MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1149, 16 October 1880, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

A 3'oung man residing in that '/ "paradise of the perfect," yclept Birmingham, has involved his country in the consideration of some most prettilyknotted points. This adolescent Midlander has succeeded iri concocting a puzzle, compared with which the Bend - Or case added to the game of fifteen, mixed up with the identity of the "Man in the Iron Mask," and subdivided by! - the Queen's Regulations, are all as the ■ more dust of a balance. But to the story. The young man we refer to has had three wives. The first one was • married to him in due form ; the second one is said to have been already married before she married our hero, and, was therefore no -wife at all ; and the. third ■ was married on the decease of the^ first' - wife, and therefore is the only legal wife .which this Lothario has now got. But " thfc man has been apprehended for - bigamy, and the lawyers think there is something in the case. . One. of the extraordinary and unaccountable panics which every now and then break out in different parts of India appears to be now (says the London Times) prevaiiing in Madras city. A rumour has got abroad, and is firmly believed in by the lower classes of the natives, that the -Government i s about to sacrifice a number of human beings, in order to insure . the safety of the new harbor works, and lias ordered the police to seize victims in the streets. < So throoughly is the idea implanted that people are afraid to venture out after nightfall. ; . There was a similar scare in Calcutta some seven or eight years ago, when the Hooghly bridge was being constructed. The natives then got hold of the idea that Mother Ganges indignant at being bridged, had at last consented to submit to the insult on the condition that each pier of the structure was founded on a layer of children's heads. These and many similar instanes that might be quoted, did space allow, show how little our western civilisation, even where longest established, has affected the lives and the belief of the masses. It is told of a French padre, heianig the confession of a groom, that he incredulously asked, "Do you not grease the horse's teeth ?" "No," said Petit Jean, but, ever after, that was part of ; his confession. He found that with greased teeth there were larger manger :, perq uisities in uncomsumed oats. Apropos of this " iEgles " imparts a -wrinkle about blue milk. A friend of mine who : has cows of his own, was talking on the question of the diluted article to prosperous milkman, who spurned the idea ' of watering the milk, "Because," said : he "it is so much easier to water the •■■ cows and act. honestly." His system was to give the cows a bucket of slightly warm water, with a little oatmeal thrown in, shortly before milking. He increased the yield at the cost of the quality, satisfied his conscience, lived in the oder of sanctity, and made just as much money. as the vulgar fellows who barefacedly carried their pails to the pump. Mr. W. Brarilcstoh Richardson writes from 91 Southerland-gardens, MaidaVale : — " Concurrently with the forty days fast of the misguided American doctor, another fast has been in progress in our own country, for the truth of : which I myself can vouch. A Mend of mine, who' '■-■lives tin Devonshire^' : : left home some weeks since on a series of' visits to his friends in distant, parts of the country.: A. few days after he left,: his servants wrote to him that a favourite Skye terrier was missiug. My friend, after every search had proved fruitless, considered that the dog had been stolen. , On his return home, after an absence of one month and five days, he unlocked the library, the doors and windows of which had been bolted and barred dur- , ing his absence, and to. his astonishment ' the missing dog crept out into the light ■-i-a living skeleton and totally blind. ; He was well cared for, and has now : quite recovered his health and sight. : But histexisterice iwas. wonderfiiU - He; '" had had no food and no water, and had not gnawed the 'books or obtained sus- ■ tenance from any source whatever." < A Rat Story. A Franklin ( United States) telegram tells the following horrible story :— A German named Grossman keeps a large beer saloon in this ■ place. Tvvo of his children were sent * into the cellar a few days ago to get some Swiss cheese that was stored in a vault formerly used by -a brewer. An army of starving rats disputed their passage, and while the elder of the children fought the animals with a piece of iron, the other returned to the saloon, and screamed for assistance, saying that his brother was in the vault surrounded by rats. Mr. Grossman and two neighbours k armed themselves with clubs and hastened to the rescue of the boy. The I army of rats seemed to number thou- I sands. The men joined in the contest, but so numerous and persistent were the rats that they were more than an hour in conquering them. Dead rats lay piled oii every side, and their number was so greatly reduced that the survivors were driven to their holes. Eight hundred and nineteen dead rats were carried from 5 the vault. The carcases filled a large 1 two-horse waggon box, and were a good load for a team to draw away. Mr. Chas. Matthews' will was proved some time b ack at £20,000. Everything was left to his wife. Matthews came into a perman ent income in a curious way. He was on a voyage to India in. . 1875, and a fellow passenger was so v Impressed with the charms of his conversation that just before the steamer : arrived at Calcutta, he said : . " Mr. Matthews, you are the most delightful . companion that I ever had. lam .rich : . and have no reason' to live with my relatives. Permit'rae to settle £600 a year upon- you, to be continued to Mrs Matthews if she should survive." ; And lie took it. . . : . ■: . ;