MISCELLANEOUS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 291, 29 March 1877, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

racbcwrsb roust. A Waipawa correspondent tells a tale j to a con emporary of how four of his fel- j 10-v townsmen invested their money on the racecourse at roulette, and lost £2O between them. The next day they determined to be wise in their generation, ancl agreed to stake on different colours ; but tney had no better luck, their united losses amounting to £l6. They are now convinced that all is vanity except "a shilling in and the winner to shout." ANOTHER YAJTKBE JSOTXOS. The latest Yankee notion is that said to have been introduced at one of the New York drapery establishments. When a lady enters the "store" an attendant hastens up, and asks if she wishes "to buy " or "to shop." If the former, she is conducted at once to the connter where the article she requires is retailed. If the latter, on payment of a certain sum she obtains a ticket, at sight of which the shopmen in the different departments allow her to turn over all the goods in stock. She can then, if she wishes, depart without making a purchase. SERVED HIM RIOHT. A tragedy of a very startling nature (says, the Gulmty Advertiser) was nearly enacted in Yarra-street the other day. A retired publican paid a visit to a neighbours house, and, in the absence of his friend, rather familiarly conducted himself towards his wife. The latter, not relishing the impertinence, seized a tableknife and made a stab at the impudent and imprudent fellow. Fortunately for the man, his ribs offered great resistance, and the knife, coming violently in contact with one on the left side, broke short off at the handle. There was no necessity for a repetition of the drama, one of the parties being anxious to get away before another knife was obtained. SHOOTtXO OT.ACK3. How the "native difficulty" is dealt with in Northern Australia is thus pithily told by the L'twktohcn Courier :—" Mr. J. Willtatns informs us that the M-iclcs have speared eight of his horses, running on King's Plains, five being killed outright and three rendered useless. He complains that alt lion *h he reported the matter to the police a fortnight ago. no steps have been taken. There should be so;ne uniform'ty in the system of dealing with the blacks. We have adopted the plan of punishing them by shooting them down, and the punishment should follow quickly on the het'ls of each outrage. Desultory massacres, apparently inflicted ' promiscuous like,' to no eartbly good ; they cease to suggest the idea of punishment, and are inflicted in such a haphazard manner as rat >cr to encourage the blacks in their orttr.tg;s by irritating without s;rikiug terror." Ct*R.tf>r3 t>REtt* MATERIAL. The Empr-as of Brazil has presented the Qttt't'n of England with a dress, the equal of which lias never been seen. It is w«>ven of spider*' webs, and is, as may be imagined, a wo.k of art as regards quality and"beauty. T>;e handsomest silk dress eannot compare with it ; but it can only be admired, hardly imitated. There have already been nrtny attempts to make use of the threads spun by spiders, but up to the present the experiments have not been Satisfactory to encourage a»y further efforts in this direction. In the year IT It) it was discovered that to make a piece of silk it would require the webs of 70t>,0tX> spiders. The Spaniards had already tried to use the spiders' threads, and made gloves, stockings, and other articles of the sort ; but even these were st» troublesome, and yielded so little profit, that in spite of the fabulous prices paid, they were obliged to abandon the trade. In certain parts of South America garments made of these threads are worn ; but the spiders in these lands are unusually large. It is likely that the abovementioned dress was made of the threads of the smaller species of the American spider. There is, therefore, some hope that- the time is not far distant when, thanks to the progress of modern industry, fashionable ladies may have the satisfaction of wearing elegant silks of the same delicate texture. THE FEWEST WONDER. Sir William Thompson, the President of the Physical Science section of the British Association, at Glasgow, last month, told an attentive and admiring audience how, in a recent investigation of the tfnited States Telegraph Department, he saw and heard Ellsha Gray's splendidlyworked electric telephone actually sounding four mesaai'es simultaneously on the Mora© code, and equally capable of sounding yet four times as many with very moderate improvements of detail ; how he saw Edtson's automatic telegraph delivering 1915 words in f»7accs.; how, in the Canadian department, he heard "To be, or not to be V T recited through the electric wire; and how, scorning monosyllables, the electric articulation rose to higher flights, and gave audible passages taken at random from the New \ork newspapers, such as " The Senate has resolved to print a thousand extra copies;" " The Americans in London have resolved to celebrate the coming Fourth of July," and a number of other utterances. " All this," Sir William continued, "my own cars heard spoken to me with unmtstnkeable distinctness by the thin circular disc armature of just such another little electro-magnet as this which I hold in my hand. The words were shouted in a loud and clear voice by my colleague, Professor Watson, at the far end of the line, holding his mouth close to a stretched membrane carrying a little piece of soft iron, which was thus made to perform, in the neighbourhood of an electric magnet, a circuit with the line, motions proportional to the sonorific motions of the air."