A LADY’S YAWN.

Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 524, 25 May 1880, Page 3

A LADY’S YAWN.

It is probably not generally known I bat thr* human iaw can be dislocated by an exaggerated yawn. Such, however, is the fact, and there are many cases in which this awkward accident is the invariable sequel of a yawning fit, the consequence being that the yawner remains speechless with his or her mouth immoveably fixed wide open, until the dislocation can be reduced. It may readily be perceived how tho knowledge of this fact might be used to the disadvantage of a too-gavrulous interlocutor by a wearied and an nnscrupulous listener. It is painful to bare to relate that this mean advantage is habitually taken by a gentleman, who resides not 100 miles from Wellington, and whose wife is gifted with eloquence and fluency of diction be3 7 ond the appreciation of her wicked spouse. Unluckily for her she is subject to this dislocation of the jaw after yawning, and the fiendish device adopted by her husband is, when she enters upon a course of impassioned oratory, to be seized with a persistent attack of simulated gaping. The sympathetic influence infallibly ere long compells the lady orator to follow suit, with the inevitable result that she is in a moment rendered speechless and helpless, compelled to wait with mouth wide open to its widest stretch, a mark for the derision of her unfeeling lord until he chooso to assist her. This ho is not always in a hurry to do, preferring to enjoy while he may the peace and quiet thus vouchsaved to him. Such conduct cannot bo too severely reprobated, and we earnest^ 7 hope that it will not be imitated.— Post.

MONSTER STEAMERS. The Central Pacific ferry steamer Solano, now the largest ferry boat in the world, is less than one to bo constructed for crossing the British Channel. The Solano is but 424 ft in length, while the English boat is to be Gsoft long. The breath of beam of the Solano is 116 ft, while that of the English boat is to be 150, The English boat will ho used like the Solano, for transporting railroad trains, and will be propelled by a number of paddles and screws, and will form a connection with the roilroads running from the coasts to London and Paris. A moveable platform on an incline will connect the ferry and the shore rails. This monster will be as long as the Great Eastern, and more than twice her width. The managers of the lumau line of steamers are also building a monster steamer to run between New York and Liverpool. She will be known as the City of Rome. Her dimensions arc : length of keel, 54Gft ; length over alb 590 f t; and depth of deckhouse to keel, 52ft. Her measurement will he 8300 tons, or ovei 2000 tons larger than either the City of Berlin or the Arizona. She will be over four-fifths the size of the Great Eastern. Tho engines will be of 5800 horse power, with six cylinders, three of which are high pressure, and three low pressure. There will be eight boilers, heated by 48 furnaces and the vessel _can he propelled at the rate of knots an hour. She wiU carry four large mast and smoke funnels. A large spied of canvas can be set, which will enable the steamship to makegood time if necessary,without the aid of the engines. She will be built of steel, with a double bottom and 11 hulk heads. Two longitudinal bulkheads are to be run through the engines and boilers’ space. These will greatly decrease the danger of the vessel sinking in case of a collision. The top decks arc to be of the best teak. No expense is to be spared in making this magnificent steamship perfect in every respect. She will have the highest classification of an3 7 vessel in the Liverpool Red-book and in the British Lloyds. The Inman people avow that tho City of Rome will prove the monarch of the sea.

FIVE HUNDRED YEARS HENCE. Reviewing a peculiar book, entitled “ Erchomenon,” the effort of a New Zealand clergyman to satirise the grosser phases of materialism, the Melbourne Argus says : —•“ Tho Republic of materialism belongs to the same class of literature as ‘ The Coming Race,’ ‘ Erewhon,’ and ‘ The New Paul and Virgina.’ It is written by a clergyman of Christchurch, and supposes a condition of society 500 years hence, in which human sentiment will have been effectually eliminated from human conduct, and tho goal of progress will be a purely material existence. The whole position of the scientific theologian, in relation to this question, is so well laid down by the Rev George Henslow, son of the distinguished botanist, in his treatise entitled, 1 The Theory of Evolution of Living Things, ’ the treatise which obtained one of the Actonian prizes for the year 1872—that we need not do more than quote one passage from the reverend gentleman’s preface as applicable to the opinions of the writer under notice: — ‘ I am aware that the the theory of evolution, as held by some persons, maybe in apperance if not actually atheistic, but all views of evolution are not to be condemned because materialists and positivists may profess to dispense with the aid of a Deity in creation.’ ” Having set forth the story, the review concludes thus :—“ So it was all an ugly dream—a dream smoothly and pleasantly narrated, and covering a by no means harsh or over-strained satire upon materialism, with which the writer has injudiciously, we think, mixed up evolution. Some of the ablest theologians of the present day accept it as strengthening the argument of design, and have pointed out that design, forming as it does part of a structure and inseperablo from it, while testifying to the existence of the creative Mind, is quite irrespective of the process by which that structure was brought into existence.”

Strange Monster in the Scrub.—Particulars have been received of the existence of a strange animal at large at Yorke’s Peninsula. The report received a few months ago, represented the animal to be like a large hairy man. The latest account is as to the frightening of a settler’s horse during the night. Tracks as of an enormous kangaroo were discovered in the morning, jumping four feet six inches. The aboriginals speak of a big fellow like a man along the scrub. The first report was discredited, but the latest furnishes reason for thinking that some unknown animal is in the scrub. The settlers are talking of organizing a party to search the scrub. The matter has caused much excitement on the Peninsula. Shipping Potatoes to England. —A Warrnambool paper states that Captain Powell, of the Lusitania, took potatoes with him an his last Home voyage. Some were used every day on board, and the remainder reached England in such a sound state that Captain Powell presented bags to the Directors of the Orient Company, who said they never tasted better potatoes in their lives. The potatoes were shipped in bags, care being taken to give them plenty of room and air. Mud), of course, must depend on the time of year at which they are placed on board.