her children. She staked off and fenced in with her own hands a little hen-run outside of the mudranch, happily resolving that her hens would not lay away, all unconscious that in a few days the inexorable laws of the association would pounce down on her fowls and declare them common property. They were removed to form the nucleus of a communistic henfarm. As a nucleus they lived, and as a nucleus in a few days afterwards they died. There is no nucleus now; no one is sufficiently interested in fowls to provide one. A had a sick child, and the common store was sadly deficient in ordinary comforts. A friendly Indian was riding by with a jar of milk, and Mr A negotiated the purchase of it by swapping his razor. A neighbour witnessed the transaction and reported it to Mr Lane. What remained of the milk was immediately confiscated, because by the rules of the association Mr A had no business to possess a private razor. Mr A—— protested that the razor was as sacred to his person as his garments, and that because, for the sake of his child, he had determined to grow his beard, he was quite at liberty to dispose of the razor. But this plea was rejected and the milk confiscated. Amusing enough, but doubtful as to veracity we should say.

According to a writer in The WOman's Herald the fair sex bid fair to excel the men in physical strength if their present love of exercise continues: —

Women are going in so steadily for outdoor exercise and physical training that their energy is ever on the increase. This exercise is pure gain to them, while men as a rule discount the good they get from physical exertion by their drinks which, whether long or short, are usually rather potent. Then they cannot do for more than a certain time without a smoke, and that certain time is generally very limited. Open air and exercise without smoking and drinking must be very much better than with these two adjuncts, and this may possibly account to some extent at least for the growing physical snperiority of our sex which is being constantly wondered at and generally admitted by the more thoughtful of mankind.

A souvenir of a grisly deed 1 The West Coast correspondent of the Otago Daily Times writes:—

One of the men instrumental in bringing that infamous gang of cut-throats- —Burgess, Sullivan, Kelly, and Levy—to justice (Mr George Jervis) is now staying in Westport. Ho kept a store at Canvaston in the palmy days of the Wakamarina goldfields, and had this notorious gang of criminals as neighbours for several weeks. The horses used by the four murdered men, Do Pontius, Mathieu, Kempthorne, and Dudley, wore his property, and he was the first to report the men as missing in Nelson. On his way to the city* the men determined to murder him, and tossed a shilling—one which Burgess kept for the purpose—to decide the time for the deed. The toss resulted in favour of postponement, and the intended victim's death was thus averted. Before his execution Burgess handed Mr Jervis the coin, and ho still keeps it in his possession. It bears the initials of the murderer’s assumed name, Kichard Travers. Mr Jervis was present at the execution, and gives a graphic description of the awful scene.

The Helping Hand, a religious periodical published at Auckland, comments upon Stead’s remarkably-named book, “ If Christ Came to Chicago ?” and says:— What would Christ find if he came to Auckland ? He would find churches fighting for their peculiar creeds, splitting hairs oyer trifles. He would find church members at ease in Zion, and practically surrendering the government of city and country to the profane keeping of the avowed enemies of Christ. He would find the poor man, and his shabby garments unwelcomed in our churches. Poor Auckland is evidently in a bad way.

What wo may com© to in New Zealand! Mrs Lease (looking up from her newspaper) —“William, does it not make your blood boil to read of these combinations of capital against ” Her Husband —“One moment, my dear. The baby is awake again. I must give him some more soothing syrup.** Mrs Leas© (as he leaves the room) —“Bother the baby! I can’t have peace to think in this house. It is enough to drive a woman to drink !** Mr Lease (who has returned after pacifying the baby) —“ My dear, I don’t think camphorated oil is good to rub on his chest; it opens the pores and ’* Mrs Lease (impatiently)— .All right, do as you please. As I was saying, William, the down-trodden farmer cannot get bread and bacon, while ” Mr Lease (excitedly)—“ Ah, now I remember it! I put the bacon in the pot just after you left for the conference, and I never thought of it again till this moment. How could I be so stupid?*’ Mrs Lease (after his return from the kitchen) —“ William, I fear you cannot raise your mind above sordid things. It is no use to talk to you of the great problems which are now engaging the human intellect. When I try to explain the causes of the agricultural depression you cannot take your mind off your hum-drum household duties.’* Mr Lease (humbly)—“Don’t bo hard on me, my dear. After your hours you can spend your evenings in improving your mind, while my work is never done. X was up with the baby nearly all last Today I couldn’t get the kettle to boil, .and I have a heap of sewing ahead of me tonight.’* Mrs Lease —“ Well, perhaps there are excuses for you. Go on with your sewing while I finish this article.’* —New York Judge .

How to see cataract in yonr own eye. — The following simple method enables a patient to see a cataract in his own eye and note its growth and development, probably better than any oculist can observe it for him: — Cataract is said to be due to the gradual deposition of oxalate of lime in the substance of the crystalline lens, at first in small spots or streaks, sometimes in one part and sometimes in another,' The deposit gradually increases until it penetrates the whole of the lens, causing blindness. The remedy, then, is to. remove the lens, and after its removal the patient needs a substitute in the form of highly magnifying , spectacles. All that is necessary to enable a patient to see his own cataract for himself is a piece of card and a needle —a visiting card will do very well. Pierce a clean round hole near the middle of the card and hold the card up to the light close to the eye, looking preferably in the direction of a piece of blue sky. With the card near to the eye, the patient will not see the small helo pierced by the needle, but he will see a comparatively largo faintly-illuminated field with his cataract projected upon it. He is, in fact, observing the shadow cast by his cataract on the retina at the back of his eye. With a small puncture in the card the shadow so thrown is comparatively sharp. But with a normal eye an evenly-illuminated field or clean disc will be seen. The patient may thus map down his own cataract, and settle for himself whether it is extending and whether he will have an operation or not. None of the oculists I have seen have known of the method, and there may, consequently, be some advantage in making it public. —J.S., in Knowledge.