Flotsam and letsam.

Otago Witness, Volume 15, Issue 1562, 15 October 1881, Page 27

Flotsam and letsam.

The English Ambassador at Berlin is quoted by the German papers as relating an anecdote characteristically illustrating the contrast between the two rivals, Prince Blamarck and the late Count Arnim. Ono day, as the English diplomatist was going up the stairs of the Chancellor's Palace, he met Count Arnim coming down. The latter stopped and said : ' You are going to the Imperial Chancellor's cabinet ; I have lust come away. He was pouring forth suoh thick clouds from hte pipe that I should have been stifled in the smoke if a window had not been opened.' When Lord Odo Russell entered bhe room he noticed that one of the windows was wide open. 'Only think,' Bald Bismarck to the Englishman, 1 Count Arnim has just been here, and he stank so insufferably of patohoull that I should certainly have fallen into a swoon if I had not thrown open the window. '

The Archbishop of Amiens has jnit reprb tnanckd the people of Qony l'Hopital, whfl

believed in the apparition of the Holy Virgin to a carpenter. This man pretends that for some time past the Holy Mother of God has appeared to him repeatedly in the form of ft most majestically beautlfulyoung » woman of about 25 years of age, with a voice as sweet as the most harmonious music Monseignor Gullbert, who is a Liberal prelate, hopes to prevent the spread of the belief in this protended supernatural apparition, and has sent a pastoral letter on the subjeot to his olergy. After strictly forbidding them to participate in any way In thtf 'ridionlous illumination* and meetings at Gony,' the Arohblshop adds that in ■ tbli oase « the Holy Virgin is made to play a ridiculous and unworthy part.'

Dr John Brown 1 , of Edinburgh, once Ordered a labouring raan some medicine, and giving him the prescription, said : * Take that, and come back In a fortnight, - when you will be well.' As he returned at this time, hearty arid well, free from the discomfort of which he had complained, and with a olean tongue and a happy face, jDr Brown was very proud of the wonders his 1 prescription had effected, and said : ' Let me see^what I gave you.' 'Oh,' answered ' the' man, 'I took it !' 'Yes, I know yon did. But' where is the prescription V \ ' l swallowed It.' ' He had made pills of the papery and his firm - faith in the doctor's promise had done the rest.

In the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico /."the tiocurrenoe of poisoned patches of water has been from, time to time witnessed. In ; r 1844 a widespread destruction of all Borts, of marine life was noticed. Again, in 1854, the fishes along the southern shore diedj in quantities. In 1878, there was once again anexoessive mortality j while the visitation • of 1880 was more marked, perhaps, beoause it was more noted. The districts where

this strange phenomenon ooours are noted for the production of both fishes and sponges. ' In 1878 the profitable sponge grounds lying off the ooast as far north as Cedar Keys Were rained, the whole sponge-masses, young and old, dying and turning blaok, while the destruction of other forms of marine life, ' suoh as ground-fishes, sea-anemones, and mollusos, was immense.

A repartee is reoorded as having been made to old Master Barnard, a shoemaker, Who formerly lived in onr street. A Btardy vagranti was begging at hia door one Christmas time; and Master Barnard, thinking that the man was able-bodied enough to work, said, rather indignantly, 'No, I've got- nothing to give you ; a Btroag ablebodied' man like yon ought .to get a 1 trade and work at it, as I'm forced to do.' 'I do work at my trade when I can get work,' said the man, 'but there's nothing much doing in my trade' just now.' ' Tonr trado !' ■'- said 1 did Barnard 1 ; 'I wonder what sort of a trade yours Is.' ' I'm a haymaker by taade,' ;• laid the man, 'and my trade is very slack this Christmas time.' — ' Leisure Hoar.'

M.Gambetta, when he went to visit his . ■ birthplace— Oahors— recently, had 1500 applications for private audlenoes before he . had been twelve hours in the town. He went to the Lyoee, wherein he used to be a pupil, and was enthusiastically received by theboys. •I do not advise you,' he saldj tp . th«m, 'to take'me as a model as regards my life at the Lyoeum : for with discipline I ' ' was sometimes' at variance, and I did not ■always figure on the roll of honour.' M, ' Oambetta afterwards recognised M. Feph, his former usher, and, taking him by ! $he ' hand, presented him to the pupils, with the remark: <This Is M. Peoh, who can' 1 tell you that pupils are not always easy 'to manage.' To his old professor of history (in which he always distinguished himself) he observed : ' Yon teach, monsieur, the

master science.' In his native place M. ' Gambetta is invariably called • The Child of Oahors.'

' After listening, with perfeot amazement, (or a full hour, to a very talkative person, and wondering whether or not suoh garrulousness 1b or is not a result of the superabundance of matter, we lighted npon this, by Dean Swift : ' The common fluency of speeoh in many men, and meat women, is owing to a scarcity of matter and a scarcity of words ; for whoever is a master of language and h s a. mind full of ideas will be apt in speaking to hesitate upon the oholce of both ; whereas, common speakers have only one set of wordn to clothe them in; and these are always ready at the mouth ; so people come faster oat of a ohuroh when it is almost empty than when a crowd is at the door.'

, . Lake Mono is a remarkable body of water in Nevada. Notwithstanding the steady influx of five large fresh-water creeks and Innumerable small streams, its bitter but pellucid waters continue to give a sedimentary analysis of 45 parts soda, 40 parts salt, and 15 parts borax and lime. The lake is 29 by 19 miles in diameter, and more than 200 ft deep in places j it contains two large and several small tufa islands, the first in magnitude having an area of 2200 aores, and the second 1500 aores. Upon the second island is the orater of a volcano that was in aotlve eruption as late as 1858; upon the ljirger island and out 100 feet from it in 70ft depth of water are boiling springs of ashphalt, and no living thing exists in the waters of the lake except the Piute shrimp, a pinkeyed worm which attains a length of about three-quarters of an inch.

A Snnderland boy, who had been reading sensational literature, lately fatally stabbed his comrade as he made a lunge at him with a huge knife, exclaiming at the same time in tragic tones, ' This night shall be thy last ! ' The knife Btruok the other lad in the abdomen, Inflicting a fatal wound.

Mr Fronde lately sent to Mrs Aitken Carlyle a oheque for £1500, representing the profits which had arisen bo far on the sale of her ancle's 'Reminiscences. 1 The Leeds Mercury says : 'In acknowledging the reoeipt of the draft, the recipient used expressions which showed that she regarded the turn as her just right, and not as a free gift of the donor. The latter, acting under legal advice, At once stopped payment of the oheque, being warned that If It were received In the spirit of the written communication, ta would render blwdt ifobto to noeoßnfc to

all the members of the family, not only for this sum, but for any other accruing from the literary inheritance to which he had succeeded. Mr Froude had therefore no alternative but to adopt a course which cannot fail to aggravate the unpleasantness existing between himself and some members of his deceased friends' family.'

The French poet Charles Baudelaire used to wear a hat that time and wear had reduced to a miserable state of dowdiness. One of his friends reminded him from time to time of its shabbinesß ; but Baudelaire never replied. At last the friend in question, blushing at the attention which the famous hat attraoted, threatened not to go out with the poet unless he bought a new one. 'Never!' said Baudelaire. 'Why not?' 1 It serves to drive away false friends.'

A gentleman evidently with more money thatj.brainß has bought a church at Wabash, Ind., and advertises as follows : • I want to hire a preaoher. I don't care a darn what denomination he belongs to, if he is virtuous and votes the Democratic tioket. None need apply unless they have the above requirements. I will pay a liberal salary.'

The Jewish Chronicle says:— 'There are several schemes under the attention of the Porte for the settlement of the Turkish national debt. One of the schemes originally included a proposal, first started in our columns, that has a particular interest for Jews. It embraced the provision 'that Turkish bonds should be excihanged, in'proportions to be agreed upon, for Crown lands. It is well known that there are a large number of Jews in Russia, Hungary, Rou< mania, in the Holy Land itself, and other parts of the world— men of some little means, enterprise, and industry — who would be glad to settle in Palestine as Colonists if land oould be acquired on reasonable terms and with indefeasible title. Should the Porte eventually agree to the proposal, the purchase of lands in Palestine and Syria would be muoh facilitated, with advantage to the State and the purchaser.'