GLEANINGS FROM THE PAPERS.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 5, 3 November 1877, Page 3

GLEANINGS FROM THE PAPERS.

A correspondent sends the Melbourne " Argus " a good story. " Proceeding home rather late tin- other night through a populous suburb, I observed, walkinga few yards in advance of me, a gentleman in evening dress, with a cigar between his lips, going quietly on bis way, and molesting nobody. Soon he bad to pass a corner where a moh of lads were collected, talking, and laughing in a rude and boisterous manner, when one of their number, separating himself from his companions, took hold of the gentleman's arm in a familiar ami insolent manner, saying, ' Come, old cock, I'll see you homo.' Probably the larrikin thought the gentleman bad been dining, though there was nothing in bis manner or gait to indicate that he had been dining to excess, and by-and-by it was made to appear, greatly to Mr. Larrikin's discomfiture, that the gentleman was very capable of taking care of himself. At first, rather to my surprise, be did not actively resent the liberty taken with him, but went on bis way pulling his weed. I thought, however, that this indifference was a little artificial, and kept an eye on the pair to see what would transpire. After a block had been traversed in the way just described, the larrikin seemed to begin to suspect that he bad got hold of the wrong man, and endeavoured to withdraw his arm. But no, the more he tried to get clear the more the gentleman would not, allow him, until at length, when he was sufficiently beyond the aid of his companions, the gentleman seized him by the throat with a grasp of iron, and rolled him bodily over into a public-house horse drinking-trough. He gave hi in, calmly and deliberately, three quite distinct immersions, that took his breath away, and then solemnly put him under a dreadful oath never again to molest an unoffending passenger. I waited to see if the fellow's companions would come to his aid, or if a witness to the occurrence should be necessary to the stranger's protection, but my services were not required. I think the particular rough concerned will be more circumspect in his conduct another time, and 1 send my compliments to the strange gentleman who treated him so properly, and congratulate him upon having done his duty on the occasion in a very complete and thorough maimer."

An English paper says : —What would you think of Mich an announcement as this in a respectable ham-and-beof shop: " Hams let on hire for dinner parties ( " Nevertheless this is what they do in Paris. You go to a shop where they sell ham retail by the slice, and you say, ' I have got a dinner-party to-morrow, and I want to have a hot ham —the largest, and finest yon have.' Those extraordinary articles called 'jambons <le Yorck ' (please put in the e) are as lug as a whole slice]), and the larger they are tlic lietter the quality of the mea l .. Now in England the enormous han> would hang like a night-mare for wei ks over any ordinary household, lti Paris, however, you pay simply the hire for ♦ho liiiriit, the amount eaten, and the rest is sold over the counter nt the ' ir.uri-liaiid <le comestibles.' Some men have little coin in tlioir purse, but tbis is made up In abundance nf I.ii- in i|m it <■' iiini ■ iini.'.

What do yog think, the U'autifu! woul " wife" comet from 1 It is the great word in which tin- English and 1 Latin languagee conquered the French end Greek. I hope the Pwmch will some day get a word for it. instead of [ that dreadful word "ferninc." But what do yon think it cornea from I Tin' great use of Saxon words is that they mean something. Wife means "Weaver." You must either be housewives or housemoths; remember that. In the deep sense, you must either weave men's fortunes and embroider them; or feed upon and brine them to decay. Whomever a true wife comes, liuiiie is always around her. The stars may be over her head; the glowworm in the night eold grass may he the only fire at her feet; but home is wherever she is, and for a noble woman it stretches far around her, better than houses ceiled with cedar, or painted with vermilion, shedding its quiet light far, for those who else are homeless. This, then, 1 believe to be the woman's true place and power.-" Ruskin."

On Saturday night, June 3, on the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway, 15(i miles west of the former place, a band of robbers unjointed the rails, replacing them in such a way that tin' approaching train would run down the enbanknient. The night was dark, and the rain falling. An express train approached about B'3o, and the driver seeing the obstructions, applied the breaks, but too late. The engine and baggage car plunged downtheembaiikment, a distance of 40 feet. The driver, stoker, and one psssenger were killed. The thieves fired their pistols into the train, and then seeing that it was not sufficiently wrecked for their purpose, suddenly decamped. The " Turkestan Gazette " states that the Ameer of Kashgar has been utterly defeated by the Chinese and driven out of Tin-fan, and that he has sent an envoy to Tashkend imploring assistance from the Russian Government. From this it would appear that the Chinese have nearly accomplished the subjugation of Kasbgar. The Berlin correspondent of the "Times" announces that Yakoob Beg, of Kashgar, is dead. This event, which occurred suddenly after a short illness at Kurla, a place said to be identical with Kouroungli or Kouralia, has a special significance at the present moment on account of the Chinese invasion of Kashgar. Although within the last few months this potentate seemed to have fallen on evil days, he to the last was presenting so bold a face to the dangers by which he was threatened that he managed to deceive many, perhaps himself among the number, as to the perilous position of his affairs.

The ladies in Russia have got far in advance (if quiet English girls in the positions they are prepared to take in war times (observes a correspondent of a London journal.) Then- may be Florence Nightingales in the ambulanco corps, but while we do not hear anything of these we have a picturesque account from Bucharest of a young Amazon at the head of a cavalry regiment. A splendid Russian cavalry brigade reached the outskirts of Bucharest "on May 14, and leading a fine regiment of Hussars, and mounted on a magnificent charger, was a young Russian lady, wearing the full uniform of the regiment. —I am told (says a correspondent; it was the Princess Deraidoft', daughter of the honorary colonel and proprietor of the regiment, who spends £IO,OOO a year upon it. No crack Russian heavy cavalry I have ever seen is so well mounted, the horses averaging sixteen hands, comprising chestnuts, whites, browns, and bays respectively. The squadrons have extremely powerful animals. The men are uncommonly heavy for hussars, but are a very fine regiment. The Don Cossacks made an especial impression on the fair spectators by reason of the extraordinary good looks of the men, who are mostly fair, have classically regular features, and fine athletic figures. They have the quaintest imaginable wild music, consisting only of cymbals and bird whistles, accompanying a choir of about thirty singers chanting sad unreasonable airs, but in good tune and harmony. The Cossacks mount men.' ponies, but these animals are as hard as iron, quick-paced, and tame as cats, though only ridden with a single bridle. What will the Turks think of a lady in such a position, or of the gallant honorary colonel and proprietor, who trusts his daughter in uniform at the head of his regiment '. An incident reported by the " Chicago Inter-Ocean" as having occurred the other day on the Northern Pacific Railroad illustrates the. gigantic nature of the operations undertaken by caterpillars, who, as an invading host, are even more destructive than the armies of the Czar. At about fifty miles from Chicago, near Sicotte's station, an eastward-bound train was stopped by the slipping of the wheels on the track. On examining the rails it was found that the entire surface of the ground was covered with caterpillars. They were scattered along the road for nearly two miles, and as the train ran over them the track was made

" quite oily" with their bodies, >S<> serious ma tin; obstruction caused by tlieso creatures that it was only with extreme difficulty that the train could proceed on its journey, which, however, it managed to do, after several vexatious delays. The caterpillars, according to Dr. Hetchhold, who was a passenger by the train, were destroying all Collage in their march, and leaving the country iM'hind them a desolate wilderness. They are supposed t<> bo " going west," and the sooner they arrive at their destination the batter pleased no doubt will be the farmers on the route by which they are advancing to that point of the com-

Mr. W. 11. Lewi* writes to the "Tlmee" from the Salisbury Hotel :- "The tad account in the "Tunes" of the death of Mr. Felix llunster at the Southern Hotel, St. Louik, ami the terrible tale of hi* being driven back, with his wife to his room by the blinding, stifling smoke remind me that I omitted in my former letter to you on this subject to give any suggestion for the prevention of suffocation by smoke. A pillowcase, well saturated with water, and having a small hole torn in it to look through, placed loosely over the bead, will bo round an aduiirabli iinproin] a r 'sj trator

in the densest smoke. lam indebted for the idea to Vice-Admiral Jerringham, who has told me how, when he commanded the Cambridge gunnery training ship at Plymouth, he made his first experiment with this pillow-case respirator. He had VI lbs. of loose powder exploded in a con lined part of the ship, which, although screened off with fearnought, emitted so dense a smoke that those outside had to lie down on the deck. A common pillow-case, with a small eye-hole, was placed over the head of n man, who, with the hose in his hand. Went inside and remained 10 minutes, when, to assure his friends outside of his safety, he sail;,' a comic song. Barton's patent respirators should always be ready for the use of the hotel firemen, but, in the absence of these, it is as well to remember that there is always within reach in an hotel a simple and effective smoke-respirator—a wet pillow-case." A Calcutta paper gives the following account of a plague of flies:—When people read of the plagues of Hies of Egypt, they are sometimes apt to wonder what sort of flies they were, whether they were our common and sometimes very tiresome visitor, the house-fly, or whether they were a species of mosquito, or what. They could not well have been more tiresome than those little side-walking, biting, jumping green flies that are said to usher in the cold season in India. Of these Calcutta has had a vcritible plague. It has been scarcely possible to sit at a table where there was a light. These ilie.s come to flavour the soup, to improve the tea, or to fill up the inkstand. They cover a book if one attempts to read, or they settle on people's spectacles, or jump into their eyes. If people talk they have to he careful lest they draw in more than the needful breadth. The streets have scarcely been better than the houses, and we have seen some people passing lamp-posts with handkerchiefs over their faces, and others trying to protect themselves by the vigorous working of a fan, against which the insects rattle like peas. To drive in an open carriage- was like meeting a hailstorm, and in some places business, where pleasure is business, has been brought to a stand. Flies burn their wings in the lamps of the billiard-rooms, and the dead flies shunt balls that are gently rolling for a delicate cannon, or turn them from the direct line to the pocket. Even the skating-rink had to be closed. At the Corinthian, the entrance hall was literally covered with them, the walls green witli their numbers, and the floor carpeted with their bodies. At the' entrance to the"buffet" they lay in heaps to the thickness of a hearth-rug under the gaslights, and in the house itself they were a great nuisance. It is to the credit of Dr. Lynn that people stayed to see him, instead of seeking almost the only possible refuge from these übiquitous tormentors—tiie friendly shelter of the mosquito curtain."

The " Echo " has printed a remarkable letter, received by a School Board in the country, from one of the candidates for its clerkship. The letter is not free from defects of grammar and orthography; but these must all be forgotten in the wonder that the writer could, at his advanced period (if life, put pen to paper at all, for lie makes this startling statement, —" i ham 305 veal's of age." The Editor of " Notes and Queries," who is sadly sceptical about persons reaching such a comparatively insignificant age as one hundred years, should lose no time in investigating this wonderful ease of tri-ceutenarianisni, one which, we believe, i.s without a parallel in the annals of British longevity. Professor Xavicr Landerer, of Athens, says (according to the "London .Medical Record") that a very popular remedy against sea-sickness, in common use among mariners in tint Levant, i.s the daily internal use of iron. This is obtained in a very primitive way—a portion of the iron-rust adhering to the anchor and anchor-chain is scraped off and administered. At the same time a small pouch, containing roasted salt and flowers of thyme, is tied upon the region of the navel as firmly as can be borne. This is said to lesson, and gradually to subdue the antiperistaltic motions of the stomach caused by the rolling of the vessel. 'This preparation was already known to the ancient Creeks as " thymian salt." M. Landerer says that he know? several seamen who have been cured by this treatment.

During the Crimean campaign of one year and a half, 341,000 men were buried in the district of TaUlida, which includes the Crimea. The Russians lost 170,000 soldiers; the English. French, and Turks, 100,000; and there were 15,000 Tartar victims. Of this total, 324,000 were interred in the Crimea, including 210,000 in the vicinity of BebastonoL Those killed in battle were but 80,000, and allowing an equal number for the leans from wounds, 881,000 must have succumbed from disease, The deaths of sick persona sent away from the sent of war wore alsmt 00,000 i e, which mokes the number of dead from the (' imean campaign nlmc over 401,000,1 Ulasgow Hernia."

Tin gallant <>l«l soldier, sir Fenwick Williams, whogaJMd hu title from tinfortress be so nobly defended, lias expressed his adiniretion 11 the way in which has !i> !■> i nil in tl campaign. The principal redoubts and lines of fortification treat points he himself considered vital in 1855.