CLIPTOMANIA. [Extracts from Society Papers and All the Most Interesting Sources.]

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 43, 29 March 1884, Page 5

CLIPTOMANIA. [Extracts from Society Papers and All the Most Interesting Sources.]

Some years ago an English gentleman bequeathed to his two daughters their weight in £1 bank notes. The eldest daughter received £51,200, and the younger £57,344. "May," asked a little girl of a companion, " what do you suppose is the difference between a beau and a beau ideal ?" " Well, I dhn't know," was the frank response, " unless they leave off the ideal after they get married." A famous prize pig which was slaughtered the other day weighed 39 score. The carcass had actually lost 161b in weight by evaporation after thirty-six hours exposure. — " Truth." * There is something suggestive of Mr Squeers in the following, which is from the " Daily Telegraph :— " An orphan boy can be purchased into a school of long standing and high repute. Gne year, prepaid, £2s ; two, £45; three, £60. Masters, fees, books, laundress, Church, and kind home during holidays and at all times. Paris daily papers are full of the " Question dcs Chiffonniers," by the last " ordonnance" of the new Paris perfect. The refuse of every house cannot be put out every morning in the street any more. So that about 50,000 rag-pickers are without any work at all. " One Who Knows " says that there is to be an English translation of Mdme. Marie Colombier's brouchure "Sarah Barnum." The book is said to have reached a fortythird edition. The absurdities of heraldry are curiously exemplified by a hatchment now to be seen in Queen -street, Mayfair. Instead of being placed upright, it lies on its side, so that the widow's white grounded half is on the top of her defunct husband's coat, and as she bore a red lion, that creature is kicking his heels in the air in the most wonderful way.— "Truth." It is said that snuff-taking is becoming fashionable. There ought to be some mistake about this. One cannot conceive of fashionable ladies taking snuff, and gentlemen^ will hardly affect the habit. The oldfashioned men who were never without the snuff-box have passed away, and it is not likely that the custom will become popular again. A public entertainer at Portsmouth, who offered prizes for the oldest persons, has been successful in unearthing a very old party indeed. They were headed by a female pauper of the age of 101. Life is, indeed, a vain thing, if 101 years of it brings one to the workhouse. Four men and four women, each more than ninety, came next ; the third batch contained twenty men and eighteen women above eighty j while in the last division were sixty-four men and forty - five women who were j more than seventy. These figures seem to teach us that men are longer lived than women. Although the aged female heads the list, yet of the total above seventy, 88 were men and 68 women. " Truth " says :— •• I see that the Mormon Legislature has decided that in future men are to be responsible for the slanderous utterances of their wives. I tremble to think of the consequences which might result to many people if such were the rule in England ; and where a man must be responsible for the remarks of a couple of dozen laJies instead of one, safety, it is obvious, will be practically impossible. Husband, you'll have to go and call that boy yourseli. I can't make him get up. He sleeps as ii he wore a log." " Oh, well, Maria, the boy can't help it It's fate. He was born to be a policeman."—" Hawkeye." Taking 110,000 letters, which gives round numbers for evsry letter, the alphabet is used in printing the English language in the following proportions :— a, 8,600 ;b, 1.600 : c, 3,000 ; d, 4,400 ; c, 12,100 jf, 4,500 ; ff, 1,700 ;h, 6,400 ji, 8,600 ; j, 400 ; k, 800 ; 1 4,300; m, 3,000; n, 8,000; o, 8,000; p, 1,700 ;q, 500 ;r, 6,200 ; s, 8,000 ; t, 9,000; v, 3,400; v, 1,000; w, 2,000; x, 400; y, 2,000; z, 200. Thus, c stands at the head of the poll, and zat the foot ; but, like most unpopular candidates, the latter makes comparatively more noise, when he gets an opportunity, than either of the others. The Parisians who imagined innocently that all was over about Sarah Bernhardt and Marie Colombier must have been rather surprised on seeing the two other books published on Mdlle. Colombier's whipping! First of all a book called " La Vie de Marie Piegonnier " (which, of course, isa bad joke on "Colombe and Pigeon"); then a third book called "L' Affaire Sarah Bernhardt et Marie Colombier," which gives a photo of Marie Colombier, and i elates simply the different things which occurred. Three small boys, from nine to fourteen, were punished at Hanley for ♦ • stealing letters from Hanley Post-office, by putting a hand through the slit of the letter-box." These proceedings were described as " extraordinarily clever," and the cleverness, inconspicuous at first sight, no doubt lay in the fact that three boys should all steal letters by putting only one hand through the slit. The hand, no doubt, belonged to one of them, which made it less clever in him than in his two companions. — " Globe." It is curious to notice how ill-informed some of my contemporaries are as to Lord Tennyson's public lionorarium. As Poet Laureate, he is an officer of Her Majesty's household, just as the Barge-master is, or the Keeper of the Jewel House, or the conductor of the twenty-four musicians composing Her Majesty's private band. But there is an important difference. Though the Poet Laureateshipis included in the Lord Chamberlain's department, the pay attached to it is not drawn from this official's office. The £200 a year paid to Lord Tennyson, and to Wordsworth and Southey before him, is somewhat anomalously charged to the head of " Civil List Class Y. Pensions." It is not, of course, in reality a pension at all, but is included amongst these allowances probably because it is paid for distinguished literary services. The butt of Malmsey wine, or, rather, the modern equivalent, which is also part of the Laureate's yearly honorarium, is, however, sent to him by the Lord Chamberlain, Another old custom still scrupulously kept up is the annual sending round of fat bucks to certain high officials of the Government service. This task forms part of the duty of the Master of the Buckhounds.— "Figaro."

Trade at Panama has got a great impetus since the Canal Works werestarted. Silvermining and pearl-fishing are going on briskly. The annual sports of Auckland Bicycle Club are announced for Easter Monday. The whole of the shares in the New Zealand Plate Glass Insurance Company have been applied for twice over,