Odd and End.

Otago Witness, Issue 1344, 1 September 1877, Page 3

Odd and End.

When the Russians crossed the Danube, there' were great rejoicings in St. Petersburg, and solemn services in the churches. The Turks, all this time, were laughing in their sleeves.

The great Powers evidently concur that the Sick Man's death is near, and have arranged how his estate shall be distributed. They are counting their chickens, &c. ' • - •

Eels tire more destructive to fish in riven and lakes than the shag, for the latter destroy the young fry, whereas the eels swallow the spawn. The difference between a bull's-eye and & miss. . at five ' hundred yards, is only 1-lOfch of an inch, and if you tremble l-7th of an inch. off. the centre of the target you miss it entirely. The.' convicts in Sing. Sing Prison, New York, are now at work on the contract made with an Albamy firm. They employ 800, and pay the State forty cents a day. A serious panic was fortunately checked In St AnthonyV church, New York, during communion' service. A child's yeil, caught fire from the candle she was holding, and instantly there was dire confusion. '

A remarkable example of rapid boring occurred, lately,- in- Switzerland. A company searching for coal bored 1,422 ft. in tiro months, but failed of success.

Forest fires in Michigan swept over the village of Orota, destroying every house, except the church and school-house. Seven hundred people, were rendered homeless.

At Chattanooga, a coloured Episcopal minister preached a sermon before the Diocesan Convention. This is the first instance in the United States of a coloured clergyman preaching to a white congregation in that denomination.

A. newspaper has just made its appearance in Paris called " The Other World," printed in white letters on black paper profusely adorned with death's heads and skeletons.

A strike is threatened by the engineers on the Pennsylvania Railroad, if the reduction of wages is enforced. If the strike is ordered, it will embrace 6000 miles of travel.

The banks of British America and Montreal each. sent 500 barrels of flour and 100 barrels of pork to the sufferers of St. John.

Qnadruplex telegraphy, or a system whereby one wire is made to perform the work, heretofore requiring four wires, is used in California.

The advance instalment of the Mormon immigration - has arrived at Hermosillo, Sonera, Mexico.

At St. John the work of tearing down walls and opening, vaults and safes continue. The contents are generally in a bad -condition. .

Sir A. Gordon is about to attempt to supplement, ' if not altogether supplant, Polynesian labour in the Fiji islands by that of Indian coolie labour. The. yictoria, Church of England Assembly has closed its labours after a very satisfactory: session: The new Bishop is the right man in the right place. It is said that the English Government has resolved not to allow even a temporary occupation of Constantinople by the Russians.' ; , Sir Charles- Gavin Duffy is to have £2000 a year salary in all, £1000 as pensioner, and £1000 more as Speaker. A rival General to Tom Thumb is now at Calcutta. He is a Hindustani Brahmin from Outtack, is only three feet in height, and declares himself to be 36 years old. Clarke, and Co.'s thread works at Paisley,' Scotland, were burned on June 28th. The, ..work people were saved with great difficulty. . Loss, £20,000. Baron Yon Mueller has completed an "Introduction to Botanic Teachings," through, references to leading native plants, for use in the schools of Victoria. Toronto sent to the St. John people 1000 barrels of flour, 100 barrels of beef, and a car-load each of bread and biscuits, and $1,600 cash. -£ Eleven men, who as agents of the secret society known by the name of the Mojly . Maguirea, became assassins, were executed on the same day lately in Pennsylvania. On Jane 22nd a special performance was given at the Royal Italian Opera, London, in- honour of General Grant. Mdlle. Albani sang the "Star Spangled Banner," with the full chorus. Hundreds of thousands of cattle, horses, and sheep have been lost in Brazil by a flood. It rained continuously for several weeks.' The City of Sydney, on her last trip, brought to Sydney 5,500 cases of salmon in tins, and to New Zealand 850 cases and 50 half-barrels. An International Exhibition, representing the historical development of music, is to take place at Bologna. The Cincinnati papers say there will be more houses built in that city this year than in any other since 1866. The reason is not that houses are in great demand, but that money is so cheap. A car-load of the first new wheat of the season arrived at Stockton, California, from Nelson's Station, Butte county, on the 13th June. During Miss Neilson's season in America, she gave one hundred and thirty-two Shakespearean representations, almost continuously. Mrs Oliphant, the writer, is about to celebrate the 25th year of her contributing to Blackwood's Magazine by a water party, with a petite comedie in the evening.

.The disputed question as to the sculling championship of England was settled May 28th, when R. W. Boyd defeated John Higgins on the Thames, for the title, £400, and the champion challenge cup.

The steamship Wyoming arrived in New York on the 21st June from Europe, with 300 Mormon converts for Utah. Henry Ward Beecher has given a gold watch to the agent of the Boston Lecture Bureau, who travelled 30,000 miles with him in the West during his recent tour. There is hard hitting and strong writing between the Clerico- Monarchical Coalitionists and the Republicans in France, the latter are directed by Thiers, Jules Simon, and Gambetta.

"La Venturoli," once a premier danseuse, who, a few years since, was immensely popular in European cities, is now hopelessly crippled by paralysis, and dying in poverty in a New York slum. In Constantinople the satirical and humorous journals have been suppressed ; in France they are only emasculated. W. Hapgood, of Boston, has imported two hundred European quail from, Messina, which he is distributing through several of the towns along the eastern border of Massachusetts.

Thirty Catholic priests and eleven bishops from the United States are named as being in Rome in the latter part of May.

Warren Leland, of San Francisco, has arranged with different railroads to take to San Francisco and back a party of 75 to 100 of the leading hotel men of the Eastern States.

The Canadians are sending quantities of fresh mackerel and other fish to England, and herrings to Sweden and Germany.

Before the war Mississippi and Alabama were the largest cotton producing regions of the South, but neither one ever exceeded the 650,000 bales produced by Texas last year. The legendary achievements of Lady Godiva were celebrated at Coventry on June 4. The lady was personated by a young equestrienne who wore a bodice and skirt of white silk.

Robert Dale Owen died on the 24th June, at his summer residence, on Lake George. Messrs. Moody and Sankey will begin a four weeks revival in Baltimore about the Ist of September. After that they go to Boston.

The German community in London is mostly made up of sugar-bakers, dwelling in East London. . There are also a considerable number of them bread and biscuit bakers in the suburbs. The Pope, in replying to the Scotch Pilgrims, promised to reconstitute the hierarchy of Scotland when the number of Catholics was sufficient. The'Gtirman schools in London, which were founded in 1805 with 17 scholars, now have 405 scholars, and are about to have new buildings. The San Francisco canners are very busy putting up assorted fruits and vegetables, which are, in some cases, overabundant in the market. A society is being formed in London for supplying hospitals for children with toys and fairy-tale books, and those for adults with fresh flowers. The Missions Catholiques, a Roman Catholic Missionary periodical, states that in 1875 there were 10,304 conversions in Asia to the Roman Catholic faith. The Turkish Government has organized a corps of divers, whose business" it is to root up the torpedoes which the Russians plant in the Danube and on the shores of the Black Sea. The Province of Quebec, Canada, has offered a bonus of $70,000, in ten annual instalments of §7,000, each to the first Beet Sugar factory that may be established in that Province. The Synod of the Old Catholic Church of Germany began this year at Bonn, on May 23. Bishop Reinkens presided. The increase of members for the year is 3,832, the present total being 53,640. During the twelve months ending Ist October 1876, 473,254 barrels of beer were exported from the United Kingdom, of a declared value of £1,900,702. During the visit, to Windsor Castle, General Grant and Minister Pierrepont played whist with the Duchesses Wellingtonand Roxburg, during which, of course, the gentlemen were beaten. Colonel Knox and Mr. Baird have returned from a shooting expedition in the Roudan. They killed eleven elephants, ten rhinoceroses, nine lions, sixteen buffaloes, two giraffes, &c. The ship Charmer, 1330 tons, now at Liverpool, has been chartered to load merchandise to San Francisco and return to Great Britain with wheat, at £4 for the round voyage. Of 80,249 children in San Francisco under 17, 52,570 are the offspring of foreign parents ; 7,811 of parents, one of whom is foreign, and 16,099 of native j parents. Mr Conrad Finzel, until lately one of the merchant princes of Bristol, having I failed, the leading merchants of that city have raised a sum which will yield him £500 per annum for life. If we are to believe Russia, all ia to be Utopia if only her troops are to be allowed to be everywhere victorious. Let her once conquer, and then you will see how merciful and magnanimous she will be. It is remarked that, almost as an unexceptional rule, female doctors, when married, have no children. There exists in London a Society for the Promotion of Matrimony between virtuous young persons of the Jewish faith. A dowry is occasionally given away. j

Sir Charles Dilke is said to be writing a history of the age. It is added that he does not intend to bring it out for some ye^rs.

All public documents in France are now copied by photography, and copies placed for security in several museums of the country.

Mathematicians have named the one hundred and eighty thousandth of an inch as the limit of visibility in the microscope, butßev. Wm. H. Dallinger has constructed lenses which reveal objects much smaller.

Another American Polar expedition is to sail from New London on the 24th July. Capt. Tyson, the navigator of the Polaris, is to have command.

. On the 19th June, Mr M. H. Sanford, of Lexington, Ky., shipped four two-year-olds (two colts and two filließ) to Newmarket, England, where his stable is now in training.

There have been some good' county cricket-matches already — notably that in which Yorkshire barely defeated Middlesex.-'

Mr Darwin contributes a curious article to the July number of "Mind." It is a record of a series of observations on the early mental development of one of his sons.

It is announced that the British rifle team, which ia to compete with the American at Creedmore range for the Centennial Trophy, will consist of ten members, and the captain is Sir Henry St. John Halford. London, taking a radius of 15 miles from Charing Cross, covers nearly 700 square miles ? Within these limits it 3 population exceeds 4,200,000 inhabitants. The only consideration which delays the military adventurers in England from placing their swords at the service of the Sublime Porte is the doubt about their remuneration.

Sir Charles Duffy has not adopted the precedent set him by Sir Charle3 MacMahon, who discarded the wig. He weara a particularly flowing head-dress.