THE EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH,

Otago Daily Times, Issue 131, 17 April 1862, Page 3

THE EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH,

The gentleman wlioin wo liave alhuledto above was in Richmond about three months since, and lie was informed, upon authority which ho had no occasion to doubt,, that there had' been an agent of the French Government in Unit city for some time purchasing all the tobacco he could get, on Government account. It was also hinted that hopes were held out by French agents in the South tii.it before long the Southern Confederacy would be recognised hy both Fiance and England ; and the immense quantity of tobacco stored in ltielimond on French Government account appears to give some substantiality to the above statement. The general feeling throughout the South is one of extreme antagonism to the North.- The Southerners say every man in the South will cease to live before the Yankees can subjugate the Confederacy. To England and France the South looks with hope, but whether it be recognized or not by the nations of the West, it is fuily determined not to relinquish its rights without a struggle.— European Times.

A Stuon« Man. —Having1 engaged the largest hall i» Boston (the Music Hall). 1 delivered my kctm'e —in the words of the newspaper " with eclat.'' The illustrations of strength which 1 exhibited on the occasion, though far inferior to subsequent efforts, w<;re looked on as most extraordinary. The weight I lifted before the audience with my hands alone was nine hundred and twenty-nine pounds. Tins was testified to by the City Sealer of Weights ami Measures, Mr. Moullon. My success induced me to repeat my lecture in other places. Invitations and liberal offers poured in upon me from all direction?, and during the ensuing season 1 lectured in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Albany, and many of the principal cities throughout the Northern States and the Catiadas. To return to my lifting experiments, I had promised my father to stop at, a thousand pounds. In the Autumn of 3859 I had reached ten hundred and thirty-two pounds. An incident now occurred that induced me to reconsider my promise and get absolution from it. One day, while engaged in lifting, I had a visit from two pow-erful-looking men, who asked permissson to try my Veight. One of them was five feet ten inched in heisjit, and a hundred and ninety-two pounds in weight. The other was fully six feet in his stockings, and two hundred and twelve pounds in weight—a fearful superiority in the eyes of a man under five feet seven, and weighing less than a hundred and fifty pounds. The smaller of these men failed to lift eight'of my ii'pn disks, which, with the connections, amounted to eight hundred and twenty-seven pounds. The larger individual fairly lifted them at the second trial, but declined to attempt an increase. They left me, and I soon afterwards heard that thry were practising with a view of outfitting Dr. Windship. My father had incautiously remarked to me, "Those fmge fellows, with a little practice, can lift your weight and you on top of it. You can't expect to compete with giants." This decided me to test the question whether five feet seven must necessarily yield to mere bulk in the attainment oi the maximum of human strength. I had the start of ray competitors by some two hundred, pounds, and J determined to preserve that distance between us. In the autumn of that yearl advanced to'lifting with the Jiands eleven hundred untl thirty-three pounds, and in fjie spring of 1860 to twelve hundred and eight, 1 have had no evidence that my competitors ever got beyond a thousand pounds ; though I doubt not if they had had my leisure for practice^ they might have surpassed me. In July, ISfc'O, I commenced lifting by means of a padded rops over .my shoulders—my body, during the act of lifting, "being steadied and partly supported by my hands granting a'stout frame at each side, After a few unsuccessful preliminary trials, I quickly advanced to fourteen 'hundred pounds. The stretching of the rope now proved so great an annoy mice, that I substituted for it a stout leather hand of double thickness, about two inciks and a half wide, and which had been subjected to a process which was calculated to render it proof against stretching more than half an iuch under any weight it was capable of sustaining. But on trial, I found, almost to "my despair, that it was of a far inure yielding nature than the rope, and consequently the rope was again brought into requisition. A few weeks of unsatisfactory practice followed, when it occurred to me that an iron, chain, inasmuch as it could not stretch, might be advantas-. ously, used, provided it could be so padded as not to chafe my shoulders. After many experiments, I succeeded in this substitution; but the chain had yet one objection in common with the rope ami the strap. arising from the difficulty of getting it properly adjusted. I contented myself with its use, however, until the spring of 18G1, when I hit upon a contrivance which has proved a complete success. It consists of a wooden yoke .fitting across my shoulders, and having two chains connected with it in such a manner as to enable me to lift, on every occasion, to the most advantage. With this contrivance my lift ing power has advanced with mathematical certainly, slowly, but surely, to two thousand and seven pounds, up to this twenty-third day of November, 1851. In lily public experiments in lifting, when I have not used the iron weights cast for the purpose, I have, as A convenient substitute, used kfgsfof nails. It recently occurred to me, that if, instead of these kegs, I could employ a number of men selected from the audience, the spectacle would be still more satisfactory to the'sceptical. Accordingly, I contrived an Apparatus by mcaus of which 1 have been able to ijressnt "this, convincing proof of the actual weight lifted. " I introduced it after my lecture at the Townliall, in Brighton, Massachusetts, on the SJth of Oc ' tober, 1801; and the following account of the result appeared in one of the city papery : —" Standing upon a staging at an elevation of about eight or ten feet "from the iloor, the Docto: lifted and sustained, for a considerable time without apparent difficulty, :i. platform suspended beneath him on which stood twelve gentlemovi, all heavier individually than the Doctor himself, and weighing, inclusive of the entire apparatus lifted with them, nearly nineteen hundred pounds avoirdupois. In the performance of this tremendous feat, Dr. W. employed neither straps, bauds, nor girdle,— nothing in short but a stout oaken stick fitting across, his shoulders, and having attached to it a couple of rather formidable-looking chains. At his request, a committee, appointed by the audience, and fui-nisdied with one of Fairbanks' scales, superintended all the experiments." The exact weight lifted on this occasion was eighteen hundred and thirty-six pounds. A few evenings after, I lifted, in the same way, in Lynn, eighteen hundred and sixty; in Broyldine, eighteen hundred and ninety ; in Medford, nineteen hundred and thirty-four ; in Maiden, nineteen hundred and two; and in Charlestown, nineteen hundred and forty. As my strength is still increasing in an undirninished ratio, 1 am fairly beginning to wonder where the limit will be ; and the old adage of the camel's back and the last feather occasionally suggests itself. I have fixed three thousands pounds as my nu plus ultra. — "Autobiographical Sketches of a Strength-Seclicr,'"' in the Atlantic Monthly.

A AVoman's Bokes.—Let a man take his favorite nuisance, -his threat pet grievance in the world, liit most disagreeable occupation, and then compare il with the daily bores of a woman. Perhaps as great a nuisance as men have to s>o through is that of listening to prosy speeches. It is certainly a hoiriblf bore; but what is it to having a hundred times n year to pronounce what has to bedonewitli the cold mutton ■>. Then nil the troubles of servants fall upon the mistress. Most masters have a very simple nlan of dealing with their domestics. They acquiesce i'heerJ'ully in the cxnt-tions and artifices of the kitchen, until some day they they suddenly turn round and cut short the servants career by "instant dismissal. Women cannot do this. They have to watch the humours and fancies of their servants. They are thrown into a nervous despondency if the nurse looks Muni, nhd'are seriously anxious and restless if she declines yeal or pork, They are more intimately, con-

necteil with their'domestics than men arc,". and:.are thmvfore, mmh more atraid of what servants, wil tiiiiik and say, nii(hiioivr>r..v;oiis to prove to servant; .lint, they ai-i- wrong, am! that they ought to bchavi ■i-ery much bttH-iC Then, nirnin, woman's work ii a'ways u'diiifvon. There is no cessation in houscholc cii'ls." Tiie cuiisiimpliiin of rvorythinjt, the chance oi u-.i<k', tl»! ]ir.--I)iii'iiiiy »f iltci'jition, is mioeasiiip-. I'lii'vi-are no li'.stf iiml lia|>iiy blanks in this 'rouiitn .1!' pt'iiy i-xtrtinit. J>!iy follows day, and week l'ol!jw< wi'i.k, tnii('th<> same wan to Imvc fo lie met ii. i.iii; siimo way. Ui.oins mv always gelling dirty; .viirlies niuot si" tl) the iiuankrv every week; then. is no period when tradesmen have not to Ik [encountered, and biils to be paid, and in all this trouble and anxiety, so niiteli worse thai; tiny that fails to the lot of men, they have Oiiiy line help and consolation denied to men —there is only one extra support which they have to hold them up. They have the power of taking pleasure in talking about domestic economy. Terrible as it it ■to jco i.liroujrii, it i« charming to talk about, ii would be most unfair to say that tlie [ileasnre of talking about luinsekeeiiinf; counterbalances all ita evils ; but fclill is is a great pleasnro to housekeepers to talk over their troul'te^ with euch other, and we, who ou-t so much to them, mr.y be very well satisfied tbat the; hiive any mitigation of their lot. But to keep hou^_•.veil roijuires method, tact, and, above all, courage. Tills last noble quality is so seldom shown by men in lilttlo things, tiiat the absence of it would, alone be enough to prevent their doing much good at home, it is'a. very trying thing to have to look a ■tradesman in the face and fight him for a shilling. It is more than many a bearded husband would dare to do, and yet a timid modest woman will do it at a moment'sriotiee. Although most women in the great atfairs.ol life have scarcely any sense of justice at all, yet in little things they arc exceedingly sensitive as regardfc all imposition. They cannot bear to be cheated, not on account of the money they lose, but because they lose a battle which is planned on their scale of cornbut. Then, again, they have to sshosv, and do show, that sort of tact which consists in getting their own way, as against people who threaten to put the domestic "economy out. They must manage to have things sent homo in time, to repair breakages, to have s supply large enough without waste. They must half quarrel with :i great many people of all ranks, and yet avoid quarrelling with them irreparably. They must smooth down thu jealousies of servant against servant. They must determine the very difficult relations of governesses with those above and below them. All this i,4 by no means easy, and requires long practice before it comes to perfection. Lastly, they must have unbounded patience. Men have a theory that women are born patient. They are supposed to have a sort of Job's blessing upon them, just as the Southern philosopher supposes the negro has a Ham's curse of. predestined slavery. We hope that this theory is true about women. Of course if it costs them no more to be patient than it costs the nigcrer to have a hard skull, and to be able to stand a tropical sun, we need not much admire housekeepers for what they go through without murmuring. JBu'i we know what a fearful infliction it would be to have to acquire a first-rate feminine patience without the aid of natural instincts ; and if women only suffered one-tcutli as much under the circumstances as men would do, they deserve to have the handsomest things said in their honor that the art of praise can manufacture.— Saturday Review.