AMERICAN EDITOR’S CHAIR.

Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 521, 18 May 1880, Page 3

AMERICAN EDITOR’S CHAIR.

An American editor writes :—We have nied the Bogadus kicker, wo have k pt a kicking mule, in our room, we’ve ns <1 bulldogs, shot guns, and still people who have noMiingelse to do will call when we are busy and insist on having nsstop work and listen to them “ blow their horns” for an hour or so at a stretch. We have invented a chair which is a success. It is made of iron, screwed to the floor near to onr desk, and the scat is so arranged with steel springs that it “ lets go ” ever}’ ten minutes after it is wound up. One winding will let her go three or four times, and it lias the power of a three-year old mule ; no matter who sits on it, when it goes off it lifts 'em and files back to its harmless position. It went through its first operation yesterday. A little chap with side whiskers from Cincinnati!, came in to talk to ns. He took his scat in “ onr chair, ” and commenced telling ns about our “flings ” at the swillhonso below his native city. We wrote away, while we we knew “ tilings were working.” His ten minutes were up. Flip ! the machine acted and he was flung rigid through space, ray lo yards of it. into a treacle tub kept kindly at some distance to gently receive onr visitors. He came out, and ran down the street, but the little boys wore after him and insisted upon “licking” him, which vein onr mildness, and in another sense, had refrained from doing.

Another Maori Prophet. —lt may not be generally known, says the Manawafn Timex, that Manawatu can boast of a rival prophet to the seer of Parihaka. The wise man, whose name is Korc, resides at Awapnni, and his predictions are held in great respect by his dusky followers. Amongst other of his prophecies is one that in a very few weeks this county will be again visited with a flood which in its magnitude will far surpass that recently experienced. So hnplieify is it believed by the Maoris that from Jackeytown down to the Oroua Bridge there has been a general stampede with their stock, goods, and chattels from the low grounds to the hills in the immediate vicinity. Those of the tribe who arc friendly with Europeans arc beginning to feel wroth with the sceptical and unbelieving Christians who will not secure their own safety while (here is time and insult the power of their prophet by treating his admonition with contempt. Timrer Tit adk in Victoria. —Nearly all the sawmills about. Ecbucaliavc discharged all hands. On the Lower Murray the mills also have discharged a hundred men for lack of orders. It. is expected there will be over 300 men out of employment. Shipwrecks. —There has been a heavy gale off the coast of Tasmania, which has Hone a good deal of da.inagro, mid caused many shipwrecks. The schooners Hubert Burns and Guiding Star were totally wrecked, the barques Oft’ey and Italy both wont ashore, and, and number of smaller crafts were also lost.