ARE GOOD-NATURED PEOPLE UNINTERESTING.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 25 May 1888, Page 32

ARE GOOD-NATURED PEOPLE UNINTERESTING .

As a general thing, original people, people with wills and opinions — in other words, interesting people — are not, I am inclined to Relieve, of a very easy-going temper. The man who has a mind of own usually wishes to have his own way, and is therefore not likely to be regarded as in any conspicuous degree pleasant. When it is said of a clergyman, " Oh, he is a very good man," all church-going persons at once get an idea of veijr dry sermons. (For the conveying of such a compliment as this all the vowels and consonants together are not equal to one left-handed inflection.) The most interesting character in Milton's " Paradise Lost " is unquestionably the arch-fiend himself ; and in the modern newspaper — epic poems being long out of date — no class of persons, unless it be political candidates, cut a greater .figure than the criminals. There is no doubt; ■of it, good-nature and even a good character — which things, I con fort myself with hoping, are not exactly the same — do tend to .■grow somewhat monotonous and tiresome. Human nature is like an apple— all the more palatable for being a trifle tart. No husband and wife ever lived together in greater mutual affection than did Elia and his cousin Bridget, concerning whom we read, nevertheless, " We agree pretty well in our tastes and "habits— yet so as • with a, difference.' We are •generally in harmony, with occasionally bickerings, as it should be among near relations. Our sympathies are rather understood than expressed ; and once, upon my dissembling a tone in my voice more kind than ordinary, my cousin burst into tears and complained that I was altered." A little flavour of individuality and self-will is excellent for preventing insipidity. Thus I theorise. And why not ? If a man 'is fond of his own ease and his own way, always " notional," often out of sorts, and never very amiable, why should he not shape his theory to fit the facts? All the while, however, I am conscious that I could find much to say on the other side. There used to be a funeral hymn (it may have gone out of vogue ere this) beginning, " Sister, thou wast mild and lovely," the word " lovely " being employed, I take it, in the old-fashioned, dictionary sense of lovable, not in the new-fangled, boardingschool sense of beautiful ; and I cannot help feeling that mildness, gentleness of spirit, is one of the traits which most people like to attribute to their friends, at least after they are dead. It would sound rather odd and incongruous—would it not ?— to sing about the coffin, "Sister, thou wast irascible and interesting." And even in tho case of the living I mustconfess a preference for an equable and obliging disposition, especially in a woman. I may be whimsical, but I have never seen many who affected me as uncomfortably sweet-tempered. — March " Atlantic." CURIOUS FINDS. On the death of the Duke of Cumberland in 1765 a portion of his clothing was handed over to one of the hussars, and, notwithstanding the fact that it had been carefully searched before changing hands, the new owner found a private pocket containing a pair of gloves and a pocket-book, in which were 20 bank notes of the total' value of £1751. This money was returned to the representatives of the deceased nobleman. A. convict under sentence of transportation died, on the passage out, and the captain of

'the vessel, in , overhauling his effects, found JJlOO'guineas sewed up in a coat and pair of trousers. . A gentleman out shooting in 1765 brought down a woodcock, and upon examination, a very valuable diamond was discovered in the bird's stomach. Two years later a prince was out hawking in Prussia when his dog caught a heron with a piece of brass fastened round its leg on which was an inscription to the effect that the bird had been captured and released by the Elector to Cologne in 1737. A singular discovery was made in 1761. A servant girl was arrested on suspicion of having stolen some spoons from a publichouse, but on the third day of her imprisonment a raven was seen to carry away a teaspoon and bury it in the ground. Upon searching the place the missing property was found together with several coins, 1 and, of course, the girl was immediately discharged. ' , The purchasers of second-hand furniture frequently had the good fortune to find their goods rendered of far greater value than the price paid, owing to the addition of secret drawers. On the death of a wealthy lady, in 1792, a search of the house only brought to light a few hundred pounds, which was considerably less than the relatives expected to find. Subsequently, however, after the sale of her furniture, a gentleman who had paid £1 for a chest, discovered nearly £600 concealed behind a secret drawer. A woman who paid Is 6d for a chair at a broker's in 1767, found a canvas bag containing 21 guineas and bank notes for £200 concealed in a corner! of the covering. A broker found a lottery ticket, which had won a prize of £500, in the private drawer of the bureau purchased by him from a poor woman. Another woman' sold an old desk io a neighbour, and the latter, examining it yery minutely, was gratified to find a private drawer containing 200 guineas. They were very old coins, and had probably laid there for many years. A bed, too, was made the receptacle of 42 guineas, which were found concealed therein after it had been disposed of at the broker's. In 1771 a large gold ring was taken out of the Thames, which the antiquarians of the day pronounced to be 800 years old; On examining a shark caught in the Thames in 1787, a silver watch, a metal chain, and a , cornelian seal were found in its stomach. These had belonged to a young gentleman drowned from a vessel two years previously. A bow and quiver found in New Forest, Hampshire, in 1772 were supposed to have been there since the reign of William Rufus. The cleaning of a gentleman's fish pond in Sussex in the year 1771 disclosed a bottle bearing the words, " New Canary, put in to see how long it will keep good ; April, 1666 ; R; Wilson." The wine in the bottle was in an excellent condition, but the cork was very much decayed. In 1775 a collier found the ruins of a water mill, the skeleton of a man, and the remains of some animals 75yds from the surface. They were supposed to have been engulfed during an earthquake 200 years before. A few yp.m-<5 >>r>fore this, some workmen, engaged in digging up the foundation of an old wall in Dublin, discovered an iron chest containing 3000 half-crowns issued in the reign of James 11. A large quantity of the finest tallow melted in a mass was found under similar circumstances in London in 1773. This was probably melted down in the great fire of 1666. In making a dock at Blackwall, in 1790, the labourers dug up a number of hazel trees with the nuts upon them at a depth of 12ft from the surface. ' Some workmen engaged in levelling a piece of ground at Dunbar, in Scotland, brought to light 290 silver coins supposed to have been buried there by Oro'm.well's men immediately before the battle of Dunbar in 1650. The discovery was made in 1773. A shipbreaker, in , pulling to ' pieces an old Spanish ship which' Ke had' purchased, in 1791, had the good fortune to discover several ingots ' of gold stored between her timbers. The value of these was estimated at from £25,000 to £30,000. A very strange discovery was made by the crew of a vessel whilst on passage from Newcastle to London in 1771. When about five ' miles from Shields, they fell in with a wooden cradle containing a living child, which they rescued and landed at their destination. The country in the vicinity of Shields had beeu inundated owing to the heavy rains shortly before, and the cradle had probably been washed, out of a house and carried down one of the streams to sea. Misers are proverbial for the careful manner in which they store away their wealth. On searching the house, after death, of an old maid, who had lived for many years in a most penurious fashion, a very large sum of money was disclosed, together with a great quantity of household linen, which she had been too niggardly to use. A pickle pot, store in a clock case, contained £80 in gold and £5 in silver, a tea canister full of gold was concealed in a hole under the stairs, and an old rat-trap was utilised for the storage of gold and silver. In another case, on the death of a man who had lived miserably in a garret, two bags were found stored under his arms containing £136. This amount was composed in a great measure of half-crown pieces. Another treasure took the shape of an iron chest containing £120 in bank notes and two large diamond rings, found concealed in a wall by some workmen engaged in pulling down a house. As the last occupier wa3 a Jew, people naturally concluded that he had secreted the chest. A singular thiDg happened in 1778. A woman found a pocket-book containing bank i notes to the value of £1000, which she carried to the owner, a banker, and received £50 reward. Next morning the same woman found a gold watch, which proved to be the property of the banker's brother,- and for this she rec ?ived £20 reward. A remarkable occurrence is credited to the year 1707. A woman presumably died, and everything necessary was ordered for the funeral. The husband, having suspicion that ! his wife had concealed a sum of money during her lifetime, commenced searching the house, and succeeded in finding a few pounds in an old box. Just as he was about to re- J move it, however, he was surprised and terribly frightened by the appearance of his wife, who came to him as if nothing had happened. Strange to say, she continued in i

seemingly good health for two days, and then died.