SELECTED ARTICLES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 191, 30 November 1876, Page 2

SELECTED ARTICLES.

LOCKMAKERS AND LOCKBREAKERS. A somewhat exciting contest is just now being carried on in America with great spirit. The contest referred to is between the old antagonists, the lockmakers and burglars. Till recently the lockmakers appeared to have decidedly the best of their opponents, and neither picklocks nor drills nor blasting-powder could prevail against the mechanical ingenuity of the locksmiths. Latterly, however, the burglars have been resorting to what cannot °but be regarded as a very mean trick in order to overcome their opponents. When a lock defies their utmost exertions, they kidnap the Bank clerk who has charge of the keys, and whose friendly cooperation is secured by means of a rope placed round his neck and gradually twisted tighter with every successive demand. This, as the locksmiths complained, could not be considered fair fignting, and the contest having been carried quite beyond the boundaries of their domain, they might without discredit have declined further efforts. Once more, however, the rogues seem likely to be checkmated. A clockwork mechanism has been adopted in some of the banks which, when once a safe has been locked, keeps it locked for a certain number of hours. Thus, a safe closed at the end of the day's business cannot be opened even by one who has c.large of the keys till business time next morning. This device is now adopted in establisnments where two or more locks with separate keys are impracticable. The larger city houses are beginning to rely upon an electric contrivance by which the mere tread of the thieves on the floor of the depository of the safe, or the first tap with the hammer, not only registers the time and the locality where they are about to go to work, but gives an alarm to some dozen well-armed men stationed at some central watch-house ready to proceed to where they may be required. A WINDFALL. A curious story has been circulated within the past few days (says the Mount Alexander Mail), a Victorian paper, respecting a wealthy gentleman who was once a citizen of Castlemaine. Some time since, a person in a neighboring township died, leaving a quantity of old lumber in his domicile, and no heir or next of kin to take possession of them. The whole fell into the hands of the Curator of Intestate Estates, who quickly realised upon the goods. The gentleman referred to attended the sale, and finding there three ordinary-looking boxes of tools of a description he fancied (being an optician by trade), he bid for them ; some dealers, however, ran him up so that he paid for one box £4, another £2, and the third £l. On opening the largest and dearest box, the contents were found to be so worthless that he directed one of his assistants to throw it out, or make an "old clothes" box of it. At the same time he overturned it, and threw all its contents on the floor. On re-adjusting the box a small secret drawer was discovered, and curiosity tempted this gentleman to examine it, when, to his surprise, he found, a packet of desds and Crown grants carefully stowed away, representing the title of the deceased man to property in Carlton estimated to "be worth from £1,500 to £2,000. Communication was opened with the Curator of Intestaie Estates, through a solicitor, notifying that a valuable discovery had been made, but without revealing its nature. ' In a day or two the gentleman was surprised by a visit from the officer of the Crown, who demanded to know what was the discovery, but the finder was too wary to be caught like that, and referred the visitor to his solicitor. After some negotiation, the purchaser of the box remarked, "If you give me £2OO, provided my discovery realises to you £I,OOO, or proportionately less if it does not bring so much, I will give you the requisite information." This was agreed to, and the deeds were at once handed over to the astonished Curator. The £2OO was then paid, and subsequently the property sold, realising considerably more than the estimated value. ♦ A MAN LOCKED UP FOR TEN YEARS, An occurrence of such a dreadful and extraordinary cruel nature, the like of which has never or seldom been heard of before, is reported by the Echo of Paris as having been brought to light at Saint Jean de Luz, the favorite watering-place in the north of Spain. The particulars collected concerning this atrocious affair are as follow: —About ten years ago a well-known keeper of bathing-machines at Saint Jean de Luz had. become suddenly blind, and from that time was never seen to leave the domicile, a small cottage completely isolated, and at some distance from any other habitation, which he occupied with his wife and sister-in-law. Being thus lost sight of, his countrymen, in the habit of seeing him daily on the beach,

began at last to believe hinv ;to be either a paralysed or dead, a supposition which 3? his wife and her; sister confirmed with : great gratification, as'the pretext of his decease would enable them to ask for alma from the visitors of- the bathing*" place. A few days ago, however, it hap. pened. that a woman living in a cottage situated at some distance from that of the ex-bath-keeper, saw approaching her a'"j monstrous object, which seemed to be neither a man nor a beast. This* object dragged itself miserably along upon its lank and twisted legs, the bones protruding through the skin, and of a strange whiteness. His arms and breast were completely withered, the hands flat and dried up. the nails of an immense length., A filthy beard covered his face and rejoined his hair, or rather his mane, two glassy balls rolling about in the place of, eyes. The frightened woman was upon the point of making her escape from the monster crawling towards her, when a hardly audible, lamentable voice prayed her not to run away, telling her at the. same time that he was the bath-keeper whom everybody had believed dead, and begged of her to take pity on him. The. woman, upon this disclosure, gave him some food, and concealed him in her cottage whilst she went to acquaint the authorities of the dreadful discovery. An;. inquiry was at once instituted, and the, identity of the unfortunate man forth, with established. It was found that since the loss of his eyesight, he had been shut up by his wife and her sister in a miser- • able hole of a closet at the back of their their own room. There, almost famished, exposed without opposition to the bad : treatment of the women, he was kept during the space of ten years, having for furniture nothing but a truckle bed, or. rather a dunghill, and a tub. It .is most astonishing that, with such a pestilential smell, without air, or even daylight, and almost without nourishment, the man should have lived for this length of time, under such circumstances. ■♦ . . . PECULIARITIES IN SPEAKERS AND WRITERS. The New York World tells a story of a scene during a recent debate in Congreis under the operation of the one hour rule, which well illustrates some of the peculiarities of speakers. S. S. Cox had the floor, but consented to yield it to Mr., Canxon on condition that Mr. Cannon would speak with his hands in his pockets, professing to be annoyed with Mr.. Cannon's habit of emphasising his remarks by pointing his forefinger at the person to whom he was replying. The World relates the sequence as follows :'— •• The hapless Cannon accepted the condition, spoke a few words in of a schoolboy looking for his lost alley Wl * pantaloon pockets, forgot himself, pointed a threatening index imger at Cox, and sat. down amid the laughter of the House, as quiet as a discharged culverin. The scene was ah intensely ridiculous one, and in feigning to be afraid of Cannon's finger, and making him speak with his hands in his pockets, Mr. Cox tested very neatly the force of mere physical habits over mental processes. We wonder if he himself could deliver one of his elaborate pieces of burlesque eloquence, if he were obliged to stand in his tracks during the operation. What would Eugene Hale- be able to do in the way of serving the nation by wind and tongue if he had to speak with his coat unbuttoned ? Could Frye bend so vigorously to an argument if somebody were to thrust a shingle up under his waistcoat 1 Would Thurman be bo great without his red handkerchief! Could John Sherman contrive to find words to excuse so glibly the financial aberrations of his party if he had not Morton's crutch to play with ? And could Geo. Frisber Hoar express an idea if he were-restricted to twenty smiles a minute in the operation ?

It is curious how these little tricks of habit influence people; and only very rarely do we see a speaker who is so completely an artist that he has got rid of every awkward personal peculiarity. Demosthenes is said to have cured himself of a propensity to shrug his shoulders by suspending a sword with the point directly over the shoulder most prome to offend, Had John Van Buren adopted the aame p'an, would his sarcasms have been so effective without that gentle, and almost imperceptible lifting of the shoulders with which he so often introduced them? Seward was great on a platform where he had room to parade up and down like a gander, but we are inclined to think that he would have lost all sequence of ideas if mounted on top of a barrel. One man is self-possessed and ready when he has his arms crossed on his breast. Another when he has his hands clasped under his coat-tails. Palmerston, unlike Congressman Cannon, was at his best with hia hands in his breeches-pockets. There are men who can talk so long as they can have a hat to hold, while other* become boobies without an umbrella or cane. This man is discreet in his discourse and natural in his carriage so long as he has his watch-=chain to handle. The other becomes an idiot if he loses the ring which, he is in the habit of . twisting around his finger while he speaks. A Roman Senator, accustomed to feel his right arm perfectly free and the left con-. fined to the folds of his toga, would pr<Jh bably fail in explaining his vote if clad in a swallow-tailed coat.

Even in writing same strange power of mere physical habit is evinced. One celebrated author could only compose in a close room; the mind of another required, open windows and wide prospect. Scott wrote his novels before breakfast. Schiller writ j his plays late at night, with a bottle" of wine at his elbow. Pope translated-, the "Iliad" on scraps of paper. Q&tjmen could not write a line unles■ j had a book to record it. W« h*yff iw l *^

ayjt tfet Milton's mow was vowel.aa th* autumnal to the vernal Jihax. S«ne minds only work when e ir owner* a*e walking about, and great sti hav* been known who could not jpk unless when lying down. jt shrewd observer, watchful of the fries of those with whom he comes in itact, ia often enabled to trip* up the total processes of an opponent by throwt gome alight material obstacle in his * Thia failure of Cannon, under Cox's iUsical requisition that he should keep > hands m his pockets, is an admirable itance of this, and may hereafter be Kited with Scott's story of one of the ieka of hie boyhood. In his class at hool he had won hia way upward with tat rapidity until he reached the second ice, and there he stuck. The boy at ff head never failed or even faltered in iwering a question, and day after day »tt watched for an opportunity to get ote him, but no opportunity came. Be adied the situation with great anxiety [t tested the weakness of his rival's aracter to no purpose. The boy at the ad could not be tempted to relax his plant industry. At last Scott noticed a ouliar habit of the lad. When a quests was put to him he invariably took lid of on* of the buttons ia the breast i his jacket and began to finger it. ott conceived the existence of some btle connection between the button and » rival's self-possession and readiness, d secretly cut the button off. iSext ty, when the first question in the lesson a» put to the boy at the head ot the bis, he felt for the re-assuring button, lund it missing, got amazed and faltered, [is faculties lost touch and tune, and he lilad to answer. The young plotter went jots him, and watched with complacency le course of his victim as he went down I the foot, losing place after place. Mr. annon should study this story of the boy id his button, and lay its lesson to heart. BfNCBIKG AN INNOCENT MAN. A horrible crime has been committed in usque country, Texas. A young man of )od standing, by the name of Dixon, ma Johnson country, was paying his demons to a young lady, and became solous of the attentions of another young an. The tatter circulated the report lit young Dixon had spoken evil of the irl, and Dixon left. The father gathered p a number of men and followed him. hey came up with him in Comanche iimtry, arrested him on a fictitious large, and started back with him, took bas far as Bill Creek and hanged him. hey then cam* home and reported that I had been drowned. A few days after |rbody was found, (eart'ully decomposed, knging to a limb to a thicket. Ths urdarers }£*ve beesi arrested, and the *?x--i'Binen4w-"'js.high them. *! ——N—■ ■ ' ■