MISCELLANEOUS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6260, 5 July 1890, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

A sanitary regulation of Detroit (U.8.A.) demands the placarding of houses in which any form of contagious disease exists. A card about three inches square, of a bright red color, and lettered in back, is the conspicuous sign, posted beside the entrance. Its inscription, printed in three languages— English, French, and German—varies only with the sickness, “ Whooping cough here ” giving place to measles, diphtheria, or whatever the malady may be. From this rule no residence in the city is exempt. We read that amongst the catch-words, or time-procurers of the English Parliament the most remarked is Balfour’s ‘ Very well, sir.’ This he repeats constantly by way of marking his divisions, sub divisions, and the progress of his oratorical paragraphs. Sir Charles BusseTs pet expression is ‘ Let that pass Gladstone, when he wants time, takes a drink; Goechen oleers his throat, and Harcourt drags out a long ‘ A ah!’’ In the Australian Senates the three favourite phrases would seem to be— ‘ Howsumever, as I was a-eayin’, an’l’ll say it agin,’ ‘Yeraliar! 1 and ‘Come outside an’ do it!’

A strange incident occurred in Bombay recently. A monster meeting of Hindoo barbers waslfhfld for the purpose of considering the question of impropriety of shaving the heads of Hindoo widows, and thereby disfiguring them for life. About 400 barbers having assembled, one of them, named Babajee More, read a pamphlet in Mahratti, in which he stated that the barbers of old were happy and contended, but latterly, as though a curse had descended on their heads, trade had fallen off and they had become poor. The curse could only be accounted for by the fact that they were commitng a great sin in shaving the heads of poor, innocent widows, thus depriving them of their best ornament. It was against the Hindoo Scriptures to deprive a widow of her hair, and doubtless it was the curses of the widows that had lowered their calling. The meeting thereupon unanimously resolved that no barber should shave a widow’s head, and that if he did he should be excommunicated.