MISCELLANEOUS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 292, 31 March 1877, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

WtTHOtrr A FRtEXD. Miss Amy fa~»itt, the well-known English actress. died of consumption on the night of the 2Cth nitimo, in New York. Thv IhmM states " t:.e breathed her last without a friend to comfort her in her dying hours, or to close her eyes in deatln" RAJJ.WAY tHArFtC Vt tOSMWt. The following, which is taken from a Homa paper, give* ample in itself of the rapid progress London is still making:—ln the course of 24 hours no fewer than 942 trains pass through Clapham Junction, in the south-west of lion* don ; in the*bostncss part of the day they go> through at the rate of •73 trains an hoar. There are 13 lines of rails, and the Stouth-Western Railway alone has 30 signals, all controlled from one box. rtns&aß isfnt'STßY. An cx'inisi'te piece of Chinese aarving was exhibited at the Philadelphia Exhibition. On an elephant's tusk is represented a Chinese city situated on the side of a mountain, and containing Je33-honse, palaces, pagodas, and miltary possessions, while every ntinutc detail of Celestial street !»nd domestic life is depicted with marvellous accuracy. The carving is the work of one man, and occupied him for three years, yet the value of native labor in China is so inconsiderable that the value of the work is only estimated at £o-t. It has been bought by the Pennsylvanian Museum of Art.

a kn'otty point. Two inert having been brought before Sir UoWrt Carden, in England, on the charge of picking packets, a discussion arose as* to the law on the subject. Mr. Warner S*Mg'i »n»ned tliafe as the lady in this t'twe fiatl nothing in her pocket, the prisoners eordd not " have attempted to steal it," and cited a case be had before the Recorder, where his lordship held such objection to he good, hnt the alder* nvai remarked that the law had been altered since then, and mentioned that he had onea- convicted a man for putting back into a pocket a handkerchief he had stofen. The prisoners wer-js in the pr-*-a*-nt case severalty sentenced to a month's iuVJ'FTSOtltHt't.t. £stror.T.\N*T r>wt;;io>-. An important dtevdon as to whether a man cart excavate- cto-iv {•■• th ? c dge of his wt» land vv-irhott 1 ". being rurptirjd to pr j-t<-ft i.r«t n 'i,''.ii-»»-'-•■ l'»', 1 ha-* jM' b-ren decUt.'t :n r:. t «- P'-'nt'vpo.u-t. Melbourne, by hi* Kounr C» »'►'»*, in a ca«e where oner Vr,:\.y *-:-A hi* nam ;d W;dsh. the own r of a * l"C»: of land adfJiti" of t»-;T)y. Ha is neighi>«■ •i- ti-r JLI~O dam bub the learned jvtilvct-, at'tft- jridtrm-Mit for some turn-, decided in favor of the defendant, stating it was clear, from the case of Vv'yatt v. Harrison rtnd others, that a person could excavate to the edge of i is own property, and wichottt responsibility. MISTAKEN" ZOOLOGY. '• And so yon are going out to the East Hingfa, tny darUnt Mrs. Marooney t" said an Irish crone to the young wife of a soldier about to embark for Madras ; " I've been in thitn parts myself, and well do T remember the torments I went through, ntght and day, with the ninskcntce*. They have long hanging down from their head;*, and thay'H draw the lifeblood »>nfc of you before yon can say pea 3 .'" This terrifying aee U tt lived in the memory of the vortg woman. The vessel made Madras roads*—'the decks were soon crowded, and all hands delighted at the sight of [and, Mrs. Marootiey among the rest; but her joy was of short duration, for on the shore she perceived an elephant. Horror-struck at the sight, and in breathless agitation, she approached the mate, exefaitning, with uplifted hands, " Holy Mother, is that a inuakeatoe t" 010 P.£.L£,E:-t IN" PARISIAN SOCIETY.

There- is one feature thai seldom fails t"> strike an American observer as odd in these official entertainments, and that is, the number of old women who participate therein, not as spectators, but as actual performers. Venerable dames of 50 and UO, with their poor old bones well bared to the public gaze, and with lillies and roses in their dyed tresses, fly panting the maze of the waltz or gallop, white damsels of 17 sit around the room and look at them. The old women of the, French society form, to Americui eye 3 an unlovely and indecorous spectacle. They delight in displaying their lleshless or overfkshy arms and shoulders in the lowest corsages, they wear pale colored silks ,i:«t brigtit-hned flowers, and they danej- away like mad whenever they get a chance. American society has often been criticised for the predominance of the yontbfol element. But youth should do the dancing, and let the middle-age and old age do the chaperoning and the looking on. A still blooming matron of 41, in black velvet and diamonds, renewins the triumphs of her girlhood in the person of her daughter, may, it is true, have retired into the background too soon. But she is a pleasanter sight to contemplate than one would be if, dres3ed in a white tulle, with pink roaes in her hair, she went gamboling around by the side of that daughter through the mazes of the Gorman, in accordance with French style.