HOME GOSSIP.

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

HOME GOSSIP.

j + ' ('• Atlas" in the ll'orhl.) j Some "f the Christmas annuals (which are generally written in the dog flag's) are | announced, :md one Prophetic almanac [ for 1.577 has already appeared. I confess ti> having invested a penny in the vatieij natorv calendar ; but the outlay was more I than repaid by the information that the 1 Turco-Servian war would not be raging in j January next, because Russia had pre- ! s rved a strict neutrality : that a statesi man would die suddenly in April : that an important discovery in chemistry, which may come near to solve the problem as to the disposal of our sewage, will be made in June ; that there will be a sensible decrease of drunkenness in July : that there will be a succession of insurrections in Mexico in December ; and—here is the /.<)«;<.■ Imvdv —that in the merry month of May some enthusiastic politician in Ireland may dare England to tread on the tail of his coat, but that his braggadocio will only excite a smile. And all that for a penny. .Surely Dr. Sladc is outdone. Messrs. Bonnie and Shephard, the best known of Indian photographers, are said to be engaged upon a new and interesting work, which may prove of especial importance to artists. They are photographing the various forms of Oriental cloudcumuli, which, especially about the monsoon times, are particularly fine in contour and proportion. In England we rarely know what a imt-ts of clouds appears like when distinct, and clearly outlined against a calm sky, except now and then, when a sudden first burst of an equinoctial gale drives up precipitately a bank of these over the western horizon, when all the zenith is blue #nd all the east is basking in quiet sunsliine. The cloud-forms of the tropics are particularly grand, and if well reproduced will greatly interest observers of Nature. It is too much to ex-

pect, however, that the cloud-embank-meuts, which often appear with inexpressible grandeur at the bursting of a cyclone, will be caught by the camera. One detective Boyell, who testified on oath, in a case in a metropolitan policecourt, that he was acquainted with French, translated Fillet dc jok- as " joyous girls." The policeman's literal rendering might be pardoned, for, in all likelihood, he acquired his knowledge from "information received " at Stratford-atte-L'cwe ; but there is no excuse for the London London correspondent of a Dublin daily paper, who mistook the Parisian monstershop, the Magasins du Louvre, for a periodical publication, and also gravely stated that the account of the battle of Alexinatz was sent to the Time* by push; rettiute, if such an institution exists in the region of hostilities. Tiiis is the same genius of whom it is related that he asked of an artcritic wdio had been to examine a collection of water-colours if there were any of the old masters there. But Irish journalism is to be judged by rules of its own. 1 always read the Irish journals with avidity, and am always repaid in amusement. For instance, a tierce controversy is being waged between the Tip)>r.rar\i Ri.ippiiri'l- and the Tipprranj Thundrn-r. Here is a clipping from the last number of the Tliniulcm; which is simply delicious :—" Some person seems to be treading on the corns of the lUtpp'trrc pfopriet -r. He advertises that no person is authorised to receive subscriptions for that pondering journal but ——. In order to give that gentleman a chance of exercising his threats against the Tin'.nd.rrr, we would calmly suggest that he would advertise he was going to pay the proprietor the amount he sacriiicjd in keeping afloat the sinking tug. If 'plunder me first' and 'smother me after' could be properly applied to an individual, we think the proprietor of the Thundi-rrr can safely write with the law that such things are really in vogue in those times."' lam on the anxious look-out for the next appearance of the I'l-ijjp-'ti ;v.