MISCELLANEOUS.

Southland Times, Issue 2248, 28 December 1875, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

TVip funny writer in the Australasian tells the following story of the late Mayor, Mr Gatehouse -. — lu«t after the Berry Ministry accepted office, that gentleman, his collt agues, and several members of the late Kerferd Government were the Mayor's guests on a public occasion. His Worship, with his usual imperturbability of countenance—a blaukness of expression—proposed the toast of " Her Majesty's Minisers. who he hadn't any doubt would spread their snvs so as to c-ttch every breath of public opinion." Tremendous applause from the ex-Minis-ters, which, however, suddenly ceased when the Mayor continued — " as every other Government had done before them.'' Obiotn of a Puea.se.—" The ecr;ip<> acquaintance," comes to us tro n t'w> Konrin } mperor Adrian. He was at the public baths one day, when he snw one of his veteran soldiers scraping Inn body with a tile. Thafc was such poor luxury that Adrian ordered that his old comrade should be supplied with moro suitable cleansing material*, and also with money. On a subsequent occasion, when the Emperor again went to the bath, the spectacle before him was highly amusing. A score of old soldiers who had fought uuder Adrian were standing in the water, and each was currying himself with a tile nod j wincing at the self-inflicted rubbing. The Emperor perfectly understood what he saw and what was the purpose of the sight. " Ha, ha ?" he exclaimed, " you had belter scrape one another my good fellows-" He added, " You certainly shall not scrape acquaintance with me." Theodore Hook was walking, in the days of' Warren's blacking, where one of the emissaries of that shining character had written on the wall, "Try "Warren's B— " but had been fright ened from hia propriety and tied. 11 The rest ia lacking," said the wit. " It is a Bolemn thing to be married," said Aunt Bethany. "Yes; but it's a deal more solemn not to be," said the little girl, her niece. A putty of starch and chloride of zinc hardens quickly, and lasts, as a stopper of holes in metals, for months. Sir Garnet Wolseley has returned from the Cape of Good Hope. At a dinner which was given him in Dublin, be spoke strongly in favor of Natal, as one of the brightest jewels in the Crown. .ill A member of the colored church was, the other evening, conversing earnestly with an acquaintance, and seeking to have him change into better paths, but the friend said that he was too often tempted to permit him to become a Christian. " What's yer backbone, dat ye can't rose up and Btand temptation !" exclaimed the good man. " 1 was that way myself once. Bight in dis yere town 1 had a chance to steal a pair of boots— mighty nice ones, too. Nobody was dar to see me, and I reached out my hand and the debbil said take 'em. Deu a good sperit whispered fur me to let dem boots alone." " An' you didn't take 'em ?" " I tvok a par of cheap shoes off de shelf an' left dem boots alone !" A woman named Mary Skellaarn was charged at the Manchester policecourt with having in her possession an illicit still. The still was little more than a toy, but the magistrates stated that they could not^ impose a less penalty than a fine of £500. Whately's definition- of " common sense " is : — " the extemporaneous exercise of the judgment, unaided by art, system of rules, established principles, or chalked line of procedure." "~An English telegram says that a Southampton undertaker and his wife are in custody for having on their premises a large cumber of unburied bodies of children, some quite decomposed. Great excitement prevails in the town. In the early days of new settlements, (gays an exchange) particularly where the excitement of gold- digging adds to the ordinary perils of pioneers, the chances of an obscure ending to an eventful existence are great There is no doubt whatever that during the great rushes to California and Victoria large numbers of persons disappeared and left no trace behind. Deeds of violence were rife, the supremacy of the law had not been attained, and even when natural causes produced a fatal result little heed was too often paid to the event. Poor" Jack " or " Bill," who lived in the next tent, had •* caved in ;" bis mates consigned his remains to the ground with perhaps a sigh, and the next day he was forgotten. His very name perhaps unknown, or, as in numerous cases, a fictitious one, do trace remained by which relatives in another part of the globe could learn his fate. Too often the adventurer was one whose departure from bis native land was a relief to his family ; but we may be sure that many a hopeful youth who has started in quest of fortune in these distant regions has met a nameless grave. Mr James Greenwood's new volume, entitled " Low Lite Deeps ; an Account of the Strange .Fish to be found there," will shortly be issued by Messri Chatto & "Windus. It will be illustrated in tint by Mr Alfred Concanen,and will (says the Academy) contain the story of the Dog and Dwarf fight, " retold with much additional and confirmatory evidence."

Mr T. A. Trollope, the Italian correspondent of the New York Tribune, relates the following story of Victor Emmanuel in a recent letter from Borne:— "The King, in a mountaiD expedition, having wan fie red away from all those who were with him, came to a solitary mountain farm just after he had shot a hare. The farmer, who had seen the shot, complimented the Btranger sportsman on the excellence of his shooting. The King admitted that he did consider himself a pretty fair shot. ' 1 wish to heaven,' said the farmer, looking at him wistfully, ' that you could shoot a fox that robs my poultry-yard almost every night ! I'd give a motta — an obsolete Piedmontese piece worth eight cents — to have him killed !' ' Perhaps I could !' said the King. ' But you must be here by 3 o'clock in. the morning. That's about the time he always comes.' ' Well a motta you say ! I'll try for it I'll be here about Ihit time to-morrow morning. Ac conlinsly, without allowing any one to know the errand on which he was i bound, the King found himself at the mountain homestead at the appointed hour, and posted himself in a favorable position for watching the proceedings of the depredator of the farmyard. Reynard did not make himself long waited for, but fell dead at the first shot of the Koyal marksman, to the great delight of the farmer, who, true to his word, came ] down with his motta on the nail handsomely. The King pocketed the coin, and went off to exhibit it with great glee, as ' the first money he had ever earned by the work of his own hands.' " At the City of London Baths, in Golden-lane, a new apparatus was tried recently, the object of which is to facilitate the acquisition of the art of swiminimg. The invention, which has been patented by Mr F. Wrigley, consists of a thick wire stretched taut along the length of the bath ; from this wire depends an iudiarubber cord with an adjustable bandage at the end. This bandage is fixed round the chest of the intending swimmer, and he goes into the water with the certainty that he cannot sink. The cord is fixed to a running wheel that passes along the wire as the swimmer progresses. Public Opinion states that for 36 years Mr Delane has been connected with the Times. He was only 22 when, in 1839, he became Mr Barnes's assistant editor, aad two years later he became full editor— an instance of youthful precocity as remarkable in its way as Pitt's Premiership at the same age. Mr Delane, after having broken down once or twice, finds it absolutely necessary to take a lengthy holiday, which, at 61, and after such arduous work as his, he certainly deserves. It is stated that Dr Dasent will, for a time, take his place. An old colonist informs the Ballarat Star that the weather that preceded Black Thursday was similar to that now prevailing. lie says it was wet up to the middle of January; the grass grew to great height; then came burning hot weather; all the grass was dried up, and its large masses fed the bush fires all over the country, and made the devastation so terrible as to become a historic fact of dire memory . Mr Sharpless, the well known chemist, states that by the use of flour mankind loses from two-thirds to fourfifths of the elements that go to make up teeth and bony structures. The Scotch mail makes 388 miles from Edinburgh to London, in nine and a half hours, the actual running time being a little inside of eight hours, or at an average speed of fifty miles an hour. An old writer thus describes what a Mayor ought to be: — ''Your Mayor ought to be a man big and comely, stately and well-spoken ; his voice great, his carriage majestical, his nature haughty, and his purse plentiful and heavy." A fashionable Quaker wedding — the contradiction of terms is apparent only — took place on August 11th, at Darlington, the stronghold of the Society of Friends. The bridegroom was Mr Alfred .Richardson, a belfast manufacturer, and the bride was Mias Leathern, of Middlesborougb, and a niece of Mr John Bright, who, with Mrs Bright, was present on the occasion. The bridesmaids were seven in number, as aIBO were the groomsmen. After prayer by Mr Samuel Hare, a death-like pause ensued, which was broken by an aged Quakeress leading the devotions of those present once more. Then the contracting parties were exhorted by Mr Harrison Penny, after which, without being invited or called upon by any one to do so, the bridegroom rose and said ; — " In the fear of God, and in the presence of this assembly, I Alfred Richardson, take Emma Leatham to be my wife, promising to be unto her a loving and faithful husband, until it shall please the Lord by death to separate us." The bride, in a clear and distinct voice, made a precisely similar declaration, making no mention of honoring and obeying her husband. Mr Hare then invoked the Divine blessing on the pair thus united, and when he had concluded, the certificate of marriage was read aloud by the clerk of the meeting. The certificate was then signed by the bride and bridegroom, and after them by a considerable number of those present, including Mr Bright. It was beautifully illuminated, and in the upper left band corner contained photographs of the happy pair,