MISCELLANEOUS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 326, 10 May 1877, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

AS tTNEARTHED TAVERN. In some recent excavations at Pompeii a small tavern has been brought to light; the table round which the company sat, and the earthenware pots out of which they had been drinking, were still preserved. On the walls, also, were paintings representing various drinking scenes, with inscriptions in explanation of their meaning. . HOW X WOiULK BEADS THE PAPER. An editor wrote an amusing skitch of the manner in which a woman reads a newspaper, omitted one important particular. It is a remarkable fact that if an item happens to have been clipped out of a paper, the woman loses ail interest in everything else that is in that paper, and concentrates her attention on the item that isn't there. She wLI exhaust herself in efforts to g eaj what culd have oa.upis4 that space. Then she will wonder

I who cut it out, and why it was cut out, I | and ten to one it's absence will engender some horrible suspicion concerning her j | husband. Finally, she will throw down the sheet with the declaration that she | can't take any interest in a paper where I the only thing she wanted to read was cut I out. PAYMENT OF MEMBERS. The Melbourne Leader states that various signs in the political horizon of Victoria portend an early termination of the system of payment of members. It commenced on the 25th April, 1871, and after a six years' experience, politicians on both sides df the House are testifying to its utter failure. Even Sir C. G. Duffy, who is in reality the Prrliamentary sponsor of the Reimbursement of Members Act, freely admits that the measure which he tcok so much trouble to initiate has by no mean s answered his expectations. A STRANGE OPERATION. We learn from Saratoga Springs, that one of the bellts of that place has had a difficult operation performed upon her ears for the purpose of reducing them to the ordinary size of such appendages. The lady is accomplished and pleasing to all who meet her, but to this time she has suffered great annoyance from the fact that her cars were very far beyond the proper dimensions. No art of the hairdresser or milliner could be employed successfully in hiding this deformity she resolved to go to New York and have them cut down. She consulted a skilled surgeon, and refusing to take chloroform, suffered bravely while undergoing the operation. Tne surgeon believes that the ears will be all right again within a few weeks.— Utica Herald. A REMARKABLE SERVICE. A service of a remarkable and interesting character was held in Lie iiie!d Cathej dr.il »»n February 17. Tne Bishop of Lichfield was d.s.rous to have a special Service in the cathedral which should coincide in point of actual time with the consecration service at t ; e Antipodes. In order that the two services mig'.t be simultaneous, it was me ssa'y that the special service ;.t Licl.fieid should take place ac eleven p.m. on Saturday nig:-.t. .T.ie service coin.ii'-ncid with the 100 th Psalm. T.'iis wjis fo.lowtd by the ' ; K\r.e i'leison," the Lord's Prayer, the Veisicles, the '"Gloria l\dri," and Psihns ii., Ixi and Ixxii. Tiie Bishop ivad t<e lessons, after which, he delivered an address. He said that th's was a time not so much for exhortation as for prayer. T.ie peculiar circumstanu .s mi ier wuic'i t iey m fc reminded taem t at the earth was girdl d witii pray. r. Horj in England, m the darkness of the ni.j:it, they were praying; there in New Zealand, in the brignivess of tiie noo.iday, tiiuy were praying to Him to wiiom lue night is as clear as the day. T e address ueing c mehidud, the '"JDeus Miseratur" was s:m_--, and then the " N.c tie C'fejd." After this the B shop commended his son, at that time biing eons, crated in New Zealand, to the secret prayeisof tiie congregation. Silence was kept for tits purpose for a space, and i the soknin pause being ended, a short litany was said. REMARKABLE LONGEVITY. A wonderful specimen of longevity is recorded in the Anglo-Brazil'ivm limes as follows : —" At Lorenas, San Paulo, Anna Maria de Jesus died 29th December, at the age of 13S years, leaving a long list of descendants down to the fourth degree. Tne youngest son was born in her 7Sth year, -so that maidens of the most uncertain age need not despair."' LIGHT READING ! William Delahunty, who gave himself up lasb January for a murder he said he had committed 44 years ago in Kilkenny, has been found guilty of manslaughter, and was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude. Mrs. May, a schoolmistress at Maidstone, who killed her husband with a knife during an altercation at table, has been sentenced to 10 years' penal servitude. Mayaix, the man charged with the murder of his daughter and tiie attempted assassination of las wife and her father, in Paris, has been arrested there, after evading the police for some weeks. Bilvey, J who murdered and cut up a woman in I Paris, was sentenced to death. Two brothers named Lynch have been arrested near Athlone for the murder of Thomas Mee, a poor-rate collector. One of the two was his son-in-law, and shot Mee from behind a hedge Mee's wife was with her husband, and identified the men. The trial of Henry de Torvile Bantez for the murder of his wife on the Stetvo Pass last July will not come off before June. At Berkhamstead a man named East murdered his two young children, and then gave liimself up to the police, saying that he had done it because he could" not support them. The Central Criminal Court, London, lias been occupied for several days with the trial of 11 prisoners, known as the Ling firm, for a number of frauds. Three were acquitted, aud the other eight found guilty. A man named Morris Cohen, who was apparently carrying on a lucrative business, was the principal receiver, and was sentenced to 10 years' penal servitude.