REMEMBERING HIS ENEMIES.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 22, Issue 90, 21 November 1911, Page 3

REMEMBERING HIS ENEMIES.

Mr. Edward Wortley Montagu, son ol the famous Lady Mary, endeavoured to be very sarcastic in his last will and testament After some insignificant, bequest "To my noble and worthy relation the earl of ' he adds : " I do not .give his lordship any further part of my property, because the best part of that he has contrived to take already. Item—To Sir Francis 1 give one word ot mine, because he never had the good fortune to keep his own. Item—To Lord M. I give nothing, because I know he will bestow that on the poor. Item—To Sir Robert W. I leave my political opinions, never doubting he can well turn them into cash who has always found such an excellent market for his own.” —All the Year Round. , SHAM ‘GIFTS.

There is a ennous custom at the courts of Indian rajahs. Let us suppose that a British official or a physician calls upon the Rajah of Ulwan.' He is shown into the reception or throne-room, where sits ,the rajah, surrounded by the great state officers. Alter the exchange of the usual salutations, one of the officials brings in a tray, on which are displayed jewels and golden ornaments, studded with valuable stones, perhaps worth £50,000 or more. The trayful of valuables is supposed to be a present from the rajah to his visitor, and it is offered first to the gentleman, who, inclhi 0 ' his head, touches the edge of the tray wi.ii the tips of his fingers, and it is then passed over to the lady, who invariably accompanies the British officer, if he is married, on such occasions. She follows the example of her husband, and the tray ' and its contents are then returned to the jewel-room. - In lieu of the unaccepted jewels a long necklace of tinsel, of little value, is placed round the neck of each, where it remains during their stay within the palace. There is a very strict law against any British official accepting a gift from amative prince Even when a doctor may have performed some serious operation upon a rajah, who, being grateful, wishes to give—exclusive of a money fee varying from £2OO to £1,000,’ according to the operation performed—a present of a shawl, golden cup, or some similar valuable, the doctor must lobtain special permission from the Viceroy before he dares accept the present. If any official accepts a gift of any value without such permission he may have,to •esign. In 'the old days, when the East India Company governed India, an officer's, pickings and the presents, often extorted r rom the rajahs, were worth much more to him than his salary. ■ ■ , RATHER A TALL STORY. The sun, following an old-established tustom, was slowly sinking in the west, when a Texan ranger might have been seen wending his weary way across the flowing grass and rolling prairie of south-western Texas. I say migM have been seen—nay, he was seen ; for seven dark, weird figures a!re noiselessly following in his track, and creepingjslowly closer to their unsuspecting victim Fly to thy home, thou cow-driver 1 or thy fate will overtake thee I Is not Bumblefooted Lightning, and six of his wampuraed war-boys, thirsting for thy blood ? Will he never turn and see his dastard foes ? Yes, for Providence has decreed a warning. Bumble footed Lightning sneezes! In vain he tries to turn the sneeze into a coyotte’s howl. The sharp ear of one who never yet has missed an invitation to " have one more," no matter how softly worded, has heard. , He turns; he sees his danger; and, with the swiftness of a summer breeze, he urges on his dilapidated broncho, closely followed by the yelling redskins. Away I away! For in his revolver are but six bullets, and be hind him seven Indians. Nearer and'nearer they draw. He turns and fires. An aboriginal’s life-blood stains his mother-earth. Again and again, until but two' bloodthirsty foes are left.

But, alas 1 the gallant ranchman -has but one bullet left, and there, scarce ten yards behind him', ridp the ramping redskins, side by side, with but a few yards dividing them. There is but. one chance, and he takes it. From his belt he d'aws his trusty bowie-knife, and .holds it in his extended left hand ; then, placing the muzzle of his pistol against the keen edge, he aims between the pursuing Indians and fires Well has he calculated —well has he aimed! The knife divides the bullet into two equal parts, and each Indian falls with half a bullet in his heart! ■ And yet when this guileless rancher tells bis simple story he is not always believed] SCRAPS FOR THE CURIOUS. In a Peshawur cemetery, in India, is the following amusing epitaph —" Sacred to the memory of Rev -—. Missionary, aged ——, murdered by his chowkidar ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant, 1 ” One of the many curiosities now exhibited in the British Museum is a Chinese banknote, issued during the reign oftlieEmperor Hung Wu, a d 1365-99. This isthe earliest specimen of a banknote known to exist in any country. It is 300 years earlier than the establishment of the first European bapje >yhich issued notes. Out of 143 locomotives on the Grazi and Tsaritsin Railway, South-East Russia, 32 have now been compounded. - These compound locomotives, which consist of three classes, all burning petroleum fuel, have > made a total mileage oi over one million miles since their conversion, and show a mean economy of liquid fuel of 18 J percent. It is generally understood that one of the tnopt distressing symptoms of the influenza is ffie mental depression which it produces This fs confirmed by one ofitslatest victims, Mr. Leng, M. P. According tothemember for Dundee, "You feel as if you were to be condemned, untried and unheard, for all the crimes in all the criminal codes that were ever written,” and this after you. have endured all the physical agonies that can be described or imagined. With moderate care and good usage a Worse's life may be prolonged to twenty-five, thirty-five, or forty years. An English gentleman had three horses which died in his possession at the ages of- thirty-five, thirty-:;even, and thirty-nine years respectively. The oldest was in a carriage the very day he died, strong and vigorous, but was carried; off by a spasmodic colic to which he was subject. A horse iti use at a riding uchooj in Woolwiph lived to be forty years old, and a barge horse of the Mersey ana trwell Navigation Company is declared to have been in his sixty-second year whdn he died. >•" >-*'' •" ■ ■ Hobson’s Choice. means this or none." And the saying arose from a curious practice of a certain Tobias Hobson. He was thecarrier and innkeeper at .Cambridge, who erected the handsome conduit there, and settled "seven lays" of pasture ground towards its maintenance. He kept a stable of forty good cattle, always ready and fit for travelling ; but when a man came for a horse he was led into the stable where there was great choice, but was obliged to take the horse which stood nearest to the stable door; so that every customer was alike well served, according to bis chance, and every horse ridden with th« same Justice.