LONDON TOWN TALK.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 220, 5 January 1877, Page 2

LONDON TOWN TALK.

[Correspondent of the Md bourne Ar<jm.] Tlie i>rinciplc of co-operation is growing very fast in London, and with it the system of general provision. Under one roof in a well-known emporium in a western suburb, for example, it is the great boast of its proprietor that everything short of a hippopotamus can be produced on the counter. One side of a street has long belonged to this great uniand he has just purchased the opposite side. The other day an officer about to start for India bought his outfit at this place, and after remarking upon the great convenience he had met with in finding guns and gauze curtains under the same roof, observed, "If you could only provide mo with a good wife," my whole arragements might have been completed without leaving your threshold." " rejoined the proprietor, rubbing J^j^Hfl

persuasively, "we have 320 young in stock—l mean in our employment—of unexceptionable character, and I have heard one of the most charming of these speak of India as the very country she * would like to dwell in." The gallant captain asked for an introduction on the spot, and eventually married her—though not on the premises, for a church is. strange to say. ii-.;t at present included in the proprietor's arrangements. A commission, it is whispered, was charged upon the young lady in question, but whether any reduction was offered " upon taking a quantity," I have not heard. ,"* The death of Mr. George Luirenec, y V V author of "Guy Livingstone," lwys • duced some very unpleasant notices' public journals. The great principles of V 11:> mortui.i, Arc., ought to be better understood by gentlemen who are in the habit of belauding a classical education. On the other hand, the poor fellow has suffered from his friends, who have delivered several vague utterances in his honor, a**d laid especial stress upon the fact that he was the grandson of an Earl of Wiuchelsja. It is certain that our Press is growing more and more Americanised in the prominence that is now given to that unpleasant species of article called "personals." Mr. Laurence was a bright and clever writer, though "in a manner which is my aversion," and it is with his writings alone that the public have 10 do. Such comments are enough to drive all sensitive persons from the path of literature, and, indeed, every sort of public iii'e, as lias been the case (to her great misfoitune) in America. The great organ of the spiritualise; has been so good as to give us a biography of " Dr. '" JSlade. It appears he is the subject of a very powerful spirit called (hvusio, a Spanish Indian, who attends him i:: lr's mediumship, and has always taken an absorbing interest in him. When a lad, and in bad health, tiiis spirit led him into the woods and showed him where to dig for roots, 'which proved an e'iieaeious cure. This was in America., where happen that are " not generally known, and it may even be added, belie in England, when this tographed, the sun only takes his sacral head is ''generally hidden cloud of intense light." During the hour's of his wile's life she perfect herself in spirit emanations, iIH permitted so to do, mid hence it is that H she has established the shite and pencil I business. S•;■ much nonsense—" non- H sence, too," as the author of "Daniel ■ Deronda " says, "that has und< rgono a B mining op-..ration " —I new r read in print. I The most, humorous tiling in this spiritual- B ist newspaper, however, is the account of fl summoning a spirit through one Daniel, a medium. This gentleman from the other I world appeared in person, " sprang from I the platform to the ti'oor with a bound. M posed himself under the gaslight, bowed fl three times, and then sprang up and fl showed his head and bust above the eabi- fl net. lie was enveloped in an ample fl white robe, had a dark mousta.-he and H tuft upon his chin, and wore a velvet hat. J with a white ostrich feather." Now, who fl do you think this etherial acrobat was / H It was the spirit of the Royal martyr ■ Charles tile First '. The company seem H to have been impressed with the sense of H the privilege vouchsafed to them, for the H reporter says, " Never did the sentiments uf our hearts more' truly respond to thefla i expression of our lips than when, at theflj end of this .<•''< /<c(?, we sang the well-worn HJ doxology, ' Praise God, from whom all Afl blessings How—Amen.'" It appears cei vH J tain that Dr. Slade is not a eertitied »™..MI | dium. He has not a certilicate from the flj ! Paris Central Association authorising him H } to act as middle-man between the j worlds. The Lunrd (jealous perJv.',*-*4ijM this sort or diploma) has given a/«c of one of these, with tue billowing head- H ing :—" The incarnation and evocation r HJ spirits. No. 2. Continuity of life frr H age to age, and world to world, &i' Bi which ' consecvates ' its possessor to ;;ct HJ a link of union between the living ; the dead. This .is signed by a *<J .H Pontitl'.' -H We are often told of the triump --iS| science, but probably no persons con. i;flfl at times more egregious mistakes thanßfl those who have the management of mc-H chanical undertakings. There was little noise made concerning the steamersflfl for Channel traffic that were built tooflfl large to get into tlie harbours ; and I day_flfl say as little will be made about Penguin, for which a set of very nice en-Mfl gines have been built, it seems, only tlieyflH are not to be got into her at answer of theengineer.«iu botf^^B^^^^B

B~ - of Ms great country, amifi thrat »<ven tlte I EaglamL " But how, then." inquired a I sceptic *'tl<-> they contrive r.,> w" mto the I niveaf" "• t ►!:, il';t;i Vm. r. ; ■••„.'■...'■. !».• k H A very, very wicked journal r >:i.••!-••* mi H the large eptaritity of luggage bt .'i.. m,' id I the Duehcsa- of Edinburgh tltat is kttv,' H snipped from Dnvtr to Calais, arid hints H that it is a signal of what it cttlls '"jndiH uioritt separation." The nianagi- i'» of the tin at-es are in revolt against the runv dramatic er te of the H Tiiiw. 'Hie C-hu'.ty has delivered its volley H of defiance, and l>m;y Lane la* published its iimn.) serious remonstrate, ft must headmitted fiat the prevbm.-i wnllcr of the anaatio sceptre in the leading uewsnap r ■ vt » given to prai.-.o thin..;* a little iudiscn- ■ mittately ; hut tho young genthman win H has suece-ded him evn *t;il*!more itt the H opposite direction, [t ofr.mi happens that peisons of his immature year:-! that, to ho severe - or what some might even call spiteful is to evince a critical I talent. As the *m of the I.i.*-- < manag' rof I the Tliiu'.t, ho has probably bei ri ofcV'red ■ the ticst vacant berth, without much eotvI sid ivatiou as to his mental fitness for if ; H and, moreover, tho th under.-i- has uevtr I given, much intelligent attention either to I the stage <>•• literature. The remit of the ■ quarrel will probably lie that the young ■ man will have to " g..." lint it. is ruism- ■ able to see that the Eh'ir.is'i drama is .--o H dependent upon what is written by ', H a person wliom its professor:* describe I H a; malicious y,nd incompetent, when j H literature h.as so long emancipated | H itself from the wrong - il»in.."; of the H unties. .V book is jud vd by the H public, bur. a play, it s :ems, must be mB trod need to tin: public t! rough tlw draI inatie writer* foe :.'ie E'rvs.;, the'middlemen I ■ of till! stage, tie attorneys of the font- ! H tights. Whoever has iie- u bmnud t.c I H scenes at a "first m ;'.t " must have B> heard how the eimstary "f m.-ic new-maper | ■■ in fact, is given iy to this,' eon-noi-i-ints. .'*','. i I Hi \vry much afraid i ■r*Wia,. I'm-' ')i. i.:;c si;i.,' „'o •« by fivor," ■ has- a v !".- ■••■ ■ . ii. ' .-mi peculi.i.r si-'imi. ] Ki canue ;vn, i- -,i..'•.- nir dri'.i'iat;c crua-